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 William Tindale a biography, being a co 
 
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WILLIAM TYNDALE. 
 {Frcm the fainting in Hertford College, Oxfcrd.) 
 
WILLIAM TYNDALE 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO 
 
 THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 
 
 REV. R. DEMAUS M.A. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "HUGH LATIMER: A BIOGRAPHY" 
 
 NEW EDITION, REVISED 
 
 RICHARD LOVETT M.A. 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT AND FACSIMILES 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 56 PATERNOSTER ROW, 65 ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD 
 
 AND 164 PICCADILLY 
 
 1886 
 
"i call ffinij to tECDtJjE agag^tsft^E Bag iae sfjall appeare before our HorB 
 3esus, to geuE a recftengng of our Bngngcs, tf)at E neuer altered one sgllable 
 of ffiol's fflJEorft apgnst mg conscience, nor tooulB tfjts Bag, if all tljat is in 
 tfje eartl), tofjetfjer it be pleasure, fjonour, nr ricljcs, migfjt be geutn me." 
 
 Tyndale's Letter to Fryth. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The tiigh estimation in which Demaus's William Tyndale is held 
 by students of the history of the English Bible is a proof of the ster- 
 ling value of the work. Demaus wrote out of a full knowledge and his 
 task was a labour of love. Hence it was but natural that the book 
 should at once become the standard authority on the subject, which 
 it is now admitted on all hands to be. 
 
 In the fifteen years which have passed since the book was first 
 published Tyndale's reputation has been steadily growing in popular 
 esteem. By an ever-widening circle of reverent admirers he is recog- 
 nised as one of England's greatest benefactors. Indeed there are not 
 lacking those who consider him to be the one man to whom modern 
 Englishmen owe the largest debt of gratitude. London, never too 
 prone to make haste in such matters, has at length on one of her 
 most conspicuous sites erected a statue to the man who lived and 
 toiled as an exile and who died as a martyr that his countrymen 
 might have the Bible in their mother tongue. 
 
 One form in which the perennial interest felt in all relating to the 
 Bible in England manifests itself is the constant search after fresh 
 details connected with the history of its translation into English, and 
 after new facts in the lives of the men who did the work. It is 
 doubtful whether we shall ever get to know much more of the personal 
 history of Tyndale than we do at present. Yet from time to time 
 scraps of information are added to the accumulated stock. One 
 such has recently been given to the world in the valuable Register of 
 the University of Oxford, edited for the Oxford Historical Society by 
 the Rev. C. W. Boase, M.A. Mr. Boase has not only placed at my 
 disposal his valuable Preface to the volume, but he has also furnished 
 me with his translations of the entries in the Register referring to- 
 Tyndale. The entries are : — 
 
 (i) 13 May, 15 1 2, supplicat Willelmus Hychyns scolaris artium 
 quatenus studium duorum (annorum) cum termino infra universitatem 
 cum responsione uni bacillario in quadragesima cum creatione unius 
 generalis et duabus variationibus in Parviso et oppositione et respon- 
 sione racione officii coUectoris in Parviso sufficiat etc. Hec est 
 
 B a 
 
4 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 concessa (ita) quod determinet proxima quadragesima et bis disputet 
 preter formam. 
 
 [Translation.] "13 May, 15 12, William Hychyns, scholar in arts, 
 supplicates that a study of two years and a term within the University, 
 together with a responsion to one bachelor in Lent, and the creation of 
 ■one general'^ and with two variations'^ in the Parvise', and an opposi- 
 tion and responsion under a Collector in the Parvise, may suffice him to 
 be admitted to the degree of bachelor. This grace is granted on 
 ■condition of his determining next Lent, and disputing twice out of the 
 usual course." 
 
 (2) 4 July, I5i2,admissus est ad lecturam alicuius libri decretalium 
 [a mistake ioY facultatis artium, the admissions to read the Decretals 
 
 .■occur previously] dominus Jo. Knygley dominus * Willelmus 
 
 Hychyns 
 
 [Translation.] " 4 July, 1512, there was admitted to the reading of 
 some book of the Decretals [a mistake for ' of the faculty of arts '] Sir 
 [dominus] John Knygley Sir William Hychyns . . . ." 
 
 (3) Nomina determinatorum Feb. 151 2 (i.e. isif) dominus 
 
 Willelmus Hychens (53 names). 
 
 [Translation^ "Feb. 15 if names of determiners Sir William 
 
 Hychyns [53 names]." 
 
 (4) 26 June, 151 5, licentiati sunt in artibus dominus Willelmus 
 Hychyns .... 
 
 [Translation.] "26 June, 1515, there were licensed in arts Sir 
 William Hychyns . . " 
 
 (5) 2 July, 15 1 5, creati sunt in artibus magistri quorum nomina 
 sequuntur dominus Mr. Willelmus Hochyns (22 names). 
 
 [Tramlation.] "2 July, 1515, there were created Masters of Arts 
 those whose names follow ... . Mr. William Hochyns (22 names)." 
 
 The reader unacquainted with the formalities accompanying the grant- 
 ing of degrees at Oxford in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries will 
 find these entries more than a trifle obscure. Yet their discovery fixes 
 .. in all probability some of the most important dates in Tyndale's life. 
 
 ' On these formalities see Wordsworth's Scholae Academicae, pp. 213-234. 
 " Generals " were exercises of the juniors in easy logic, Parva Logicalia. See 
 - Gutch's edition of Wood's History and Antiquities of the University, Vol. II. 
 p. 728. 
 
 " "Variations" etc. are technical names for different sorts of disputations. 
 Everything was done by Opponents and Respondents. The Collectors arranged the 
 ■ disputations, who was to dispute with whom, and where, etc. 
 ^ The "Parvise" was the church porch of St. Mary's. 
 
 * A man was called dominus before his M.A., magister afterwards. Hence 
 " Dan " or " Sir " prefixed to clerical names. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 5 
 
 For the benefit of the general reader it may be expedient to add a, 
 brief description of a sixteenth century University career. It will not 
 only help to render the extracts from the Register intelligible but it will 
 throw light upon certain passages in Tyndale's writings. 
 
 But before doing this it should be stated that, although no satisfac- 
 tory reason can be given for it, the fact remains that Tyndale described 
 himself and was known to his contemporaries as William Hychyns 
 or Hutchens, and this seems to have been his family name. Granting 
 that the entry quoted from the Oxford Register refers to Tyndale — 
 and the probability that it does comes very near to a certainty — 
 the discovery is a proof of the general accuracy of Demaus's reasoning, 
 for he shows on page 35 that Tyndale could not have graduated B.A. 
 before 1508, and the Register fixes the year as 15 12. 
 
 Notwithstanding the researches of such writers as Anstey in his 
 Introduction to the Munimenta Academica Oxon. and Mullinger in his 
 book The University of Cambridge, — to both of which works the Editor 
 would here acknowledge his great indebtedness, — there is still consider- 
 able uncertainty as to the exact details of a University course in the 
 time of Tyndale. Becoming a Bachelor of Arts did not imply, as 
 now, the conference of a degree ; it seems rather to have indicated the 
 conclusion of a term of study. The successful candidate ceased to 
 be a schoolboy, but he was not yet considered fully fit to undertake 
 the instruction of others. 
 
 In the Arts course the first subject studied was grammar, that is, 
 Latin, and the books used were the writings of Priscian, Terence 
 and Boethius ; in Tyndale's day readings from Virgil or Ovid were 
 probably added, together with some study of Latin versification. By 
 far the most important subject of study was logic. The text book was 
 the Summulae of Petrus Hispanus, the lecturer also making free use 
 of such commentaries as that of Duns Scotus. Attention was also 
 paid to rhetoric and arithmetic. In these labours four years were 
 spent, and during this time, probably in the course of the second 
 year, the student passed " responsions." Until this time, according 
 to Mr. Anstey's account, he was known as a Sophista generalis, 
 afterwards as a questimist. Early in his logical course the student 
 would be encouraged toj attend the disputations in the Schools, and 
 Mr. Mullinger thinks that it was only after he had completed his 
 course of logic and was entitled to take part in the disputations 
 that he became a Sophista generalis. After this he was allowed to 
 appear as a pubhc disputant and it seems to have been compulsory 
 for him to take at least two "responsions" and " opponencies," 
 that is, the defensive and offensive parts respectively in two public 
 disputations. 
 
6 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 At the end of his fourth year of study he proceeded to the important 
 work of " determination." He had first to get six Masters of Arts to 
 testify to his fitness in attainments, character and age, and they had 
 sometimes, it would seem, to affirm that the appearance and stature of 
 the candidate were satisfactory. Four other Masters of Arts were 
 appointed whose duty it was to judge this testimony. The six Masters 
 appeared in Congregation before these four, and if their testimony was 
 found satisfactory the candidate then took an oath that he had finished 
 the needful studies and had passed " responsions." It was at this point 
 that the risk of rejection appeared. The ancient practice differed very 
 considerably from the modern. Failure to " determine " the knotty 
 logical problems propounded did not involve the rejection of the 
 candidate. It may have brought ridicule and disgrace upon him, but 
 it did not prevent him from proceeding to the degree of Master of 
 Arts. The " plucked " scholar was the one who could not take the 
 oath in the Congregation of the masters or whose character was 
 such that he could find no six masters who would bear testimony 
 to his fitness. 
 
 Mr. Boase in his Preface to the Register, p. viii, thus describes the 
 latter part of a sixteenth century University course : — 
 
 " In the Lent after a man was admitted to his Bachelor of Arts 
 degree he ' determined,' i.e., instead of disputing himself he presided 
 over disputations, and gave out his determination or decision on the 
 questions discussed. The proctors chose two \Colleciors, who dis- 
 tributed the determining bachelors into equal classes and allotted to 
 each of them the School in which he was to determine, on a fixed 
 day, from one o'clock till five o'clock in the afternoon. Each year, 
 after determining, the bachelor had further to dispute as opponent or 
 respondent at Austin disputations (so called because] formerly held in 
 the Augustinian monastery), as arranged by similar Collectors, and 
 the questions to be discussed were fixed up on the Schools' gates. He 
 had also to read, i.e., lecture on, certain books in a cursory manner 
 (subsidiary to the main lectures) before he could become a licentiate 
 in arts. We have a list (in Anstey's Munimenta, 413) of the books 
 read, which runs thus : — ■ 
 
 " Metaphysics, for one year. 
 
 " Ethics, for four months. 
 
 " Geometry, for five weeks. 
 
 " Algorismus, Sphaera, Compotus, eight days apiece. 
 
 "Boethius' Arithmetica, for three weeks. 
 
 " Priscian in the large volume, or Politics, or the Ten Books on 
 Animals (including the books on the movements of Animals), for six 
 weeks. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 7 
 
 " Priscian on the construction of the parts of speech, for one term. 
 
 " The book Caeli et Mundi, one term. 
 
 " The book Meteororum (Metheororum), one term. 
 
 " The fourth book of the Topics of Boethius, etc. 
 
 " The candidate for the degree of M.A. had further to go round 
 (circuit) the Schools and beg the masters to attend his exercises, called 
 Vesperies, the Saturday evening before the final ceremony. When the 
 bachelor, after having been licensed, was finally created master, the 
 Chancellor handed him the insignia of the degree (book, hood and 
 cap), admitted him to teach in the name of the Trinity, and gave him 
 a kiss on his left cheek. He was thus said to incept or commence as a 
 master, and the term Commencement is still used at Cambridge for what 
 at Oxford is called the Act. There were two, and sometimes three. 
 Acts in a year. Different forms were used for the admission to each 
 in different subjects. Thus a Bachelor of Divinity was admitted to 
 read the Sentences of Peter Lombard, a Bachelor of Music to read the 
 mathematical verses of Boethius, a Bachelor of Physic the aphorisms 
 of Hippocrates, a Bachelor of Civil Law the institutes of Justinian. 
 Thenceforth the master could give the ordinary lectures. But for fifteen 
 days he had to walk through the streets in a round cap, not a plaited 
 cap (capa rotunda not rugata). The new masters had to make 
 presents to the Regents, i.e., the masters of less than two years' 
 standing ; and, if they were rich, a feast was expected." 
 
 Through a course of this kind, crowned by a series of formalities 
 like those just described, " WiUiam Tyndale, otherwise called Hychins," 
 had to pass. Of real education, in the modern sense, there was little. 
 A high development of the logical faculty with a dearth of scholarship 
 was all that the Oxford of those days could give. Tyndale's opinions 
 upon the value and results of such a course of training are given 
 in his own vigorous style in his Practice 0/ Prelates, and are quoted 
 in this volume on pp. 35 and 36. 
 
 In the Register there is also a reference to Gabriel Donne, one of 
 the men concerned in the plot that led to Tyndale's martyrdom. He 
 was a Cistercian friar and supplicated for the degree of Bachelor of 
 Divinity Oct 26th, 1521. 
 
 The editor has recently come into possession of some notes which 
 Mr. Demaus had prepared for a second edition of his book. Un- 
 fortunately the first few sheets had been printed before the existence 
 of these notes was known. They do not contain matter of very 
 great importance, and yet raise such points of interest, as the follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 (i) The evidence seems all tending in favour of the view that 
 Melksham Court in the parish of Stinchcombe and not Hunt's 
 
8 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Court, North Nibley, was the home of Tyndale's family. Demaus 
 in his MS. notes states that the will of Alice Hunt, the " legal deed " 
 referred to on p. 19, dated Jan. 20, 1542, runs, "Alice Tyndale .... 
 leaves something to her son Richard and his heirs, with remainder 
 to her third son William and the heirs of his body, remainder to 
 Henry — to Thomas — to John." Hence this William was not the 
 martyr. 
 
 With reference to this, Mr. Francis Fry, of Gotham, Bristol, in a 
 note extracted from Mr. Cooke's paper on The Tyndales of Gloucester, 
 states, " It seems therefore fair to conclude with Mr. Greenfield that 
 Edward Tyndale and William the Martyr were in all probability 
 brothers of the first Richard Tyndale of Melksham Court, to whom 
 we may add a fourth brother, viz. John Tyndale, a Merchant of 
 London, who was fined by the Star Chamber in 1530 for assisting 
 William in the circulation of the New Testament." 
 
 {2) Demaus notes that Mr. Aldis Wright has accidentally discovered 
 what is almost certainly the true date of Sir Thomas More's birth, 
 viz. Feb. 7th, 1478 (see Appendix to Seebohm's Oxford Reformers, 
 second edition). 
 
 This adds fresh force to Tyndale's statement about More quoted 
 on p. 24, " he understandeth the Greek, and he knew them long ere /," 
 especially in the light of the Oxford Register entries; for Tyndale 
 can hardly have been born before 1490, or even, as Mr. Boase thinks, 
 before 1495. If this be so. More was from twelve to eighteen years 
 older than the translator. 
 
 (3) Demaus notes that the words "youthful enthusiast" on p. 85 and 
 "youth" on p. 86 are hardly correct. According to his own view 
 Tyndale was then 40 years of age, and even if we accept Mr. 
 Boase's estimate, he was 30. 
 
 The other notes have been incorporated as far as possible in the 
 body of this volume. 
 
 The most valuable recent contribution to Tyndale literature is Mr. 
 Francis Fry's Bibliographical Description of the Editions of the New 
 Testament (1878), in which the sequence of the early editions of Tyn- 
 dale's Testament is clearly set forth. It has done the work referred to 
 by Demaus as unaccomplished at page 357 of this volume. The most 
 interesting fact brought to light is the identification of the last edition 
 revised by Tyndale himself, viz. No. 4 in Mr. Fry's list, an edition 
 usually described as the 1535-34 " G. H." New Testament. The name 
 of the printer and publisher and the place of printing of this edition 
 have been the subject of much conjecture and discussion. We have 
 no space to go fully into these matters here, but must refer the reader 
 to Mr. Fry's work. The late Mr. Henry Bradshaw of Cambridge, in 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 9 
 
 a paper contributed to the first number of The Bibliographer, demon- 
 strates that it was published by Godfried Van der Haghen of Antwerp, 
 though he dissents from the view that the printer was the man " whose 
 name appears as Martin de Keyser when the book [printed by him] 
 is in his native language, as Martinus Caesar or Caesaris when the book 
 is in Latin, as Martin Lempereur when in French, and, lastly, as 
 Martin Emperowr when in English." 
 
 Mr. Bradshaw in the same paper shows conclusively that the trans- 
 lator himself spelt his name " Tindale," but it has been thought better 
 in the present edition to keep to the old familiar spelling of the name. 
 
 An effort has been made to render this volume still more interesting 
 and useful to the student by giving specimen facsimiles that shall 
 convey to the reader, as far as practicable without going to great ex- 
 pense, the exact appearance of the most precious of Tyndale's books 
 as they now present themselves to the eye of the reader. To give 
 as nearly as possible the impression of the originals, the facsimiles 
 are in every case the exact size of the books from which they are 
 taken, and no description is printed on the plates; that is fully 
 given in the List of Illustrations on page 14. The old edition 
 contained facsimile pages of the octavo 1525 Testament now at 
 Bristol, reproduced from tracings lent by Mr. Fry, F.S.A. The pre- 
 sent contains the following reproductions of the most precious volumes 
 in the English language: (i) A page of the unique Grenville Frag- 
 ment, the first part of the New Testament printed in English, es- 
 pecially interesting for its glosses, the lower one of which describes 
 in the words " worketh freely for love's sake only " the spirit in which 
 T3mdale served his day and generation : (2) a page of the octavo 
 1525 Testament reproduced from the copy in the Library of St. 
 Paul's Cathedral : (3) two pages from the only known perfect copy 
 of Tyndale's 1530 Pentateuch, now in the Grenville Library, British 
 Museum ; one page from the Book of Numbers showing the old black 
 letter in which that book and Genesis are printed, and illustrating 
 Tyndale's irony in the pointed gloss over against Balaam's question ; 
 the other from the Book of Exodus showing the Roman letter in 
 which Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy are printed, and giving 
 one of the cuts which, according to Hall's story, the Bishop of 
 London's money went to pay for, and which (see p. 217) had been 
 previously used in Vostermann's Dutch Bible of 1528 : (4) a specimen 
 page of Joye's pirated edition of Tyndale's Testament, illustrating his 
 peculiar views on the resurrection: (5) a page of Tyndale's 1534 
 revised Testament, printed at Antwerp on yellow paper : (6) a page 
 from the original edition of the Parable of the Wicked Mammon. 
 (7) The title-page of the famous Practice of Prelates. 
 
lO EDITORS PREFACE. 
 
 Mr. Francis Fry, of Gotham, Bristol, in a letter dated Aug. 25th, 
 1886, sent the editor a copy of the title-page facsimiled at p. 352. 
 He writes, " It is a great curiosity. It is a remarkable fact that there 
 is no record of the edition now more than 300 years old." Mr. Fry 
 finds that the volume in which the title-page is found is a copy of the 
 Mole edition of 1536. Mr. Fry states, "Though no part of a New 
 Testament of this date (i. e. 1536), we may suppose it to be the title of 
 an edition. This is no doubt by William Tyndale. There is no title 
 in either of the two copies of the first edition, [nor in the Grenville 
 Fragment]. This tide shows that in the year 1532 the New Tes- 
 tament is styled "in Englyshe Translated." In 1534 the edition 
 printed in Antwerp by Martin Emperour is described as " dylygently 
 corrected." The three lines under the headhne probably ran " ment 
 in Englyshe translated after the Greek Contayninge these bokes." 
 This title is therefore a very interesting reKc of the early editions 
 of Tyndale's New Testament, and may possibly be the same as the 
 lost titles of the 1525 editions." 
 
 A reproduction of the Vilvorde letter, the only specimen of Tyndale's 
 handwriting in existence, is given at p. 437. 
 
 The old portrait, which was a very bad reproduction of the picture 
 in the possession of the British and Foreign Bible Society, has been 
 replaced by a fine engraving of the head of the picture of Tyndale 
 which now hangs in the hall of Hertford College, Oxford. 
 
 An exhaustive index has also been compiled, which renders the 
 contents of the present edition readily accessible to those who may 
 wish to consult it on special points. 
 
 The size of the page has been somewhat increased, and it is 
 hoped that in its more attractive form the volume may long con- 
 tinue to interest both the student and the general reader in the 
 life and work of one of the noblest of Englishmen. 
 
 It only remains to express the editor's grateful acknowledgments 
 for the kind help freely rendered by all to whom he has applied or 
 vrith whom the work has brought him into relation. He is especially 
 indebted to the Rev. C. W. Boase, M.A., of Exeter College, Oxford ; to 
 Mr. BuUen and Mr. Fletcher, of the British Museum ; to Mr. Francis 
 Fry, F.S.A., of Gotham, Bristol; to Dr. Sparrow Simpson, Sub-Dean 
 and Librarian of St. Paul's Cathedral; and to Mr. Gairdner, of th6 
 Record Office. 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Considering the profound and universal reverence Vifhich Englishmen 
 entertain for their noble vernacular Bible, it is somewhat strange that 
 so little care has been bestowed upon the accurate investigation of the 
 literary history of that great work, and the career of the man whose 
 name must ever be associated with it. It is only, indeed, within the 
 present generation that the history of the English Bible has been 
 treated with anything like adequate attention: our older writers 
 abound in careless and erroneous statements on the subject, which 
 our literary historians unfortunately continue to repeat without inquiry ; 
 and even now, after the patient reseaches of Anderson, Westcott, Fry, 
 and others, much still remains to be done in this long-neglected 
 department of literature. 
 
 As for Tyndale, till the publication of Anderson's Annals of the 
 English Bible, some thirty years ago, it can hardly be said that any- 
 thing more was known of him than what had been recorded in Foxe's 
 Acts and Monuments. The biography of Tyndale by the old Martyro- 
 logist, if somewhat defective, was eminently valuable. For it is evident 
 to any one who takes the trouble to examine the earliest edition of 
 the Acts and Monuments, that Foxe derived his information from men 
 who had been intimately associated with Tyndale in those two periods 
 of his life whose history he has recorded. The value of Foxe's 
 narrative, so far as it goes, is thus placed beyond the reach of dispute ; 
 it has been accordingly accepted in the present work as the testimony 
 of thoroughly well-informed contemporaries ; and, notwithstanding its 
 mutilated condition, it might have been of admirable service as a 
 nucleus, round which the labours of succeeding writers might have 
 formed a complete and worthy biography. Nothing, however, in 
 this direction was seriously attempted, till Anderson published what 
 had been at first designed to be a Life of Tyndale, though it was 
 subsequently, and, perhaps, injudiciously, extended into the well- 
 known Annals of the English Bible. 
 
 Anderson's work, though by no means free from faults even of a 
 serious kind, was a most valuable contribution to our knowledge of 
 the Life of Tyndale and of the History of the English Bible; and the 
 present writer has to express in the strongest terms his obligation to 
 
12 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 the labours of his predecessor in the same field. A similar acknow- 
 ledgment is due to the edition of Tyndale's works so carefully super- 
 intended for the Parker Society by Professor Walter. The facsimiles 
 of Mr. Fry and the manuscript collections of the late George Oifor 
 have also in various ways proved useful ; and the charming treatise 
 of Canon Westcott on the English Bible has never been consulted 
 without profit, or indeed without envy. 
 
 Whilst thus freely availing himself of the researches of previous 
 writers, the author has in no case transferred their statements to his own 
 pages till he has carefully investigated and verified them. No asser- 
 tion has been taken for granted ; everything has been examined afresh ; 
 the originals have been consulted and deliberately weighed, it is hoped, 
 without the distorting influence of any theory ; the localities associated 
 with the life of Tyndale have been personally visited and explored ; 
 and especial care has^ been devoted throughout to the exact determina- 
 tion, so far "as possible, of the precise dates of all the occurrences in 
 the Biography. Thus, although there still remain, in the story of 
 Tyndale's life, gajJs 'whace . all information fails us, which we can only 
 attempt to bridge- over by the help of conjectures and probabilities, 
 it is believed tha! in the following pages there is laid down a firm 
 basis of fact, which no subsequent investigation will overthrow, and 
 into which any future discovery will fit with the ease and harmony 
 which belong to truth. In addition to the thorough sifting of what 
 had been previously known, the writer has been able to shed fresh light 
 upon various obscure passages in Tyndale's life by researches in the 
 State Paper Office (which, for some reason or other, is not so accessible 
 to the public at this portion of our history as it ought to be) : and of 
 the closing occurrences of Tjoidale's career, a clear and satisfactory 
 narrative is here for the first time presented to the English reader, 
 the result of investigations amongst the archives of Brussels and 
 other cities of Belgium. 
 
 Thanks are due to many friends for assistance and sympathy 
 kindly rendered during the prosecution of the work, and especially 
 to one to 'v^hom everything connected with the history of the English 
 Bible is a matter of lively interest, Mr. Francis Fry, of Bristol. From 
 many generous men of letters in Belgium also, an amount of help 
 has been received, for which the warmest thanks are a poor acknow- 
 ledgment : but for the aid of M. Gachard, the Archivist-General of 
 Belgium, M. Galesloot, M. Genard, of Antwerp, M. HoUebeke, and 
 many others, Romanists as well as Protestants, the present work 
 would have lacked much of its value. 
 
 A man like Tyndale, who is now coming to be recognised as 
 " the true hero of the English Reformation," needs no artifice on 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 13 
 
 the part of his biographer to raise him in public esteem. No attempt, 
 therefore, has been made in these pages to conceal his faults, 
 to disguise his opinions, or to exaggerate his virtues. Tyndale 
 himself was at all times conspicuous for his fearless honesty; 
 and his biographer is bound, were it only out of reverence to his 
 memory, to be, above everything, honest and truthful. In this 
 attempt to ascertain the truth it has been found impossible to avoid 
 a certain controversial tone throughout the work; for many of the 
 facts of Tyndale's life have been disputed or distorted, through care- 
 lessness, through prejudice, and through the malice of that school of 
 writers in whose eyes the Reformation was a mistake, if not a crime, 
 and who conceive it to be their mission to revive all the old calumnies 
 that have ever been circulated against the Reformers, supplementing 
 them by new accusations of their own invention. 
 
 Considerable extracts have been given from each of Tyndale's 
 works, so as to afford the reader the opportunity of judging for 
 himself as to their character and merits. These extracts have been 
 in general taken from the Parker Society Edition of the Reformer's 
 writings, and are presented in modernised spelling, there being no 
 object to be gained by retaining the obsolete and capricious ortho- 
 graphy of the originals. For what is enclosed within square brackets, 
 it will be understood that the biographer is in all cases responsible : 
 the words thus inserted are either brief explanations of antiquated 
 terms, or, in the case of extracts from manuscripts, conjectural readings 
 where the original document is defective or undecipherable. 
 
 The woodcut of the old castle of Vilvorde, the scene of Tyndale's 
 imprisonment and martyrdom, has been taken from one of the inter- 
 esting memoirs published by M. Galesloot, which was in its turn a 
 reproduction of a water-colour in the Royal Library at Brussels. It is 
 new to the English reader, and has a special value as exhibiting the 
 castle pretty much as it must have appeared in'Tyndale's time. 
 
 In a word, every effort has been used to make the present work 
 a worthy biography of one of the greatestrof Englishmen, and as 
 such, it is hoped, the reading public will be pleased to receive it. 
 
 St. Luke's, Chelsea : 
 November, 1871. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND FACSIMILES. 
 
 1. William Tyndale (from the painting in Hertford 
 
 College, Oxford) Frontispiece 
 
 2. Page of the First Printed English New Testament in 
 quarto, 1525, containing Matt. vi. 8-25, and showing 
 what the bishops of that day considered "pestilent 
 glosses" (from the unique Grenville Fragment in the 
 
 British Museum) To face p. 128 
 
 3. Page of the First Printed English New Testament in 
 octavo, 1525, (from the copy in the Library of St. Paul's 
 Cathedral) >■, 11 136 
 
 4. Page of the Parable of the Wicked Mammon (from 
 
 the British Museum copy) „ „ 1 76 
 
 5. Page of Tyndale's Pentateuch, showing " The forme of 
 Aaron with all his apparel," and the Roman type in 
 which Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy are printed 
 (from the only perfect copy known, in the Grenville 
 
 Library, British Museum) . . . . . „ „ 217 
 
 6. Page of Tyndale's Pentateuch from the Book of Num- 
 bers, showing the Black Letter type in which Genesis 
 and Numbers are printed, and containing a good 
 
 specimen of the glosses (from the same) . . . „ „ 229 
 
 7. Title-page of the Practice of Prelates (British Museum 
 
 copy) „ „ 240 
 
 8. Title-page of a 1532 edition of Tyndale's New Testa- 
 ment (from a tracing lent by Mr. Francis Fry, F.S.A., 
 ofCotham) . . . ■••■„„ 352 
 
 9. Page of Joye's edition of Tyndale's New Testament, 
 exhibiting Joye's peculiar views on the Resurrection 
 
 (from the unique copy in the British Museum) . . „ ,,361 
 
 10. Page of the 1534 New Testament (from the British 
 
 Museum copy) „ „ 368 
 
 11. The Castle of Vilvorde ,, „ 392 
 
 12. Facsimile of the only specimen of Tyndale's hand- 
 
 writing known to exist (from a copy lent by Mr. Francis 
 
 Fry, F.S.A., of Cotham) » ,, 437 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Early Life. a.d. 1484-1521 i 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 Tyndale's Life at Little Sodbury. a.d. 1521-1523 . . 51 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 Tyndale's Life in London, a.d. 1523-1524 . . -76 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 From Tyndale's Arrival in Hamburg to the Printing of 
 THE First English New Testament, a.d. 1524-1526 . 96 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Tyndale's First New Testament : Description of the Book 
 in its two Forms : Tyndale's Qualifications as a 
 Translator : Specimens of his Work . . . .123 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Tyndale's Life at Worms : Reception of the New Testa- 
 ment IN England : Literary Labours : Hostility of 
 WoLSEY. A.D. 1 525-1527 141 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Tyndale AT Marburg : Publishes " The Wicked Mammon " 
 AND "The Obedience of a Christian Man." a.d. 1528 . 165 
 
1 6 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Marburg: Antwerp: Hamburg: Publication of the "Penta- 
 teuch" AND "The Practice of Prelates." a.d. 1529- 
 1530 208 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Controversy with Sir Thomas More 248 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Tyndale at Antwerp : Negotiations to induce him to 
 return to England : Interview with Vaughan : His 
 Continued Literary Labours, a.d. 1531 . . . .271 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Attempts to seize Tyndale : His Renewed Wanderings : 
 Continued Literary Labours: Fryth arrested and 
 martyred in England : Tyndale's Letter to Fryth : 
 His Final Removal to Antwerp, a.d. 1532-1533 . .318 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Tyndale's Life at Antwerp : Revision of the New Testa- 
 ment: Controversy WITH George JOYE: Tyndale seized. 
 A.D. 1533-1535 • • 351 
 
 CHAPTER Xin. 
 
 Arrest of Tyndale : His Imprisonment, Trial, and Martyr- 
 dom. A.D. 1535-1536 381 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Mr. Anderson's Account of the First Introduction of 
 Tyndale's New Testament into England . . .447 
 
 Flemish Documents 457 
 
 The New Testament of 1535 460 
 
 INDEX 461 
 
WILLIAM TYNDALE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY LIFE. 
 
 A. D. 1484 — I52I. 
 
 " The history of Tyndale," remarks a great English writer, 
 "has almost been lost in his work." His work remains, 
 and is hkely long to remain, loved and reverenced by all 
 English-speaking people throughout the world, as their 
 noblest inheritance; but the man, to whose patient labour 
 and heroic self-sacrifice we are mainly indebted for the 
 English Bible, has been allowed to almost drop out of 
 memory. Tyndale, indeed, with his characteristic unselfish- 
 ness and noble disregard of fame, would have been well 
 content that he himself should be forgotten, if only "the 
 Word of God might be permitted to go abroad in the English 
 tongue;" but it would ill become his countrymen, who have 
 benefited so largely by his labours, patiently to allow oblivion 
 to settle down upon a life so worthy to be held in perpetual 
 admiration. Much that we should gladly have known of 
 the details of his personal history is now, in all probability, 
 lost beyond recovery; yet, on the other hand, modern 
 research, prosecuted with greater zeal and more copious 
 facilities than at any previous period, has brought to light 
 valuable materials for the elucidation of parts of his career, 
 
1 8 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 which have hitherto been involved in obscurity. At all 
 events, it is high time that something should be attempted 
 which, if not worthy of Tyndale's merit, may be accepted as 
 an instalment of England's gratitude. 
 
 The whole story of the birth and early life of Tyndale is 
 involved in uncertainty, which the energy of many pains- 
 taking inquirers has not yet succeeded in dissipating. The 
 illustrious translator himself, probably from motives of caution, 
 seldom makes any allusion to his early years ; and Foxe, his 
 first biographer, who was intimately acquainted with several 
 of Tyndale's associates, has unfortunately contented himself 
 with the vague and unsatisfactory declaration, " Touching the 
 birth and parentage of this blessed martyr of Christ, he was 
 born about the borders of Wales" Tradition has, of course, 
 largely supplemented this scanty information ; and for nearly 
 three centuries it has been generally believed, that Tyndale 
 was born in Gloucestershire, which, as Monmouth was then 
 reckoned to belong to Wales, is in perfect accordance with the 
 statement of Foxe. A later tradition has even ventured to 
 indicate the village and the very house in which the martyr 
 first saw the light ; and this tradition likewise has passed into 
 general currency, and has been embodied not only in books 
 but in materials much more enduring. 
 
 The traveller, who speeds along the railway between Bristol 
 and Gloucester, cannot fail to observe a noble monument 
 conspicuously perched on the bold extremity of one of the 
 most beautiful of the Cotswolds. This is the column 
 erected to the honour of Tyndale on Nibley Knoll ; the 
 little village of North Nibley, which straggles in picturesque 
 confusion at the foot of the hill, claims to be the unquestion- 
 able birth-place of the great translator; and the villagers 
 assure the inquiring traveller that the dilapidated manor-house 
 of Hunt's Court was the residence of Tyndale's parents, and 
 sheltered the birth and boyhood of the future martyr. 
 Sweeter birth-place there is none in England. " Nybley, 
 anciently written Nubbelei," says its enthusiastic historian, 
 
THE TYNDALES OF NORTH NIBLEY. 19 
 
 "Nubbeleigh, and Nubeleg and Nibeleigh, quasi, (if descant: 
 upon the name may be allowed), cloudwater, or obscure place, 
 an etymology agreeable to the springs and water here, and 
 their covert situation, is not more pleasantly seated on 
 a comely hill than healthful ; than which none in the county, 
 or scarce in the kingdom, standeth in a sweeter air^." 
 Unfortunately for the pleasing tradition, which thus links the 
 memory of the Reformer with one of the loveliest spots 
 in England, it cannot be traced farther back than the 
 commencement of last century, and when closely examined, 
 it is found to rest upon an insufficient foundation ^. Beyond 
 all question there were Tyndales residing at Hunt's Court 
 towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII., but it was not 
 till long after the Reformer's bii-th that Hunt's Court came 
 into their possession ; and though there is every reasbn 
 to believe that these Tyndales of North Nibley were kinsmen 
 of the Reformer, there is not the slightest evidence that he was 
 a son of that house. It is, certainly, not a little curious that 
 Thomas Tyndale and Alice Hunt, the possessors of Hunt's 
 Court in the reign of Henry, had a son named William ; and 
 the mention of this coincidence in the county histories has 
 induced some biographers to assert as an indubitable truth, 
 established by documentary evidence, that this William was 
 no other than the translator^; but, in fact, it can be demon- 
 strated on the unquestionable authority of a legal deed, that 
 the William Tyndale who was born at Hunt's Court, was 
 
 ' Smythe's MS. History of the Hundred of Berkeley. I beg to acknowledge my 
 obligations to J. H. Cook, Esq., of Berkeley Castle, for the courtesy with which he 
 allowed me to consult Mr. Smythe's invaluable collections. 
 
 ^ The tradition is no older, I think, than Atkins in his History of Gloucester- 
 shire. In recent times it has been circulated mainly on the authority of Oade 
 Roberts, who was o. collateral descendant of the Tyndales of Hunt's Court ; 
 but any one who examines the letters of Oade Roberts, which are preserved in 
 the British Museum, (Additional MSS. 9,458), will perceive at a glance that 
 what he records is mere unautheuticated gossip, baseless as the prophecies of 
 Zadkiel. 
 
 ' It is mentioned by Rudder, Gloucestershire, p. 696 ; and Anderson, in his 
 Annals of the English Bible, at once assumes that this William Tyndale was the 
 martyr. 
 
 C a 
 
ao EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 alive in 1543, and could not, therefore, have been the martyr 
 who perished at Vilvorde in 1536 ^. 
 
 Years, however, before the intermarriage with the heiress of 
 the Hunts brought Hunt's Court into the Tyndale family, 
 there had been Tyndales established as farmers at Melksham 
 Court, in the neighbouring parish of Stinchcombe ; and as far 
 back as the reign of Richard ill., Tyndales had possessed 
 some parts of the Manor of Hurst in the adjoining parish 
 of Slymbridge^. Indeed, so far as our present knowledge 
 extends, it seems by no means improbable that it was not 
 amid the breezy and beautiful Cotswolds, but in this 
 parish of low-lying meadow land amongst fields of sedgy 
 swamps reclaimed from the Severn, that the translator first 
 saw the light ^. 
 
 The chief difficulty in ascertaining the parentage of Tyndale 
 has arisen from the absence of any authoritative statement on 
 the point by any of his contemporaries. Hitherto, nothing 
 has been discovered concerning the family to which the 
 Reformer belonged, beyond the fact that he had a brother 
 called John, who was subsequently punished for aiding in the 
 circulation of the New Testament. Quite unexpectedly, 
 however, the present biographer has succeeded in unearthing 
 a document which seems to bring the solution of the long- 
 agitated question within our grasp. In the State Paper Office 
 there is preserved a letter from Stokesley, Bishop of London, 
 soliciting the grant of a farm in Gloucestershire for one of his 
 servants. Another suppliant, however, was already in the 
 field, and concerning him Stokesley notes, "He that sueth unto 
 you hath a kinsman called Edward Tyndale, brother to Tyndale 
 the arch-heretic, and under-receiver of the lordship of Berkeley, 
 
 ■ I have not seen the deed, but the original or a copy is still in existence, and I 
 Icnow that it conclusively shows that the William Tyndale, the son of Alice Hunt 
 of North Nibley, was not the martyr. 
 
 ' Smythe's MS. History of the Hundred of Berkeley. 
 
 ' Certain lauds in this parish, called the River-lands, came into the possession ot 
 one Richard Tyndale ; they had been reclaimed from the river, and formed part of 
 the Manor of Hurst. 
 
EDWARD TYNDALE OF PULL COURT. 21 
 
 which may and daily doth promote his kinsfolks there by [to] 
 the King's farms ^." 
 
 Now Stokesley, it must be remembered, was not only from 
 his official position likely to be well informed on this point, 
 but he had actually been rector of Slymbridge in 1509, 
 and, therefore, was almost certainly personally acquainted 
 with the Tyndales of Gloucestershire ; his information may 
 accordingly be received as of the very highest value. More- 
 over, Edward Tyndale, the "receiver^ of the lordship of 
 Berkeley," is a person perfectly well known to us, so that if 
 "the arch-heretic" was indeed his brother, the whole family 
 history down to the present day can be traced with perfect 
 certainty*. A little explanation must, however, be premised, 
 in order that the reader may sufficiently understand the 
 circumstances of the case. William, Marquis of Berkeley, 
 who had died in 149a, from some pique against his brother, 
 bequeathed his estates to Henry Vll.* and his heirs male ; and 
 they remained in the royal family till the accession of Mary. 
 A local receiver of the rents and other payments due to the 
 Crown from the Berkeley lands was, of course, appointed ; and 
 in 1519 Edward Tyndale was nominated to this office by 
 letters patent^. This receiver was a man of energy, and rose 
 high in the royal favour ; in 1539 he received a grant of the 
 lease of the manor of Hurst, in Slymbridge", the very ground on 
 which we have supposed that he and his more illustrious brother 
 were born ; and at subsequent periods he held, by grant from 
 the Abbot of Tewkesbury, the Manor of the Pull, or Pull Court, 
 in the parish of Bushley in Worcester, and that of Burnet juxta 
 
 ' State Paper Office. Chapter House Papers, Second Series, Vol. 23. 
 
 " Receiver and under-receiver I take to mean the same thing. Edward 
 Tyndale was the local receiver of the rents, the receiver-in-chief being of 
 course the great minister of the Crown, to whom all local rents were trans- 
 mitted. 
 
 ' It has been traced by B. W. Greenfield in his Pedigree of the Tyndale Family, 
 which begins from this very Edward Tyndale. 
 
 * See Nicolas's Historical Peerage of England, edited by Courthope. 
 
 ' Patent Rolls, 11 Henry vill. Part 2. Membranes 19, 20. 
 
 ' Patent Rolls, 21 Henry vni. Part i. Membrane 18. 
 
az EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 Keynsham, in the county of Somerset ^- His will, which was 
 proved in London in 1 546 ^, shows him to have been a man of sub- 
 stance • and, what is more important as confirming Stokesley's 
 account of him, he possessed some of those books whose circula- 
 tion had been prohibited on account of their supposed heretical 
 teaching^. Everything that appears in his will is, in fact, in 
 perfect accordance with what Stokesley asserts in his letter ; 
 the names and alliances of his numerous children are all 
 known; and if this evidence be accepted, then a very 
 considerable amount of obscurity will have been removed from 
 the family history of the illustrious martyr. 
 
 The only objection to the genealogy thus supplied by Stokes- 
 ley, arises from the pedigrees which the heraldic historians have 
 compiled. According to these authorities, Edward Tyndale, 
 of Pull Court, was the fourth son of Sir William Tyndale, of 
 Hockwold, in Norfolk, and his elder brother William survived 
 till 1558, and could not, therefore, have been the martyr*. 
 Whether these assertions are made on any sufficient evidence, 
 or are merely the customary romancing of imaginative family 
 genealogists, we have no sufficient opportunity for deciding. 
 One thing, however, is certain ; Stokesley, and Cromwell to 
 whom his letter was addressed, could scarcely have been mis- 
 taken in their reference to a man who was probably personally 
 known to the one, as he was officially connected with the other 
 of them ; and the assertion on such authority that William 
 Tyndale the "arch -heretic " was the brother of the Receiver of 
 the Crown-rents on the Berkeley estates, must be accepted as 
 conclusively establishing this extremely interesting point in 
 the great Reformer's life. Further research may perhaps 
 
 ' Greenfield, Pedigree of the Family of Tyndale, to which excellent compilation 
 I am Indebted for several useful hints. 
 
 ' Alen. 21 ; dated August 17, proved October i, 1546. 
 
 ' He had e.g., Pellicanus on the Old Testament, which was forbidden by royal 
 proclamation in July 1546. This book, along with his best bow and the bow-case, 
 he bequeathed to Robert Green, parish priest of Tewkesbury, near which town 
 Pull Court is situated. 
 
 * See especially Burke's History of the Commoners, Vol. iv. p. 546. Rudder's 
 Gloucestershire, p. 756. 
 
PLACE OF TYNDALE'S BIRTH. 23 
 
 clear up what still remains obscure in the history of his 
 early years ; the evidence which has here, for the first time, 
 been adduced, shows that we need not despair of recover- 
 ing, by dint of persevering labour, much that now seems 
 lost^ 
 
 The other family legend, set afloat in the reign of Charles II., 
 that the Tyndales " came out of the North in the times of the 
 wars between the houses of York and Lancaster^," and that 
 for a time they sought to elude observation by changing 
 their name to Hutchins, is probably not without foundation, 
 though it cannot be said to be established by any documentary 
 evidence ; and on the whole it seems to supply a far more 
 probable theory of the origin of the Tyndales of Slymbridge, 
 than the heraldic boast that they were related to wealthy 
 aristocratic houses whose members were familiar in royal 
 palaces, and were even offered royal honours ^. But enough of 
 a matter which is still confessedly involved in considerable 
 obscurity, and where modest conjecture is more appropriate 
 than confident assertion. No reason has as yet been given 
 for discrediting Foxe's statement that Tyndale was born " on 
 the borders of Wales ; " and whatever may have been the 
 exact locality of his birth, whether amongst the breezy beauties 
 of the Cotswolds, or, as seems more probable, " by the rushy- 
 fringed bank," within which " Sabrina," still fair and unpolluted, 
 rolled "her glassy, cool, translucent wave*" to the Bristol 
 Channel, it, at all events, lies within the ken of the traveller 
 
 * I leave to the genealogists the further prosecution of the subject in the light of 
 the new evidence now brought to bear upon it. The assertion of Stokesley must, 
 however, under the circumstances, be assumed as conclusive, unless the strongest 
 documentary evidence can be alleged against it. 
 
 " See the whole legend set forth with delightful simplicity in a letter from Thomas 
 Tyndale, of Kingston St. Michael, to Tyndale of Stinchcombe, printed entire in 
 Rudder's History of Gloucestershire. 
 
 ' According to the genealogists, Sir William Tyndale, of Hockwold, was 
 created a Knight of the Bath at the marriage of Prince Arthur ; and his eldest son 
 received the same honour at the coronation of Anne Boleyn, and declined the 
 Crown of Bohemia, to which he had some hereditary claims through his great- 
 grandmother. 
 
 ' Milton's Comus. 
 
24 "EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 who mounts the bold vantage-gi-ound of " Tyndale's monu- 
 ment." 
 
 The date of the Reformer's bfrth is involved in equal un- 
 certainty, and can only be approximated to by inference. 
 Some biographers have assigned it to about the year 1470 ; 
 making Tyndale die a martyr at nearly seventy years of age. 
 All that we know of him, however, seems to indicate that he 
 perished while still in middle life, and that he must, by 
 consequence, have been born between 1480 and 1490. Thus, 
 in defending his translation of the New Testament against Sir 
 Thomas More's attack, he incidentally remarks, "These things 
 to be even so, M. More knoweth well enough, for he under- 
 standeth the Greek, and he kiiew them long ere l'^." As 
 Tyndale's early education was not neglected, and he was sent 
 to Oxford at a very early age (" from a child," according to 
 Foxe), it seems a legitimate inference from these words that he 
 was somewhat younger than Sir Thomas More. Sir Thomas, it 
 is generally agreed, was born in 1480, and Tyndale's birth may, 
 therefore, with some probability be assigned to a few years 
 later, perhaps about 1484 or i486. And with this conjectural 
 date every allusion to Tyndale's age sufficiently corresponds. 
 Sir Thomas More seems to rank him, in point of age, with 
 Luther, who was born in 1483 ; and Foxe seems to speak of 
 his martyrdom as occurring while he was in middle life, which 
 would certainly not allow the date of his birth to be carried 
 farther back than 1480, On the whole, therefore, it may be 
 assumed as highly probable that Tyndale -was born somewhere 
 about the year 1484 : any more precise determination of the 
 date must be the result of further investigation. 
 
 In the uncertainty which rests upon the place of Tyndale's 
 birth and the social position of his parents, any picture of his 
 early life must be, of course, wholly drawn from imagination. 
 Slymbridge, if we assume this to have been his birthplace, was 
 then, as now, wholly engrossed in the production of cheese 
 and butter ; a quiet agricultural parish, where life would flow 
 
 ' Tyndale's Answer to More. Tyndale's Works, Vol. III. p. 23. 
 
TYND ALE'S EARLY EDUCATION. 25 
 
 on calmly as the great river that formed its boundary. The 
 dairymaid was the true annalist of Slymbridge ; and the only 
 occurrence, beyond drought, which would distress the peaceful 
 population, would be occasional predatory incursions by their 
 lawless neighbours from the Forest of Dean, which waved in 
 hills of verdure towards the West, as a picturesque counter- 
 balance to the Cotswolds in the East. Such a place one 
 naturally associates with stagnant thought and immemorial 
 traditions. Like the rest of the Manor of Berkeley, it had 
 passed into the hands of the Crown ; and this led to the 
 institution of one of the most charming customs that still 
 subsist in England. Annually, on the first day of May, the 
 choristers of Magdalen College, Oxford, ascend the tower of 
 that princely establishment, and at five in the morning join in 
 singing a hymn, which floats down in the sweet calm like the 
 music of the spheres. Originally, it is said, the hymn was a 
 requiem for the repose of the soul of Henry vii. ; and to the 
 present day, the money which rewards the labours of the 
 choristers, is paid from the Rectory of Slymbridge. The 
 patronage of the rectory is likewise vested in Magdalen 
 College ; and this connection was, doubtless, not without its 
 influence when Tyndale was ready to be sent to the Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 The education of the young Tyndale was, we know, not 
 neglected. He had a peculiar aptitude for the acquisition of 
 languages ; and no doubt exhibited in his childhood that 
 sharpness of comprehension for which he was afterwards dis- 
 tinguished. Of the nature of his early studies he has not left 
 any record ; the experience of later life probably led him to 
 look upon them with contempt as a grievous waste of time. 
 One allusion only has been preserved in his works to what 
 occupied the first energies of his mind, but it is a highly 
 curious one, well deserving a place in this biography. In the 
 course of his Obedience of a Christian Man, while advocating 
 the propriety of translating Holy Scripture into the English 
 language, he asserts, " Except my memory fail me, and that I 
 
26 EARL Y LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 have forgotten what I read when I was a child, thou shalt find 
 in the EngHsh chronicle, how that King Athelstane caused the 
 Holy Scripture to be translated into the tongue that then was 
 in England, and how the prelates exhorted him thereto ^." 
 " The child is father of the man ; " surely^ in this picture of the 
 boy Tyndale studying the chronicles, and carefully noting in the 
 past history of England the manner in which the free circula- 
 tion of the vernacular Bible had at different times been dealt 
 with, we may see a significant and almost prophetical forecast 
 of the future life of the man. 
 
 All the historical interest of the Vale of Berkeley centred in 
 the grim old Castle of Berkeley, and in the traditions of the 
 noble family which for ages had been lords of almost all that 
 could be seen from its towers. With these local traditions, 
 doubtless, Tyndale was imbued almost from infancy; but they 
 do not concern us here, and they seem not to have exercised 
 any perceptible influence over his character and opinions. 
 
 There is one tradition, however, of which Tyndale could not 
 have been ignorant, which is too interesting and appropriate 
 to be omitted. About a century befoi-e the birth of Tyndale, 
 John de Trevisa had been vicar of Berkeley and chaplain to 
 Thomas, fifth Baron Berkeley. This baron is said to have been 
 a pupil of Wickliffe, and to have imbibed the opinions of that 
 Reformer ; and his chaplain, a man of accomplished literary 
 tastes, known to scholars as the author of a translation of 
 Higden's Polychronicon, which was one of the earliest books 
 printed by Caxton, is also said to have been a zealous 
 propagator of the doctrines of Wickliffe. According to C,ax- 
 ton, Trevisa, like his illustrious contemporary, undertook to 
 translate the Holy Scriptures from the Vulgate into the 
 English tongue, for the instruction of his countrymen ^ ; and 
 
 ' Tyndale's Works, Vol. I. p. 149. Tyndale's memory may have failed him, or 
 the chronicle may have been mistaken in assigning to Athelstane what should have 
 been assigned to Alfred. But on this subject Enghsh history is full of confusion. 
 
 '^ For the best account of Trevisa see Babington's edition of the Polychronicon. 
 Trevisa's scholarship was not of the highest order, and Babington has given some 
 curious specimens of his ignorance ; thus he translates the words, •' Earn [Mysiam] 
 
!«. 
 
 JOHN DE T RE VIS A. 37 
 
 it has even been surmised that his work may still be in exist- 
 ence amongst the ill-digested treasures of the Vatican. One 
 abiding memorial of Trevisa has not wholly perished, even 
 in our day^, and in Tyndale's time it must have been fresh 
 and legible, and not improbably was often seen by him, not 
 without results. Round the walls and roof of the interesting 
 private chapel in the castle, he caused to be inscribed passages 
 from the Apocalypse in Latin and Norman-French, for the 
 edification of such as were able to read. It may surely be 
 surmised that the memory of the courageous vicar had not 
 perished in Tyndale's day ; for the appearance of such a man 
 was a sign of the times, an indication of an approaching re- 
 awakening of the human intellect from the torpor of centuries. 
 For, as Fuller quaintly puts it, " Midnight being now past, 
 some early risers were beginning to strike fire and enlighten 
 themselves from the Scriptures ^." And if everything else that 
 Trevisa had ever uttered had been forgotten, surely in the 
 county of Gloucester, swarming with monks, and thick-studded 
 with wealthy religious establishments, men would not easily 
 forget the keen sarcasm of his remark, " Christ sent apostles 
 and priests into the world, but never any monks or begging 
 friars." 
 
 Whether the opinions of the followers of Wickliffe had made 
 any impression upon the Tyndales of Gloucestershire, so as to 
 exercise some influence upon the religious education of the 
 future Reformer, is a question that must be left entirely to 
 conjecture. LoUardry had certainly met with some favour in 
 various parts of the county. Wickliffe himself is said to have 
 held a living in the neighbourhood of Bristol^, and to have 
 frequently preached in that enterprising metropolis of the West 
 
 veteres Cereris horreum nuncupaverunt," " The old Cereris clepit hit a beme ! 
 So low had scholarship fallen in those days. 
 
 * As this matter has been a good deal disputed, I may at once say that I have 
 seen what I here describe. Many persons seem to have confused the parish church 
 of Berkeley with the private chapel in the castle. 
 
 ' Fuller's Church History. 
 
 ' That of Westbury-on-Trim, north-west of Bristol. 
 
2,8 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 of England ; and there is no doubt that John Purvey, the 
 distinguished reviser of Wickliffe's translation, preached in 
 that city, denouncing, with all his powerful eloquence, the 
 abounding corruptions of religion, and especially the scandalous 
 lives of the mendicant friars^. But this premature reformation 
 soon passed away; leaving behind, however, as the germin- 
 ating seeds of future changes, its vernacular version of the 
 Vulgate, and a re-awakened spirit of free inquiry, which were 
 sure, under more favourable circumstances, to produce mo- 
 mentous results. 
 
 At the era of Tyndale's birth the Church had apparently 
 recovered from the wounds which Wickliffe and the Lollards 
 had inflicted. The persecuting laws which the usurping family 
 of Lancaster had enacted in order to propitiate the favour of 
 the clergy, seemed to have effectually accomplished their 
 purpose. The voice of heretical teaching was silenced. The 
 doctrines of the Gospellers still continued, indeed, to be 
 propagated, mainly through the clandestine circulation of 
 Wickliffe's writings, and especially his translation of Scripture ; 
 yet the clergy considered all danger as over ; they resumed 
 their wonted arrogance ; they returned to their evil ways ; 
 and the scandals which had been so severely denounced 
 burst forth afresh with new luxuriance. The ignorance of 
 the clergy, and particularly of the religious orders, seemed 
 to become more profound than ever ; or perhaps the faint 
 streaks of the dawning of learning made the darkness more 
 conspicuous by contrast. They were ignorant in many cases 
 even of that Latin language which alone was employed in the 
 services of the Church ; and, so late even as 1530, Tyndale 
 ventured to assert that there were twenty thousand priests in 
 England who could not have translated into plain English 
 the clause in the Lord's Prayer, " Fiat voluntas tua sicut 
 in ccelo et in terra^." We are ready to admit, indeed, 
 that the vehemence of argument here betrayed Tyndale into 
 
 1 Sayers' Memoirs of Bristol. Vol. 11. p. 168. 
 
 ' Tyndale's Answer to Sir Thomas More, p. 75, and note. 
 
STATE OF RELIGION. 39 
 
 exaggeration ; but we know that in the reign of Edward vi., 
 Bishop Hooper found scores of clergy in this very county of 
 Gloucester unable to tell who was the author of the Lord's 
 Prayer, or where it was to be read. The modern reader, in 
 short, can hardly imagine the gross ignorance that prevailed 
 amongst those who were supposed to be the instructors of the 
 people, and can, therefore, scarcely appreciate the urgent 
 necessity that existed for a Reformation. 
 
 The Bible, it need hardly be added, was practically unknown, 
 either to clergy or to people. The Convocation of the 
 province of Canterbury had expressly forbidden any man to 
 translate any part of Scripture into the English tongue, or 
 to read such translation without the authority of the bishop, 
 an authority not very likely to be granted^. The study of 
 Holy Scripture did not even form a part of the preparatory 
 education of those who were destined to be the religious 
 teachers of the people ; theological summaries, compiled by 
 scholastic doctors, took the place of the Word of God ; and 
 St. Paul was cast into the shade by the " doctor sanctus," 
 the "angel of the schools," " divus Thomas de Aquino." As 
 an inevitable result, religion had degenerated into an un- 
 profitable round of superstitious customs and ceremonial 
 observances. The service of the Church was so intricate that 
 the study of years was necessary to enable either priest or 
 people to perform it aright. The use and moral teaching 
 of these ceremonies, moreover, had become entirely obsolete ; 
 their original function in the Church was completely gone ; 
 they had altogether ceased to be in any sense aids to 
 devotion, and were impediments to all true religion. The 
 relics, the pilgrimages, the pictures and images, the com- 
 memorations of saints, all these had been entirely emptied 
 of that meaning which had originally led to their institution, 
 and which is still alleged in their defence ; they had ceased 
 to be "laymen's books," in which the unlearned might read 
 their duty in plain symbols ; they had been abused for purposes 
 ' Wilkins' Concilia, Vol. III. p. 317. 
 
30 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 of imposture and debauchery, and were, in fact, substitutes for 
 all the real duties of religious life. 
 
 And to these evils of superstition were also beginning to be 
 added those of hypocrisy. The human mind was awakening 
 to freedom and action ; the words of Wickliffe had not been 
 water spilt on the ground ; men were on all sides asking some 
 proofs of the doctrines, some reason for the ceremonies, which 
 were styled religion, and which were proclaimed to be of 
 Divine obligation, necessary to be received by all under peril 
 of eternal damnation. To such inquiries the clergy vouchsafed 
 no answer ; they replied by demanding implicit obedience, and 
 by reiterating with more vehement assertion their claims to 
 Divine reverence ; and they put into operation the sanguinary 
 power of persecution with which the laws had armed them. 
 Fear of the penalties of the law deterred many, no doubt, from 
 publicly avowing their dissent from the teaching of the 
 Church ; but such means could not arrest the progress of free 
 inquiry. Men continued as before to join in public in the 
 services of the Church ; they offered candles, they went on 
 pilgrimages, they kissed St. Thomas's shoe and knelt at the 
 image of Our Lady of Walsingham, they fasted and paid all 
 the dues of Mother Church ; but all this was done no longer in 
 a spirit of faith and reverence ; smiles of incredulous derision 
 might have been seen on the face of many a worshipper, and 
 sharp expressions of shrewd scepticism might have been over- 
 heard at many a shrine^. For the life had departed from the 
 old religion ; the outward form still remained, and there was a 
 certain mechanical semblance of activity and vitality ; but the 
 spirit that should have animated it with true life had disap- 
 peared. The dry bones were there, they waited for the 
 breathing of the Spirit from on high that they might again live. 
 
 Nowhere did these religious abuses flourish in greater vigour 
 than in that county of Gloucester, where Tyndale was bom, 
 and spent his early years. That county was the very strong- 
 
 ' See e.g., the famous account of the pilgrimage of Erasmus and Colet to 
 Canterbury and Walsingham. 
 
RELIGIOUS STATE OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 31 
 
 hold of the Church : it boasted of no fewer than six mitred 
 abbeys : it possessed the most famous relic in the kingdom, 
 the blood of Hailes, the sight of which was supposed to insure 
 eternal salvation ; and so predominant was the influence of 
 the clergy throughout the county that " as sure as God is in 
 Gloucester" had come to be a familiar proverb all over 
 England. Nowhere, probably, was religion more entirely a 
 thing of form and ceremony; and of these ceremonies, in 
 almost all cases, unmeaning, and in not a few, grotesque and 
 ridiculouSj the young Tyndale, shrewd and thoughtful from his 
 childhood, was no inattentive observer. When at a subsequent 
 period he directed all the energy of his pen against the super- 
 stitious practices sanctioned by the Church, his recollection of 
 what he had witnessed around him in his youth, furnished hinl 
 with endless illustrations to point his arguments. The kissing 
 of the thumb-nails previous to engaging in prayer, the flinging 
 holy water at the devil, the offering of a big cheese every year 
 to St. White^, the strange performances at Baptism, at Con- 
 firmation, and at Mass, all formed part of the '' dumb 
 ceremonies '' which Tyndale had witnessed from his youth ; 
 and in which we can scarcely imagine one with so acute and 
 logical a mind ever joining with any feelings of reverence. 
 
 Of the members of the household among whom Tyndale 
 grew up to maturity we have almost nothing to record. 
 His father and mother are personages unknown as yet to 
 history; of his brother Edward we have already heard, and 
 he had besides a brother John, who was subsequently estab- 
 lished as a merchant in London, and who, in 1531, was 
 
 ' Gloucester being an agricultural county, in which the interests of the dairies 
 were supreme, it was deemed necessary to invoke the assistance of a special saint to 
 protect the cream and the cheese against the accidents of the weather, and the 
 depredation of the fairies and the Welshmen. The saint selected for this purpose 
 was Saint White, a personage by no means familiar even to persons deeply read in 
 hagiology. Tyndale {Works, Vol. 11. p. 126) speaks of the saint as a female, 
 assuming, no doubt, that she was a canonised dairymaid ; but more learned doctors 
 affirm that St. White, or St. Witta, was in reality a German bishop of the eighth 
 century, one of the Saxon companions of the famous Winfrid, or Boniface, the 
 " Apostle of Germany." 
 
33 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 brought before Sir Thomas More, charged with receiving 
 and distributing copies of the EngHsh New Testament, and 
 was fined and subjected to an ignominious punishment for 
 this heinous offence. Stokesley, too, then Bishop of London, 
 formerly Rector of Slymbridge, summoned John Tyndale 
 before him for sending money over the sea to his brother 
 William, and for receiving and retaining letters from his 
 brother, so that we may believe Tyndale was, from his 
 earliest years, blessed with the sympathy of relatives like- 
 minded with himself. 
 
 The statement of Foxe that " Tyndale was brought up 
 from a child in the University of Oxford," if somewhat vague, 
 seems, at all events, sufficient authority for believing that 
 Tyndale was sent at an early age to the University, the 
 natural result, we suppose, of the rapid progress in his 
 studies, made by one who unquestionably exhibited unusual 
 facility in the acquisition of languages. At Oxford he was, 
 according to unvarying tradition, entered in Magdalen Hall, 
 better known in those days as " Grammar Hall," from its 
 having been originally designed by its munificent founder, 
 William of Waynflete, to serve as a sort of preparatory school 
 of grammatical drill for his larger and more magnificent founda- 
 tion in the same University, Magdalen College. Magdalen 
 Hall is a small building now included in Magdalen College ; 
 and it was in Tyndale's time of still more limited dimensions, 
 consisting simply of the school and the refectory with the 
 chambers over. From its connection, however, with the other 
 magnificent foundation of Waynflete, its importance was much 
 greater than its size would indicate ; and many illustrious men 
 were associated with it. Wolsey is said to have been master 
 of the school ; and Stokesley and Longland, subsequently 
 bishops of London and Lincoln, were successive Principals of 
 the Hall from 1502 to 1507, probably during the very time 
 of Tyndale's residence. The memory of the great Re- 
 former has not been forgotten at his alma mater : a portrait 
 of him hangs in the hall of Hertford College, with a 
 
MAGDALEN HALL. 33 
 
 laudatory inscription, freely recognising his great ability and the 
 services which he rendered to the interests of true religion^. 
 
 Of his University career there are no authentic records ; 
 the registers of the University of Oxford do not extend back 
 so far as the period when Tyndale was in residence^; and we 
 have no alternative, therefore, but to adopt the summary of 
 this part of Tyndale's life which Foxe has given. " At Ox- 
 ford," says Foxe, " he, by long continuance, grew and increased 
 as well in the knowledge of tongues and other liberal arts, 
 as specially in the knowledge of the Scriptures, whereunto 
 his mind was singularly addicted, insomuch that he, lying 
 there in Magdalen Hall, read privily to certain students and 
 fellows of Magdalen College, some parcel of divinity, in- 
 structing them in the knowledge and truth of the Scriptures. 
 Whose manners also and conversation, being correspondent 
 to the same, were such, that all they that knew him, respected 
 and esteemed him to be a man of most virtuous disposition, 
 
 ^ The inscription is as follows : 
 
 GuUelmus Tyndalus, Martyr, 
 Olim ex Anl : Magd : 
 
 Refert lisec tabella (quod solum potuit Ars) Gulielmi 
 
 Tindale effigiem, hujus olim Aulse alumni simul et omamenti ; 
 
 Qui post felices purioris tlieologise primitias hie depositas, 
 
 Antverpise in Novo Testamento, necnon Pentateucho 
 
 In vemaculam transferendo operam navavit, Anglis suis eo 
 
 Usque salutiferam, ut inde non immerito Anglise Apostolus 
 
 Audiret, Wilfordse prope Bruxellas martyrio coronatus 
 
 An : 1536. Vir si vel adversario (procuratori nempe Imperatoris 
 
 Generali) credamus, perdoctus, pius et bonus. 
 Which may be Englished thus : 
 
 This canvas represents (which is all that Art can do) 
 
 The likeness of William Tyndale, formerly student and pride of this Hall ; 
 
 Who after reaping here the happy first-fruits of a purer faith, 
 
 Devoted his energy at Antwerp to the translation 
 
 Of the New Testament and Pentateuch into the native language : 
 
 A work so beneficial to his English countrymen, that he is 
 
 Not undeservedly called the Apostle of England. 
 
 He received the crown of martyrdom at Vilvorde, near Brussels, 1536. 
 
 A man (if we may believe his opponent, the Procurator-General 
 
 Of the Emperor) very learned, pious, and good. 
 ^ See Editor's Preface. 
 
 D 
 
34 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 and of life unspotted. Thus he, in the University of Oxford, 
 increasing more and more in learning, and proceeding in 
 degrees of the schools, spying his time, removed from thence 
 to the University of Cambridge, where after he had likewise 
 made his abode a certain space; being now further ripened 
 in the knowledge of God's Word, leaving that University 
 also, he resorted to one Master Walsh, a knight of Gloucester- 
 shire, and was there schoolmaster to his children, and in good 
 favour with his master." 
 
 Such is the whole record of Tyndale's University life, and 
 it is not only extremely meagre, but, what is worse, extremely 
 vague, not affording any means of fixing the date to which 
 the events ought to be assigned. There can be no doubt, 
 however, of the truth of Foxe's assertion, that Tyndale " pro- 
 ceeded in degrees of the schools ; " for this can be substan- 
 tiated by the admission of Tyndale's bitter antagonist. Sir 
 Thomas More. " In Universities," Tyndale had said, by way 
 of illustrating the various meanings of the word grace, " many 
 ungracious graces there be gotten^ ;" on which Sir Thomas 
 More retorts, " He should have made it more plain and better 
 perceived if he had said, as for example, ' When his own grace 
 was there granted to be made Master of Arts^.' " Sir Thomas 
 More was not likely to use words thoughtlessly, and his 
 retort places beyond dispute the fact that Tyndale had 
 received the degree of Master of Arts at the University. 
 
 It is necessary, however, for the purposes of this biography 
 to make some attempt to assign a proximate date for the 
 period of Tyndale's residence at Oxford ; and the only clue 
 that we possess to guide us, is his own incidental intimation 
 already noticed that Sir Thomas More knew Greek long before 
 he himself did. Now, we know that Sir Thomas More's 
 residence at Oxford lasted only from the middle of 1497 to 
 the end of 1498, and making all allowance for Tyndale's being 
 sent very early to the University, as Foxe states that he was 
 
 ' Answer to Sir Thomas More, p. 32. 
 ' More's Confutation of Tyndale. 
 
STATE OF LEARNING AT OXFORD. 35 
 
 " brought up there from a child," there does not seem to be 
 any sufficient reason for supposing that he would enter 
 Oxford much earlier than the year 1504. On this hypothesis, 
 it would, according to the practice then observed, be 1508 
 before he would graduate as Bachelor of Arts, and 151 1 before 
 he received his degree as Master ^. 
 
 Of the character of the studies in which these years were in 
 all probability spent, Tyndale has left no very flattering ac- 
 count. It was an age of change, when a few daring voices 
 were beginning to protest against the ignorance and barbarism 
 that had so long prevailed. A few bold English scholars had 
 ventured to Italy to drink of the pure fountains of revived taste 
 and learning. Greek had been taught within the walls of Ox- 
 ford before the conclusion of the fifteenth century ; and the 
 pure Latinity of the great classical writers of Rome had been 
 held up as a model for imitation instead of the barbarous and 
 corrupt productions of the mediaeval schoolmen. Such daring 
 innovations were not, of course, approved by the great autho- 
 rities of the University, but were loudly condemned as immoral 
 and heretical. It was of Oxford doubtless, and the teaching 
 which it afforded in his early years, that Tyndale subsequently 
 asked in contemptuous scorn, " Remember ye not how within 
 this thirty years ^ and far less, and yet dureth to this day, 
 the old barking curs, Duns' Disciples, [followers of Duns 
 Scotus] and like draff called Scotists, the children of darkness, 
 raged in every pulpit against Greek, Latin, and Hebrew ; and 
 what sorrow the schoolmasters, that taught the true Latin 
 tongue, had with them ; some beating the pulpit with their 
 fists for madness, and roaring out with open and foaming 
 mouth, that if there were but one Terence or Virgil in the 
 world, and that same in their sleeves, and a fire before them, 
 they would burn them therein, though it should cost them 
 
 ' See Editor's Preface. Tyndale was admitted to the Degree of b.a. in 1512, 
 and licensed for m.a. in 1515. It is interesting to note how near to the truth the 
 author's hypothesis was. 
 
 ' This was written in 1530. 
 
 D 3 
 
36 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 their lives ; affirming that all good learning decayed and was 
 utterly lost, since men gave them unto the Latin tongue^." 
 
 With Such apostles of ignorance controlling the studies of 
 the University, or even exercising any considerable influence 
 upon them, the course of study would have very little of the 
 liberal and humanising tendency usually ascribed to a Uni- 
 versity training. Holy Scripture fared as badly at their 
 hands as Virgil and Terence. How men were trained for 
 the Church in the Oxford of the commencement of the six- 
 teenth century Tyndale has recorded in a few brief indignant 
 sentences. " In the Universities they have ordained that no 
 man shall look at the Scripture until he be noselled [nursed 
 or trained] in heathen learning eight or nine years, and armed 
 with false principles, with which he is clean shut out of the 
 understanding of the Scripture. And at his first coming unto 
 University, he is sworn that he shall not defame the University, 
 whatsoever he seeth. And when he taketh first degree, he 
 is sworn that he shall hold none opinions condemned by the 
 Church ; but what such opinions be, that he shall not know. 
 And then, when they be admitted to study divinity, because 
 the Scripture is locked up with such false expositions, and 
 •with false principles of natural philosophy, that they cannot 
 enter in, they go about the outside, and dispute a.11 their lives 
 about words and vain opinions, pertaining as much unto the 
 healing of a man's heel, as health of his soul : provided yet 
 alway, lest God give His singular grace unto any person, that 
 none may preach except he be admitted of the bishops^." 
 
 Tyndale writes in a vein of vehement indignation ; but Sir 
 Thomas More in his younger days would scarcely have ven- 
 tured to deny the charge, and Erasmus abundantly confirms 
 it. In such hands theology was no longer a divine and en- 
 nobling study, but a wretched battle-field of the most useless 
 and most contemptible wrangling. " Theology," in the words 
 of Erasmus, " once venerable and full of majesty, had become 
 
 ' Answer to Sir Thomas More : Works, Vol. III. p. 75. 
 ^ Practice of Prelates: Works, Vol. 11. p. 291. 
 
THE SCHOOLMEN. 37 
 
 almost dumb, poor, and in rags." The true purpose of Holy 
 Scripture had been almost entirely lost sight of; and the 
 Sacred Books had been persistently employed for purposes 
 for which they were not designed. The Bible makes known 
 to men the way of salvation, it reveals the character and will 
 of God, the duty and destiny of man; but the schoolmen 
 accepted it as a complete revelation of the whole range of 
 possible human knowledge. They overlooked in it " the Way, 
 the Truth, the Life ; " their search was directed rather to 
 discovering expressions which might be adduced to decide 
 perplexing questions in science and philosophy. It was an 
 inevitable result of this total misapprehension that the Bible 
 itself soon ceased to be the supreme subject of study; it 
 was of less importance than the theories of the great specu- 
 lative divines of the schools. Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas. 
 Theology ceased to be practical ; and theologians spent their 
 energies in endless discussions, sometimes marvellously subtle, 
 often extremely frivolous, occasionally grossly indecent and 
 blasphemous, " such," says Erasmus, " as pious ears can hardly 
 bear to hear," but in scarcely a single instance of any avail for 
 the guidance of life. The whole system, in fact, with all its 
 merits and demerits, has been admirably described by Lord 
 Bacon. " The schoolmen," says the great critic, " having 
 subtle and strong capacities, abundance of leisure, and but 
 small variety of reading, their minds being shut up in a few 
 authors as their bodies were in the cells of their monasteries ; 
 they, with infinite agitation of wit, spun out of a small quan- 
 tity of matter, those laborious webs of learning which are 
 extant in their books. For the human mind, if it acts upon 
 matter and contemplates the nature of things and the works 
 of God, operates according to the stuff and is limited thereby ; 
 but if it works upon itself as the spider does, then it has no 
 end, but produces cobwebs of learning, admirable indeed for 
 the fineness of the thread, but of no substance or profit ^" 
 
 ' 'Ba.coT^i Advancement of Learning. Book i. 
 
38 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 In this unprofitable " scholastic treadmill \" Tyndale, like the 
 other students, his contemporaries, was compelled to employ 
 the strength of his clear intellect, grinding at the subtle syllo- 
 gisms and cunningly contrived dilemmas and logical snares by 
 which the Scotists and the Thomists defended their own 
 opinions, or attacked those of their antagonists. 
 
 There were signs, however, that this " reign of Chaos and 
 old Night " was verging to its close. Just before Tyndale had 
 entered the University, that great movement for the revival 
 of learning, which had awakened Italy to intellectual life, had 
 begun to make itself felt in Oxford. Grocyn, Linacre, and 
 William Latimer had returned from Italy with sufficient 
 knowledge of the Greek tongue to be able to instruct their 
 fellow-countrymen, and even to attract the famous Erasmus 
 as to a pure fountain of classical learning. A better voice 
 also than that of pagan Greece or Rome was beginning 
 to be heard in the University. Grocyn and Linacre seemed, 
 with the love of classical literature, to have imbibed the 
 spirit of the old heathen philosophy, and had no spiritual 
 wants beyond what Cicero and Plato could abundantly supply ; 
 but a new scholar had appeared on the scene, whose voice 
 invited men not to the Castalian spring, but to the pure river 
 of the Water of Life which had been so long neglected. 
 
 In 1496, John Colet commenced to lecture on the Epistles 
 of St. Paul ; not after the traditional scholastic method, which 
 consisted mainly in repeating the conjectural comments of 
 former interpreters, but using St. Paul's own words as his text ; 
 and rejecting all spiritualising and allegorising systems of 
 interpretation he endeavoured to ascertain the plain meaning 
 of the Apostle's language. Under his exposition the words 
 of the Epistles again became full of life, were again felt to be 
 at once the word of God, and the word of a living man : 
 oracles of Divine wisdom, yet instinct with all the warmth of 
 the great Apostle of the Gentiles. Colet had travelled into 
 Italy, like Grocyn and Linacre, and like them had studied 
 ' So Seebohm happily styles It : Oxford Reformers of 1498. 
 
JOHN COLET. 39 
 
 Greek there ; but his was no cold pagan spirit, he devoted 
 himself above all to the study of Holy Scripture ; his chief 
 aim in all his studies was to qualify himself for the glorious 
 work of proclaiming the Gospel, and he returned to his native 
 land animated with all the enthusiasm of a young evangelist. 
 It has been conjectured ^ that the impassioned eloquence of 
 the famous Dominican preacher, Jerome Savonarola, had 
 touched the heart of Colet when at Florence, and that he 
 determined to imitate in his own country the example of that 
 bold Reformer, whom Florence still reverences as an apo- 
 stolical man, though he perished as a heretic at the stake. 
 However this may be, it is certain that from the return of 
 Colet to Oxford we may date the commencement of the 
 movement in the English Universities towards the reformation 
 of religion. Colet himself was, not without very good reason, 
 suspected of teaching what was esteemed heresy, and even 
 his elevation to the high position of Dean of St. Paul's did 
 not entirely save him from the customary risk to which all 
 suspected heretics were then exposed. 
 
 The lectures of Colet on St. Paul excited a great sensation 
 in the University. The lecturer had, according to Erasmus, 
 "a happy art of expressing with ease what others could 
 hardly express with the greatest labour ; " to listen to him was 
 like listening to Plato ; and his lectures were thronged by all 
 classes in the University, from heads of houses down to the 
 freshest undergraduate. His words were eagerly canvassed, 
 and opinions were widely divided upon them ; the old shaking 
 their heads at the youthful lecturer who spoke disrespectfully 
 of Scotus and Thomas Aquinas, whilst the younger members 
 were inclined to sympathise with the boldness and novelty of 
 the interpretations advanced. Among the earliest of Colet's 
 auditors were two whose fame was destined to eclipse that of 
 their master: Thomas More, and Erasmus of Rotterdam. 
 Congenial tastes, similar temperaments, and enthusiastic love 
 
 » Seebohm, Oxford Reformers of 1498 ; to which the reader is referred for a 
 more detailed account of Colet. 
 
49 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 of learning speedily drew the master and his illustrious scholars 
 closely together in an intimate friendship which death alone 
 dissolved. The letters of Erasmus show to what a large 
 extent his religious opinions were influenced by his inter- 
 course with Colet ; and as Erasmus became subsequently the 
 great literary autocrat of Europe, whose writings moulded the 
 thought and belief of half Christendom, the influence of Colet 
 was thus propagated on a most extensive scale, and, indirectly, 
 contributed very largely to that movement in favour of a 
 reformation of religion in life and doctrine which is the great 
 starting-point of modern history. 
 
 Neither Colet nor Erasmus ever very heartily sympathised 
 with the popular desire for a reformation, and both were 
 constitutionally weak, and unequal to the labours which the 
 reformation of a nation required. When the movement had 
 spread beyond the Universities and the learned to the com- 
 mon people, a stronger mind and a more robust frame were 
 demanded, and Colet and Erasmus gave place to the more 
 masculine energy of Luther. But it would be ungrateful to 
 overlook or to undervalue the essential service which they 
 rendered to the cause of religion, especially in England ; and 
 if the proverb, " Erasmus laid the egg and Luther hatched it," 
 may be accepted as no inappropriate description of the history 
 of the Reformation on the Continent of Europe, it may with 
 even more truth be asserted that Colet and Erasmus gave 
 the first impulses in England to that mighty movement which 
 Tyndale and Latimer and Cranmer carried forward to its 
 accomplishment. 
 
 If, as we have supposed, Tyndale entered the University 
 of Oxford somewhere about the year 1507 1, as Colet continued 
 to lecture till 1505, when he was made Dean of St. Paul's, it 
 is not improbable that Tyndale's early days there were spent 
 under the influence of that awakened spirit which Colet's 
 lectures had excited. If he had come to Oxford, predisposed 
 from the teaching of his parents, or from his own reflection, to 
 ' See Editor's Preface. He probably entered Oxford in 1508. 
 
TYNDALE REMOVES TO CAMBRIDGE. 41 
 
 receive with suspicion the traditional theology of the schools, 
 we may imagine how cordially he would welcome the new 
 system of exposition which Colet had inaugurated. 
 
 Tyndale himself is silent on this interesting period of his 
 spiritual life. There can be little doubt that it was during his 
 stay at the University that he abandoned the ancient ortho- 
 doxy of the Church, and began to adopt those opinions of 
 which he was through life so able and so persevering an 
 advocate ; but we cannot in his case trace the progress of his 
 conversion. The lectures of Colet may have been instru- 
 mental in pouring true light into his awakened soul ; or he 
 may have found it in the careful perusal of those living words 
 of St. Paul, which Colet had so industriously disinterred from 
 beneath the rubbish of five centuries of scholastic comment- 
 ators. One thing is certain, the seed, however or whenever 
 sown, took deep root in his mind. More than most of the 
 early English Reformers, Tyndale seems to have subjected all 
 his religious beliefs to a searching examination, and to have 
 applied to them with rigorous logic the standard of judgment 
 -which he found in Holy Scripture. His progress was more 
 rapid and definite than that of his great contemporaries, 
 Latimer and Cranmer ; and he never exhibited the same 
 reluctance to abandon opinions or practices which had nothing 
 to plead in their favour but custom and the practice of ages. 
 The great English Reformers were as cautious and conservative 
 as was compatible with a real desire for a reformation; in 
 Tyndale, however, almost from the outset of his career as a 
 public teacher, there is to be noted a clearness, a boldness, and 
 withal a freedom from the trammels of ecclesiastical tradition, 
 which produce in his reader's mind a profound admiration of 
 the vigour and originality of his intellect. 
 
 What reason induced Tyndale to leave Oxford for Cam- 
 bridge must be left entirely to conjecture. Foxe's words are 
 almost whimsically vague, and suggest nothing ; " spying his 
 time," says the Martyrologist, "he removed from thence to 
 the University of Cambridge." It has been thought that the 
 
42 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 presence of Erasmus at Cambridge was the great inducement 
 that attracted Tyndale to the sister University ; and there is 
 nothing in this theory inconsistent with what we know of 
 Tyndale, but, on the contrary, much to lend it weight and 
 probability. There is no doubt that until he left England, and 
 became acquainted with Luther, Tyndale looked up to Eras- 
 mus as his religious guide. The learned Dutchman was at 
 Cambridge from about 1510 to 1514; and on this hypothesis 
 it is assumed that Tyndale left Oxford somewhere between 
 these years to prosecute his studies in Greek and in theology 
 under the most illustrious scholar of the day^ But this may 
 not have been the sole reason for his change of residence. 
 
 It has also been conjectured that his removal from Oxford 
 may have been a necessary piece of prudence on his part, in 
 order to escape the suspicion of the authorities of the Univer- 
 sity. The heads of houses may have learned, not at all to 
 their gratification, that Tyndale was " privily reading to certain 
 students and fellows in Magdalen College some parcel of 
 divinity, instructing them in the knowledge and truth of the 
 Scriptures." The lectures of Colet had been a grievous offence 
 to the champions of the traditional scholastic orthodoxy; 
 suspicions were loudly expressed of the dangerous tendency 
 of the " new learning ; " and Tyndale may have found that he 
 could no longer carry on in safety his privy lectures on the 
 Scriptures. On all sides the ecclesiastical authorities were 
 beginning to be alarmed with the heretical opinions that were 
 abroad. Colet himself, notwithstanding his high position and 
 his powerful connection, had been in no small danger. He 
 had not only founded and endowed St. Paul's School for the 
 study of pure Latinity — a suspicious circumstance in itself — 
 but he had also ventured to translate the Lord's Prayer into 
 the English language, with comments for the benefit of the 
 unlearned ^ ; and the Bishop of London, Fitz James, an 
 
 ' It must have been two or three years later, as he was only licensed for m.a. in 
 1515. See Editor's Preface. 
 
 ' Colet's Paternoster is a brief paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer in English, and 
 is about as inoffensive as any book could possibly be. 
 
CO LETS PREACHING. 43 
 
 ignorant bigot, was anxious to have the dean punished as 
 a heretic^. Both Tyndale and Latimer^ concur in repre- 
 senting Colet's danger as imminent ; and but for the esteem 
 of the king, and the friendship of Warham, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, who, as a great admirer of Erasmus, would 
 naturally befriend him, Colet might have met the usual fate 
 of a heretic. 
 
 Nor was this the whole of Colet's offending. As Dean of 
 St. Paul's, he had introduced the habit of preaching regularly 
 in the cathedral church, not selecting his texts at random or 
 from the lessons for the day, but choosing some continuous 
 subject, such as one of the Gospels, the Creed, or the Lord's 
 Prayer ; his audience was enormous, many persons travelling 
 miles to hear him ; and his language was extremely bold. He 
 disapproved of images, auricular confession and purgatory, and 
 censured the vices and ignorance of the clergy. And to crown 
 all his offences, he was appointed to preach before Convocation 
 at its assembly in 15 12, and he pronounced on that occasion 
 an address which, for the plainness with which he exposed the 
 greed and carelessness of the clergy, and especially of the 
 bishops and dignitaries in whose hearing he was speaking, is 
 excelled only by the famous sermon of Latimer before the 
 Convocation of 1535^. Rumours of heresy began to be whis- 
 pered in several dioceses. The Bishops of London and Lincoln 
 especially found their dioceses seriously infested with heretics ; 
 and their inquiries disclosed to them that the sermons of Colet 
 had largely contributed to produce dissatisfaction with the 
 
 ' Fitz James is said to have been the hero of the story told by Erasmus in his 
 Encomium Morice. During a debate in Convocation some cautious prelate had 
 asked whether there were really any express sanction in Scripture for putting 
 heretics to death. On which Fitz James immediately cited the words of St. Paul, 
 hereticum devita: the ignorant man supposing St. Paul to mean not "avoid a 
 heretic," but "put a heretic out of life — kill him." The story, however, seems to 
 have been a sort of standing joke against the clergy, told of more than one of the 
 great pillars of the Church in those days. See Tyndale's Works, Vol. iii. p. 215. 
 
 ^ Tyndale, Vol. ni. p. 168. Latimer's Sermons. 
 
 ' The sermon is printed in Knight's Life of Colet, and well deserves to be 
 reprinted in our time. 
 
44 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 teaching of the Church. Oxford was then in the diocese of 
 Lincoln ; and it may not unreasonably be conjectured that 
 the increased diligence in the search for heretical tendencies 
 extended itself to that University where Colet had taught with 
 such distinguished ability, and that this may have induced 
 Tyndale to leave Oxford and repair to Cambridge. 
 
 At Cambridge Tyndale would still be surrounded by some of 
 the same influences that the lectures of Colet had diffused at 
 Oxford ; for Erasmus, who was then in the height of his 
 popularity, had largely imbibed the spirit of Colet, and his 
 lectures at Cambridge not only introduced into that University 
 a fresh enthusiasm in the study of Greek, but also inaugurated 
 a still more important reform in the current theology of 
 the place, asserting the supremacy of Holy Scripture, and 
 ridiculing the theories of the schoolmen and their fantastic 
 systems of interpretation. Under such an instructor, renowned 
 throughout Europe for eloquence and learning, Tyndale may 
 for some time have prosecuted his studies in Greek and in 
 theology; listening with intense interest to the fierce con- 
 troversies which the bold innovations of his teacher excited 
 in the University, and reading with delighted laughter that 
 wonderful satire, the Encomium Morice, in which Erasmus 
 covered with ineffaceable ridicule the defenders of the old 
 traditional ignoi'ance. Such a teacher could not fail to excite 
 feelings of lively enthusiasm in the heart of any sympathising 
 disciple ; and we know that, however much Tyndale might in 
 later years regret the deficiencies in his master's theology or 
 condemn his vacillating timidity, he in his earlier life regarded 
 him with feelings of the most profound admiration. He 
 was a diligent reader of the works of the great Dutch scholar. 
 It may have been the teaching of Erasmus that first suggested 
 to him his noble design of translating the Word of God into 
 the native language of his countrymen. It is certainly a 
 singular coincidence that Tyndale first intimated his great 
 purpose almost in the very words of his former instructor. 
 
TYNDALE AND BILNEY. 45 
 
 "I totally dissent," Erasmus said in his Exhortation 1, "from 
 those who are unwilling that the Sacred Scriptures, translated 
 into the vulgar tongue, should be read by private individuals, 
 as if Christ had taught such subtle doctrines that they can 
 with difficulty be understood by a very few theologians, or as 
 if the strength of the Christian religion lay in men's ignorance 
 of it. The mysteries of kings it were perhaps better to conceal, 
 but Christ wishes His mysteries to be published as widely as 
 possible. I would wish even all women to read the Gospel 
 and the Epistles of St. Paul. And I wish they were translated 
 into all languages of all people, that they might be read and 
 known, not merely by the Scotch and the Irish, but even by 
 the Turks and the Saracens. I wish that the husbandman 
 may sing parts of them at his plough, that the weaver may 
 warble them, at his shuttle, that the traveller may with their 
 narratives beguile the weariness of the way'' When Tyndale 
 avowed his intention of translating the Word of God into 
 English, it was, as we shall see, in terms which were in truth 
 the echo of these noble words of Erasmus. 
 
 Tyndale's residence at Cambridge served some other purpose 
 than merely to mature his knowledge of Greek and polite 
 Latinity. He was there, according to Foxe, "further ripened 
 in the knowledge of God's Word." This may have been partly 
 the fruit of the lectures of Erasmus, partly the result of his 
 own careful study and reflection, aided by that Divine Teacher 
 whose continual help he doubtless implored. Something also 
 may have been due to intercourse with a pious fellow-student. 
 Bilney, we know, was contemporary with Tyndale at Cambridge, 
 to whatever period Tyndale's residence in the University may 
 be assigned ; and from the allusions which he makes to Bilney 
 it seems probable that Tyndale knew that gentle Reformer. 
 The date and the story of Bilney's conversion are well known 
 from his own beautiful letters to Tunstal. For years he had been 
 anxiously seeking some remedy for the uneasiness that filled 
 
 ' Erasmus, Paradesis: Works, Vol. IV. pp. 140, 141. 
 
46 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 his soul with dismay; he had tried pardons and penances; 
 and at length he " had heard speak of Jesus," and forthwith he 
 knew in himself that he was healed^. This was, as he has 
 told us, immediately after the first appearance of the New 
 Testament of Erasmus, that is, in 151 6; and it seems exceed- 
 ingly probable that between the year of his own conversion 
 and the time when Tyndale left Cambridge, Bilney, who was 
 an active though an unobtrusive proselytiser, may have come 
 into contact with Tyndale, and that their mutual intercourse 
 may have contributed in both to a deeper love for the Word 
 of God and a riper knowledge of it. 
 
 Of the many illustrious contemporaries prosecuting their 
 studies around him, and who were destined in another genera- 
 tion to play so conspicuous a part in the history of England, 
 Tyndale makes no mention ; and he could not, of course, have 
 divined their future career. Cranmer he knew only as a 
 quiet, hard-working student ; Gardiner was a clever college- 
 tutor ; Latimer was a grave and upright man, a great admirer 
 of the schoolmen, and a determined opponent of Greek and 
 of the study of Holy Scripture. It may be doubted, also, 
 whether Tyndale was in any way associated with that group 
 of younger disciples whom Bilney afterwards drew around him, 
 and who were subsequently selected by Wolsey to be trans- 
 ferred to his new college at Oxford. Tyndale himself is said 
 to have been chosen by the cardinal's agents ; but long before 
 the magnificent foundation was ready for the reception of its 
 inmates, he had not only left the University, but had bid 
 farewell to his native country. John Fryth, the future com- 
 panion of Tyndale in his exile, is commonly said to have been 
 his contemporary at Cambridge, and is believed there "to have 
 received the seed of the Gospel " from him ; but it is scarcely 
 probable that they could have met at the University. Fryth 
 had just completed his terms for Bachelor of Arts in Decem- 
 ber, 1525, and could not, therefore, have entered the University 
 
 ''■ See the letters in Foxe, Vol. rv. pp. 635, etc. See also Demaus, Life of Latimer, 
 p. 36. 
 
TYN DALE'S ORDINATION. 47 
 
 earlier than the commencement of 152a ; and if Tyndale had 
 not then left Cambridge, his stay afterwards must have been 
 so short as to render the traditionary intimacy with Fryth 
 highly improbable. 
 
 Long before the period at which we have now arrived, 
 Tyndale had made his choice of the profession to which his 
 life was to be consecrated. As usual, however, no record of 
 the time or place of his ordination has yet been discovered. 
 It is not very likely that he was ordained in the diocese of his 
 native place, that much neglected diocese of Worcester, which 
 Cardinal Wolsey professed to be administering under the 
 authority of its non-resident Italian prelate. It is more 
 probable that he was admitted into orders at Lincoln^ for the 
 University of Oxford was within the limits of that huge 
 Mercian bishopric. One biographer, indeed, supposes that 
 he has discovered both the time and place of Tyndale's 
 ordination. The Register of Warham, then Bishop of London, 
 records that at a general ordination, held in St. Bartholomew's, 
 Smithfield, by his suffragan Thomas, Bishop of Pavada, 
 William Tyndale of the diocese of Carlisle was, by letters 
 dimissory, ordained priest to the nunnery of Lambley^- This 
 • took place on Saturday, March i ith, 1503 2, and it has been 
 maintained that here we have the official record of the ordina- 
 tion of the future martyr. But it is obvious at a glance that 
 there are many strong objections to this hypothesis. Accord- 
 ing to ecclesiastical precedent, the person who was ordained 
 priest in March, 1503, could not have been born later than 
 1478 ; but this was two years before the birth of Sir Thomas 
 More, and is, therefore, incompatible with what we know of 
 
 ' Lambley is on the borders of Northumberland and Cumberland, but in the 
 former county. 
 
 ' The Register says 1502 ; but that 1503 was meant is evident, not only from the 
 fact that official documents reckoned the year as beginning at Lady Day, but even 
 more so from the fact that this Saturday is described as being the Saturday in 
 Ember week, which fell on March nth in 1503, but on Feb. 19 in 1502. I note 
 this because Stubbs, in his almost immaculate Re^trum Sacrum Anglicanum, 
 represents Thomas, Bishop of Pavada, as ceasing to officiate in 1502. 
 
4^ EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 Tyndale's age. Moreover, there is no authority of any kind, 
 either written or traditional, for representing Tyndale as 
 belonging to the diocese of Carlisle, which is, indeed, quite 
 inconsistent with the statement that he was born in the borders 
 of Wales. Nothing, in fact, is more natural than to find 
 a Tyndale in the abbey of Lambley; for Lambley is 
 in Tynedale, a few miles from the original seat of Tyndale's 
 ancestors ; and the name was doubtless a common one in 
 the locality. 
 
 The same biographer^ has also imagined that Tyndale, 
 subsequently to his appointment as priest in Lambley, entered 
 the monastery of the Observants at Greenwich. This sugges- 
 tion is founded upon an inscription in a book preserved in the 
 library of St. Paul's Cathedral ; which declares that the book 
 belonged to John Tyndale, and was given by him to the 
 monastery in Greenwich on the day that his son William took 
 the vows in 1508. There is no doubt that Tyndale makes 
 very frequent allusions to the Observants of Greenwich, and 
 shows himself curiously well-informed in their affairs; and 
 there is also an expression in one of Tyndale's works which, to 
 a hasty reader, seems to admit that he was "a brother of 
 Greenwich^." These circumstances, however, which seem to 
 countenance the theory, can be most satisfactorily explained ; 
 and, in truth, it is inconceivable that anyone who has read Sir 
 Thomas More's works with reasonable care should for a 
 moment believe that Tyndale had ever taken the vows of a 
 monk. On the subject of the perpetual obligation of monastic 
 vows Sir Thomas More entertained very strong opinions, which 
 he never loses any opportunity of expressing ; and as in all his 
 abuse of Tyndale he never once calls him friar or apostate, 
 
 ' George Offor, in the preface to his reprint, of Tyndale's octavo New Testament. 
 
 ^ In the preface to the Wicked Mammon he speaks of "Jerome a brother of 
 Greenwich also," which seems to imply that Tyndale was a brother of Greenwich, 
 though the context makes it clear that the meaning is, a brother of Greenwich as 
 well as Roye, previously mentioned, not as well as the writer. Yet modem writers, 
 who boast of their research, continue to repeat the assertion that Tyndale was a 
 monk ! 
 
TYNDALE LEAVES CAMBRIDGE ABOUT 1521. 49 
 
 but carefully distinguishes him from the friars, it may be 
 accepted as indisputable that the William Tyndale who 
 joined the Observants was not the William Tyndale who 
 translated the New Testament. 
 
 The same uncertainty that we have so often had occasion to 
 regret, rests upon the reasons which induced Tyndale to leave 
 Cambridge. A scholar, superior to most of his contemporaries, 
 and conscious of more than ordinary abilities, he might have 
 found in the University a congenial residence, or might, not 
 unreasonably, have hoped for some sphere of labour pro- 
 portioned to his capacities. He left Cambridge, however, in 
 the very humble capacity of tutor to the children of "Master 
 Walsh, a knight of Gloucestershire." The precise date of his 
 thus leaving Cambridge cannot be assigned ; but as his eldest 
 pupil was not born till 151 6, the latest date that is compatible 
 with other ascertained facts is evidently the most probable. 
 The tradition of Tyndale's preaching in Bristol in 15*0 will be 
 subsequently shown to be a mere baseless conjecture ; and, on 
 the whole, we are inclined to assign the close of 1521 as the 
 date of his leaving the University. 
 
 Here, therefore, ends Tyndale's preparatory training. His 
 academic career, with its learned leisure and its mimic warfare 
 of tongues, was finished ; henceforth he had to bear his share 
 in the real conilict of life. It was, perhaps, an eager desire to 
 mingle in the real duties of life that induced him to turn his. 
 back upon the leisure of the University; it was certainly 
 neither any flaw in his character, nor any want of appreciation 
 of the studies of the place ; for Sir Thomas More, his great 
 antagonist, allows that before he left England, " Tyndale was 
 well-known for a man of right good living, studious, and 
 well-learned in Scripture'." Of such a man the University 
 had much need; and for his work, the calm seclusion of 
 a seat of learning might seem to be specially adapted ; but 
 the stern discipline of life was wanted to qualify him for 
 his task. Not surrounded by books and friends in the 
 1 Sir Thomas More's Dialogue. 
 E 
 
50 EARLY LIFE OF TYNDALE. 
 
 learned retirement of the ancient halls of Oxford or Cam- 
 bridge, but an exile in a foreign land, hunted by the untiring 
 animosity of his enemies, was Tyndale to accomplish that 
 glorious work for which England owes him an eternal debt of 
 gratitude^. 
 
 ' Of his personal history at the Universities, Tyndale mentions only one trifling 
 fact, that he had a pupil, John Tisen, who subsequently entered the service of 
 Tunstal, and vifhose " red beard and black-reddish head " Tyndale subsequently saw- 
 in Antwerp, not without suspicion that he was a secret emissary sent to apprehend 
 him. See Tyndale 's letter to Fryth under the year 1532. [Mr. Boase suggests 
 that the entry in the Oxford Register, 1524, 'Tyson or Tison, John, supplicated for 
 B.c.L. 18 July 1524, admitted i August, supplicated for B.CAN.L. December 
 1530,' may refer to this man. — Editor.] 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 tyndale's life at little sodbury. 
 
 A.D. 1521-1523. 
 
 The manor-house of Little Sodbury, where Tyndale was 
 first introduced to the realities of life outside the walls of the 
 Universities, was in his native county of Gloucester, almost 
 within sight of the spot where he had spent the years of his 
 childhood. The house is charmingly situated on the south- 
 western slope of the Cotswolds, and enjoys a magnificent 
 prospect over the richly-wooded vale of the Severn, to the 
 distant hills of Wales. Though somewhat shorn of its former 
 dignity, and only in part inhabited, the house is still, in the 
 main, intact ; time, indeed, has dealt gently with it, and has 
 added to the beauties of its graceful and varied architecture 
 those mellowing touches which delight the eye of the lover of 
 the picturesque. It is evidently in no material respect altered 
 since the time when Tyndale and his pupils used to issue from 
 its spacious porch to climb the Cotswolds, or to ramble across 
 the fields to the neighbouring village of Chipping Sodbury; 
 and the original arrangement and destination of the various 
 apartments are tolerably obvious to the glance even of the 
 least practised antiquary. The great dining-hall, in which 
 Tyndale's voice was so often heard debating theological 
 questions with the clergy of the neighbourhood, around the 
 hospitable board of Sir John Walsh, wants little but appro- 
 priate furniture to recall its former appearance ; and the 
 whole mansion furnishes unmistakable proof that it was the 
 residence of a gentleman of considerable wealth and position 
 in the county. 
 
 E2 
 
5^ TYNDALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 One most interesting appendage of the old manor-house 
 has, unfortunately, been destroyed within the last few years. 
 The little church of St. AdeUne, which stood close behind the 
 house, and in which Tyndale, beyond any doubt, must have 
 officiated, and made his earliest appearance as a preacher, was 
 taken down so recently as 1858, and rebuilt in a situation 
 more convenient for the parishioners ; but part of the western 
 entrance, and two magnificent yew-trees, which must have 
 been large even in Tyndale's time, still remain to mark the 
 spot^ 
 
 Behind the manor-house the hill rises almost perpendicularly, 
 completely prohibiting the approach of the bleak north-eastern 
 blasts. A few minutes' exertion conveys the traveller to the 
 crest of the breezy Cotswolds, crowned with picturesque clumps 
 of beeches visible for miles ; and from the table-land on the 
 summit, where Margaret of Anjou encamped before the fatal 
 field of Tewkesbury, Tyndale must often have looked upon, 
 the wooded heights of Nibley and Stinchcombe, and the level 
 vale beyond, where his relatives were then established. Al- 
 together the manor-house of Little Sodbury is the most 
 interesting, as it is the most authentic locality associated with 
 Tyndale's active life in England. It is the only place of which 
 we can definitely affirm, " under this very roof Tyndale spent 
 several of the most important months of his life ; " and it was 
 in this house that he formed and first announced his great 
 purpose, if God spared him, to translate the Holy Scriptures 
 into his native tongue, that what had hitherto been confined 
 to the learned, might be open to all who could read^. 
 
 The Walshes of Little Sodbury were one of the rising and 
 prosperous families of the county of Gloucester. John Walsh 
 
 ' A careful drawing of the interesting churcli was fortunately made, under the 
 care of Mr. Fry of Bristol, to whom I am indebted for a copy. 
 
 ' The manor-house is easily accessible either from Bath or Bristol. It is about 
 an hour's walk from Yate, a station on the Bristol and Gloucester railway, the road 
 leading through the old-fashioned village of Chipping Sodbury and across the 
 fields. The view and the inspection of the house will abundantly repay all who 
 admire the beautiful and picturesque, or are interested in the history of one of 
 England's noblest worthies. 
 
THE WALSHES OF LITTLE SODBURY. t^^ 
 
 had, in 1485, come into possession of the manor-house by his 
 marriage to the heiress of the property. His son, the patron 
 and employer of Tyndale, a stalwart and expert man-at-arms, 
 had been champion to Henry Vlil. on some occasions ; and 
 having been fortunate enough to secure the good graces of his 
 sovereign, he was knighted, and received the more substantial 
 reward of the neighbouring manor of Old Sodbury, which had 
 devolved to the crown from Ann, Countess of Warwick. The 
 handsome royal favourite had still further improved his posi- 
 tion in the county by marrying Anne, daughter of Sir Robert 
 Poyntz of Iron- Acton, a neighbouring family of ancient lineage, 
 which could boast of alliances with some of the best blood 
 in England. In consequence of these fortunate matrimonial 
 -alliances, and of the generous favour of the sovereign, Sir 
 John Walsh was a man of very considerable importance ; a 
 point of no small consequence to Tyndale, as it subsequently 
 secured him a powerful protector when the boldness of his 
 opinions had excited the hostility of the neighbouring 
 clergy. 
 
 Tyndale's position at the manor-house of Little Sodbury 
 must have been that of chaplain rather than of tutor ; in fact, 
 we are probably doing no injustice to Sir John Walsh and his 
 lady, if we consider the employment of a distinguished scholar 
 from the University in the capacity of chaplain as a piece of 
 ambitious ostentation on their part, which was intended to 
 mark their sense of the high position at which they had now 
 arrived. Their children were mere infants, more likely to profit 
 from their nurse than from a learned tutor. We have no means 
 of determining the precise time at which Tyndale entered upon 
 this new employment ^ ; but there seems no sufficient reason 
 
 ' Anderson {Annals, Vol. I. p. 30) quotes Sayers as declaring that Tyndale 
 preached in Bristol "about a.d. 1520;" and infers that he must have been at 
 Little Sodbury in that year. Sayers says so, it is true ; not, however, as Anderson 
 by mistake asserts, " from old authorities," but simply from conjecture, as may be 
 seen by examining the passage in his Memoirs of Bristol, Vol. II. p. 215. Through 
 the courtesy of the treasurer of Bristol, I have been permitted to examine the oldest 
 kalendar of that city, that called the Mayor's Kalendar ; and I have also inspected 
 .another preserved in the Subscription Library, but neither of these makes the 
 
54 TYNDALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 for believing that he resided more than two years at Little 
 Sodbury, and as he was certainly in London before the close 
 of 1533, it may be assumed that it was some time towards the 
 close of the year 1521 that he became tutor to Sir John's 
 children. And even at the close of 1531, the eldest of Sir 
 John's sons was only six years of age, and little likely, there- 
 fore, to give any very serious employment to Tyndale's energies, 
 at least as an instructor. Tyndale would thus have ample 
 time for reading and reflection ; and in a house such as that 
 of Sir John Walsh, constantly resorted to by the gentlemen 
 and clerical dignitaries of the neighbourhood, much must have 
 been daily seen and heard to excite reflection in any earnest 
 soul. 
 
 Since the time when Tyndale left his home to reside in the 
 Universities, no improvement had taken place in the religious 
 condition of his native county. The bishop of the diocese, 
 who was responsible for the spiritual oversight of its popula- 
 tion, resided a thousand miles off, in Italy ; indeed, there was 
 no resident bishop from 15 12, when Sylvester de Gigliis 
 retired to Rome, till 1535, when Hugh Latimer was conse- 
 crated the, first reforming prelate of the long-neglected see. 
 In the absence of the chief ecclesiastical authority who ought 
 to have provided for the religious wants of the counties of 
 Gloucester and Worcester, his duties were divided between 
 Cardinal Wolsey, who was also, of course, non-resident, and 
 far too deeply engrossed in other matters to pay. much heed 
 to them, and the chancellor of the diocese, who, during 
 Tyndale's residence at Little Sodbury, was Dr. Parker, a 
 furious bigot, whom we shall speedily meet again in this 
 biography. In 1531, the bishop of the diocese died at Rome, 
 but his place was filled by another Italian prelate, no other 
 than Julio de Medici, who as Clement Vll. was subsequently 
 appealed to in the momentous question of Henry's divorce. 
 
 slightest allusion to Tyndale, nor is there any authority for assigning his residence 
 at .Sodbury to such an early period as 1520, when his pupils could scarce walk 
 alone. 
 
THE DIOCESE OF WORCESTER. ^e^ 
 
 On his resignation of the see, after a few months' episcopate, 
 the bishopric was once more conferred upon a non-resident 
 Italian prelate, Jerome de Ghinucci. 
 
 The time had gone by when such a scandalous state of 
 affairs could exist unquestioned. Fear of authority might 
 suppress any practical manifestation of insubordination j but 
 authority could not restrain the shrewd remarks of intelligent 
 observers ; nor could it prevent men perceiving that even 
 the highest dignitaries of the Church, in their anxiety to 
 increase their revenues, thought little of the most flagrant 
 disregard of the most sacred duties. The county of Glou- 
 cester, moreover, though far removed from the metropolis 
 and the Universities, had not escaped the influence of that 
 great intellectual revival which had re-awakened the nations 
 of Europe to mental activity. Bristol, then the second city 
 in England, had given a favourable reception to the Lollard 
 preachers ; the merchants of the city were conspicuous for 
 their energy ; and the citizens were at all times distinguished 
 for the freedom of their opinions, and the zeal with which 
 they entered upon the discussion of all religious questions. 
 Lutheran books, though rigorously prohibited, were probably 
 not unknown amongst the imports that floated up the Avon 
 to the warehouses of the Bristol merchants. Amongst the 
 neighbouring gentry were several men of high character and 
 considerable learning; and religion was the all-engrossing 
 theme of the time, so that Tyndale found himself surrounded 
 at Sir John Walsh's table by the same atmosphere of theo- 
 logical controversy in which he had rhoved at the University. 
 
 Of this interesting period of Tyndale's life Foxe has 
 fortunately preserved an unusually copious and trustworthy 
 account. Even as perused in the ordinary editions of the 
 Acts and Monuments, the narrative strikes the attentive 
 reader as the authentic record of a contemporary : but the 
 first Enghsh edition of Foxe, that of 1563, makes it quite 
 clear that this part of the work was suppHed to the Mar- 
 tyrologist by one who had it from Tyndale's own lips. Foxe 
 
56 TYNDAL^S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 has not mentioned his authority, but we feel strongly con- 
 vinced that his informant was Richard Webb, a native of the 
 village of Chipping Sodbury, and subsequently a servant of 
 Latimer, whose rectory of West Kington was only a few 
 miles distant. This Webb may possibly have been a convert 
 of Tyndale's; in 1533 he was brought before Sir Thomas 
 More for circulating prohibited books in Bristol ; and he was 
 alive when Foxe wrote his Acts and Monuments, and furnished 
 him, as he acknowledges, with some valuable materials ^- 
 
 But whoever was Foxe's informant, it is most important 
 to observe that his record of Tyndale's life at Little Sodbury 
 rests upon the authority of a reporter who had it from 
 Tyndale himself, and is therefore entitled to the highest 
 credit. In the following extracts the words of the original 
 narrator are introduced as given in Foxe's first edition, instead 
 of the less graphic narrative which the Martyrologist sub- 
 stituted in his later editions : " The said Tyndale being 
 schoolmaster to the said Master Walsh's children, and being 
 in good favour with his master, sat most commonly at his 
 own table, which kept a good ordinary, having resort to him 
 many times divers great-beneficed men, as abbots, deans, 
 archdeacons, and other divers doctors and learned men. 
 Amongst whom commonly was talk of learning, as well of 
 Luther and Erasmus Roterodamus, as of opinions in the 
 Scripture. The said Master Tyndale being learned, and 
 which had been a student of divinity in Cambridge, and had 
 therein taken degree of school, did many times therein shew 
 his mind and learning. Wherein as those men and Master 
 Tyndale did vary in opinions and judgments, then Master 
 Tyndale would shew them on the book the places by open 
 and manifest Scripture; the which continued for a certain 
 season divers and sundry times, until in the continuance 
 thereof those great beneficed doctors waxed weary and bear 
 [bore] a secret grudge in their hearts against Master Tyndale^." 
 
 ^ Foxe, Vol. IV. p. I2g. More's Confutation, p. 727. 
 ^ Foxe, p. 514 ; Edition of 1563. 
 
DISCUSSIONS AT LITTLE SODBURY. 57 
 
 We can easily realise the scene which the rough graphic 
 language of the narrator here depicts. Beneficed clergy- 
 men and lordly abbots, whose learning had become rusty 
 from disuse, and who hated the teaching of Erasmus and 
 Luther as odious and heretical novelties, must have been 
 sadly disconcerted by the shrewd and determined "school- 
 master," fresh from the University, an expert theological 
 controversialist, with his terrible matter-of-fact habit of 
 confronting their opinions with the plain and manifest 
 words of Scripture printed in "the book." That in such 
 encounters he should generally remain master of the field 
 we can perfectly believe: and that his antagonists, annoyed 
 at the presumption of the young scholar who dared to 
 controvert the opinions of wealthy ecclesiastical digni- 
 taries, and confounded by his arguments, should bear a 
 secret grudge against him, is only too truly in keeping 
 with human nature to excite any doubt. The narrative 
 resumes : — 
 
 "So upon a time some of those beneficed doctors had 
 Master Walsh and the lady his wife, at a supper or banquet, 
 there having among them talk at will without any gain- 
 saying: and the supper or banquet being done, and Master 
 Walsh and the lady his wife come home, they called for 
 Master Tyndale, and talked with him of such communication 
 as had been, where they came fro [from], and of their opinions. 
 Master Tyndale thereunto made answer agreeable to the 
 truth of God's Word, and in reproving of their false opinions. 
 The Lady Walsh being a stout woman, and as Master Tyndale 
 did report her to be wise, being there no more but they three, 
 Master Walsh, his wife and Master Tyndale: 'Well,' said 
 she, ' there was such a doctor, he may dispend [spend] two 
 hundred pound by the year, another, one hundred pound, and 
 another, three hundred pound ; and what think ye, were it 
 reason that we should believe you before them so great, 
 learned, and beneficed men ? ' Master Tyndale, hearing her, 
 gave her no answer ; nor after that had but small arguments 
 
58 TYND ALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 against such, for he perceived it would not help in effect to 
 the contrary." 
 
 Tyndale had the good sense to perceive that there was 
 small hope of persuading such a disputant by appealing 
 merely to reason and Scripture. There was another argu- 
 ment more likely to impress persons who estimated the 
 soundness of opinions by the annual income of those who 
 entertained them ; he might appeal to the authority of a 
 great name. Erasmus was still the great model of Tyndale's 
 opinions ; and if it could be shown beyond any doubt, that 
 those very doctrines and opinions which the neighbouring 
 abbots and wealthy doctors condemned, were maintained by 
 the illustrious scholar — with whose praises all Europe was 
 ringing, who was in high favour with many of the most 
 exalted rank in England, and especially with the primate 
 and the king — then it might be hoped that even Lady Walsh 
 would begin to appreciate the force of arguments which came 
 recommended by such weight. 
 
 It was probably, therefore, as an important measure of 
 self-defence that Tyndale undertook the translation of one of 
 the most popular of the works of Erasmus — the Etichiridion 
 Militis Christiana, or. Manual of a Christian Soldier. This 
 little treatise had been originally written in 1501, shortly 
 after Erasmus' first visit to England ; and it was one of the 
 earliest of that long series of works in which, with terse and 
 graceful Latinity, the author attempted to ridicule the popular 
 misconception which placed rehgion in scholastic dogmas and 
 ritual observances. As originally issued the work was remark- 
 able rather for the graces of its style than for the strength 
 of its opinions ; but when the controversy between Luther 
 and the Pope had deeply excited the minds of all thinking 
 men, Erasmus re-issued it with a fresh preface, written in a 
 style of boldness and fire which must in calmer moments 
 have alarmed the author himself, and which is in truth not 
 altogether in keeping with the sober, rhetorical, half-classical, 
 half-Christian manual to which it is prefixed. Thus re- 
 
THE ENCHIRIDION MILITIS CHRISTIANA. 59 
 
 introduced to public notice, the book became immensely- 
 popular ; it was translated into many languages and exercised 
 a wonderful influence all over Europe^- 
 
 Of a book thus famous in its day, which was evidently 
 highly valued by Tyndale, and on which he first employed 
 his skill and learning as a translator, the reader will not dis- 
 dain to peruse a very few sentences. The original work had 
 been censured because it did not treat its subject according 
 to the methods of the schoolmen ; the author thus defends 
 himself in his new preface : — 
 
 " I am content that my book be deficient in acuteness if 
 only it be pious. Let it not train men for the discussions 
 of the Sorbonne^, provided it train them for Christian peace. 
 Let it be unserviceable for theological debating, provided it 
 be useful for religious living. Besides, what is the use of 
 discussing what every one discusses? Who is not engaged 
 now-a-days in theological questions ? What else do the 
 swarms of scholastics do ? There are almost as many com- 
 mentaries on the Sentences'^ as there are names of theolo- 
 gians. What Hmit is there to the number of compilers, men 
 who mingle over again various matters, and like chemists manu- 
 facture new things out of old, old out of new, one out of many, 
 and again many out of one ? How is it possible that a huge 
 mass of such books can train men up to live well, when the whole 
 of one's life would not suffice to read them ? As if a doctor were 
 to prescribe to a man labouring under a rapid disease, that 
 he must read the works of Jacobus a partibus and all similar 
 treatises, in order to discover in them how to restore his 
 health, while in the mean time death will have carried him 
 off, and there will be no possibility of helping any one at that 
 rate. ... To say nothing of their treating things in a meagre 
 ^and cold manner, how many people have leisure to read so 
 
 ' See Seebohm's Oxford Reformers. 
 
 ^ The Divinity School in Paris, the headquarters of Scholasticism. 
 ' A compilation by Peter Lombard, who was usually called in consequence the 
 Master of the Sentences; the Bible, in fact, of the schoolmen. 
 
6o TYNDALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 many volumes, or who could carry about with him the works 
 of Thomas Aquinas? And yet every one is bound to live 
 well, and Christ has wished the way to good living to be 
 easy to all ; not through the trackless labyrinths of debates, 
 but through sincere faith and love unfeigned, accompanied 
 by the ' hope which maketh not ashamed.' Finally, let the 
 great Rabbis, who must of course be few, study those 
 huge volumes; but, nevertheless, we must in the mean time 
 provide for the ignorant multitude for whom also Christ 
 died." 
 
 " Would any one," he asks, " attempt to convert the Turks 
 to the Christian religion by submitting to them the works of 
 Occam, or Durandus, or Scotus, or Gabriel, or Alvarus ? [All 
 great scholastic doctors.] What will they think when they 
 shall have heard those difficult and perplexing subtleties about 
 form and essence and relation; especially when they see 
 that on these points, so far are those great professors of 
 religion from agreeing, that they contend with each other till 
 they are pale in the face, till they scold each other, spit upon 
 each other, even till they attack each other with their fists — 
 when they see the Dominicans fighting in all manner of ways 
 for their beloved Thomas [Aquinas], the Franciscans on the 
 other hand, with joined shields, defending the most subtle 
 doctor and the seraphic doctor [Scotus and Bonaventura] ; 
 some speaking as nominalists, some as realists? Christ has 
 not died in order that wealth, abundance, arms, and the rest 
 of the pomp of an earthly kingdom, which formerly were 
 possessed by heathen, or at least Gentile princes, should now 
 be in the possession of a few priests not unlike heathens. . . . 
 In my opinion, it would be a far more appropriate plan for 
 converting the Turks if we were to devolve upon some pious 
 and learned men the duty of compiling from the perfectly^ 
 pure fountains of the Evangelists and the Apostles, and the 
 most approved commentators, an abridgment of the whole 
 philosophy of Christ, simple yet learned, brief but not obscure. 
 Those things which pertain to faith, let them be expressed in 
 
THE ENCHIRIDION MILITIS CHRISTIANA. 6^. 
 
 the fewest possible articles; those which pertain to good 
 living, let them also be expressed in few words, and so ex- 
 pressed that men may understand that the yoke of Christ 
 is easy and light, and not harsh; that they may see that 
 in the clergy they have found fathers and not tyrants, 
 pastors and not robbers, that they are invited to salvation, 
 and not dragged to slavery. . . . Amid the general darkness 
 that prevails, amid such tumults in the world, in such a 
 conflict of human opinions, to what refuge shall we flee 
 sooner than to that truly sacred anchorage of Evangelical 
 doctrine? What man of real piety does not perceive with 
 sighs that this is far the most corrupt of all ages ? When did 
 ever tyranny or avarice prevail more widely or with greater 
 impunity? When was more importance ever attached to 
 mere ceremonies? When did iniquity abound with more 
 licentiousness? Whcii was charity so cold? What is said, 
 what is read, what is heard, what is decreed, except that 
 which savours of ambition and gain ? " 
 
 With equal boldness, Erasmus proceeds to indicate the 
 vices to which the clergy of all ranks were liable, and by 
 which they were losing the respect of the thinking men 
 amongst the laity: the greed of the bishops, who were per- 
 petually plundering their dioceses by their exactions, the 
 superstition and hypocrisy of the religious orders, the avarice 
 and ambition of the preachers, the wrangling of the theo- 
 logians. Above all, he poured out his severest censure upon 
 that one universal fault which affected all ranks of ecclesiastics, 
 the wretched perversion of judgment, which led them to con- 
 sider the violation of any of the ceremonies and ordinances 
 of the Church as involving a far greater amount of delin- 
 quency, than the grossest neglect of all the ordinary obliga- 
 tions of Christian morality. A priest might be a gambler, 
 a fighter, totally ignorant, entirely immersed in secular affairs, 
 a sycophant, a liar, a calumniator, and yet might escape 
 blame if only he were careful to observe that enforced law of 
 celibacy, which, though a law of the Church only and not an 
 
6!j TYND ALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 ordinance of God, was deemed of more consequence than any 
 other qualification in the clergy. 
 
 " If," says he, with truth, " it had been only a slight danger 
 to religion that lay concealed in ceremonies, Paul would not 
 have spoken so sharply against them in all his Epistles. Not 
 that we in all cases condemn ceremonies, when used in 
 moderation, but that we deny that the beginning and ending 
 of religion consist in them. St. Augustine even forbade the 
 clergy, that he brought up in his house, to any special dress ; 
 and said, that if they wished to be commended to the people 
 it should be by their life, and not by their dress. Now-a-days, 
 what new, what extravagant ceremonies! Yet this is not 
 what I find fault with ; what I am surprised at is, that too 
 much importance is attached to those things which, perhaps, 
 ought to be blamed, and too little to those which alone ought 
 to be looked to. I am not abusing the Franciscans or the 
 Benedictines for embracing the rule of their order, but because 
 some of them value their rule above the Gospel. . . I am not 
 abusing them because some live on fish, others on vegetables, 
 others on eggs, but I warn them that they are seriously mis- 
 taken if, like the Jews of old, they look upon such things as 
 these as proofs of their holiness, and set themselves above 
 others on account of trifles of this sort, invented by men of 
 little minds ; whilst they consider it as no fault at all to assail 
 a man's good name with lies. Neither Christ nor His Apostles 
 have anywhere given directions about the choice of food ; 
 St. Paul frequently despises it : but Christ does condemn all 
 violent slander ; the writings of the Apostles abhor it ; and 
 yet on the one matter of no importance we wish to appear 
 scrupulously religious, on the other of great moment we are 
 bold and fearless." 
 
 Erasmus was well aware that for thus writing he would be 
 charged with instigating the laity to rebel against their eccle- 
 siastical guides ; but he was not to be deterred by the fear of 
 any such imputations. It was all very well, he said, for the 
 clergy to praise the virtue of obedience ; but Christians were 
 
THE ENCHIRIDION MILITIS CHRISTIANA. 6^ 
 
 called to liberty; and it was both impossible and unnatural 
 to attempt to keep men for ever in the ignorance and sub- 
 mission of children. As to religious vows, Erasmus wished 
 that it was forbidden by law that any one should bind himself 
 by such obligations till he had reached the age of thirty, when 
 he might be supposed capable of knowing himself, and under- 
 standing the real power of religion ; and even with this enact- 
 ment there was no fear, he suggests, of the monasteries failing 
 to find inhabitants, as there were plenty of fools in the world 
 to replenish them. And as to the vow of chastity in par- 
 ticular, he did not hesitate to say that there was very little 
 difference in point of merit between celibacy and chaste 
 matrimony. 
 
 " In fine," he concludes, " let no one foolishly pride himself 
 because his way of living differs from others ; but in every 
 species of life let this be the common desire of all, prosecuted 
 with all their energy, to reach that goal which Christ has set 
 before all men ; and when every one has done his best, let him 
 not be like the Pharisee in the Gospel, who boasts of his good 
 deeds before God, ' I fast twice in the week,' etc. ; but let him, 
 according to the advice of Christ, say, and say from his heart, 
 and for himself, not for others, ' I am an unprofitable servant, 
 I have done what it was my duty to do.' No one more truly 
 possesses faith than the man who thus distrusts himself ; no 
 one is farther removed from true religion than the man who 
 seems to himself to be extremely religious." 
 
 To appreciate aright the boldness of such words as these, 
 we must remember that when they were written, Luther still 
 spoke of Leo x. as " our most Holy Lord ; " and professed 
 himself willing to throw himself at the feet of his Holiness, 
 and to submit implicitly to his judgment ; and it was not till 
 two months after the writing of this preface that Luther took 
 the first of his bold steps, and appealed from " the most Holy 
 Father, the Pope, ill-informed, to the most Holy Lord and 
 Father in Christ Leo, tenth of that name, better informed." 
 The treatise to which the preface was prefixed, being an early 
 
64 TYN DALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 production of its author, bore several marks of less mature 
 intellect. It is written with excellent sense, in scrupulously- 
 Ciceronian Latin, and is remarkable mainly for the extra- 
 ordinary contempt with which Erasmus speaks of the literal 
 interpretation of Scripture, and the undue value which he 
 attaches to its spiritual or allegorical signification^. Yet even 
 in this treatise, written so early as 1501, Erasmus expressed 
 himself with the same clearness on the superstition and use- 
 lessness of many of the ceremonies of religion and the obser- 
 vances of the monks. "Monkery," said he, "is not piety; 
 it is merely a manner of life which may be useful or useless 
 according to the temperament of body and mind of the man 
 who adopts it ; piety consists neither in food nor in dress, nor 
 in any outward observance." 
 
 These brief extracts will have made it sufficiently evident 
 to the reader, that Tyndale could scarcely have found any 
 better means of supporting those opinions of his which had 
 given so much umbrage to the neighbouring clergy. Whether 
 he wished to assert the supremacy of Scripture or to censure 
 the laborious trifling of the schoolmen, to attack the gross 
 abuses of the religious orders or to condemn the extravagant 
 importance that was attached to ceremonies and ritual 
 observances, he could boldly appeal to Erasmus as unques- 
 tionably pronouncing in his favour ; and opinions which might 
 have seemed rash and ignorant in a young scholar fresh from 
 the University, would gain an enormous accession of weight 
 when supported by the authority of the most illustrious scholar 
 in Europe. It seems natural to conclude that the translation 
 of the Enchiridion was intended by Tyndale to be at some 
 convenient time committed to the press ; but there is no record 
 of its ever having been printed. He took his manuscript with 
 him to London ; and Humphrey Monmouth, who so kindly 
 entertained him in the metropolis, speaks of two copies of the 
 book which had been extensively circulated amongst the 
 clergy and others without exciting any opposition ; but these 
 ' " Citra allegoiiam sterilis est Scriptura," says he. 
 
HE PREACHES IN BRISTOL. 6^ 
 
 were, beyond question, consigned to the flames along with 
 Tyndale's sermons and letters, when he had been publicl>>- 
 denounced as a heretic, and it was dangerous to be in pos- 
 session of any of his writings^. 
 
 The temporary and immediate purpose, however, for which 
 Tyndale had undertaken the translation, was most successfully 
 accomplished. In the words of the old narrator, " Then did 
 he translate into English a book called, as T remember, 
 Enchiridion Militis Christiani, the which being translated 
 [he] delivered to his master and lady. And after they had 
 read that book, those great prelates were no more so often 
 called to the house, nor, when they came, had the cheer nor 
 countenance as they were wont to have ; the which they did 
 well perceive, and that it was by the means and incensing 
 of Master Tyndale, and at last came no more there." 
 
 Such was the issue of Tyndale's first appearance in public 
 as a theological disputant. His opponents were discomfited, 
 and Sir John Walsh and his lady were gained over to his 
 opinions. By this victory Tyndale had considerably improved 
 his own position, and secured for himself peace and respect 
 in the Manor-house where he resided ; whilst he was well 
 aware at the same time that he had provoked the bitter resent- 
 ment of the clergy, and that he must be prepared to face the 
 consequences of their indignation. 
 
 The ignominious repulse at Sir John Walsh's dinner-table 
 was not the only provocation of which the neighbouring priests 
 had to complain. His duties as instructor of the very juvenile 
 family at Sodbury Manor could not have occupied much of 
 the time of an energetic man like Tyndale ; nor would his 
 ministrations as family chaplain in the quaint little church 
 behind the Manor-house be any very serious tax upon his 
 industry. A larger field of labour lay close at hand ; he 
 began to preach in the adjacent villages, and used also to 
 
 ' Herbert in his edition of Ames (Vol. i. p. 189) mentions an English translation 
 of the Enchiridion, printed in 1532 by Wynken de Worde, and ascribes it to 
 Tyndale ; but this is clearly a mistake. 
 
 F 
 
66 TYNDALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 repair to the great city of Bristol, and preach to the crowd that 
 collected around him on the College-green. Such a proceeding 
 was sure to be warmly resented by men who were still sore 
 from the chagrin of their recent discomfiture. His conduct 
 and his opinions were freely canvassed by no friendly critics. 
 " These blind and rude priests," says Foxe, "flocking- together 
 to the alehouse, for that was their preaching-place, raged and 
 railed against him ; affirming that his sayings were heresy, 
 adding moreover unto his sayings, of their own heads, more 
 than ever he spake ^." They determined accordingly to avail 
 themselves of the power which the ecclesiastical organisation 
 of the country placed within their grasp, for silencing the voice 
 of this troublesome preacher. 
 
 The bishop of the diocese, who would naturally have been 
 invoked to protect the Church against this threatened inroad 
 of heresy, was, as has been already remarked, non-resident ; 
 and Wolsey, who farmed the bishopric, was also at a distance, 
 and not likely to pay much heed to what would seem to him 
 a mere trifling squabble amongst some country clergy. But 
 a new Chancellor, Parker, had recently been elevated to the 
 chief local administration of the diocese ; and his violent 
 temper and hatred of all innovations pointed him out as 
 exceedingly likely to welcome any accusations of heresy, and 
 to treat with sufficient severity any suspected persons. Tyn- 
 dale was accordingly secretly accused to the Chancellor ; and 
 preparations were made in the same clandestine manner for 
 securing his condemnation. A sitting of the Chancellor was 
 appointed, at which all the priests of the neighbourhood were 
 summoned to appear, Tyndale, of course, being sum.moned 
 with the rest. He was not aware of the accusations that had 
 been lodged against him, but he had some misgivings that evil 
 was designed. "Whether," says Foxe, in the words of his 
 informant, " he had knowledge by \i. e. of] their threatenings, 
 
 ' Foxe, Vol. V. p. 117. Latimer, who lived in the same neighbourhood some 
 ten years later, speaks of the charges against him as having also originated in the 
 ale-house, inter pocula. 
 
ACCUSED OF HERESY. 6^ 
 
 or that he did suspect that they would lay to his charge, it is 
 not now perfectly in my mind ; but thus he told me, that he 
 doubted their examinations ; so that he, in his going thither- 
 wards, prayed in his mind heartily to God to strengthen him 
 to stand fast in the truth of His Word." 
 
 Tyndale himself has given us a brief account of this his first 
 experience of the danger which he was incurring by his opinions. 
 "When I came before the Chancellor, he threatened me 
 grievously, and reviled me, and rated me as though I had 
 been a dog ; and laid to my charge [things] whereof there 
 could be none accuser brought forth, as their manner is not to 
 bring forth the accuser ; and yet all the priests of the country 
 were the same day there^." The violence here ascribed to 
 the Chancellor, it may be remarked, is in perfect keeping 
 with all that we know from other sources of his character. 
 This, it is believed, was the only occasion previous to his last 
 trial on which Tyndale was brought before any ecclesiastical 
 officer on the charge of heretical teaching. Sir Thomas More, 
 indeed, asserts that "he sometimes savoured so shrewdly of 
 heresy that he was once or twice examined thereof^;" but 
 there is no record of any other examination than this informal 
 and futile one before Parker. That there were some primd 
 facie grounds for suspecting him of heresy we may well believe ; 
 and that he would have some difficulty in showing that the 
 opinions which he had uttered were in accordance with the 
 recognised standard of orthodoxy, may also be taken for 
 granted ; but, on the whole^ his defence seems to have been 
 ably and successfully conducted ; and he left the court neither 
 branded as a heretic, nor yet trammelled by any oath of 
 abjuration. His antagonist More, it is true, insinuated that 
 because he had "glosed his words with a better sense, and 
 said and swore that he meant no harm, folk were glad to 
 take all to the best*;" but Tyndale roundly declares that 
 
 ' Preface to the Pentateuch: Works, Vol. I. p. 395. 
 ' Sir Thomas More's Works, Edition 155?, p. 283. 
 = Jbid. 
 
 F % 
 
68 TYND ALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 he not only never took any oath, but never was asked to 
 take any^. 
 
 Though he had thus come uninjured out of what might 
 have been a most formidable danger, yet Tyndale must have 
 perceived the risk to which he was likely to expose himself by 
 continuing openly to propagate the opinions which had given 
 so much offence. He could not prevent suspicions being 
 entertained, except by a cowardly reticence which was alto- 
 gether alien to his temper ; still he seems to have acted with 
 sufficient caution to give his enemies no hold over him. But 
 the whole transaction was calculated to excite serious reflec- 
 tion in his mind. The opinions which had given so much 
 offence to the neighbouring clergy were taken from that Sacred 
 Book which was admitted to be the perfect standard of truth ; 
 and they were supported by the authority of the fathers and 
 of the great scholars of the day, whose words were usually 
 cited with reverence. Why, then, had they been greeted with 
 such general dislike ? Tyndale became every day more convinced 
 that this opposition resulted from the extreme ignorance of 
 the clergy with whom he came in contact. They were " a full 
 ignorant sort;" men who knew no more Latin than was 
 contained in the missal, and who did not always know even 
 that ; whose reading lay principally in an indecent medical 
 treatise, and in the digest of the Constitutions of the Arch- 
 bishops of Canterbury, which was carefully studied that they 
 might know what amount of "tythes, mortuaries, offerings, 
 customs, and other pillage ^^ might lawfully be claimed as the 
 heritage of God and of holy Church ^ 
 
 That such opponents should pervert and misunderstand his 
 meaning, and denounce him at every alehouse as a heretic, 
 was not surprising ; it was inevitable ; yet it was most melan- 
 choly. More melancholy even than this was the fact, daily 
 becoming more apparent to Tyndale, that these men were 
 only too faithful representatives of the spirit that was pre- 
 
 ' Tyndale's Answer to More : Works, Vol. III. p. 213. 
 ' Preface to the Pentateuch ; Works, Vol. i. p. 394. 
 
HIS MENTAL PERPLEXITY. 69 
 
 dominant amongst the rulers of the Church. If he could 
 defend himself by the authority of Holy Scripture and the 
 early fathers, they could allege in support of their views the 
 undeviating practice of several centuries, and the open 
 countenance of all the great dignitaries of the Church. In 
 spite of their ignorance they evidently understood better than 
 he did the actual intentions of the Church's rulers, and were 
 more truly actuated by their spirit. Even with all their ignor- 
 ance they were better exponents of the current of what was 
 deemed orthodox teaching in the Church than he was : he stood 
 almost alone in his opinions ; they were sure of the sympathy 
 and approbation of multitudes. Had there been, then, a 
 general declension of the Church from its original institution ? 
 Were the great authorities in the Church acting in open 
 violation of what seemed to be the plain letter of Scripture ? 
 Tyndale knew not what to think, or how to answer questions 
 such as these which now began to force themselves upon him ; 
 and in his difficulty he went to consult " a certain doctor that 
 dwelt not far off, and had been an old chancellor before to a 
 bishop." Tyndale had already been on terms of familiar 
 acquaintance with him, and knew that he might expect a 
 friendly reception from him, and he therefore frankly disclosed 
 to him the serious doubts which were beginning to rise in 
 his mind. His doubts were resolved in a most unexpected 
 manner. " Do you not know," said the doctor, " that the Pope 
 is the very antichrist which the Scripture speaketh of.'' But 
 beware what you say ; for if you shall be perceived to be of 
 that opinion, it will cost you your life. I have been an officer 
 of his," he added, " but I have given it up and defy him and all 
 his works ^." 
 
 Such an answer formed an epoch in the spiritual life of 
 Tyndale ; these bold words gave definite expression to what 
 
 ' Foxe, Vol. V. Anderson guesses that this was William Latimer, rector of 
 Weston-snb-Edge, near Toddington. Tyndale certainly knew Tracy of Todding- 
 ton, and may, therefore, have occasionally been near Weston, though it is a long 
 way from Sodbnry. 
 
70 TYND ALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 he had begun to suspect; and the idea thus suggested was 
 ever after held by him as one of the axioms of his religious creed. 
 In the light of this belief, much that had long been obscure 
 and perplexing became clear and intelligible. If the Pope was 
 in very deed the antichrist foretold by the apostles, then it was 
 not surprising that he should use every effort to keep the 
 people in ignorance of that Divine rule which would so 
 completely expose the baselessness of his pretensions ; it was 
 only natural that the Holy Scriptures should be buried in 
 unknown tongues, and that the meaning of the passages which 
 occurred in the services of the Church should be obscured by 
 whimsical, allegorical interpretations. Tyndale had a clear, 
 logical head, and was not likely to shrink from the practical 
 conclusion to which these reflections seemed to conduct him. 
 Gradually he would become familiarised with the contempla- 
 tion of that great work to which his life was to be consecrated, 
 and with which his name will be for ever associated. For it 
 was to his own diligent study of the Word of God that he 
 himself owed all his superior enlightenment ; and there was 
 every reason, he might conclude, to believe that others would 
 come to adopt his opinions, if they were equally able to consult 
 the Divine oracles. 
 
 It was under the influence of these reflections, therefore, that 
 Tyndale began seriously to contemplate the translation of the 
 New Testament into the English tongue, as the noblest service 
 that he could render to his country, and an indispensable pre- 
 liminary to any possible reformation of the abuses which 
 abounded in the Church. To us this remedy seems so natural 
 and obvious that we are liable to fail in appreciating its merit 
 and boldness; but in Tyndale's time, such an undertaking would 
 be considered hardly less novel and adventurous than the 
 voyage of Sebastian Cabot from the neighbouring port of 
 Bristol to discover unknown lands beyond untraversed oceans. 
 As yet the Reformation had not produced any vernacular 
 version of Holy Scripture ; Luther's translation indeed ap- 
 peared in September, 1532, about the same time perhaps when 
 
RESOLVES TO TRANSLATE THE SCRIPTURES. 71 
 
 Tyndale had formed his purpose ; but there is no reason to 
 believe that it had reached England, or that it in any way 
 suggested Tyndale's work. 
 
 Tyndale has himself recorded the circumstances which led 
 him to entertain his great design -. J ^i>prrp\vp-x[_^y experien ce 
 how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any 
 
 t ril l hj . f^rr-FprTKp~SrripHii-p wprp plainly la.'rl hf forgJjWr rypq 
 
 ig their mother-tongue, that they might see the process/o rHer, 
 and meaning of the text ; for else, whatsoever truth is taught 
 tnem, these enemies of all truth quench it again, partly with 
 the smoke of their bottomless pit, whereof thou readest in 
 Apocalypse, chap, ix, that is with apparent [i.e. seeming, not 
 real] reasons of sophistry, and traditions of their own making, 
 founded without ground of Scripture, and partly in juggling 
 with the text, expounding it in such a sense as is impossible to 
 gather of the text, if thou see the process, order, and meaning 
 thereof 1." 
 
 Tyndale, it will be perceived, expresses himself with con- 
 siderable vehemence, for he was at all times bold and out- 
 spoken, even to bitterness ; but it must be remembered that 
 when he penned those words of indignant remonstrance, he 
 had been for years an exile, hunted from place to place by the 
 implacable resentment of his enemies, and stung to the quick 
 by the fierce and dishonest denunciations which were ful- 
 minated by the great dignitaries of the Church against his 
 translation of the New Testament. In the same strain of 
 indignant protest he declares : "In this they be all agreed, to 
 drive you from the knowledge of the Scripture, and that ye shall 
 not have the text thereof in the mother-tongue, and to keep 
 the world still in darkness, to the intent they might sit in the 
 consciences of the people, through vain superstition and false 
 doctrine, to satisfy their filthy lusts, their proud ambition, and 
 unsatiable covetousness, and to exalt their own honour above 
 king and emperor, yea, and above God Himself, A thousand 
 books had they lever [rather] to be put forth against their 
 ' Preface to the Pentateuch: Works, Vol. i. p. 394. 
 
7a TYND ALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 abominable doings and doctrine, than that the Scripture 
 should come to light. For as long as they may keep that 
 down, they will so darken the right way with the mist of 
 their sophistry; and so tangle them that either rebuke or 
 despise their abominations with arguments of philosophy, and 
 with worldly similitudes and apparent reasons of natural 
 wisdom, and with wresting the Scripture unto their own 
 purpose, clean contrary unto the process, order, and meaning of 
 the text ; and so delude them in descanting upon it with 
 allegories, and anjaze them, expounding it in many senses 
 before the unlearned lay people, when it hath but one simple, 
 literal sense, whose light the owls cannot abide, that though 
 thou feel in thine heart, and art sure, how that all is false that 
 they say, yet couldst thou not solve their subtle riddles. 
 Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament^.'' 
 It was scarcely to be expected that a man of Tyndale's 
 temperament should be able to suppress all mention of the 
 great design on which all his thoughts were now concentrated. 
 In spite of the obloquy and danger to which the declaration 
 of his intentions was sure to expose him, he was provoked in 
 the heat of controversy to reveal his secret. " Communing 
 and disputing," says Foxe, "with a certain learned man in 
 whose company he happened to be, he drove him to that 
 issue, that the learned man said, ' We were better be without 
 God's laws than the Pope's.' Master Tyndale hearing that, 
 answered him, ' I defy the Pope and all his laws ; ' and said, 
 ' If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that 
 
 : ' Treface to the Pentateuch : Works, Vol. I. p. 393. There is no doubt that in his 
 reference to " sophistry," " arguments of philosophy," and " subtle riddles," Tyn- 
 dale was obliquely censuring Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, which had shortly before 
 been printed, and which is certainly a most ingenious and subtle defence of the 
 doctrines of the Church of Rome. The last words, " Which thing only moved me 
 to translate the New Testament" are important. They indicate that Tyndale's 
 intention to translate was adopted just about the time when he left Little Sodbury, 
 that is, about the end of 1522 or beginning of 1523. Hence they form an incon- 
 trovertible reason for rejecting Mr. Offor's theory that Tyndale was the author of a 
 translation of part of the New Testament dated 1502. There seems little reason 
 indeed to doubt that Mr. Offor's fragment, which has unfortunately deceived some 
 writers, is simply a forgery, as Dr. Westcott plainly asserts. 
 
TYND ALE'S KNOWLEDGE OF GREEK. 73 
 
 dri veth the plough shall know more of the Scr ipture than thou 
 -S^^st^' ~ ^ 
 
 -T^inJale, in this famous declaration, was simply re-echoing 
 the noble sentiment of Erasmus already quoted ; and not 
 only was Erasmus still, so to speak, his spiritual guide, but 
 the work which he was contemplating must have brought 
 him afresh to the study of the writings of the great scholar. 
 For, as became an accomplished Greek scholar, Tyndale was 
 resolved to translate the New Testament from the original 
 language, and not, as Wickliffe had done, from the Latin 
 Vulgate ; and the only edition of the Greek text which had 
 yet appeared, the only one at least likely to be in Tyndale's 
 possession, was that issued by Erasmus at Basle, the elegant 
 Latin version of which had attracted the notice of Bilney, 
 and had so- unexpectedly been blessed to his soul. The work 
 of Erasmus was, therefore, the constant study of Tyndale in 
 his leisure hours. Perhaps he may have actually commenced 
 at Little Sodbury the first rude drafts of what was to grow 
 into the noblest of English books ; and most unquestionably, 
 whether in his study (which is said to have been at the back 
 of the Manor-house, looking out blank upon a patch of steep 
 hill) or in his daily rambles over the Cotswolds, his thoughts 
 were busily engaged upon his great undertaking, calmly and 
 deliberately weighing the many questions involved in its 
 successful accomplishment. 
 
 It need not be added that the secret of his intentions, 
 when disclosed by him, was speedily published all over the 
 neighbourhood, and that it was not likely to diminish the 
 hostile feeling already entertained towards him. The priests 
 waxed fiercer in their opposition, and loudly charged him 
 with heresy; hinting, at the same time, that "though he bare 
 himself bold of the gentlemen there in that country, yet 
 notwithstanding, shortly, he should be otherwise talked 
 withaP." The Tyndales, it will be remembered, occupied a 
 respectable position in the neighbourhood ; his brother had 
 ' Foxe, Edition of 1563. ' Foxe, Vol. v. p. J17. 
 
74 TYND ALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY. 
 
 very recently been appointed receiver of the crown-rents for 
 the manor of Berkeley; Sir John Walsh was a person of 
 distinction, whose anger was not to be lightly provoked ; and 
 it is evident also that Tyndale's arguments had made a 
 profound impression upon several other gentlemen of influence 
 in the vicinity. But, however powerful Tyndale's friends 
 might be to protect him against any mere casual ebullition of 
 clerical spite, they were quite powerless to shield him from 
 any regularly organised proceedings by the great ecclesiastical 
 authorities of the day. Tyndale himself was not insensible of 
 his danger : he replied boldly to the priests that they might 
 " remove him into any county in all England, giving him ten 
 pounds a-year to live with, and binding him to no more but 
 to teach children and to preach^." 
 
 But it was evident that matters were growing to a crisis ; 
 and Tyndale saw too clearly that it would be impossible for 
 him to remain at Little Sodbury in peaceful prosecution of his 
 great purpose. This purpose, however, he was determined to 
 prosecute, whatever inconvenience or danger it might bring 
 upon him ; and it seemed to him not impossible that he 
 might find in some other part of England that liberty which 
 was no longer attainable at Sodbury. He resolved, therefore, 
 to give up the post which he held in the family of Sir John 
 Walsh. " ' I perceive,' he said to his patron, ' that I shall 
 not be suffered to tarry long here in this country, nor you 
 shall be able to keep me out of their hands; and what 
 displeasure you might have thereby is hard to know, for the 
 which I should be right sorry.' So with the goodwill of his 
 master he departed from him to London^." 
 
 Several considerations suggested London as the most suit- 
 able place to which Tyndale might repair in his difficulties. 
 If he succeeded in finishing his translation, it was of course 
 desirable that it should be printed, in order that it might be 
 within the reach of those for whom it was intended ; and the 
 metropolis offered greater facilities for printing than any town 
 ' Foxe, Vol. V. p. 117. ^ Foxe, Edition of J 563. 
 
HE GOES TO LONDON. 
 
 75 
 
 in England. Moreover, the old Bishop of London, the 
 ignorant Fitz-James, who had attempted to punish Colet, 
 and who had rigorously prosecuted all heretics, was recently 
 dead ; and the vacant see was filled by a young accomplished 
 prelate, a distinguished scholar, the friend of More and 
 Erasmus, from whom, if from any one, Tyndale might expect 
 sympathy and patronage. To London, therefore, Tyndale 
 resolved to go, hoping to find in Tunstal a liberal patron 
 under whose protection his work might be prosecuted. With 
 the simple enthusiasm of a scholar, he immediately set about 
 the translation into English of one of the orations of Isocrates, 
 feeling confident that such a conspicuous proof of his know- 
 ledge of Greek would be the surest passport to the favour of 
 a bishop who was famed for his love of learning and his 
 liberality to scholars. Sir John Walsh, whose experience of 
 the world enabled him more correctly to appreciate what was 
 likely to secure the notice of the bishop, furnished him with a 
 letter of introduction to his friend Sir Harry Guildford, Con- 
 troller of the Royal Household, and high in favour with the 
 Sovereign, whose recommendation therefore would probably 
 be of more service to an unknown scholar than any possible 
 evidences of unquestionable learning. Thus provided, and 
 carrying with him, doubtless, his copy of Erasmus' Greek 
 Testament and his manuscripts, Tyndale^ after taking farewell 
 of his relatives and his pupils, turned his back on the smiling 
 vale of Berkeley, which he was never to behold again, and 
 set out on his journey to London, full of those bright visions 
 of hope which the name of the mighty metropolis has so often 
 conjured up in the bosom of inexperienced youth. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 TYNDALE'S life in LONDON. 
 A.D. 1523—1524. 
 
 The date of Tyndale's arrival in London can be ascertained 
 with tolerable accuracy. His friend Humphrey Monmouth, 
 when arrested for assisting him, gave a full and interesting 
 account of his whole intercourse with the Reformer, to which 
 we shall presently advert, and from which it is not difficult to 
 determine within very narrow limits the precise time when 
 Tyndale came to the metropolis. In his petition to Wolsey, 
 written in May, 1538, Monmouth admits that "four years 
 before " he had given money to Tyndale to help him to 
 go abroad. The month of May, 1524, therefore, was the date 
 of Tyndale's leaving London ; and as, according to his own 
 confession, he " abode in London almost a year," we can 
 hardly be mistaken in believing that he arrived there in the 
 month of July or August, 1523. 
 
 It was at a most eventful period that Tyndale came to 
 London. The reign of Henry had hitherto been prosperous 
 and popular; and the authority of his great minister Wolsey 
 had lasted for ten years almost without a single murmur. 
 Difficulties were now, however, beginning to make their 
 appearance. The wars with France and Scotland, and the 
 profuse extravagance of a young and pleasure-loving monarch, 
 had emptied the exchequer, and had dissipated the enormous 
 treasures accumulated by the penurious Henry Vll. Wolsey 
 disliked parliaments ; but all other means of replenishing the 
 royal coffers being exhausted, there was no resource but to 
 summon one, and on the 15th of April, 1523, Parliament met 
 
THE PARLIAMENT OF 1533. 77 
 
 for the first time since December, 151 6. The parliaments of 
 Henry have been censured for their extreme servility; and 
 they did unquestionably, on many occasions, exhibit an 
 obsequiousness that is scarcely intelligible in free Englishmen; 
 but there were points on which the members were too deeply 
 interested to be servile. They lent their assistance with 
 perfect composure, while Henry sacrificed to his necessities 
 or his vengeance some of the noblest blood in England ; 
 but they were touched to the quick by the extravagance of 
 the monarch. Already, in addition to the burden of military 
 service which weighed heavily on them, they had paid vast 
 sums by way of forced loans or benevolences, and they were by 
 no means disposed tamely to endure any farther exactions. 
 
 But Henry's necessities were urgent, and neither he nor 
 his minister was inclined to submit to be thwarted. Wolsey 
 came down to the House of Commons and demanded from 
 them a subsidy of eight hundred thousand pounds ; a small 
 sum perhaps in the eyes of modern readers, accustomed to 
 the prodigious estimates of the present day, but whose 
 magnitude may be understood from the fact that it was 
 considered equivalent to a tax of four shillings in the pound 
 on all the property in the kingdom, and was, indeed, sup- 
 posed to exceed the entire currency then circulating in England. 
 The demand was fiercely resisted ; Sir Thomas More, who 
 had been elected Speaker, attempted to calm the storm, and 
 insinuated, in his bland and plausible manner, that " of duty 
 men ought not to deny to pay four shillings in the pound ; " 
 but the Commons were not to be persuaded by any eloquence 
 to such an unpleasant exercise of self-denial. A discussion 
 of unprecedented bitterness and length ensued, lasting for 
 sixteen days ; and, in spite of the efforts of Wolsey and 
 the court to cajole and to overawe the members, it was 
 finally agreed to grant the King only half of what had been 
 demanded, and that to be payable not at once, but in two 
 years. Sentiments of discontent were loudly expressed on 
 all sides ; whispers of resistance were muttered ; and affairs 
 
78 TYND ALE'S LIFE IN LONDON. 
 
 wore such a menacing aspect, that Wolsey induced Henry to 
 dissolve the recalcitrant assembly in August, and no parlia- 
 ment assembled again in England till the downfall of the 
 arbitrary minister. 
 
 It was during the agitation of this famous debate that 
 Tyndale arrived in London, when the arrogance of Wolsey 
 was the universal theme of conversation, and the faults of 
 the Cardinal were not likely to be extenuated or defended 
 by men who considered themselves pillaged by his exor- 
 bitant demands. So far as has been ascertained, it was 
 Tyndale's first introduction to the capital ; he had hitherto 
 known life only in the Universities and in the provinces ; 
 the pomp and splendour of courts, the intrigues and factions 
 of statesmen, the pride and worldliness of the great rulers 
 of the Church, these had been known to him only by report. 
 This, therefore, was his first actual experience of the " practice 
 of prelates ; " and the sight was not lost upon him. He had 
 already been disenchanted of that almost divine reverence with 
 which he had in childhood been taught to regard the spiritual 
 fathers and bishops of the Church ; and his keen observing 
 eyes marked and noted the strange sights passing around him, 
 as food for reflection, and materials for future use. " I marked 
 the course of the world," says he, in subsequently recounting 
 the experience of this period of his life, "and heard our 
 praters (I would say our preachers), how they boasted them- 
 selves and their high authority; and beheld the pomp of 
 our prelates, and how busy they were, as they yet are, to set 
 peace and unity in the world [said ironically, as will be seen 
 presently], and saw things whereof I defer to speak at this 
 time\" 
 
 It was, as has been said, a time when public indignation 
 was strongly excited against Wolsey, when his whole past 
 procedure would be severely criticised, and every indication 
 of pomp and extravagance on his part would be repeated with 
 triumphant glee. Tyndale would thus hear, on all hands, loud 
 ^ Preface to the Pentateuch : Works, Vol. I. p. 396. 
 
POPULAR FEELING AGAINST WOLSEY. 79 
 
 complaints against those endless intrigues by which Wolsey 
 had engaged England in almost constant war ever since 
 Henry's accession to the throne. The capricious declaration 
 of war with France, the vast treasure supplied to the German 
 emperor, the whimsical conclusion of peace, the ridiculous 
 parade of " The Field of the Cloth of Gold," the secret 
 treaties — everything, in fact, that had for years cost the nation 
 so much blood and money, was popularly ascribed, and not 
 without very good reason, to the machinations of Wolsey. 
 It was he, men said, who misled the king ; and the affairs of 
 England, it was complained, were administered by him and 
 his brother prelates, without any regard to the real interests of 
 the nation, but solely for the promotion of the interests of the 
 Papal See, and the gratification of Wolsey 's private piques. 
 And the magnificence of the cardinal was too obtrusive to 
 escape the sharpest animadversion. His pomp, in truth, 
 exceeded all bounds, throwing even royalty into the shade ; 
 and his love of parade seems to have been marked by several 
 elements of childish weakness, of which many strange stories 
 were circulated in London, and were treasured up by Tyndale 
 in a singularly retentive memory. 
 
 The reader may imagine, for example, the feeling of infinite 
 scorn with which Tyndale, who had already begun to believe 
 that the Pope was antichrist, would listen to the story current 
 in London as to the manner in which Wolsey had caused the 
 cardinal's hat which was sent him from Rome to be solemnly 
 received. Some commonplace messenger had originally 
 brought it to Westminster under his cloak without any cere- 
 mony, so Tyndale tells the story, but this unceremonious pro- 
 ceeding did not accord with the cardinal's ideas of propriety, 
 so "he clothed the messenger in rich array, and sent him 
 back to Dover again, and appointed the Bishop of Canterbury 
 to meet him\ and then another company of lords and gentles, 
 I wot not how oft, ere it came to Westminster, where it was 
 
 ' Wolsey, though only Archbishop of York, was as legate a latere superior to 
 the primate, and took this opportunity of humbling him. 
 
8o TYN DALE'S LIFE IN LONDON. 
 
 set on a cupboard, and tapers about, so that the greatest duke 
 in the land must make courtesy thereto, yea, and to his empty 
 seat, he being away ^." Wolsey, doubtless, had several good 
 points in his character, but at the time of Tyndale's residence 
 in London, nothing was heard but the strongest condemnation 
 of his intrigues and extravagance ; and Tyndale, breathing this 
 atmosphere for nearly a year, spoke and wrote of Wolsey at 
 all times as " the falsest and vainest Cardinal that ever was." 
 
 If in such times of excitement any other topic could suc- 
 ceed in securing a share of public attention, it was what was 
 considered the alarming spread of heretical opinions. The 
 Reformation in Germany had grown into great dimensions ; 
 it was no longer a mere local dispute, but a great movement, 
 the pulses of which were felt in every part of Western Europe. 
 The works of Luther were widely circulated, and found 
 everywhere admiring and sympathising readers. Two years 
 before Tyndale's arrival in London, it was discovered that 
 Luther's books had been imported in such numbers, that 
 Wolsey issued a proclamation peremptorily requiring all who 
 possessed any copies of the writings of that arch-heretic to 
 deliver them up to the custody of the ecclesiastical authorities ; 
 but in spite of his prohibition we know that the books con- 
 tinued to be imported by the merchants who traded with the 
 Low Countries. Henry himself, who loved theological con- 
 troversy, and who prided himself on his orthodoxy, had 
 entered the lists against the German heresiarch, and had been 
 rewarded for his zeal by the title of " Defender of the Faith," 
 still fondly cherished as the most honourable of all the dis- 
 tinctions of our sovereigns. The example of the king was, 
 of course, emulated by the clergy ; the pulpits resounded with 
 iierce denunciations of the " detestable and damnable heresies " 
 of that " child of the devil," who had ventured to resist the 
 authority of the Pope, and to impugn the teaching of the 
 Church; and the most learned of the prelates was busily 
 occupied in composing an elaborate refutation of the doctrines 
 
 ' Tyndale's Practice of Prelates. 
 
WRITES TO THE BISHOP OF LONDON. 8l 
 
 of the German Reformer. Even in the midst of all the fierce 
 excitement of the summer of 1523, the attention of Parliament 
 was directed to the reported spread of Lutheranism in the 
 University of Cambridge, and it was proposed to institute an 
 episcopal visitation of the suspected colleges, which might 
 have produced disastrous consequences, had not Wolsey 
 unexpectedly intervened and forbidden the meditated inqui- 
 sition \" 
 
 Such, therefore, was the position of public affairs when 
 Tyndale came to London, expecting to find in the recently- 
 appointed bishop of the diocese a sympathising scholar who 
 would appreciate his learning, and would generously befriend 
 and protect him. For some time, however, Tunstal was 
 unapproachable; the pressure of more important business 
 probably rendering it impossible to obtain any interview with 
 him. Meantime Tyndale waited patiently for the opportunity 
 which was, as he fondly imagined, to crown his hopes with 
 success. He came to Sir Harry Guildford, the Master of the 
 Horse, and presented the letter of introduction with which 
 Sir John Walsh had furnished him ; submitting to him at the 
 same time that Oration of Isocrates which he had translated 
 into English, and which Sir Harry, as a correspondent of 
 Erasmus and a lover of learning, might be expected to ap- 
 preciate at its true value as a credential of Tyndale's scholar- 
 ship. Sir Harry received him courteously, promised to speak 
 in his favour to Tunstal, and recommended that he should 
 write to the bishop and obtain, if possible, an interview with 
 him. Tyndale followed the advice thus given : he wrote his 
 epistle, and took it to the episcopal residence, — old London 
 House, in St. Paul's Churchyard, in all probability, — where he 
 found in the bishop's employment a former acquaintance of 
 his own, one William Hebilthwayte, to whom he entrusted 
 the letter on which so much depended^. 
 
 * See Demaus, Life of Latimer, p. 34. 
 
 " Of Hebilthwayte, who was possibly an old university acquaintance of Tyndale's, 
 nothing is known; but Roger Ascham, writing from Augsburg in January, 1551, 
 
 G 
 
8a TYNDALE'S LIFE IN LONDON. 
 
 Pending arrangements for his interview with Tunstal, 
 Tyndale naturally enough sought employment as a preacher 
 in London, and was allowed, or perhaps engaged, to preach 
 in St. Dunstan's-in-the-West. His religious opinions were 
 evidently still so far in accordance with what was deemed 
 orthodox, that he was not debarred from preaching ; and yet 
 not improbably it was some subtle flavour of heresy in his 
 sermons that especially gratified one hearer, who was destined 
 to be of essential service to Tyndale, whom, indeed, we may 
 justly regard as providentially raised up for his assistance in a 
 critical emergency. Humphrey Monmouth, a wealthy cloth- 
 merchant, who resided in the parish of All Hallows, Barking, 
 at the extreme east of London, as St. Dunstan's was then in 
 the extreme west, happened to be amongst the audience when 
 Tyndale was preaching. It is not impossible that he may 
 have known something of Tyndale's family, or may have had 
 business connections with them ; for he probably came from 
 the county of Monmouth, close to Tyndale's birthplace ; his 
 brother was, we know, settled in Worcestershire, and Tyndale's 
 relatives were engaged in the cloth manufacture in Glouces- 
 tershire. 
 
 As this worthy citizen is intimately associated with the life 
 of Tyndale, the reader will be pleased to be introduced to 
 him by no less a personage than Hugh Latimer, who was sub- 
 sequently one of Monmouth's dearest friends. In one of his 
 sermons on the Lord's Prayer, Latimer relates the following 
 incident as characteristic of the generous merchant : " In 
 expounding the Epistle to the Romans, Master Stafford^, 
 coming to that place where St. Paul saith that we shall ' over- 
 come our enemy with well-doing, and so heap up hot coals 
 upon his head,' brought in an example, saying that he knew 
 
 speaks of the Landgrave of Hesse as " lusty, well-favoured, something like Mr. 
 Hebilthwayte in the face." This may have been Tyndale's friend. See Giles's 
 Ascham, Vol. i. Part ii. p. 243. 
 
 ' One of Latimer's contemporaries at Cambridge, and a zealous Reformer. See 
 Deroaus, Life of Latimer, p. 62. 
 
HUMPHREY MONMOUTH S BENEVOLENCE. 83 
 
 in London a great merchant, which merchant had a very poor 
 neighbour, yet for all his poverty he loved him very well, and 
 lent him money at his need, and let him to come to his table 
 whensoever he would. It was even at that time when Dr. 
 Colet was in trouble, and should have been burnt if God had 
 not turned the king's heart to the contrary. Now the rich 
 man began to be a Scripture-man, he began to smell the 
 Gospel ; the poor man was a papist still. It chanced on a time 
 when the rich man talked of the Gospel, sitting at his table, 
 where he reproved Popery, and such kind of things, the poor 
 man being then present took a great displeasure against the 
 rich man ; insomuch that he would come no more to his house, 
 he would borrow no more money of him as he was wont to do 
 beforetimes ; yea, and conceived such hatred and malice 
 against him that he went and accused him before the bishops. 
 Now the rich man, not knowing any such displeasure, offered 
 many times to talk with him and set him at quiet ; but it 
 would not be : the poor man had such a stomach that he would 
 not vouchsafe to speak with him ; if he met the rich man in 
 the street he would go out of his way. One time it happened 
 that he met him in so narrow a street that he could not avoid 
 but come near him ; yet for all that, this poor man had such 
 a stomach against the rich man, I say, that he was minded to 
 go forward and not to speak with him. The rich man per- 
 ceiving that, catcheth him by the hand, and asked him saying, 
 ' Neighbour, what is come into your heart to take such dis- 
 pleasure with me ? What have I done against you .' Tell me, 
 and I will be ready at all times to make you amends.' Finally, 
 he spake so gently, so charitably, so lovingly and friendly, 
 that it wrought in the poor man's heart, that by-and-by he 
 fell down upon his knees, and asked him forgiveness. The 
 rich man forgave him, and so took him again to his favour, 
 and they loved as well as ever they did afore." 
 
 It may have been by mere accident that Monmouth was 
 present on the first occasion in St. Dunstan's-in-the-West ; 
 but it must surely have been some more powerful motive that 
 
 G a 
 
84 TYNDALE'S LIFE IN LONDON. 
 
 induced him to return to that church from his own home in 
 the other extremity of London. Poor, and savouring of Luther- 
 anism, Tyndale had probably excited the sympathy of the 
 generous merchant who himself had begun " to be a Scripture- 
 man," and whose special pleasure it was to assist needy scholars. 
 But we shall allow him to tell the story in his own words : — 
 
 " Upon four years and a half past and more," he writes to 
 Wolsey, in May, 1528, " I heard the foresaid Sir William ^ 
 preach two or three sermons at St. Dunstan's-in-the-West in 
 London ; and after that I chanced to meet with him, and with 
 communication I examined him, what living he had. He said 
 he had none at all ; but he trusted to be with my Lord of 
 London in his service ; and, therefore, I had the better fantasy 
 to him. And afterwards he went to my lord, and spake to 
 him as he told me, and my lord of London answered him that 
 he had chaplains enough, and he said to him that he would 
 have no more at that time." 
 
 But the narrative of Tyndale's abortive interview with 
 Tunstal must not be dismissed thus briefly. For some time 
 Tyndale had looked forward to it as the great hope of his 
 life. It seemed to him that, under the protection of a prelate 
 who loved learning, he might enjoy the peace and leisure with- 
 out which it appeared impossible that his great design could 
 ever be successfully accomplished. So Tyndale thought ; but 
 God had ordained that not in the learned leisure of a palace, 
 but amid the dangers and privation of exile should the English 
 Bible be produced. Other qualifications were necessary to 
 make him a worthy translator of Holy Scripture than mere 
 grammatical scholarship ; qualifications little likely to be 
 acquired in palaces ; to be learned rather in that stern 
 school of injury and suffering through which the writers of the 
 New Testament themselves had passed. These qualifications 
 Tyndale as yet wanted, and they were not to be acquired in 
 the palace of the Bishop of London. " God saw that I was 
 beguiled," he confesses, in subsequently looking back upon the 
 * Sir was the common designation of a priest, just as reverend is now. 
 
INTERVIEW WITH TUNSTAL. 85 
 
 transaction, " and that that counsel was not the next [nearest] 
 way to my purpose ; and, therefore, He gat me no favour in 
 my lord's sight." At the time he bitterly felt what seemed to 
 be the total disappointment of all his hopes ; but he afterwards 
 learnt to trace in what appeared a misfortune the fatherly 
 guidance of God ; and this very disappointment, which com- 
 pelled him to seek his whole comfort in the Word of God, 
 tended to qualify him for the worthy performance of his great 
 work. 
 
 At last the long-anticipated interview took place, with such 
 results as any one but an enthusiast like Tyndale might have 
 foreseen. Tunstal, though an accomplished scholar, " a man, 
 doubtless, out of comparison ^," according to Sir Thomas More, 
 was at the same time a cautious and courtly prelate, little 
 likely to sympathise with the noble enthusiasm of the scholar 
 who stood before him. Tunstal was a man of the world, a 
 man born to shine in courts, " right meet, and convenient," as 
 Warham assured Wolsey, "to entertain ambassadors and other 
 noble strangers at that notable and honourable city [London], 
 in the absence of the king's most noble grace ^." 
 
 Upon this reserved and dignified prelate Tyndale was almost 
 certain to make an unfavourable impression. He was, accord- 
 ing to his own confession, "evil-favoured in this world, and 
 without grace in the sight of men, speechless and rude, dull 
 and slow-witted ^." It is evident that at the first glance the 
 bishop and the scholar mutually distrusted each other. Tun- 
 stal felt that he might be compromised by the incaution of the 
 youthful enthusiast ; and Tyndale was repelled by the cold 
 and silent manner of the bishop, whom he describes as a " still 
 Saturn, that so seldom speaketh, but walketh up and down all 
 day musing, a ducking hypocrite made to dissemble *." Tun- 
 stal's courtesy was reserved for ambassadors and for scholars 
 
 ' More's Utopia. Ralph Robinson's translation. 
 
 ^ Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury, Vol. VI. p. 213. 
 
 " See Ms letter to Fryth, infra. 
 
 * Practice of Prelates : Tyndale's Works, Vol. II. p. 337. 
 
86 TYNDALE'S LIFE IN LONDON. 
 
 who had secured the patronage of kings ; for the unknown 
 scholar who stood disconcerted before him, with his translation 
 of Isocrates in his hand, and proposals for an English Bible 
 on his lips, he had nothing but that chilling official reserve, 
 which, more even than opposition, crushes the generous en- 
 thusiasm of youth. 
 
 With difficulty Tyndale explained the errand on which he 
 had come ; he produced what he had brought with him as a 
 proof of his scholarship ; he spoke of the greater design which 
 he hoped to accomplish in London ; he requested the bishop's 
 patronage, that he might have the means of subsistence during 
 the performance of his work. But Tunstal had no wish for 
 any further connection with Tyndale. He acknowledged, 
 indeed, the scholarship of the new candidate for his patronage ; 
 but he declined that personal protection which Tyndale had 
 solicited. " My lord answered me," says Tyndale, " his house 
 was full ; he had more than he could well find [provide for] ; 
 and advised me to seek in London, where, he said, I could not 
 lack a service ^." And so they parted, never to meet again. 
 Tunstal seems speedily to have lost all recollection of the 
 interview; but Tyndale never forgot the cold ungenerous 
 reception which had well-nigh broken his heart. 
 
 It has been doubted whether at this interview Tyndale made 
 any allusion to his intention of translating the Holy Scriptures 
 into English ; and assuredly the mention of such a design 
 would by no means tend to propitiate Tunstal's favour. But 
 on the whole it seems probable that Tyndale did communicate 
 his intention to Tunstal. There was no reason for bringing 
 his translation of Isocrates to London except as evidence 
 of his ability to accomplish a similar work ; and though the 
 translation of any part of Holy Scripture into the English 
 tongue had been forbidden to be undertaken by any man 
 of his own authority, it was expressly provided that the 
 " ordinary of the place " might approve and sanction such 
 a translation ; and it was, therefore, not altogether absurd to 
 
 ' Preface to the Pentateuch : Works, Vol. I. p. 396. 
 
MONMOUTH AIDS TYNDALE. 87 
 
 hope that Tunstal might be induced to give this sanction i. 
 Tyndale's own words, moreover, seem to make it quite clear 
 that he spoke of this work to Tunstal, for he says he intended 
 to have made his translation "in the Bishop of London's 
 house ^;" from which it seems natural to infer that he had 
 mentioned his intention to Tunstal ; for he could never have 
 dreamed of accomplishing it without his consent and know- 
 ledge. Disappointed in his hopes of assistance from the 
 Bishop of London, he had still one friend in the metropolis 
 who was willing and ready to help him. 
 
 " The priest came to me again," to resume Monmouth's inter- 
 esting memoir, " and besought me to help him ; and so I took 
 him into my house half-a-year ; and there he lived like a good 
 priest as methought. He studied most part of the day and of 
 the night at his book ; and he would eat but sodden meat by 
 his good will, and drink but small single beer. I never saw 
 him wear linen about him in the space he was with me [always 
 " odious in woollen "]. I did promise him ten pounds sterling, 
 to pray for my father and mother their souls, and all Christian 
 souls. I did pay it him when he made his exchange to 
 Hamburg ; and afterwards he got of some other men ten 
 pounds sterling more, the which he left with me. . . . The 
 foresaid Sir William left me an English book called En- 
 chiridion, the which book the Abbess of Denneye [in Cam- 
 bridgeshire] desired it of me, and I lent it to her. Another 
 book I had of the same copy '* ; a friar of Greenwich desired 
 it of me, and I gave it him *. I think my lord of Rochester 
 hath it \i.e. that Fisher had seized it. J ... I have showed 
 the book called the Enchiridion to Mr. Doctor Watson 
 [one of Henry's chaplains], and to Mr. Doctor Slockhouse, 
 pastor of Lavenham in Suffolk, and to many other that never 
 
 * See the Act of Convocation in Wilkins, Vol. Iii. p. 317. 
 ^ Preface to the Pentateuch : Works, Vol. 1. p. 394. 
 
 ' This book is mentioned in such a way as to suggest that it was printed, but of 
 this there is no proof; nor, indeed, all things considered, does it seem probable. 
 
 * Possibly this was either Roye or Jerome, who were subsequently associated 
 with Tyndale on the Continent. 
 
88 TYNDALE'S LIFE IN LONDON. 
 
 found fault in him to my knowledge, and to the father confessor 
 of Sion [religious house on the Thames above Brentford], and 
 to Mr. Martin, priest and parson of Totingbeke. . . . When I 
 heard my lord of London preach at Paul's Cross that Sir 
 William Tyndale had translated the New Testament in 
 English, and [that it] was naughtily translated, that was the 
 first time that ever I suspected or knew any evil by him. 
 And shortly after, all the letters and treatises that he sent me, 
 with divers copies of books that my servant did write, and the 
 sermons that the priest did make at St. Dunstan's, I did burn 
 them in my house. He that did write them did see it ; I did 
 burn them for fear of the translator more than for any ill that 
 I knew by [of] them ^." 
 
 We have given at full length the parts of Monmouth's 
 narrative that refer to Tyndale and his proceedings during his 
 residence in London ; for after the conjectures and uncertainties 
 which have constituted so large a portion of his biography up 
 to this point, it is impossible to over-estimate the value of the 
 information which the narrative contains. Monmouth's letter 
 furnishes us with an authentic sketch of Tyndale's habits and 
 manner of life, drawn by the hand of the man who knew him 
 best. And the picture thus sketched is that of a scholar of 
 simple tastes and ardent love of learning, one who, unfettered 
 by any vow, practised of his own accord that abnegation of the 
 pleasures of life, which was, or at least was supposed to be, 
 practised in the cloister as a wonderful attainment in religious 
 perfection. The picture, moreover, though drawn by a loving 
 hand, is not exaggerated through the influence of flattering 
 affection ; for Sir Thomas More, a bitter enemy, confirms it 
 in all essential particulars ; while inveighing fiercely against 
 Tyndale's doctrines, he admits that " before he went over the 
 sea he was well-known for a man of right good living, studious 
 and well-learned in Scripture, and looked and preached holily." 
 His enemies never attempted to deny his great learning ; and 
 
 ' Petition of Humphrey Monmouth to Wolsey, Harleian MSS. p. 425 ; printed 
 by Strype, with occasional errors, as usual. 
 
PREACHES AT ST. DUNSTAN'S. 89 
 
 no imputation was ever made against the rectitude of his moral 
 character. 
 
 It does not appear that Tyndale procured that " service " in 
 London, which Tunstal had assured him a man of his ability- 
 would have no difficulty in finding ; at least, there is no record 
 of his officiating as a preacher elsewhere than in the church 
 of St. Dunstan's. Probably, indeed, the " praying for the 
 souls of the father and mother of Humphrey Monmouth," 
 which formed the ostensible ground of connection between 
 him and his generous patron, was performed in the church of the 
 parish where the worthy merchant resided : and it seems also 
 to be implied in the words of Monmouth's narrative, that 
 Tyndale continued, at least for a time, to preach in St. Dunstan's, 
 carefully writing out his sermons, with the anxiety of one who 
 wished to discharge his duty well. These, however, seem to 
 have been the whole of Tyndale's official engagements in the 
 metropolis. London needed the labours of so well qualified a 
 teacher ; but a stranger, on whom the bishop had looked with 
 suspicion, was little likely to find encouragement there. 
 Tyndale was no adept in the arts of popularity, and London 
 was not likely to recognise in the quiet austere-looking 
 priest, hurrying along Fleet Street to St. Dunstan's, the man 
 whose words were to be associated for centuries with all that 
 is noblest in the spiritual life of England. 
 
 Whatever discouragement he might meet with elsewhere, 
 he was cordially welcomed under the hospitable roof of the 
 wealthy cloth-merchant ; and, indeed, all things considered, it 
 may be doubted whether even Tunstal's palace would have 
 afforded greater advantages than were to be enjoyed in the 
 home of Humphrey Monmouth. For Monmouth was no 
 ordinary man, no mere common-place trafficker, whose ideas 
 never rose beyond the state of the market. He occupied a 
 position of high respectability, and was afterwards alderman 
 and sheriff. He had travelled and seen the world to an extent 
 quite unusual in those days ; he had not only gone to Rome, 
 then the ordinary limit even of the most adventurous travellers, 
 
90 TYND ALE'S LIFE IN LONDON. 
 
 but had also visited Jerusalem. His patronage of men of 
 letters was marked by a generous liberality almost certainly 
 unequalled in England at that time. His liberality to Tyndale 
 we have already seen : he provided him at once with ten 
 pounds a year, equal, probably, to a hundred pounds in our 
 day, besides receiving him to reside in his house. This, how- 
 ever, was only one out of many similar instances of generosity. 
 "I have given more exhibitions to scholars," he declares in 
 his petition, "in my days than to that priest; Mr. Doctor 
 Royston, chaplain to my lord of London, hath cost me more 
 than forty or fifty pounds sterling [more than five hundred 
 pounds of our money], and also Mr. Doctor Wooderall, Pro- 
 vincial of Friars Austines, hath cost me as much or more ; Mr. 
 Doctor Watson, chaplain to the king's good grace, hath cost 
 me somewhat ; and somewhat I have given to the scholars at 
 his request, and to divers priests and friars." Even this list, 
 it may be assumed, by no means exhausts his benefactions to 
 men of learning : for it must be remembered that when he 
 wrote his petition, he was under arrest for assisting Tyndale 
 and others condemmed as heretics, and he is, therefore, 
 cautious not to mention any of his protdg^s who might be 
 looked upon by the authorities as tainted with the infection 
 of heresy. 
 
 At Monmouth's table Tyndale would be sure to meet many 
 of the most learned men in London ; for priests of all grades, 
 friars of all orders, priors and abbesses in numbers, were 
 amongst the familiar friends of the worthy merchant. Perhaps 
 Tyndale may have had to fight over again some of the same 
 battles which he had fought with the priests at the table of 
 Sir John Walsh ; more probably he would find the enlightened 
 company that assembled around Monmouth's board ready to 
 join with him in bewailing the lamentable corruptions that 
 prevailed in the Church, and eagerly longing for some ex- 
 tensive reform of abuses that were becoming intolerable. It 
 is quite certain that Monmouth himself was considerably 
 influenced by the opinions of Luther. He still, apparently. 
 
DIPLOMACY OF HENRY VIII. 91 
 
 believed in purgatory and prayers for the dead, as did also 
 Tyndalei; but he bought and studied the works of Luther; 
 and he was subsequently charged with eating flesh in Lent, 
 with speaking disrespectfully of the pardons granted by the 
 Pope and the bishops, and with denying the utility of 
 pilgrimages and offerings before the images of the saints : all 
 the customary indications, in fact, of one who adhered to what 
 was then styled the " detestable sect of the Lutherans." 
 
 It was in Monmouth's house, beyond a doubt, that Tyndale 
 heard most of that secret history of the transactions of Henry's 
 reign, which he afterwards repeated in his Practice of Prelates ; 
 it was here, unquestionably, that he met with many of those 
 men who were subsequently associated with him in his labours 
 on the Continent ; and it was here also that he would first 
 have an opportunity of perusing those writings of Luther 
 which had already withdrawn half of Germany from its 
 obedience to the Papal See. The great work of Luther, and the 
 wonderful progress of the Reformation in Germany, Switzer- 
 land, and France, had been but vaguely known to him as to 
 most Englishmen before ; but at the table of a merchant who 
 traded with those countries, aad where native merchants were 
 frequently to be met, he would hear all the details narrated 
 with the accuracy and impressiveness that belong only to eye- 
 witnesses. 
 
 All this was not, of course, inoperative upon Tyndale. 
 Hitherto, he seems to have looked up to Erasmus as the great 
 light and guide of the age, and the true reformer of religion ; 
 now he heard of a greater Reformer, whose words of more 
 impressive eloquence, and, still more, whose conduct of more 
 resolule determination, had achieved what Erasmus had rather 
 recommended than attempted. Tyndale was too independent 
 to be the mere echo or imitator of any one, however illustrious ; 
 but there can be no question that from this time onwards 
 
 ' It has been snggested that the "praying for the souls" spoken of in the 
 petition was a mere form of speech not to be interpreted strictly ; but surely this is 
 to prove a man orthodox at the expense of his honesty. 
 
92 TYNDALE'S LIFE IN LONDON. 
 
 Luther occupied the highest place in his esteem, and exercised 
 very considerable influence over his opinions. 
 
 To this period of Tyndale's life also may be, with little 
 hesitation, referred his intercourse with one who was after- 
 wards for some time the dearest of his earthly friends, John 
 Fryth. For the tradition which represents the two martyrs as 
 having been in residence together in Cambridge, may be set 
 aside as having neither evidence nor probability in its favour. 
 Fryth certainly did not enter Cambridge till the commence- 
 ment of 1543, by which time it is agreed on all hands that 
 Tyndale must have left the University for Little Sodbury. 
 It was in London, probably, therefore, that Fryth met 
 Tyndale, and heard from him those words of persuasiveness 
 and power which first implanted " in his heart the seed of the 
 Gospel and sincere godliness." It must have been in London 
 also that those conferences took place between them, in which 
 they discoursed of the necessity for Scripture being " turned 
 into the vulgar speech, that the poor people might also read 
 and see the simple, plain word of God." Fryth was con- 
 siderably younger than Tyndale, but there was something in 
 his earnestness and love of learning which at once secured 
 Tyndale's affection ; and to the close of Fryth's brief career 
 Tyndale never wavered in his attachment to his " dear son 
 in the faith." 
 
 Amid these various occupations in London, Tyndale did not 
 lose sight of the great purpose for which he had come to the 
 metropolis, and to which he felt impelled as the grand work of 
 his life. No question would be more earnestly weighed in his 
 own mind, or more eagerly discussed with the sympathising 
 visitors at Monmouth's table, than the question whether it was 
 likely that the consent of the Authorities of the Church could 
 be obtained to the issuing of a translation of the Word of God 
 in the English language. Practically, the use of the Word of 
 God in their native tongue was forbidden to the people ; 
 although theoretically, and according to the strict letter of 
 the law, what was forbidden was the reading of any translation 
 
STATE OF SCRIPTURE TRANSLATION. 93 
 
 of Holy Scripture " until the said translation be approved by 
 the ordinary of the place, or, if the case so require, by the 
 council provincial." Men were not absolutely forbidden to 
 translate Holy Scripture ; they were forbidden to translate it 
 of their own authority ; and a hope was thus apparently held 
 out of the possibility of some translation being produced under 
 the sanction of the bishops. This was, however, only a vain 
 delusive promise. More than a century had passed since the 
 enactment of this Constitution^ ; the bishops had been un- 
 ceasing and unrelenting in their severity towards all who dared 
 to read the Word of God in the version of WyclifFe ; but 
 they had taken no steps whatever for supplying the imper- 
 fections of that version by the production of a better. The 
 only existing version was rigorously prohibited under pain of 
 " the greater excommunication ; " no version which men might 
 freely read was as yet issued. 
 
 Tunstal had evidently given Tyndale no encouragement 
 to proceed in his work ; and the momentous question was 
 therefore to be decided, whether there was any hope or any 
 possibility of his obtaining that episcopal approbation without 
 which his translation could neither be printed nor read, without 
 exposing all concerned to the penalties of the law. Such a 
 question involved far too serious issues to be speedily or 
 lightly determined. Long and earnestly, we may be sure, 
 it was canvassed. The possibility of Tunstal's relenting ; the 
 hope of Convocation seriously addressing itself to the remedy 
 of those abuses in the Church which it had so often bewailed ; 
 the likelihood of Wolsey putting into execution any of the 
 reforms which he meditated, and overriding the opposition 
 of the bishops by the exercise of his plenary authority as 
 legate ; the fond expectation that some prelate more liberal 
 than Tunstal might be found who would grant the necessary 
 approbation for his work ; all these contingencies, we may 
 be sure, were carefully weighed ; but at the last Tyndale 
 sorrowfully "understood not only that there was no room 
 
 1 Wilkins, Vol. III. p. 317. ^ Passed at Oxford in 1408. 
 
94 TYNDAL^S LIFE IN LONDON. 
 
 in my lord of London's palace to translate the New Testament, 
 but, also, that there was no place to do it in all England ^" 
 
 What then was to be done? Was he to abandon his 
 cherished undertaking as impracticable, and patiently wait 
 in hope of better times? Such might have been the solution 
 of the difificulty that he would have adopted in Little Sodbury; 
 but in Monmouth's house, surrounded by men to whom the 
 state of the Continent was familiarly known, another solution 
 was suggested to him. It was clearly impossible to translate 
 the New Testament in England ; but there was no difficulty 
 in translating it abroad, in some of those countries where 
 the Reformation had established itself. Printers abounded on 
 the Continent, who would cheerfully undertake to print the 
 work if there was any reasonable prospect of being reimbursed 
 for their labour ; and Monmouth would take a pleasure in 
 pointing out the endless expedients, by which the energy of 
 mercantile enterprise might be able to import the work into 
 England with very little risk of its being discovered by the 
 authorities. Money alone was wanting ; but for this the 
 liberality of Monmouth might be depended upon : and there 
 were other friends, whose names unfortunately are unknown, 
 who gave Tyndale the considerable sum of ten pounds, almost 
 enough in those days to defray the expense of printing an 
 edition of the New Testament. 
 
 To Tyndale, who was an intense patriot, the thought of thus 
 exiling himself from his native land would bring a load of 
 distress, which nothing but his fixed determination to accom- 
 plish the great purpose of his life could have enabled him 
 to sustain. No other way, however, seemed open ; if he was 
 to accomplish that work to which he felt that God had called 
 him, if by his instrumentality England was to receive what 
 he believed to be the greatest blessing that could be bestowed 
 upon it, he must be ready to sacrifice the endearments of 
 home and native land, and to face the unknown dangers of 
 exile in a foreign country. The trial was great ; but Tyndale 
 ' Preface to the Pentateuch : Works, Vol. I. p. 396. 
 
HE SAILS TO HAMBURG IN 1534. 95 
 
 was strengthened to bear it. He recognised the guidance of 
 Providence, and though the way was rough, he prepared to 
 follow it. Whatever information he required for the direction 
 of his journey his host was well able to supply, for his trade 
 lay chiefly with those very countries towards which Tyndale 
 was about to proceed. For a man of Tyndale's simple habits 
 few preparations were necessary. Most of his books he left 
 with Monmouth ; but his copy of Erasmus' New Testament, 
 and possibly some crude first sketches of his translation, he 
 carried with him ; and somewhere about the month of May, 
 1534, he sailed to Hamburg, never to set foot on his native 
 land again. 
 
 Scarcely a year before, he had come up to London bright 
 with anticipations of success, hoping to find in the patronage 
 of a learned and liberal prelate that protection which had been 
 denied him in a remote and less enlightened diocese. All his 
 anticipations had been cruelly disappointed, and now in 
 sorrow and sadness he was sailing forth on the untried 
 dangers of solitude and exile. Still his faith sustained 
 him, and even hope did not desert him, for it seems 
 clear that he left his residence with Monmouth in the 
 expectation of returning again in peace. Blessed was the 
 Providence that concealed from him the future ; hope seemed 
 to him to brighten the dark cloud that hovered over him. 
 Had he been able to read the future that awaited him, and 
 which he subsequently so pathetically bewailed, the " poverty, 
 the long exile from his own native land, the bitter absence 
 from his friends, the hunger, the thirst, the cold, the great 
 danger wherewith he was everywhere compassed, the innumer- 
 able other hard and sharp fightings which he had to endure ; " 
 had he been able to foresee all this, doubtless his gentle and 
 loving soul would have been melted with the spectacle ; and 
 yet the stout heart would have gone forward, " hoping with his 
 labours to do honour to God, true service to his Prince, and 
 pleasure to his Commons '." 
 
 ' Letter of Vaughan to Henry viii : Cotton MSS. Titns. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM TYNDALE'S ARRIVAL IN HAMBURG TO THE PRINTING 
 OF THE FIRST ENGLISH NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 A.D. 1524 — 1526. 
 
 Hamburg was, in Tyndale's time, as now, a bustling city, 
 wholly immersed in trade, one of the chief commercial entre- 
 p6ts of Germany. Even here, however, the influence of that 
 mighty movement which Luther had inaugurated had made 
 itself felt. The clergy were numerous, and had largely shared 
 in the wealth of the city; the Church could reckon, in 
 Hamburg, a hundred and twenty secular priests, besides a 
 small army of members of the religious orders ; and, with the 
 customary insolence of the ecclesiastical corporations of that 
 day, they had demanded that their property should be 
 exempted from the heavy burdens which long wars had 
 brought upon the city. The day of retribution, however, 
 at length arrived ; men would no longer endure the insolence 
 and immorality of the clergy; the immunities of the Church 
 were no longer respected ; the traffic in indulgences was 
 publicly denounced ; and, in spite of the fierce opposition of 
 the priests, liberty was accorded to the followers of Luther to 
 preach their opinions. Thus Tyndale would see around him 
 in his new abode the actual operation of that great religious 
 movement, for which long years of preparation were still 
 needed in his native land. 
 
 But it was not merely to be a spectator of the progress 
 of the Reformation in Germany that Tyndale had crossed the 
 sea : he had come to Hamburg for a specific purpose, and he 
 doubtless lost no time in taking the necessary steps for the 
 
ARRIVAL AT HAMBURG. 97 
 
 accomplishment of his great work. His movements, however, 
 are for some time involved in obscurity ; the details that have 
 been preserved are few, and sometimes indefinite ; and the 
 uncertainty has been increased by the theorising of modern 
 writers who, in defence of their own hypotheses, have been led 
 to discredit the contemporary sources of information that have 
 come down to us. 
 
 It was, as we have seen from Monmouth's petition, about 
 the month of May, 1524, that Tyndale left London for 
 Hamburg ; ^ " and within a year," the narrative continues, " he 
 sent for his ten pounds [which some friends in London had 
 given him] to xa.^ from Hamburg ; and thither I sent it to him 
 by one Hans Collenbek, as I remember is his name, a merchant 
 of the Stilyarde."^ Somewhat earlier therefore than May, 
 and probably in April, 1535, Tyndale was again in Hamburg ; 
 and in the autumn of that year, as will subsequently be shown, 
 he was in Cologne. These may be considered as fixed and 
 indisputable points in Tyndale's life at this period ; how or 
 where the intervening months were spent are questions on 
 which considerable difference of opinion has hitherto prevailed. 
 
 Obviously, the first question that suggests itself to the 
 attentive reader of Monmouth's narrative \t this, — Did Tyndale 
 remain in Hamburg from May, 1524, to April, 1525, or did he 
 spend the interval elsewhere? Monmouth's declaration is 
 quite compatible with either alternative : and the question 
 must be decided by other evidence. The contemporaries of 
 Tyndale, all, without one dissentient voice, assert that he did 
 not remain at Hamburg ; but the prevalent opinion among 
 recent writers seems to lean to the contrary alternative. In 
 such a conflict between the assertions of contemporary 
 
 ' Anderson in his Annals, Vol. i. p. 45, notwithstanding Monmouth's narrative, 
 speaks of Tyndale as sailing to Hamburg in January, a month when the Elbe is 
 usually frozen over and Hamburg inaccessible by sea. But this and many other 
 mistakes in dates are inevitable results of Anderson's one grand mistake in the date 
 of the first discovery of New Testaments at Oxford, which he places in 1526 instead 
 of 1528. 
 
 ^ Harleian MSS., as before. 
 
 H 
 
98 PRINTING OF TYNDALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 authorities and the inferences of modern historians, there can 
 be little doubt on which side the truth is likely to be found. 
 And in the present instance the contemporary evidence is so 
 strong, that there need be no hesitation in rejecting the 
 theories which have in recent times been advanced against it. 
 One consideration alone may suffice to dissipate for ever the 
 hypothesis that Tyndale spent the whole of the first year of 
 his exile in Hamburg. He had left England for the sole 
 purpose of preparing for the press a translation of the New 
 Testament ; and, indeed, it is asserted by those who maintain 
 that he remained in Hamburg, that he printed the Gospels of 
 St. Matthew and St. Mark in that city before April 1525. 
 Now, though Hamburg was a wealthy and enterprising 
 commercial town, it did not as yet possess a single printer. 
 Printing does not appear to have been introduced into that 
 money-making community till after Tyndale's martyrdom ; 
 and in these circumstances, the theory that he spent a whole 
 year in a place where he could not possibly accomplish the 
 work for which he had left his home, may be dismissed as 
 untenable. ^ 
 
 But if Tyndale did not remain at Hamburg, where, it will 
 be asked, did he go? His contemporaries, without a single 
 exception, reply that he went to Wittemberg to see Luther ; 
 and as modern writers have denied this, it will not be super- 
 fluous briefly to exhibit some specimens of the concurrent 
 testimony of the older authorities. 
 
 Among the articles of accusation against Monmouth in 1528 
 was the following : " Thou wert privy and of counsel that the 
 said Sir William Hutchin, otherwise called Tyndale, and friar 
 
 ' This is not the place to inquire into the early history of printing in Hamburg ; 
 and fortunately it is unnecessary to devote much time to a subject which Dr. 
 Maitland has already treated with his usual ability. His Essay on this point, in 
 connection with the treatise De Verd ObedientiS., which is said to have been 
 printed at Hamburg in 1536, ought long ago to have given the coup de grdce to the 
 theory that Tyndale spent a year in a city without a printer, and that too when he 
 had come abroad for no other reason but to print. See Maitland's Essays on the 
 Reformation, p. 371, etc. 
 
TYNDALE AT WITTEMBERG. 99 
 
 Roye, or either of them, went into Almayne [Germany], 
 to Luther, there to study and learn his sect-" and Monmouth 
 in his defence does not deny the charge, as he certainly 
 would have done had it been false ; for it was no small fault 
 in the eyes of his accusers. 
 
 Sir Thomas More, in his Dialogue, written chiefly against 
 Tyndale, asserts that " Tyndale as soon as he got him hence, 
 got him to Luther straight ; " ^ that " at the time of his 
 translation of the New Testament Tyndale was with Luther 
 at Wittemberg, and the confederacy between him and Luther 
 was well known ";^ and still further, Tyndale having denied 
 that he was confederate with Luther, Sir Thomas in his 
 Confutation no longer accuses him of confederacy, but still 
 repeats the assertion that he was with Luther, at the time 
 when he was translating the New Testament.^ 
 
 Cochloeus, whose hostility caused Tyndale to suspend the 
 printing of his translation at Cologne, speaks of Tyndale and 
 Roye as " two English apostates, who had been sometime at 
 Wittemberg";'^ and the truth of this assertion Cochloeus had 
 abundant means of ascertaining from those who were printing 
 Tyndale's work. 
 
 Finally, John Foxe concurs in asserting that " on his first 
 departing out of the realm, Tyndale took his journey into the 
 further parts of Germany, as into Saxony, where he had 
 conference with Luther and other learned men in those 
 quarters."^ 
 
 Such is the testimony of Tyndale's contemporaries. They 
 had no theory to support ; they merely repeated what they 
 knew, or what was commonly believed at the time ; and with 
 one voice they maintain that Tyndale went to Wittemberg to 
 
 1 Dialogue, p. 283. Edition of 1557. 
 
 ^ Ibid. p. 221. 
 
 ^ Sir Thomas More's Confutation : Works, pp. 419, etc. 
 
 * Cochloeus, Commentarii de actis et scriptis M. Lutkeri, Mentz, 1549, p. 132 : 
 the passage is given in full subsequently. He repeats the statement in his treatise, 
 An expediat laicis legere Novum Testamentum : A. 6. 
 
 ' Foxe: Works, Vol. v. p. 119. 
 
 H a 
 
lOO PRINTING OF TYND ALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 see Luther. No other theory has" the slightest support from 
 . any contemporary writer : and evidence such as this cannot 
 be set aside except on the clearest and most convincing 
 demonstration of its falsehood. The objections alleged 
 against it by modern writers are, however, extremely feeble, 
 and scarcely merit any serious refutation. 
 
 In the main, two objections have been adduced against 
 that journey to Wittemberg which all contemporaries have 
 asserted. In the first place, it has been alleged that Tyndale 
 himself denies that he ever was with Luther ; and this would 
 certainly be conclusive, if only it could be proved. Tyndale's 
 words have in this instance, however, been misunderstood, 
 as a careful examination of the whole context will show. 
 Sir Thomas More, in the passage already cited from 
 his Dialogue, declares, " at the time of this translation, 
 Hutchins was with Luther in Wittemberg, and set certain 
 glosses in the margin, [of the first quarto New Testament,] 
 framed for the setting forth of the ungracious sect." " By 
 St. John, quoth your friend, [the imaginary interlocutor in 
 the Dialogue,^ if that be true that Hutchins were at the 
 time with Luther, it is a plain token that he wrought some- 
 what after his counsel, and was willing to help his matters 
 forward." Sir Thomas continues, " As touching the confederacy 
 between Luther and him [it] is a thing well known and 
 plainly confessed by such as have been taken and convicted 
 here of heresy." To all this passage Tyndale replies curtly 
 and emphatically: "When he saith Tyv^.A.sS.e^ ^2,?. confederate 
 with Luther, that is not truth." ^ Now, it seems sufficiently 
 obvious that these words of Tyndale do not at all imply a 
 denial of the whole of More's statement. Tyndale denies 
 most emphatically that he was " confederate with Luther," or 
 acting in common with him on a mutual understanding ; but 
 that he was at Wittemberg, or that he had seen and conversed 
 with Luther, he does not deny, but rather seems implicitly to 
 admit. That this is the true import of Tyndale's assertion 
 ' Answer to Sir Thomas More : Works, Vol. iir. p. 147. 
 
WITTEMBERG IN 1^%^. loi 
 
 seems placed beyond doubt by the fact that Sir Thomas More 
 in his subsequent Confutation again repeats his statement 
 that Tyndale was with Luther; and perhaps even more 
 strongly by the fact that Foxe, who edited that very work in 
 which the disputed words occur, maintains, notwithstanding, 
 that Tyndale on leaving England went to Luther. 
 
 In the argument just considered it may be admitted that 
 there is some show of reason ; but this can hardly be conceded 
 to the other objection which has been in recent times alleged 
 against the universal testimony of all Tyndale's contempo- 
 raries. It has actually been asserted that during the debated 
 period, Luther was so engrossed in his own labours that he 
 could not have had a moment to spare for conversing with 
 any stranger ; and that, moreover, he was so excited on the 
 great sacramental controversy which had just sprung up, that 
 he would not have permitted the approach of any one who 
 did not share his opinions. The great German Reformer 
 was, indeed, busily occupied in what was one of the most 
 eventful years of the Reformation ; and having, as he himself 
 used to say, " a pope in his belly," he may have been 
 somewhat sharp in his treatment of opponents ; but such 
 arguments, besides involving a gross imputation upon so noble 
 a soul, would not, even if true, prove that Tyndale did not go 
 to Wittemberg. Wittemberg was, in fact, the head-quarters 
 of the new movement that was agitating all Europe: it was, 
 as Duke George of Saxony styled it, " the common asylum of 
 all apostates ; " every man, in every country, who longed for 
 some reformation of religion, and whose opinions rendered 
 him obnoxious to the ecclesiastical authorities, flocked to 
 Wittemberg ; and for them all the German Reformer had a 
 hearty welcome ; after his marriage his house was open to 
 their visits, and at all times he was easy enough of access. 
 Moreover, there is no ground whatever for believing that at 
 this period Tyndale's views on the Sacrament differed from 
 Luther's, or even that he had at all departed from the ordinary 
 teaching of the Church on this point ; indeed, Sir Thomas 
 
loa PRINTING OF TYND ALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 More repeatedly asserts — and no denial was ever offered of 
 his assertions— that at first Tyndale did adopt the Lutheran 
 doctrine of the Sacrament. 
 
 The truth is, that the whole of this modern theory of 
 Tyndale's movements, constructed, as we have seen, in direct 
 opposition to all contemporary authority, has sprung from a 
 narrow and ill-grounded fear, that Tyndale's reputation would 
 be injured by the admission of his having been at Wittemberg 
 with Luther. The admirers of our great English translator 
 have been justly indignant at the ignorant misrepresentations 
 which have sometimes treated him as a mere echo and 
 parasite of his German contemporary; and, in their zeal to 
 maintain their hero's originality, they have discarded ancient 
 authority, and have denied that the two Reformers ever met. 
 The motive for such a defence may be praiseworthy, but its 
 wisdom is questionable. To maintain, in defiance of all 
 contemporary evidence, that Tyndale remained for a year in 
 a bustling commercial town where there were no printers, 
 where he would be disturbed by bitter quarrels, and deprived 
 of all opportunities of consulting books or conferring with 
 friends that might have aided him in his work, — this is surely 
 a strange method of vindicating Tyndale ; this is an attempt 
 to defend his originality at the cost of his good sense. 
 
 Rejecting, therefore, the theories of modern historians, we 
 accept implicitly the testimony of contemporary authors, and 
 believe that Tyndale, shortly after his arrival in Hamburg, 
 proceeded at once to Wittemberg. Of the details and inci- 
 dents of the journey, and the impressions it made on Tyndale's 
 mind, we have no record, and it is useless to indulge in specu- 
 lations. To a man like Tyndale, with a keen eye, and a mind 
 open to conviction, and capable of reflection, such a journey 
 must, as a matter of course, have been an eventful one, 
 contributing materially to form and develop his own religious 
 opinions, and cheering his heart after his sad farewell to his 
 native land. In England, he had prayed and longed for a 
 Reformation which seemed distant, and perhaps impossible ; 
 
TYND ALE'S INTERCOURSE WITH LUTHER. 103 
 
 but as he journeyed to Wittemberg he would see the Refor- 
 mation in successful progress. Indulgences were no longer 
 vended in places of public resort ; convents were abandoned 
 by their inmates, who had relinquished vows that secluded 
 them in idleness, and had betaken themselves to pious and 
 useful occupations ; images were no more reverenced ; the 
 Mass, with its accompanying rites, was giving place to the 
 Lord's Supper ; the people were freely permitted to read the 
 Word of God in their native tongue, and exhibited the deepest 
 interest in the theological questions that were debated around 
 them ; and even amongst those who were opposed to the 
 doctrines of Luther there was a firm determination to obtain 
 from the Roman See some redress of the intolerable grievances 
 under which the German nation had for ages been groaning. 
 In all this there was much to encourage Tyndale in the 
 prosecution of his great work ; but most of all would he be 
 encouraged by that intercourse with Luther, which, under 
 whatever difficulties in that year of troubles, we still suppose, 
 in accordance with the statements of contemporary authorities, 
 that he in some measure enjoyed. For Tyndale thus to come 
 into contact with the strong, joyous faith of Luther, to hear his 
 lion-voice echoing through the crowded University Church of 
 Wittemberg, or to listen to his wonderful " table-talk," as he 
 sipped his beer in friendly, social intercourse, would be to have 
 his whole soul inspired with courage, bravely to do whatever 
 duty God had called him to, and to learn to repose with 
 implicit confidence in the protection of the Divine Master 
 whom he served. Tyndale would have too much good sense 
 not to avail himself of any advice which Luther's experience 
 could suggest for the successful accomplishment of his work ; 
 and safe at last from any danger of molestation, he settled 
 down in Wittemberg to the steady prosecution of his long- 
 contemplated task. 
 
 To the modern scholar, amply provided with an embarrass- 
 ing riches of Greek scholastic apparatus, in the shape of 
 grammars, lexicons, synopses, and collations, the undertaking 
 
I04 PRINTING OF TYND ALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 of Tyndale probably does not appear to be one of any super- 
 lative difficulty. But in Tyndale's days the scholar had no 
 such helps as those which three centuries of study have 
 accumulated around us. Grammars and lexicons were as yet 
 few and meagre, mainly the works of Italian scholars, and 
 somewhat expensive and difficult to be procured. The ques- 
 tion of texts, and codices, and various readings, so interesting 
 to the Biblical student of the present day, had not then begun 
 to attract attention. Tyndale had, practically, no choice of 
 a text ; there is no reason to believe that he had access to any 
 manuscripts ; there is no trace in his first translation of any 
 direct influence exerted by the Complutensian Polyglot ; no 
 Greek Testament was in reality accessible to him, except that 
 of Erasmus, which had been originally printed in 1516, and of 
 which a second edition appeared in 1519, and a third in 1522. 
 From this third edition of Erasmus it can be demonstrated 
 that Tyndale made his English version.^ 
 
 That he would diligently avail himself of any assistance 
 which Luther or Melanchthon could afford, may be taken for 
 granted ; in truth, however, he cannot have received any ma- 
 terial assistance from such quarters. He was himself a good 
 Greek scholar, quite as good, in all probability, as Luther ; 
 but while he understood German,^ none of the learned men of 
 Wittemberg understood English, so that their help must have 
 been of very slight importance, and such as in no way to 
 affect Tyndale's originality. He might, indeed, be able to 
 
 ' Tyndale's translation contains the famous controverted passage about the three 
 witnesses in the First Epistle of St. John. Now this did not occur in Erasmus' 
 Testament till the edition of 1522, when it was inserted from the Complutensian 
 Polyglot. 
 
 ^ Demonstration of this will be given subsequently ; meantime, I refer to the 
 authority of Cochloeus, who ^eaks of Tyndale and Roye as " two apostates from 
 England, wJio learned the German language at Wittemberg:" Cochloeus, An 
 expediat laicis legere Novtim Testamentum : signature A. 6. It may be necessary 
 here to state that Cochloeus resided in Cologne when Tyndale was there in 1525, 
 that he was a daily visitor in the printing-office where Tyndale's book was printing, 
 and therefore could not well be mistaken in what he here alleges. See infra, 
 pp. 114, etc. 
 
MATERIALS USED BY TYNDALE. 105 
 
 consult them on the correct meaning of difficult or disputed 
 passages; but in the actual translation of the New Testament 
 into the English language he was thrown entirely upon his 
 own resources ; for, as he reminds his readers in the noble 
 epistle subjoined to his first octavo New Testament, he " had 
 no man to counterfeit [imitate], neither was helped with Eng- 
 lish of any that had interpreted the same, or such like thing 
 in the Scripture beforetime." He was of course aware of the 
 existence of Wycliffe's version ; but this, as a bald translation 
 from the Vulgate into obsolete English, could not be of any 
 assistance (even if he had possessed a copy) to one who was 
 endeavouring " singly and faithfully, so far forth as God had 
 given him the gift of knowledge and understanding," to render 
 the New Testament from its original Greek into " proper 
 English." 
 
 Of the ability and learning with which his work was accom- 
 plished we shall subsequently have to treat ; meantime, it must 
 be remembered that the task was not performed without great 
 labour, so that his residence in Wittemberg, from perhaps the 
 end of May, 1524, probably to the commencement of April, 
 1535, must have been no period of pleasant holiday. Every 
 available means of making his translation as perfect as his 
 knowledge and his time could make it, was sedulously 
 employed. He had before him in his work not only Erasmus' 
 New Testament, with its Latin version, but the Vulgate, the 
 German translation of Luther, all of which it can be proved 
 that he systematically consulted ; some favourite expositors 
 probably; and, without doubt, such grammars and lexicons of 
 Lascaris, Craston, and others as could be procured. The mere 
 mechanical drudgery thus entailed upon him was very con- 
 siderable, and might have delayed the completion of his task ; 
 fortunately, however, he received the assistance of an amanu- 
 ensis who, if he was somewhat unsuitable as a companion, was 
 at all events sei-viceable in a humbler capacity. This man, 
 William Roye by name, is not altogether unknown to the 
 student of our early literature ; and was one of those restless 
 
io6 PRINTING OF TYND ALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 beings whom the first stirrings of the Reformation impelled 
 to forsake his monastery and betake himself to a wandering, 
 unsatisfactory life, of little benefit to any one. The reader 
 will, however, prefer to see Tyndale's own account of his 
 eccentric amanuensis. 
 
 " While I abode [waited for] a faithful companion, which 
 now hath taken another voyage upon him, to preach Christ, 
 where, I suppose. He was never yet preached (God, which put 
 in his heart thither to go, send His Spirit with him, comfort 
 him, and bring his purpose to good effect),^ one William Roye, 
 a man somewhat crafty, when he cometh unto new acquaint- 
 ance, and before he be thorough known, and namely [especially] 
 when all is spent, came unto me and offered his help [sent by 
 Monmouth, as we have seen, who, no doubt, knew where Tyn- 
 dale was]. As long as he had no money, somewhat I could 
 rule him ; but as soon as he had gotten him money, he became 
 like himself again. Nevertheless, I suffered all things till that 
 was ended which I could not do alone without one, both to 
 write and to help me to compare the texts together. When 
 that was ended, I took my leave, and bade him farewell for 
 our two lives, and, as men say, a day longer. After we were 
 departed [i.e., separated], he went and gat him new friends, 
 which thing to do he passeth all that ever I yet knew. And 
 then when he had stored him of money, he gat him to Argen- 
 tine [Strasburg], where he professeth wonderful faculties, and 
 maketh boast of no small things."^ 
 
 Of this troublesome and ill-assorted companion, whose 
 " walking inordinately," and irrepressible propensity for " fool- 
 
 '■ Who this faithful companion was, it is impossible to say. Tyndale evidently 
 had good reason for concealing his name, and it is now impossible even to conjec- 
 tnre it. The supposition that it was Fryth is quite untenable ; not a single 
 particular of the description applies to him. Neither was it George Joye, who did 
 not leave England till 1527. It has been suggested that it may have been 
 William Hitton, of whom Tyndale always speaks with great respect : but of him 
 we know so little that it is impossible to decide as to the probability of this 
 conjecture. I have searched all Warham's Register without finding any notice of 
 Hitton. 
 
 ' Preface to Parable of Wicked Mammon : Works, Vol. i. p. 37. 
 
TYNDALE REMOVES TO HAMBURG. 107 
 
 ish rhymes," must have greatly vexed the soul of Tyndale, we 
 shall hear more anon ; meantime, with his help the work of 
 translation was probably brought nearly to a conclusion during 
 the year's residence at Wittemberg. The assistance which 
 Roye gave to Tyndale was, however, evidently nothing more 
 than that of an amanuensis ; and though the New Testament, 
 when it was first imported into England, was commonly 
 spoken of as the work of " William Hutchin and Friar Roye," 
 there is no reason to suppose that Roye's share in it was 
 greater than that which Tyndale assigns in the passage just 
 cited. 
 
 In the spring of 1525, Tyndale removed from Wittemberg 
 to Hamburg, to receive the remittance of the ten pounds 
 which he had left with Monmouth. We do not know why he 
 did not again return to Wittemberg ; but it is not difficult to 
 conjecture many good reasons for declining to print his trans- 
 lation at a place so sure to be suspected as Wittemberg was. 
 He knew that his translation would not be allowed in England, 
 and that all books imported from Wittemberg were sure to be 
 watched with the most jealous care, as proceeding from the 
 great head-quarters of heresy; and this alone would recom- 
 mend the propriety of selecting some town less notorious for 
 its Lutheranism than Wittemberg, and from which his book, 
 once printed, might be introduced into England with less 
 trouble and without raising suspicion. For this purpose no 
 city could be better adapted than Cologne ; it boasted of 
 some famous printers who had extensive business connections 
 in England ; it was, as it still is, entirely devoted to Rome ; 
 and from its position it offered far greater facilities than 
 Wittemberg for transmitting the books cheaply and expe- 
 ditiously to London. This was possibly the reason which 
 induced Tyndale and Roye to remove from Wittemberg to 
 Cologne, taking Hamburg in their way, that they might receive 
 from Monmouth the money without which they could not 
 proceed in their work. 
 
 But before narrating their proceedings at Cologne, one 
 
io8 PRINTING OF TYNDALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 point in their history deserves consideration. Monmouth 
 states in his petition to Wolsey that he " had a little treatise 
 that the priest [Tyndale] sent him when he sent for his 
 money;" and it has been suggested that this was a treatise 
 which had been printed by Tyndale, and was the first offering 
 of his pen to the great cause to which his life was now con- 
 secrated. If this were so, then it is evidently a matter of 
 interest to ascertain if possible the nature of this "little 
 treatise." Two opinions have been advanced on this point. 
 
 Some writers have imagined that it was a little work in- 
 corporated by Foxe in his Acts and Monuments, entitled. 
 The Story of the Examination of William Thorpe before 
 Archbishop Arundel? But it is quite evident to any one 
 who reads Foxe with care, that Tyndale did not print this 
 book, but simply undertook to modernise its obsolete English ; 
 moreover, it was never associated with Tyndale's name, but 
 was assigned by Sir Thomas More to Constantine ; and, what 
 seems fatal to the theory, there is not a particle of evidence 
 to show that it belongs to so early a date as 1535, but every 
 reason to believe that it did not appear till some years later.^ 
 
 The second theory, far more interesting if it could be con- 
 clusively established, is, that the " little treatise " was in reality 
 the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, which he had 
 printed probably at Wittemberg, as a first instalment of his 
 great work. The evidence in favour of this theory is suffi- 
 ciently strong to make it by no means improbable, though 
 not so conclusive as to secure its adoption as an important 
 addition to the somewhat meagre story of this part of Tyndale's 
 life. Foxe, it is true, had said in his account of Fryth, that 
 Tyndale when "he placed himself in Germany, did there 
 first translate the Gospel of St. Matthew into English, and 
 
 ' Walter's Life of Tyndale, prefixed to his Works. 
 
 ^ See Foxe, Vol. III. p. 249, etc. Sir Thomas More, in his Confutation, 
 mentions it in connection with the Exposition of the seventh chapter of First 
 Corinthians, and Jonas, both later than 1528. He does not, it is true, always 
 adhere to strict chronological order, but in the present case we have no means of 
 proving that he did not do so. 
 
ALLEGED EDITION OF ST. MATTHEW. 109 
 
 after, the whole of the New Testament ; " but this occurs in 
 a passage that literally swarms with errors, and has generally 
 been considered to be merely one of many instances of the 
 careless and rambling manner in which the Martyrologist, 
 who was innocent of all literary skill, is in the habit of ex- 
 pressing himself. More recent investigations, however, have 
 caused it to be surmised that Foxe did really intend to speak 
 of a translation of St. Matthew as being finished, and possibly 
 printed as a distinct work from the subsequent version of the 
 whole of the New Testament. In confirmation of this inter- 
 pretation various authorities have been cited. Robert Necton, 
 one of the most enterprising of the colporteurs who distributed 
 the prohibited books, when arrested and tried, confessed that 
 for a time, till he succeeded in purchasing some copies of the 
 New Testament of Tyndale's version, he had no books " except 
 the chapters of Matthew." ^ Similarly, John Tyball, of Steeple 
 Bumstead, acknowledged, when on his trial, April 38, 1528, that 
 "about two years ago he had possessed the Gospel of Matthew 
 and Mark in English"^ And Robert Ridley, uncle of the 
 martyr, (but widely differing from him in his opinions), writing, 
 probably in 1527, to Henry Golde, one of Warham's chaplains, 
 in fiercest condemnation of " the common and vulgar trans- 
 lation of the New Testament into English, done by Mr. 
 William Hichyns, otherways called Mr. W. Tyndale, and Friar 
 William Roye," specifies distinctly " their commentaries and 
 annotations in Matthew and Mark in the first print, as 
 well as their preface in the SECOND print" ^ 
 
 References so numerous would almost seem to substantiate 
 beyond any .doubt the existence of a translation of the two 
 Gospels of Matthew and Mark, issued before the rest of the 
 New Testament, and furnished with " annotations," that is, 
 probably with marginal notes, as in Luther's German trans- 
 lation, and in Tyndale's quarto version. In this there is 
 nothing in any way improbable or inconsistent with what is 
 
 1 Harleian MSS., 421. " Ibid. 
 
 » Cotton MSS., Cleopatra, E.V., p. 362. 
 
no PRINTING OF TYND ALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 known of Tyndale's proceedings ; and if we admit that this 
 is the true meaning of the passages cited, and that the Gospels 
 of Matthew and Mark were issued separately before the com- 
 pletion of the Testament, then we may with almost perfect 
 certainty assume that they were printed, not at Hamburg, as 
 has been hitherto said, for there were no printers there, but 
 at Wittemberg, not later than March, 1525. This would be 
 an interesting addition to the history of Tyndale's' life; but 
 it must be confessed that there are still some difficulties 
 which stand in need of explanation. Foxe is so inaccurate 
 in his life of Fryth that his assertion is of little value. Necton, 
 in his evidence, does not specify the " chapters of Matthew " 
 as the work of Tyndale, and they may have been manuscript 
 fragments of Wycliffe's version. A careful examination of 
 the sequel of Tyball's evidence, moreover, seems to make it 
 probable that he also was speaking of a Wycliffite version. 
 
 As to Ridley's specific assertions, it is to be noted that he 
 was merely writing from memory ; and as his letter totally 
 ignores the existence of the octavo Testament, which was 
 certainly known to be circulating in England when he wrote, 
 it is quite conceivable that in the confusion of indistinct recol- 
 lection, he imagined that he had seen a ''first print of Mat- 
 thew and Mark with annotations," and " a second print of the 
 whole New Testament with a preface " (but apparently without 
 annotations) ; when what he really had seen was, a New 
 Testament in quarto which had both annotations and preface, 
 and an octavo, which had neither} Moreover, it is difficult to 
 believe that a work so important as this, and so certain, by 
 its annotations, to give offence to the authorities, should 
 never have been mentioned among the prohibited books. We 
 have many lists both from friends and enemies of the works 
 issued by the early Reformers, and clandestinely introduced 
 
 ' In fact, there is no edition of the New Testament, which, strictly speaking, 
 answers to Ridley's description of the second print, so that we may justly suspect 
 some confusion from an inattentive examination of the books, or a confused 
 recollection of them. 
 
TYNDALE AND ROYE AT COLOGNE. m 
 
 into England, but in none of them does any notice of the two 
 Gospels occur.^ Whatever probabilities, therefore, have been 
 advanced in proof of the publication of the Gospels of Matthew 
 and Mark by Tyndale in the first year of his exile, this must 
 still be regarded only as a probable supposition not sufficiently 
 confirmed to be accepted as an ascertained fact. 
 
 To resume, therefore, the thread of the narrative, we believe 
 that from Hamburg, after no longer delay than was necessary 
 to receive the money which Monmouth had sent by Hans 
 Collingbek, Tyndale and Roye proceeded to Cologne, to 
 commit to the printer the work which had been prosecuted 
 so diligently at Wittemberg. The translation was, accord- 
 ing to the only evidence we possess, practically finished before 
 they arrived at Cologne, needing nothing probably but the 
 care and revision which Tyndale would naturally bestow upon 
 it. Printers were not difficult to be found in that ancient 
 Rhenish city ; Peter Quentel and Arnold Byrckmann were 
 renowned throughout Germany, and were not unknown in 
 London. Cologne was, indeed, strongly opposed to the 
 doctrines of Luther ; but Tyndale was provided with money 
 to indemnify the printers against any serious loss ; and, as 
 Roman Catholic writers at the time complained, there was 
 everywhere such a demand for books forbidden by the eccle- 
 siastical authorities, that a ready sale was anticipated, so that 
 the printers were easily persuaded to undertake the work. 
 
 Every precaution was used to ensure secrecy; and the 
 condition of Germany^ torn with intestine dissensions, and 
 agitated by the insurrection of the peasants, was supposed to be 
 favourable to the concealment which they courted. Roye's 
 unsettled and obtrusive temper was doubtless a great source 
 of anxiety to Tyndale ; but he knew how to restrain hi$ 
 tongue by keeping his pockets empty. All seemed to go well 
 with them ; they escaped the observation of the many hostile 
 eyes around ; their visits to the printing-office were so 
 
 ' This is not owing to their fragmentary character, for the separate books of the 
 Pentateuch are all denounced individually. 
 
113 PRINTING OF TYND ALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 skilfully arranged that they excited no suspicion ; the work 
 was progressing favourably, and the heart of Tyndale beat 
 high with hope. Three thousand copies were to be put to 
 press ; and already the work, a quarto with prologue and 
 marginal notes and references, had proceeded as far as the 
 letter " K " in the signature of the sheets,' when suddenly the 
 senate of the city issued orders that the printers should at 
 once suspend their labours, and Tyndale and Roye, to escape 
 imprisonment or worse consequences, were compelled to 
 snatch away what they could of the finished sheets, and sail 
 up the Rhine to some more hospitable refuge. 
 
 Unknown to them, an enemy, keen-eyed and sharp-witted, 
 had been for some time lurking in Cologne ; and it was his 
 unwearied and somewhat unscrupulous intervention that had 
 thus arrested the work when all seemed to promise fair for a 
 speedy completion. It was a heavy trial, doubtless, for that 
 faithful heart of Tyndale, which had been already so grievously 
 tried ; but if he owed no gratitude to the officious zeal of the 
 man who thus interrupted him, we are at least indebted to 
 him for a clear and graphic account of the whole proceedings, 
 which the reader will peruse with interest. John Cochloeus 
 is probably unknown, even by name, to ordinary readers ; but 
 to students of the history of the Reformation in Germany he is 
 sufficiently familiar, as a ready and voluminous controversia- 
 list, who seemed to consider himself specially raised up by 
 Providence to oppose and refute the opinions of Luther, and 
 who was, indeed, generally spoken of by the Roman Catholics 
 as " the scourge of Luther." He it was who so inoppor- 
 tunely discovered Tyndale's secret, and so summarily arrested 
 his work ; and as he never in his life-time received any suit- 
 able recompense for what seemed to him a most invaluable 
 service to the cause of the Church, he has taken care that 
 posterity should not forget his merits, by recording the whole 
 transaction in his Commentary on the Acts and Writings of 
 
 ' i.e., probably to St. Mark's Gospel ; the fragment preserved in the Grenville 
 Library terminates with " H." 
 
COCHLOEUS ARRIVES AT COLOGNE. 113 
 
 Luther} His narrative diverges so frequently into personal 
 details foreign to our subject, that it cannot be presented entire ; 
 enough, however, will be selected to render the whole occur- 
 rence intelligible to the reader, and to fix with certainty the 
 precise date of this interesting crisis in Tyndale's life. 
 
 In the year 1525 the disturbances connected with the 
 insurrection of the peasants reached Frankfort-on-the-Maine ; 
 and during the Easter holidays, that is, in the week after April 
 16th, the people of the city rose and threatened violence to 
 the clergy.^ The deans of two of the chief churches, Martorff 
 and John Cochloeus, apprehensive of the fury of the populace, 
 on account of their well-known opposition to Luther, fled from 
 Frankfort and took refuge in Mayence. The disturbances 
 followed Cochloeus to his new asylum ; on St. Mark's Day, 
 April 25th, the people rose, and for a time became masters of 
 the city. Driven from Mayence, the unfortunate dean repaired 
 to Cologne; but here the same evil fortune attended him. 
 During the Whitsuntide holidays (June 5th) the commons of 
 Cologne rebelled, and compelled the senate and the clergy to 
 resign much of their authority. For fourteen days the rioters 
 were in the ascendant, and Cochloeus was, doubtless, medi- 
 tating flight to some quieter haven; when, in the end, the 
 power of the Prince Archbishop prevailed, and order was 
 restored. Cochloeus was then invited to return to his office 
 at Frankfort ; but he resolved to shake off the dust of his feet 
 as a testimony against the ingratitude of the rebellious city, 
 and for nine months he lived in exile at Cologne. He was 
 thus at Cologne at the very time that Tyndale came there to 
 print his translation ; and being an indefatigable man of 
 letters, he naturally employed his leisure in literary pursuits, 
 and was engaged at the time in superintending a work 
 which was actually printed in the same establishment with 
 the English New Testament. The preservation of Tyndale's 
 
 ' Written in Latin and printed in folio at Mentz and elsewhere ; my references 
 are in all cases to the Mentz edition. 
 ^ Cochloeus, Commentarii, etc., p. m; feriis Paschalibus. 
 
 I 
 
114 PRINTING OF TYNDALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 secret thus became a matter of extreme difficulty; it was 
 scarcely possible that it should not somehow leak out ; after 
 some time the indiscretion of one of the workmen disclosed 
 the whole, and Tyndale had to retreat baffled from the scene. 
 But this part of the transaction may more appropriately be 
 told in Cochloeus's own language.^ 
 
 "Two English apostates, who had been some time at 
 Wittemberg, not only sought to corrupt their own merchants, 
 who encouraged and supported them in their exile, but also 
 hoped that whether the king wished or not, the whole people 
 of England would soon become Lutherans, by means of 
 Luther's New Testament, which they had translated into the 
 English language.^ They had already [before Luther wrote 
 his letter, September ist, 1525] come to Cologne, that they 
 might multiply by thousands through the press, the Testa- 
 ment which they had translated, and might then secretly 
 convey it to England concealed under other goods. Indeed, 
 so confident were they of success, that at the very outset they 
 requested the printers to put to press six thousand copies. 
 They, however, being somewhat apprehensive of suffering a 
 serious loss, should any misfortune occur, put to press only 
 three thousand copies ; for if these were sold to advantage they 
 could easily be printed afresh. Already Pomeranus \i.e., 
 Bugenhagius, a well-known Reformer] had sent an epistle to 
 the saints in England, and Luther himself had also written to 
 the king. And as it was believed that the New Testament 
 would speedily follow, the Lutherans were possessed of such 
 great hope, and inflated with such vain confidence, that in the 
 elation of their joy they disclosed the secret prematurely by 
 their foolish boastings. 
 
 " At that time John Cochloeus, Dean of the Church of the 
 Blessed Virgin at Frankfort, was living in exile in Cologne ; " — . 
 
 ' What follows is given by Cochloeus under 1526, not because it happened in 
 that year, but because the whole subject is connected with Luther's letter to Henry, 
 which that sovereign received and answered in 1526. 
 
 ' The meaning of this assertion will be explained subsequently. 
 
COCHLOEUS DISCOVERS TYND ALE'S WORK. 115 
 
 but we need not repeat the personal details into which the 
 dean here diverges ; suflSce it to say that Cochloeus was 
 occupied at Cologne in searching for the works of Rupert, a 
 former abbot of the monastery of Deutz, on the opposite 
 side of the Rhine, and had undertaken to prepare an edition of 
 them which Quentel and Byrckmann were to print. He then 
 resumes his narrative of the discovery of Tyndale's " wicked 
 design." "Becoming, in consequence of these engagements, 
 better known to, and more familiar with, the Cologne printers, 
 he sometimes heard them confidently boast over their cups 
 that whether the king and cardinal would or not, all England 
 would, in a short time, become Lutheran. He heard also that 
 there were two Englishmen lurking there, learned, skilful in 
 languages, eloquent, whom, however, he never could see or 
 converse with. Inviting, therefore, some printers to his lodg- 
 ing, after they were excited with wine, one of them in private 
 conversation disclosed to him the secret by which England 
 was to be drawn over to the party of Luther, namely, that 
 there were at that very time in the press three thousand copies 
 of the Lutheran New Testament, translated into the English 
 language, and that they had advanced as far as the letter 
 'K' in the order of the sheets; that the expenses were 
 abundantly supplied by English merchants who, when the 
 work was printed, were to convey it secretly and disperse it 
 widely through all England, before the king or the cardinal 
 could discover or prohibit it. 
 
 " Cochloeus, though mentally distracted between fear and 
 wonder, disguised his grief in a wonderful manner. But the 
 next day, considering sadly with himself the magnitude of the 
 danger, he deliberated how he' might conveniently obstruct 
 these very wicked attempts. He went accordingly in secret 
 to Herman Rinck, a senator of Cologne and a knight, well 
 known both to the Emperor and the King of England, and 
 he made known to him the whole affair, as by the help of 
 the wine he had learned it. Rinck, to make sure of every- 
 thing, sent another into the house where the work was 
 
 I a 
 
Ii6 PRINTING OF TYNBALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 printing, according to the information given by Cochloeus ; 
 and when he was informed that the matter was as it had been 
 described, and that there was an enormous supply of paper 
 there, he went to the Senate of Cologne, and procured an 
 order interdicting the printers from proceeding further with 
 that work. The two English apostates fled, carrying away 
 with them the sheets that were printed, and sailing up the 
 Rhine to Worms, where the people were under the full influence 
 of Lutheranism, in order that in that city they might complete 
 by another printer the work that had been begun. Rinck 
 and Cochloeus, however, immediately wrote to warn the king, 
 the cardinal, and the Bishop of Rochester, to take the utmost 
 precaution in all the seaports of England, lest that most 
 pernicious article of merchandise should be introduced."^ 
 
 Nothing, apparently, could be more complete than the 
 triumph of Cochloeus ; he had not only interrupted the 
 printing of the New Testament at Cologne, but he had 
 disclosed the secret of Tyndale's intentions to those who were 
 most able to take effectual steps to prevent the introduction 
 of the work into England, if Tyndale should ever succeed in 
 getting it printed at all. Tyndale himself was too magnani- 
 mous to make any allusion to the persevering animosity 
 which had thus vastly added to the difficulties of his under- 
 taking ; but his companion Roye, when freed from the 
 restraint of Tyndale's presence, gave vent in sharp, satirical 
 lines to his indignation at the inveterate spite of " Cocclaye," 
 whom he describes as 
 
 "A little, praty, foolish poade, 
 
 But although his stature be small, 
 Yet men say he lacketh no gall. 
 More venomous than any toad."^ 
 
 The reader who sympathises with Tyndale in the heavy 
 
 ' Cochloeus, Commentarii, etc., as above, p. 132, etc. 
 
 ^ Roye's satire. Rede me, and be not wrothe, printed with notes in the Harleian 
 Miscellany, Vol. IX. A piece like this, of considerable historical value, as the 
 work of one who was Tyndale's companion for nearly two years, is surely worth 
 reprinting under careful editorial revision. [Mr. Edward Arber included it in his 
 admirable series of English Reprints in 1871. Editor.] 
 
TYNDALE GOES TO WORMS. 117 
 
 discouragement that so suddenly fell upon him, will probably 
 not be sorry to learn that Cochloeus was completely disap- 
 pointed of the reward which he anticipated for so brilliant a 
 service ; Henry and Wolsey recognised in words his super- 
 lative merit; but, as he himself subsequently lamented, he 
 was left like Mordecai at the gate without any substantial 
 recompense for his disclosure of a plot as dangerous as that 
 against the life of Ahasuerus.^ 
 
 Though grievously disappointed and seriously inconveni- 
 enced by this unexpected occurrence at Cologne, Tyndale had 
 no intention of abandoning the work, even when it seemed to 
 be surrounded by endless difficulties. His retreat had been 
 sudden and precipitate, yet his choice of Worms, as a new 
 place of refuge, was not made without good reason. That 
 ancient city, famous in those times for the recent heroic 
 appearance of Luther before the Imperial Diet, had adopted 
 the opinions of the Reformation, so that Tyndale was secured 
 against the possible interference of officious priests and hostile 
 magistrates. Worms, moreover, was in those days superior 
 in importance to Cologne; it enjoyed almost equal advantages 
 of intercourse with England ; and in Peter Schoeffer, son of 
 the Schoeffer who had been associated with Faust at Mentz, 
 Tyndale would find a printer able to accomplish his wishes, 
 and inclined, from his Lutheran sympathies, to embark with 
 alacrity in his great undertaking. No time, therefore, would 
 be lost in resuming, at Worms, the work which had been 
 interrupted at Cologne. It was, as Cochloeus informs us, 
 not long after the date of Luther's letter to Henry, i.e., 
 September i, 1525, that the discovery took place which 
 compelled Tyndale and Roye to set out on what was then 
 the tedious and even dangerous voyage up the Rhine to 
 Worms. Their arrival in that city may be assigned, with 
 every probability, to the month of October, and not many 
 days probably would elapse before operations were actively 
 
 ' See his Scopa, signature B 2 (the work is not paged), and the letters of More at 
 the end of the work. 
 
Il8 PRINTING OF TYN DALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 recommenced ; and the hearts of the exiles would once again 
 beat high with the hope of accomplishing their long-meditated 
 design. 
 
 An important modification, however, was introduced into 
 their plans. Schoeffer may, not improbably, have objected 
 to the somewhat troublesome and ungrateful task of merely 
 completing what had been begun by his rival at Cologne; 
 and there was quite certain to be considerable practical 
 difficulty in procuring type and form that would exactly 
 range with those employed in the sheets that Quentel had 
 printed. Accordingly, the size and character of the book 
 were materially changed ; and instead of a quarto, with 
 prologue and copious doctrinal notes in the margin, Schoeffer 
 went to press with an octavo, destitute of either prologue or 
 glosses.^ The sheets which had been snatched from destruc- 
 tion at Cologne were not, however, lost : the New Testament 
 with glosses, which Quentel had begun, was completed by 
 some printer unknown, though not improbably by Schoeffer 
 at Worms. Of this, indeed, no direct evidence has ever been 
 produced ; and as not a fragment of the quarto, beyond what 
 was printed at Cologne, is known to exist, we have no 
 opportunity of ascertaining the printer by those indications 
 of type, form, illustration, and watermark which, in the hands 
 of an expert, would long ago have settled the question beyond 
 dispute ^. 
 
 ' This seems to me at once the simplest and the best explanation of what was 
 done at Worms. Anderson supposes that Cochloens had described the quarto to 
 Henry, and that Tyndale believed it imprudent in consequence to proceed with it 
 alone. But it seems strange that Tyndale should know the contents of Cochloens' 
 letter, and if he was much concerned about prudence surely he would not have 
 proceeded with the quarto at all. Professor Walter's explanation involves asser- 
 tions of which no proof can be given. 
 
 '^ Some writers imagine that this inteiTupted work, which could not possibly have 
 proceeded further than the end of St. Matthew, was the Gospel of St. Matthew 
 to which Foxe refers, and which Necton possessed (see supra, pp. io8, 109). Even 
 if this were so, this could not have been the treatise which Tyndale sent to Mon- 
 mouth in April, 1525, for it was not then printed. Moreover it is certain that an 
 edition of the New Testament with glosses was in circulation in 1526, and was 
 denounced by Tunstal ; so that it is indisputable that either the Cologne edition was 
 
THE NEW TESTAMENT SENT TO ENGLAND. 119 
 
 The fact, however, of the completion, nearly about the 
 same time, of two editions of the New Testament, is placed 
 beyond a doubt by the earliest official notice of Tyndale's 
 work — the prohibition of that bishop whose patronage had 
 been solicited in vain^which distinctly specifies " many 
 books of the translation," as being in circulation, " some with 
 glosses and some without" Thus the hostility of Cochloeus, 
 which at one time threatened to arrest the progress of the 
 work, only delayed its completion for a time, and seems to 
 have enabled Tyndale to carry out his original design of 
 printing not three but six thousand copies of his translation. 
 There were friends in England, as Cochloeus admitted, 
 willing to supply the necessary funds ; Schoefifer was more 
 friendly than Quentel had been ; and according to the testi- 
 mony of an eminent German contemporary,^ "six thousand 
 copies of the English Testament were printed at Worms." 
 
 The few jveeks intervening between the period of arrival at 
 Worms and the close of 1525 would not, of course, suffice, 
 even with all the energy of Tyndale and Roye in correcting 
 and revising, to complete what must have been in those times 
 of imperfect mechanical appliances an undertaking of consi- 
 derable magnitude. But early in the spring of 1526, as soon 
 as the relaxing rigour of winter permitted navigation to be 
 resumed, the English New Testament, in both forms, would 
 be with all secrecy smuggled over into England.^ The 
 German merchants had for several years carried on an 
 
 finished or another similar one, of which on this theory not a leaf has been 
 preserved. 
 
 ' Spalatin's Diary. See subsequently the passage in full. 
 
 ^ It is naturally impossible to say when the New Testaments were first brought 
 to England. Anderson, who has unfortunately transferred to 1526 the occurrences 
 at Oxford in 1528, is bound in consequence to assume that they were in England at 
 the end of January, or even earlier, but this has not been proved, and the difficulty 
 of transport at that season renders it very improbable. The earliest notice of its 
 presence in England which I have observed, occurs in the evidence of John Pykas, 
 who, on March 7th, 1528, confessed that about a two years last past he bought a 
 New Testament ; this plainly pomts to some date posterior to March, 1526, as the 
 time of purchase. I do not believe they were in England before April or May of 
 that year. 
 
I30 PRINTING OF TYN DALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 extensive trade in the importation of the prohibited books of 
 Luther and the Continental Reformers ; and in England 
 there existed a skilfully organised system of colportage by 
 which the works thus introduced had been sold in London, in 
 the country towns, and in the Universities, without attracting 
 the notice of the ecclesiastical authorities. Henry and 
 Wolsey had, indeed, been warned of this threatened invasion 
 of England by the "Word of God in the native tongue ;" and 
 the warning of Cochloeus had been repeated by Lee, Henry's 
 almoner, and subsequently Wolsey's successor in the See of 
 York, who thus wrote from Bordeaux, on December and : — 
 
 " Please it your highness to understand that I am certainly 
 informed as I passed in this country, that an Englishman, 
 your subject, at the solicitation and instance of Luther, with 
 whom he is, hath translated the New Testament into English, 
 and within few days intendeth to arrive with the same 
 imprinted, in England. I need not to advertise your grace 
 what infection and danger may ensue hereby, if it be not 
 withstanded. This is the next \i.e., nearest] way to fulfil \i.e., 
 to fill full] your realm with Lutherans. For all Luther's 
 opinions be grounded upon bare words of Scripture, not well 
 taken nor understanded, which your grace hath opened [made 
 clear] in sundry places of your royal book. All our forefathers, 
 governors of the Church of England, hath with all diligence 
 forbid, and eschewed publication of English Bibles, as ap- 
 peareth in constitutions provincial of the Church of England. 
 Now, sir, as God hath endued your grace with Christian 
 courage to set forth the standard against these Philistines, and 
 to vanquish them^ so I doubt not but that He will assist your 
 grace to prosecute and perform the same, that is, to under- 
 tread them that they shall not now again lift up their heads, 
 which they endeavour now by means of English Bibles. 
 They know what hurt such books hath done in your realm in 
 times past. Hitherto, blessed be God, your realm is safe 
 from infection of Luther's sect, as for so much that although 
 any peradventure be secretly blotted within, yet for fear of 
 
COMPLETION OF THE GREAT WORK. lai 
 
 your royal majesty, which hath drawn his sword in God's 
 cause, they dare not openly avow. Wherefore, I cannot 
 doubt but that your noble grace will valiantly maintain that 
 you have so nobly begun. The realm of France hath been 
 somewhat touched with this sect, in so much that it hath 
 entered among the doctors \i.e., theologians] of Paris, whereof 
 some be in prison, some fled, some called in judicium. . . . 
 And yet, blessed be God, your noble realm is yet unblotted. 
 Wherefore, lest any danger might ensue, if these books 
 secretly should be brought in, I thought my duty to advertise 
 your grace thereof, considering that it toucheth your high 
 honour, and the wealth [i.e., well-being] and integrity of the 
 Christian faith within your realm ; which cannot long endure 
 if these books may come in."^ 
 
 All this vehement adjuration might have been dispensed 
 with ; Henry was not in the least inclined to tolerate the 
 introduction of the English New Testament into his realm. 
 Fortunately, however, for his subjects, the enterprise of the 
 merchants was more than a match for the power of the 
 sovereign and the hostility of the bishops ; and, as we shall 
 presently see, in spite of all warnings and all precautions, the 
 work of Tyndale was safely conveyed into England, and 
 widely circulated there, to the inexpressible joy and comfort 
 of many who had long walked in darkness. 
 
 Nearly two years had now passed over Tyndale's head 
 since he left his native land. His life in exile had not 
 been a smooth one, and he had had bitter experience of the 
 vicissitudes to which his faith exposed him : but at last he 
 had surmounted all difficulties and accomplished the work 
 on which for years the whole energies of his mind had 
 been concentrated. At length, by God's mercy, his proud 
 boast at Sodbury had been realised ; and the very poorest of 
 his countrymen, the very boy at the plough, if he could read, 
 might know Holy Scripture as well as any doctor did. At 
 
 1 Cotton MSS., Vespasian C. iii. fol. 211; the letter has been printed in Sir 
 Henry Ellis's Original Letters, Series 3, Vol. 11. 
 
123 PRINTING OF TYND ALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 length he might unbend from the labour which had so long 
 taxed, and yet cheered, both body and soul ; and as he 
 watched the precious volumes passing, bound or in sheets, 
 into the hands of the enterprising merchants who were to 
 convey them to their destination, need we doubt that the 
 heart of the patriotic translator swelled with fond thoughts of 
 the home from which he was so far separated, and that with 
 his voice of thanks for the grace which had enabled him to 
 bring his work to a successful termination, there mingled an 
 earnest prayer for abundant blessing on his countrymen for 
 whom he had so faithfully laboured? No alloy of baser 
 pride was associated with these pure emotions : the book was 
 not intended to secure the fame of the translator; it was 
 sent forth anonymously into the world, without anything to 
 indicate the man to whom England was indebted for so great 
 a treasure. Tyndale had not laboured for money or for 
 applause, and he was content " patiently to abide the reward 
 of the Last Day."i 
 
 ^ Preface to the Wicked Mammon. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 TYNDALE'S first new TESTAMENT; DESCRIPTION OF THE 
 
 BOOK IN ITS TWO FORMS ; TYNDALE'S QUALIFICATIONS 
 
 AS A TRANSLATOR ; SPECIMENS OF HIS WORK. 
 
 The issue of the first New Testament forms too important 
 an event in the life of Tyndale to be passed over with the 
 mere historical narrative of its occurrence ; the reader may 
 reasonably expect to be supplied with detailed information 
 as to the exact nature and merits of that work, which consti- 
 tutes Tyndale's claim on the gratitude of all English-speaking 
 people. And it is the more necessary to present these details, 
 because an enormous amount of misconception has long pre- 
 vailed on the subject, which it is desirable, not for Tyndale's sake 
 merely, but also, in some measure, for that of the English New 
 Testament, if possible, effectually to remove. Without, there- 
 fore, entering minutely into questions that belong more appro- 
 priately to the province of the antiquarian and the biblio- 
 grapher, we shall endeavour clearly and succinctly to present 
 in this chapter such information concerning Tyndale's first 
 New Testament as, it may be presumed, must be of interest 
 to all intelligent readers. 
 
 According to the statement of Buschius, already quoted 
 from Spalatin's journal, six thousand copies of the New Testa- 
 ment were printed at Worms ; that is, as has been generally 
 understood, three thousand in octavo, and as many in quarto. 
 And the reader, perhaps, takes for granted, that of this large 
 number, some considerable fraction has been preserved intact 
 through the changes of three centuries and a half. Had the 
 ravages of time alone been directed against the book, no 
 
124 TYNDALE'S FIRST NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 doubt not a few might still be found safe in the shelter of our 
 older libraries ; but the New Testaments were for many years 
 rigorously prohibited, they were eagerly sought for by the 
 officers of the Church, and publicly burned whenever they 
 were discovered. Thus it has happened that of the three 
 thousand quarto New Testaments, only a single copy remains, 
 and that in a most imperfect state : and of the octavo, only 
 two are known to exist ; one, incomplete, in the library of St. 
 Paul's Cathedral, and the other, wanting only the title-page, 
 in the Baptist College at Bristol. A brief description of the 
 fragmentary quarto, and the nearly perfect octavo, will not 
 be unacceptable to the reader, and cannot be thought out of 
 place in a life of Tyndale. 
 
 The quarto fragment is justly esteemed the chief treasure 
 of the Grenville Library in the British Museum. So com- 
 pletely, indeed, had this New Testament begun at Cologne 
 disappeared from view, that its very existence had been 
 ignored and even denied ; and eminent authorities had 
 maintained that no New Testament was printed in English, 
 before that which was issued surreptitiously at Antwerp 
 towards the close of 1526. In 1834, Thomas Rodd, a 
 London bookseller, in examining a volume which contained 
 a treatise by the Swiss Reformer, Oecolampadius, found that 
 there was bound up with it a fragment of the Gospel of St. 
 Matthew in English. There was no title-page, nor anything 
 to indicate the name of the translator, or the time or place of 
 its publication. It was evident, however, that the leaves had 
 originally formed part of what was intended to be a complete 
 version of the whole New Testament ; for the fragment con- 
 tained a list of all the books in its Table of Contents. But 
 notwithstanding the absence of all the ordinary indications 
 of printer or authorship, there were not wanting certain clues 
 by the help of which ingenious scholars were able to solve 
 those obscure questions. 
 
 Thus it was observed that the prologue, with which the 
 fragment began, commenced with an elegant ornamental Y 
 
THE GRENVILLE FRAGMENT. 125 
 
 (used for I), which on further investigation was found to occur 
 in several books that were undoubtedly productions of Quen- 
 tel's press.^ Still further, there was prefixed to the translation 
 a large bold woodcut of Saint Matthew, represented as busily- 
 engaged writing his Gospel, and in the act of dipping his pen 
 into an inkstand held for him by an angel. This very same 
 woodcut is also used, curiously enough, in one of the volumes 
 edited by Tyndale's enemy Cochloeus during his exile at 
 Cologne, viz., a Commentary on St. Matthew by Rupert, 
 Abbot of Deutz. In this latter work, however, in order to 
 accommodate it to the smaller space available, the woodcut has 
 been slightly reduced in size ; and we have thus ocular 
 demonstration that the fragment of the New Testament must 
 have preceded the Commentary of Rupert ; as the entire block 
 must, of necessity, have preceded the reduced one. Rupert's 
 work on St. Matthew was finished June 12th, 1526 ; the frag- 
 mentj therefore, belongs to an earlier date. The prologue, 
 moreover, contains those very assertions for which Tyndale's 
 New Testament, on its first appearance, was held up to public 
 reprobation. Thus every step in the identification is complete ; 
 and by internal evidence which it is impossible to dispute, the 
 leaves are demonstrated to belong to that first edition of the 
 New Testament whose history we have just read, which was 
 begun under such favourable auspices at Cologne, and was 
 so unexpectedly interrupted by the vindictive energy of 
 Cochloeus. The precious fragment came subsequently into 
 the possession of the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, and was 
 bequeathed by him to the British Museum. It consists of 
 only thirty-one leaves, and finishes abruptly with the words 
 "Friend, how camest thou in hither and" in the twenty- 
 second chapter of St. Matthew. The inner margin contains 
 a few references to parallel passages, such as are commonly 
 printed in modern Bibles ; while in the outer margin are 
 
 1 Mr. Offor takes the credit of having first suggested these points of resemblance ; 
 I do not presume to determine whether he does so on sufficient grounds. See his 
 MS. Notes on Anderson's Annals in the Museum. 
 
126 TYND ALE'S FIRST NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 placed notes of various kinds, doctrinal, explanatory, and 
 polemic, which are, in fact, the pestilent glosses so repeatedly 
 denounced by the English authorities.^ 
 
 The history of the one perfect copy of the octavo Testament 
 of Worms can be traced back for upwards of a century. 
 Somewhere about the year 1 740, the Earl of Oxford, the col- 
 lector of the famous Harleian Library, secured it through one 
 of his numerous agents, whom he rewarded for the discovery 
 with a payment of ten pounds, and an annuity of twenty. At 
 the death of Lord Oxford his library was purchased by 
 ■Osborne, the famous London bookseller, who, in complete 
 ignorance of the value of the work, sold it to the great biblio- 
 grapher, Joseph Amesj for fifteen shillings. After passing 
 through the hands of another bookseller, it came into the pos- 
 session of the Rev. Dr. Gifford, one of the Assistant Librarians 
 of the British Museum, who gave twenty guineas for it. Dying 
 in 1784, he bequeathed the precious treasure, with the rest of 
 his valuable collection of Bibles and rare books, to the Baptist 
 College in his native city of Bristol ; and there the volume 
 rests in a fire-proof safe, secure, it is to be hoped, against all 
 further vicissitudes of time. The book, as has already been 
 stated, wants the title-page,^ and contains no date nor name of 
 printer or translator ; but the proof of its identity with the 
 New Testament printed at Worms, as described in the previous, 
 chapter, is complete. It has been demonstrated by the most, 
 unquestionable of all evidence, the juxtaposition of facsimiles, 
 that the same type is used in the Bristol New Testament as 
 in other works of Schoeffer's printing preserved in the royal 
 libraries at Stuttgard and Munich ; that the water-marks are 
 of similar design ; and that some of the illustrative vignettes 
 
 ' The precious volume is numbered 12,179 ™ '^^ Granville Library in the 
 Museum : it has been bound in blue morocco, and leaves have been inserted to 
 make the book as near as can be calculated to the original size. The prologue has 
 been printed in the Parker Society Edition of Tyndale's Works. The whole has 
 been photo-lithographed by Mr. Arber, and issued vpith a valuable preface. 
 No Biblical scholar can consider his library complete without a copy of this work. 
 
 ^ The title-page that used to be shown, one of Mr. Offor's manufacture, has very 
 j)roperly been taken out. 
 
THE OCTAVO AT BRISTOL. 127 
 
 are identical. In short, no possible doubt remains on the 
 identity of the book. Unlike the work begun at Cologne, 
 this octavo New Testament contains neither prologue nor 
 marginal glosses, nor anything in addition to the sacred text, 
 except a very brief " Epistle to the Reader," subjoined to the 
 book, mainly by way of apologising for the haste and conse- 
 quent imperfection with which the volume had been finished. 
 The copy which has actually been preserved at Bristol seems 
 to have belonged to some person of wealth ; as all the capitals, 
 vignettes, and paragraphs are illuminated, the pages are neatly 
 enclosed with red lines, and references to parallel passages are 
 inserted in ink in the margin, evidently by a contemporary 
 hand.^ 
 
 Such are the two remaining specimens of Tyndale's earliest 
 labours in the translation of the New Testament; and a 
 collation of the fragment of the quarto with the complete 
 octavo, makes it quite certain that they contain one and the 
 same version. There are, indeed, several differences in the 
 spelling of the two ; but these are sufficiently accounted for by 
 the supposition, obviously an exceedingly reasonable one, that 
 in reprinting the text at Worms, Tyndale took the opportunity 
 of correcting any mistakes in the orthography which had 
 crept into the quarto at Cologne. The question, occasionally 
 asked, whether the quarto or the octavo was first finished and 
 sent to England, we do not pretend to answer. The fragment 
 of the quarto that has been preserved, beyond all question 
 preceded anything that was printed at Worms, for the evidence 
 of Cochloeus is conclusive on this point ; but whether the 
 quarto, already begun, was at once completed, or whether its 
 publication was delayed till the smaller issue was finished, is a 
 point on which, in the total absence of all authentic evidence, 
 any decision must be mere idle conjecture.^ All that can be 
 
 ^ I have examined the volume myself ; but in my details I have preferred to rely 
 on Mr. Fry's Introduction to his admirable facsimile of the book : if any admirer 
 of Tyndale wishes an appropriate memento of the illustrious translator, let him 
 procure Mr. Fry's beautiful work. 
 
 '^ Anderson, and even Westcott, seem to suppose that some inference may be 
 
ia8 TYNDALJEfS FIRST NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 affirmed with certainty is, that the very earliest official notice 
 of Tyndale's New Testament in England, distinctly specifies 
 both the edition with glosses (the quarto), and that without 
 glosses (the octavo), as dispersed in great numbers throughout 
 the diocese of London. 
 
 Passing, however, from these details, which are only of minor 
 moment, a far more important question demands our con- 
 sideration. It may be asked, " Was Tyndale properly 
 qualified to translate the New Testament, and what is the 
 real literary value of his translation ? " These questions are 
 of prime importance, and they demand a plain and satis- 
 factory reply. 
 
 It has been customary to speak of Tyndale as an indifferent 
 scholar, ignorant of Hebrew, imperfectly acquainted with 
 Greek, knowing only Latin and perhaps German, and making 
 his versions of Scripture from the Vulgate and from Luther. 
 Even Fuller takes for granted that he "rendered the Old 
 Testament out of the Latin, his best friends not entitling him 
 to any skill at all in the Hebrew."^ Fuller, to be sure, is no 
 very great authority, and would have been sadly at a loss to 
 name any of the best friends of Tyndale who had thus acknow- 
 ledged his total ignorance of Hebrew ; but other writers who 
 profess to have made elaborate inquiry speak in the same 
 contemptuous style of Tyndale's meagre scholarship. Hallam, 
 " classic Hallam, much renowned for Greek," informs his 
 readers, in a sentence replete with errors, that Tyndale's 
 New Testament was "published in J535 or 1536!" and was 
 " avowedly taken from the German of Luther and from the 
 Latin Vulgate." Bishop Marsh, in his Theological Lectures, 
 considers himself to have proved by copious induction, that 
 Tyndale's version was taken from that of Luther, and that, 
 
 drawn as to the priority of the quarto from the greater faultiness of its spelling. 
 Such an inference would be legitimate enough if we could compare the octavo with 
 that portion of the quarto which was not printed at Cologne : but of this not a line 
 has been preserved, and the priority of Quentel's part of the work is established 
 beyond all question by the history of Cochloeus. 
 
 ' Fuller's Church History, Vol. in. p. 162. Brewer's edition. 
 
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TVND ALE'S SCHOLARSHIP. 129 
 
 in fact, Tyndale knew nothing beyond Latin and German. 
 And in more recent times, Dean Hook, without entering 
 into any examination of the subject, asserts incidentally, 
 that Tyndale's translation was only doing into English the 
 Septuagint and the Vulgate ;i forgetting, apparently, that the 
 man who could " do the Septuagint into English " needed not 
 to rely upon the Vulgate. Minor writers have, of course, fol- 
 lowed in the wake of these authorities, and without ever having 
 studied or even seen Tyndale's work presume to indulge in 
 ill-natured sneers against Tyndale's supposed ignorance.^ 
 
 Questions of fact can only be determined by testimony and 
 investigation ; and, fortunately, Tyndale's scholarship can be 
 sufficiently established by an overwhelming array of evidence 
 both external and internal. Sir Thomas More, a thoroughly 
 competent judge, perfectly free from all prepossession in 
 Tyndale's favour, admits that Tyndale "before he fell into 
 these frenzies [of Luther's opinions] was taken for full prettily 
 learned." Whilst criticising and condemning his translation 
 on account of its countenancing Lutheran doctrines, he never 
 denies Tyndale's competent scholarship; nay, he even goes 
 so far as to suggest that a certain book which he bitterly 
 opposed, could not possibly have been written by Tyndale on 
 account of its lack of learning.* Cochloeus, whose deter- 
 mined hostility we have already noticed, speaks of Tyndale 
 and his associate at Cologne as " learned, skilful in languages, 
 and eloquent." George Joye, an English Protestant refugee, 
 
 ' Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, Vol. vi. p. 233. The Dean is very 
 unfortunate in his statements on the history of the English Bible. He asserts, for 
 example, that in 1526 Tnnstal bought up the whole of TVicliffe's translation of the 
 New Testament and burned them 1 1 What he meant to say being evidently this, 
 that in 1529 Timstal bought up a considerable number of Tyndale's New Testa- 
 ments and other prohibited Works, and burned them in 1530. 
 
 * [An elaborate examination of the evidence of Tyndale's Greek and Hebrew 
 scholarship is contained in an exhaustive review of Dr. Mombert's edition of 
 William Tyndale's Five Books of Moses, printed in the Athenaeum for April i8th 
 and May 2nd, 1885. Editor.] 
 
 ' The words cited are from Sir Thomas More's Answer to the first fart of a 
 poisoned book which a nameless heretic hath named " The Supper of the Lord" 
 Works, pp. 1035-1138 ; Sir Thomas often repeats the same opinion. 
 
 K 
 
130 TYNDAL^S FIRST NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 who quarrelled with Tyndale and writes with most extravagant 
 vehemence against him^ is, indeed, spiteful enough to in- 
 sinuate in one part of his furious tirade that he "wondered 
 how T5mdale could compare his translation with Greek sith 
 himself is not so exquisitely seen therein ; " yet in another place 
 he speaks freely of Tyndale's " high learning in his Hebrew, 
 Greek, Latin, etc.''^ The testimony of Foxe and other 
 admirers may, perhaps, be undervalued as prejudiced, but we 
 have the authority of an eminent German scholar who had 
 met Tyndale at Worms in 1536, and who subsequently stated 
 to Spalatin that the Englishman who translated the New 
 Testament into English was '■'•so skilled in seven languages ^ 
 Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, English, French, that 
 whichever he spoke you would suppose it his native tongue. " ^ 
 The scholar who has in such emphatic terms vouched for Tyn- 
 dale's learning was Herman Buschius,^ the friend of Erasmus 
 and Reuchlin, one of the leaders in the revival of letters, one 
 of the conjoint authors of the Epistolce obscurorum virorum, a 
 critic,, in short, whose verdict can only be questioned by one 
 who is entirely ignorant of the literary history of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 "But," it may be asked, "admitting that Tyndale was 
 sufficiently acquainted with Greek to be able to translate 
 from the original, did he in fact translate from the original? 
 and if so, what is meant by the accusation so frequently 
 brought against him by his contemporaries, that he translated 
 Luther's New Testament?" To this last question no satis- 
 
 ^ Joye's Apology ; the passages quoted occur in C. iii. and E. ii. reverse; the book 
 is not paged, and is extremely rare. I quote from a MS. copy of it kindly lent me 
 by Mr. Fry. [This exceedingly interesting and valuable little book has been made 
 accessible to all readers by Mr. Edvfard Arber, who in 1882 printed it in his 
 English Scholar's Library. Editor.] 
 
 " Schelhom, Amanitates Literaria. Vol. iv. p. 431 ; under the day after St. 
 Laurence's day, 1526, i.e., August 11. 
 
 ' On Buschius, and his position in the respublica literarum, points vfhich have 
 been singularly neglected in histories of the Bible, see Sir William Hamilton's 
 Discussions, p. 327, etc. Some of our English literary critics ought to ask the 
 literati of the Continent what they think of men who dispute Buschius's testi- 
 mony. 
 
TYNDALE'S GLOSSES TAKEN FROM LUTHER. 131 
 
 factory answer has yet been attempted in any history of the 
 English Bible ; it has been in general ridiculed as an idle and 
 ignorant slander, and yet an explanation, complete and 
 unanswerable, can readily enough be given. 
 
 To any one who has enjoyed the opportunity of placing side 
 by side the folio of Luther's German Testament, printed 
 in September, 1532, and the quarto of Tyndale, printed in 
 September, 1525, the whole matter is clear at a glance. 
 Tyndale's New Testament is Luther's in miniature; the 
 general appearance of the page is the same ; the arrange- 
 ment of the text is the same; and the appropriation 
 of the margins, the inner one for parallel passages, and the 
 outer iox glosses, is also the same. Still further, what is of far 
 more importance, although it is now for the first time indicated,^ 
 the marginal notes, those ^'pestilent glosses^' against which the 
 indignation of the clergy was especially excited, have been to 
 a large extent translated by Tyndale from those of Luther. 
 Not that Tyndale translated like a servile imitator, whose 
 intellect was too barren to be capable of originality ; every- 
 where he uses his own judgment ; sometimes he curtails 
 Luther's notes ; sometimes he omits them ; often he inserts 
 notes of his own, and these of various kinds, explanatory and 
 doctrinal. Some of the longest of these marginal glosses, as 
 well as some of those which most emphatically propound the 
 doctrine of justification by faith, are original to Tyndale ; in 
 other cases the words of Luther have been expanded, and 
 have formed not so much the source of Tyndale's note as the 
 nucleus out of which it has grown. Of the whole number of 
 ninety marginal glosses which occur in the fragment of 
 Tyndale's quarto that has come down to us, fifty -two have 
 been more or less literally taken from Luther, and thirty-eight 
 are original; and, if we suppose that the same proportion 
 existed throughout the whole of the work, then it may be 
 admitted, that the customary allegation that he "translated 
 
 ' I leave these words in the text, because, although Mr. Arber has anticipated me 
 in print, my researches were completed long before his book appeared. 
 
 K 3 
 
132 TYND ALE'S FIRST NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 Luther's New Testament," while intended doubtless to attach 
 opprobrium to the book, has also a sufficiently specious founda- 
 tion to rest upon.^ 
 
 Enough has been said on this point to show that in thus 
 dealing with Luther's glosses, Tyndale acted not as a mere 
 feeble copyist, unable to walk alone, but as an independent 
 scholar, thinking and judging for himself, even when borrowing 
 from another. It were alike base and foolish to defend his 
 originality at the expense of truth ; and those who impartially 
 weigh all the circumstances of the case, will probably not 
 think it any serious derogation from Tyndale's merits to 
 believe, that living at Wittemberg, and following in the foot- 
 steps of Luther as a translator, he had come largely under the 
 influence of that great master-mind of the age. The same 
 explanation may be applied with equal justice to the prologue 
 which Tyndale has prefixed to his translation, and in which 
 many passages have been borrowed from Luther, as the 
 reader speedily begins to suspect from the characteristic ring 
 of the sentences. 
 
 When, however, we pass from these, which are mere 
 appendages to the work, to the text of the translation, then 
 the genuine originality and independence of Tyndale at once 
 become conspicuous. In the very first verse of his translation 
 he varies from that predecessor whom he is said to have 
 implicitly followed ; and he manifests the same independence 
 throughout. Not that he translates without any regard to 
 the labours of those who had preceded him in the work ; it 
 would be a small compliment to his good sense to believe that 
 he undertook a labour of so much importance without availing 
 himself of all materials that could in any way contribute to 
 the successful completion of his task. Indeed, it is obvious to 
 any one, who has sufficient scholarship to compare the various 
 works, that, as he proceeded in his undertaking, Tyndale had 
 before him the Vulgate, the Latin version of Erasmus, and 
 
 • I need not point out how completely what has been said disposes of the 
 assertion of Anderson, that Tyndale did not know German. 
 
TYND ALE'S KNOWLEDGE OF GREEK. 133 
 
 the German of Luther, and that in rendering from the original 
 Greek he carefully consulted all these aids ; but he did so not 
 with the helpless imbecility of a mere tyro, but with the 
 conscious independence of an accomplished scholar. He 
 consulted those who had preceded him, as a modern classical 
 critic consults the scholiasts and commentators who have 
 laboured on the same work : and the imputation of servility 
 or ignorance is as baseless in the one case as in the other. It 
 is no derogation from the originality of any modern German 
 editor of Virgil or Sophocles that we can trace in his writings 
 the influence of previous editors ; and equally it is no deroga- 
 tion from the independence of Tyndale's version that we can 
 trace in it the influence of previous translators. 
 
 To a scholar, the most convincing proof of what has now 
 been asserted is that which arises from the actual comparison 
 of Tyndale's work with the original Greek, and with the 
 versions which unquestionably lay open before him as he 
 proceeded in his work ; ^ but to the general reader perhaps, 
 the most satisfactory demonstration that can be given of the 
 superlative merit of Tyndale's work, is the fact that the 
 English New Testament, as we now have it, is, in its sub- 
 stance, the unchanged language of Tyndale's first version. 
 The English Bible has been subjected to repeated revisions ; 
 the scholarship of generations, better provided than Tyndale 
 was with critical apparatus, has been brought to bear upon 
 it; writers, by no means over-friendly to the original trans- 
 lator, have had it in their power to disparage and displace his 
 work ; yet, in spite of all these influences, that Book, to which 
 all Englishmen turn as the source, and the guide, and the 
 stay of their spiritual life, is still substantially the translation 
 of Tyndale. And most emphatically may it be said of those 
 passages of the New Testament which are most intimately 
 associated with our deepest religious emotions, that it is the 
 actual unchanged words of the original translator which are 
 
 ' On this point it may suffice to refer the reader to the excellent summary of 
 Westcott, in his History of the English Bible, pp. 172-212. 
 
134 TYN DALE'S FIRST NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 treasured up in our hearts, and are so potent in impressing 
 the soul. 
 
 Mr. Froude has said, with equal eloquence and truth, " Of 
 the translation itself, though since that time it has been many- 
 times revised and altered, we may say that it is substantially 
 the Bible with which we are all familiar. The peculiar genius — 
 if such a word may be permitted — which breathes through it, 
 the mingled tenderness and majesty, the Saxon simplicity, 
 the preternatural grandeur, unequalled, unapproached in the 
 attempted improvements of modem scholars, all are here, and 
 bear the impress of the mind of one man — William Tyndale." * 
 Of the truth of what may seem an overcharged panegyric, the 
 reader will himself be able to judge from the following speci- 
 mens, selected, not because in them Tyndale has exhibited 
 any special care, but because they are amongst the most im- 
 pressive and the most familiar of the words of Holy Writ. 
 To enable the reader to perceive at a glance how true it is 
 that our present version is substantially that of Tyndale, in 
 the following passages what is still retained of Tyndale's 
 work is printed in Roman characters, and what has been 
 changed in Italic? 
 
 I. — St. Matthew VII. w. 7-20. 
 
 7 Ask aad it shall be given you ; seek and ye shall find ; knock and it shall be 
 opened unto you : 
 
 8 For whosoever asketh receiveth ; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him that 
 knocketh it shall be opened. 
 
 9 Is there any man among -^tm. ithich would froffer his son a stone if he asked 
 him bread ? 
 
 10 Or if he asked fish would he proffer him a serpent ? 
 
 11 If ye then which are evil, can give to your children good gifts, how much 
 more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask 
 of him? 
 
 12 Therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, even so do ye to 
 them : this is the law and the prophets. 
 
 13 Enter in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that 
 leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat : 
 
 ' Fronde's History of England, Vol. in. p. 84. 
 
 ' In these extracts the spelling is reduced to the modem standard, but no word 
 has been otherwise altered ; the first is taken from the Grenville fragment. 
 
SPECIMENS OF THE TRANSLATION. 135 
 
 14 For strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few 
 there be that find It, 
 
 15 Beware of false prophets which come to yon in sheeps" clothing, but inwardly 
 they are ravening wolves. 
 
 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of (horns, or figs 
 of briars ? 
 
 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree 
 bringeth forth evil fruit. 
 
 18 A good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit, nor yet a bad tree can bring forth 
 good fruit. 
 
 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down, and cast 
 into the fire. 
 
 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 
 
 II.— St. John XVII. w. 1— 11. 
 
 1 These words spake Jesus and lift up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the 
 hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. 
 
 2 As thou hast given him power over all ilesh, that he should give eternal life 
 to as many as thou hast given him. 
 
 3 This is life eternal, that they might know thee that only very God, and whom 
 thou hast sent Jesus Christ. 
 
 4 I have glorified thee on the earth ; I have finished the workj which thou 
 gavest me to do. 
 
 5 And now glorify me thou Father in thine own presence^ with the glory which 
 I had with thee ere the world was. 
 
 6 I have declared thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the 
 world : thine they were, and thou hast given them me, and they have kept thy 
 sayings. 
 
 7 Now have they known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are 
 of thee. 
 
 8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have 
 received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and have believed 
 that thou didst send me. 
 
 9 I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which tliou hast given 
 me, for they are thine. 
 
 10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. 
 
 11 And now am I no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I come 
 to thee : Holy Father, keep in thine own name them which thou hast given me that 
 they may be one as we are. 
 
 III. — St. Luke XV. w. 11 — 24. 
 
 1 1 A certain man had two sons : 
 
 12 And the younger of them said to his father. Father, give me my part of the 
 goods that to me belongeth. And he divided unto them his substance. 
 
 ' In his subsequent revision of the New Testament, Tyndale altered this into— 
 with thine own self, which is the language of our present version. 
 
136 TYND ALE'S FIRST NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 13 And not long after, the yonnger son gathered all that he had together, 
 and took his journey into a far country, and there he wasted his goods with 
 riotous living. 
 
 14 And when he had spent all that he had, there rose s, great dearth throughout 
 all that same land : and he began to lack. 
 
 15 And he went and clave to a citizen of that same country, which sent him to 
 the field to keep his swine. 
 
 16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the ceds^ that the swine ate; 
 and no man gave him. 
 
 17 Then he remembered himself " «»(? said, How many hired servants at my 
 father's have bread enough, and I die for hunger. 
 
 18 I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have 
 sinned against heaven and before thee. 
 
 19 Nor am I not worthy' to be called thy son, make me as one of thy hired 
 servants. 
 
 20 And he arose and came to his father. When he was yet a great way off, his 
 father saw him, and had compassion on him, and ran unto him,* and fell on his 
 neck, and kissed him. 
 
 21 And the son said unto him. Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy 
 sight, neither am I worthy henceforth ' to be called thy son. 
 
 22 Then said the father to his servants. Bring forth that best garment and put it 
 on him ; and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. 
 
 23 And bring hither that fatted calf, and kill him, and let us eat and be 
 merry: 
 
 24 For this my son was dead and is alive again ; he was lost and is now 
 found. 
 
 These passages, which have been selected exclusively on 
 the ground of their being amongst the most familiar and most 
 beautiful in the New Testament, will suffice to show how true 
 it is that our Authorised Version is substantially the version 
 of Tyndale. Larger specimens would only confirm the con- 
 clusion : it has been found, for example, by actual examination 
 that nine-tenths of the First Epistle of St. John, as we now 
 have it, are retained from Tyndale, and even in the difficult 
 Epistle to the Ephesians, five-sixths are Tyndale's ; and similar 
 proportions obtain throughout the whole volume. In short, 
 the English New Testament as we now have it is, in its sub- 
 
 ^ i. e., shell or husk, as in peascod. 
 
 ' In Tyndale's later version, Then ht came to himself, as in the Authorised 
 Version. 
 
 ' In Tyndale's revision, and am no mwe worthy ; so also in verse 21. 
 
 ' The superfluous words, on him and unto him, were omitted in Tyndale's 
 revision. 
 
 ' See note supra. 
 
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ITS INFLUENCE ON THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 137 
 
 Stance and form, the work of Tyndale ; no other man has left 
 any trace of his individuality upon it.^ 
 
 Even this does not fully represent Tyndale's influence on 
 our present version. Not only is the great bulk of it still in 
 his own unchanged words, but what changes have been made, 
 have been, perhaps unconsciously, dictated by the spirit of 
 T3mdale. All subsequent revisions have been made in ac- 
 cordance with that type or standard which Tyndale had fixed, 
 and which three centuries have concurred in unanimously 
 recognising as the true ideal of the language appropriate to 
 that sacred volume in which God speaks to men. Even as a 
 literary work the issue of Tyndale's translation forms an 
 important era in our history. At a time when the English 
 language was still unformed ; when it had not as yet been the 
 vehicle of any great literary undertaking ; when men of learn- 
 ing still looked upon it as an imperfect instrument, fit only 
 for commonplace purposes, Tyndale showed that its capacity 
 was unbounded ; that in simplicity, majesty, strength, musical 
 flow, ability to relate gracefully and perspicuously, to touch 
 the feelings, to awe by its solemnity, to express the highest 
 truths in the clearest words, it yields to no language ancient or 
 modern. This is not the place to dilate upon the mere . 
 literary merits and benefits of Tyndale's version; but we 
 may be allowed to remark that, in thus holding up before 
 the nation, in a book which has become sanctified by the 
 reverence of ten generations, a model of the highest literary 
 excellence, simple, honest, and manly; free alike from the 
 pedantry of the verbal scholar, and the affected point and force 
 of the mere man of letters, he has exercised a permanent 
 influence of the most beneficial kind over the literary taste 
 of the English people. When to this we add, or endeavour 
 in imagination to add, the thousandfold higher and nobler 
 purposes which his book has so effectually promoted (and 
 what imagination can conceive them, what pen could worthily 
 describe them ?) shall we hesitate to say that as it was the 
 ' See Westcott, p. 211, note. 
 
138 - TYNDALE'S FIRST NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 consciousness of the will of God that prompted him to his 
 noble task, so he was not without the aid of the Spirit of God 
 in its accomplishment ? 
 
 Tyndale put forward no claim that his work should be con- 
 sidered either infallible or immaculate. He had honestly and 
 diligently striven to do his task as well as he could ; but the 
 whole had been finished in little more than a single year (for 
 we cannot suppose that he had done much more in London 
 than simply weigh the matter well and decide upon the best 
 form of translation), and he was well aware that his work 
 might be susceptible of improvement. He himself, in the 
 noble address to the reader, subjoined to his octavo version, 
 promised to revise and amend his translation if opportunity 
 and leisure were vouchsafed to him ; and so far from depre- 
 cating criticism he invited the learned to contribute their aid 
 towards improving what was amiss. At the present time, 
 when the question of revision is discussed with, perhaps, 
 somewhat more zeal than discretion, Tyndale's words will be 
 received with hearty approbation by all who have dispas- 
 sionately considered the subject : — 
 
 " Them that are learned Christianly, I beseech (for as much 
 as I am sure, and my conscience beareth me record, that of 
 a pure intent, singly and faithfully I have interpreted it, as 
 far forth as God gave me the gift of knowledge and under- 
 standing) that the rudeness of the work now at the first time, 
 offend them not ; but that they consider how that I had no 
 man to counterfeit, neither was holp with English of any that 
 had interpreted the same, or such like thing in the Scripture 
 before time. Moreover, even very necessity and cumbrance 
 (God is record) above strength, which I will not rehearse, lest 
 we should seem to boast ourselves, [alluding, no doubt, to the 
 interruption at Cologne,] caused that many things are lacking, 
 which necessarily are required. Count it as a thing not 
 having his full shape, but as it were born afore his time, even 
 as a thing begun rather than finished. In time to come (if 
 God have appointed us thereunto), we will give it his full 
 
TYNDALes ADDRESS TO THE READER. 139 
 
 shape ; and put out, if aught be added superfluously ; and 
 add to, if aught be overseen through negligence ; and will 
 enforce to bring to compendiousness that which is now trans- 
 lated at the length, and to give light where it is required, 
 and to seek in certain places more proper English, and with 
 a table to expound the words which are not commonly used, 
 and show how the Scripture useth many words which are 
 otherwise understood of the common people ; and to help 
 with a declaration where one tongue taketh not another ; and 
 will endeavour ourselves, as it were, to seethe it better, and 
 to make it more apt for the weak stomachs ; desiring them 
 that are learned, and able, to remember their duty, and to 
 help thereunto, and to bestow unto the edifying of Christ's 
 body (which is the congregation of them that believe) those 
 gifts which they have received of God for the same purpose. 
 The grace that cometh of Christ be with them that love Him. 
 Pray for us." ^ 
 
 And even more emphatic is the translator's declaration, in 
 the opening sentences of that prologue which was prefixed to 
 the edition interrupted at Cologne, and which may be sup- 
 posed to express his more deliberate judgment, as it was 
 written with more care than the short and hurried note which 
 accompanied the octavo printed by Schoeffer : — 
 
 "I have here translated, brethren and sisters most dear 
 and tenderly beloved in Christ, the New Testament for your 
 spiritual edifying, consolation and solace ; exhorting instantly 
 and beseeching those that are better seen in the tongues than 
 I, and that have higher gifts of grace to interpret the sense 
 of the Scripture and meaning of the Spirit than I, to consider 
 and ponder my labour, and that with the spirit of meekness. 
 And if they perceive in any places that I have not attained 
 the very sense of the tongue, or meaning of the Scripture, or 
 liave Hot given the right English word, that they put to their 
 hands to amend it, remembering that so is their duty to do. 
 For we have not received the gifts of God for ourselves only, 
 ' From Mr. Fry's facsimile, the spelling being modernised. 
 
I40 TYND ALE'S FIRST NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 or for to hide them ; but for to bestow them unto the honour- 
 ing of God and Christ, and edifying of the congregation, which 
 is the body of Christ." ^ 
 
 Tyndale's life was not a long one, but he was spared to 
 accomplish as much, perhaps, as was then possible, of that 
 revision and improvement of his translation, which he so 
 cordially recommends to all men of learning. From such a 
 revision, conducted in the spirit which the first translator has 
 described, no possible harm, nothing but good can result; 
 and any revision, conducted in a different spirit, animated by 
 the mere love of change, or by the foibles of grammatical 
 pedantry, will meet only with the universal scorn of all 
 English-speaking people. 
 
 • From the Grenville fragment : spelling modernised. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TYNDALE'S life at WORMS: RECEPTION OF THE NEW 
 
 TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND: LITERARY LABOURS^ 
 
 HOSTILITY OF WOLSEY. 
 
 A.D. 1525-1527. 
 
 It was, as we formerly saw, about the month of October, 
 iS'iS' when Tyndale, driven from Cologne, took up his abode 
 in Worms ; and here, so far as we know, he remained for 
 nearly two years, till renewed violence compelled him once 
 more to seek safety in flight. The same mystery, however, 
 as before, continues to shroud all his movements ; and his 
 history is still conversant not with the man but with his work. 
 Of the personal incidents which make up the staple of most 
 biographies we have few, indeed, to relate ; Tyndale was like 
 one of the ancient prophets whom men seldom saw, whose 
 way of life was little known, but whose voice seemed to 
 pervade all the nation. He had left England some eighteen 
 months before, unnoticed and unknown ; yet a few months, 
 and his words were scattered far and wide through his native 
 land ; and Henry and his prelates began to recognise in this 
 unknown exile the most formidable of all the opponents of 
 their religious system. 
 
 For some months after his arrival at Worms he was, of 
 course, busily engaged in superintending the issue of the two 
 editions of the New Testament in quarto and octavo, both of 
 which we suppose to have been printed there. It is not 
 likely that this would be accomplished till February or 
 March, 1536, at the very earliest ; and the greater part of the 
 summer would find Tyndale still busied in making arrange^ 
 
142 TYND ALE'S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ments with merchants, English and foreign, for the rapid and 
 secret transmission of the precious volumes to England. The 
 customary anxiety of the author for the success of his work 
 was, in Tyndale's case, exchanged for still more noble care 
 lest a work which had been finished with so much difficulty 
 should, from any want of precaution, fail altogether in 
 reaching its destination. He must have suspected — perhaps, 
 indeed, he knew — that Cochloeus had disclosed his designs to 
 the authorities in England, who would, therefore, be on the 
 alert to seize his New Testaments ; and it was accordingly 
 necessary to devise precautions for eluding the vigilance of 
 his enemies. With what success this was accomplished we 
 shall presently see ; meantime some attempt must be made 
 to arrange the few fragmentary notices that have floated 
 down to us of his life at Worms. These are of the most 
 meagre description, scarcely aff"ording us even a passing 
 glimpse of the life of Tyndale. 
 
 One of the earliest incidents of his residence at Worms has 
 been already alluded to, his final separation from his amanu- 
 ensis, William Roye, whose indiscretion and insubordination 
 Tyndale could no longer tolerate. As soon, therefore, as his 
 great work was so far advanced that the assistance of Roye in 
 writing and revision could be dispensed with, Tyndale gladly 
 bade farewell to a troublesome companion whose restlessness 
 and total want of all self-restraint were in the last degree 
 unfavourable to an undertaking that needed to be conducted 
 in silence and secrecy. Tyndale's precaution in getting quit 
 of so dangerous an associate was by no means uncalled for ; 
 his own conduct in venturing to publish the New Testament 
 in English was quite enough to excite the ecclesiastical 
 authorities against him ; but in the eyes of Wolsey it was 
 a far more serious offence that he was supposed to be 
 associated with Roye in the production of his satirical 
 rhymes ; and, indeed, it was in consequence of this groundless 
 suspicion that he was compelled to abandon his refuge in 
 Worms and seek safety elsewhere. 
 
TYNDALE SEPARATES FROM ROYE. 143 
 
 It was probably early in i^'^S, in February or March,^ that 
 Roye left Worms for Strasburg ; but before his departure 
 Tyndale had been visited by that distinguished scholar whose 
 testimony to his acquirements as a linguist has already been 
 cited. Herman Buschius found Tyndale residing at Worms 
 with two other Englishmen, and it was doubtless as the result 
 of his own interviews with the translator that the illustrious 
 German spoke so highly of his acquirements in Greek, 
 Hebrew, and other languages. It is not improbable that 
 some correspondence continued to be maintained between 
 Tyndale and Buschius; at all events, it is not unworthy of 
 note that when Tyndale was compelled to leave Worms, he 
 found a refuge in that university town of Marburg, where 
 Buschius had also taken up his abode as Professor of Poetry 
 and Eloquence. There can be no reasonable doubt that part 
 of Tyndale's leisure at Worms was devoted to the study of 
 Hebrew. He must have acquired some knowledge of that 
 language before his arrival in the ancient Rhenish city, not 
 improbably during his residence in Wittemberg ; but Worms 
 with its colony of Jews, and its ancient synagogue, established, 
 according to tradition, shortly after the destruction of the 
 temple by Nebuchadnezzar, would doubtless possess teachers, 
 from whose instructions Tyndale might acquire that mastery 
 of the Hebrew tongue which he exhibited in his translation 
 of the Old Testament. 
 
 For some time even after the New Testament was circu- 
 lating in England, Tyndale was unknown by name to the 
 authorities as the translator ; his abiding-place was, however, 
 well enough known to some faithful friends, from whom he 
 received assistance, and with whom he maintained regular 
 communication. Both in England and Scotland there 
 were many who had imbibed the opinions of Luther, 
 and to whom their native land was no longer a safe 
 
 ' Anderson makes him leave in the " summer of 1525 " {Annals, I. p. 138), 
 although it is certain that Roye was the person who was with Tyndale at Cologne, 
 and also that neither of them left that city till after September, when the work, so 
 far from being finished, was not yet begun. 
 
144 TYNDALE'S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 home. These men naturally looked to Germany as their 
 appropriate shelter; and had no difficulty in ascertaining 
 from merchants friendly to their cause, where previous exiles 
 from the shores of England were already settled. For many 
 years a constant stream of refugees of all classes, but mainly 
 priests and friars, passed from England to Germany, directing 
 their course chiefly to such cities as Wittemberg and 
 Strasburg ; and from them Tyndale learned how affairs were 
 proceeding in that dear land, which, though an exile, he never 
 ceased to love as his home with all the warmth of a patriot's 
 affection. Roye was not the only friend with Tyndale at the 
 time of the visit of Buschius ; ^ and friends were not un- 
 frequently passing through Worms. About a year after 
 Roye had left him, in the spring, therefore, of 1527, another 
 Observant friar from the same monastery at Greenwich to 
 which Roye belonged, passed through Worms on his way to 
 Strasburg. This was, to use Tyndale's own words, " One 
 Jerome, a brother of Greenwich also [as well as Roye], saying 
 that he intended to be Christ's disciple another while, 
 and to keep, as nigh as God would give him grace, the 
 profession of his baptism, and to get his living with his hands, 
 and to live no longer idly, and of the sweat and labour of 
 those captives which they had taught not to believe in Christ, 
 but in cut shoes and russet coats [the dress of the Observants]. 
 Which Jerome with all diligence I warned of Roye's boldness, 
 and exhorted him to beware of him, and to walk quietly and 
 with all patience and long-suffering; according as we have 
 Christ and His apostles for an example ; which thing he also 
 promised me. Nevertheless, when he was come to Argentine 
 [Strasburg], William Roye, whose tongue is able not only to 
 make fools stark mad. but also to deceive the wisest (that is, 
 at the first sight and acquaintance), gat him to him, and set 
 
 ' The time of the visit of Buschius can only be fixed approximately : it is entered 
 in Spalatin's diary as the day after St. Laurence's day, i.e., August ii, 1526 ; but 
 this was the date of the conversation of Buschius with Spalatin, and his visit to 
 Worms had, of course, preceded it. See Schelhom, Amcenitates Literaria, Vol. 
 IV. p. 431. 
 
TYNDALEfS PROLOGUE TO THE ROMANS. 145 
 
 him a-work to make rhymes, while he himself translated a 
 dialogue out of Latin into English, in whose prologue he 
 promiseth more a great deal than, I fear me, he will ever pay. 
 Paul saith {% Tim. ii.), ' The servant of the Lord must not 
 strive, but be peaceable unto all men, and ready to teach, and 
 one that can suffer the evil with meekness, and that can 
 inform them that resist, if God at any time will give them 
 repentance for to know the truth.' It becometh not, then, the 
 Lord's servant to use railing rhymes, but God's Word ; which 
 is the right weapon to slay sin, vice, and all iniquity."^ 
 
 Of these " railing rhymes," which were, in truth, a pungent 
 and most offensive satire upon Cardinal Wolsey, we shall 
 have to speak more fully in a subsequent part of this chapter ; 
 meantime, however, as Tyndale had been accused of possess- 
 ing a fierce and quarrelsome disposition, which rendered it 
 impossible for any one long to remain his friend, it may here 
 be remarked that Roye's satire is so coarse and violent as to 
 furnish the most complete justification of Tyndale's procedure 
 in getting rid of so troublesome a companion. The bio- 
 grapher of Tyndale, however, owes soniething even to these 
 licentious lines of Roye, as they throw considerable light 
 upon various transactions of which no other record appears 
 to exist. 
 
 It seems well ascertained that before the close of 1536 Tyn- 
 dale printed at Worms, or possibly at Strasburg, his famous 
 Prologue to the Epistle to the Romans. No copy, indeed, 
 exists of this book in a separate state ; but this is not sur- 
 prising when the diligent search after Tyndale's writings is 
 borne in mind ; and there are references to its existence and 
 circulation as a separate treatise sufficient to establish its pub- 
 lication as well as to assign it to the year 1526. Dr. Ridley, 
 writing in February, 1527,^ speaks of the Introduction to the 
 Epistle of Paul to the Romans, by Tyndale and Roye, as 
 
 ' Tyndale, Preface to The Parable of the Wicked Mammon. 
 
 ^ See Anderson's Annals, Vol. l. p. 153. I believe, on the whole, that Anderson 
 is right in assigning this letter to 1527; the original is in the Cotton Library: 
 Cleopatra, E. V. 
 
 L 
 
146 TYNDALE^S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 then in existence, and condemns it as full of the " most 
 poisoned and abominable heresies that can be thought." And 
 Sir Thomas More, in the Preface to his Confutation, likewise 
 mentions the " Introduction " as a separate treatise, which he 
 too condemns as "bringing the readers into a false under- 
 standing of St. Paul."i 
 
 Nothing could show more strikingly than this work the 
 great ascendency which the German Reformer had now 
 obtained over the mind of Tyndale. The " Introduction to 
 the Romans " is in truth hardly an original work, but is much 
 more correctly described as a translation or paraphrase of 
 Luther's Preface to the same Epistle. Luther's work, originally 
 in German, had been translated into Latin by Justus Jonas in 
 1523 ; and it is evident on examination that Tyndale used both 
 the German and the Latin copies.^ A thoroughly competent 
 critic has shown that sometimes Tyndale employs expressions 
 which occur in Luther's original German, but for which there 
 is no precise equivalent in the Latin ; and that sometimes he 
 borrows phrases from the Latin to which there is nothing that 
 exactly corresponds in the German original. Yet even while 
 acting in the main as a mere translator of the work of his great 
 contemporary, Tyndale was not content to sink entirely his own 
 individuality and to be the echo of another. He uses his own 
 judgment in the selection from the two versions of the most 
 suitable phraseology ; and where the subject seemed to have 
 been imperfectly elucidated by Luther he makes further ex- 
 positions of his own, and has added at the close a brief but 
 clear summary of the whole argument, both of Luther's Preface 
 and of St. Paul's Epistle. If, however, the little treatise 
 cannot be cited as adding much to Tyndale's reputation as an 
 original author, it was accepted by his countrymen as a most 
 valuable contribution towards instructing them in the right 
 understanding of the Holy Scriptures ; and the vehemence 
 
 ' Sir Thomas More's Confutation of Tyndale's Answer. 
 
 ' Westcott, History of the English Bible, pp. 194, 195 ; where passages are 
 quoted in proof of Tyndale's use both of the German and Latin. 
 
EARLIEST NOTICE OF ITS ARRIVAL. 147 
 
 with which it was denounced by the adherents of the teaching 
 of the Church, may be regarded as no unfair criterion of its 
 value in the eyes of the English Reformers. 
 
 Like his translation of the New Testament, his Introduction 
 was issued anonymously; and both were no doubt disposed 
 of in the customary way; Tyndale himself being in the habit 
 of repairing to the great fairs at Frankfort, where he met 
 merchants from England and from Antwerp, through whose 
 energy and skill the forbidden works were clandestinely con- 
 veyed to Britain, and widely circulated long before they came 
 to the knowledge of the authorities. 
 
 A complete and trustworthy chronicle of the early circulation 
 of Tyndale's New Testament in England is still one of the 
 great desiderata in our literature. Some slight sketch, however, 
 must here be attempted as a necessary part of this biography, 
 without which, indeed, the story of Tyndale's life would be 
 incomplete, and almost unintelligible. To the reader who is 
 acquainted with Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, it 
 may, perhaps, appear superfluous to do anything more than 
 merely cite from his voluminous details the portion which 
 belongs to this part of our subject ; but in truth that writer 
 has been unfortunately so completely mistaken in his history 
 of the first introduction of the New Testament into England, 
 that one necessary step towards any true narrative is to dismiss 
 from our minds what he has written on the matter.^ 
 
 It is impossible to say when Tyndale's New Testament first 
 reached England. We have seen reason to believe that it 
 could scarcely have been before the spring of 1536; and the 
 earliest notice we have of its existence in England confirms 
 this supposition. John Pykas of Colchester was examined on 
 the 7th of March, 1528, before Tunstal, in the chapel of that 
 palace where Tyndale had in vain solicited the bishop's 
 patronage ; and amongst other things he confessed that " about 
 a two years last past he bought in Colchester, of a Lombard 
 
 ' See the whole matter discussed in Appendix A. 
 L 3 
 
148 TYND ALE'S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 of London, a New Testament in English, and paid for it four 
 shillings, which New Testament he kept, and read it through 
 many times." ^ The date thus somewhat vaguely indicated may 
 with little hesitation be assigned to April or May, 1536 ; and 
 there is no sufficient reason for believing that the New Testa- 
 ments were introduced much earlier than this. For some time 
 they continued to circulate in secret without attracting the 
 notice of the authorities, in spite of the warning which Rinck, 
 and Lee, and above all Cochloeus, had conveyed. 
 
 When or how the authorities became aware that these for- 
 bidden books were actually in circulation still remains undis- 
 covered ; but it is quite certain that none of Tyndale's New 
 Testaments were amongst the basketfuls of Lutheran works 
 which were consumed at Barnes's recantation, February nth, 
 1526, for the obvious reason that none of them had yet reached 
 England. During the course of the summer, however, some 
 copy, apparently of the quarto, with glosses, seems to 
 have fallen into the hands of one of the bishops ; and forth- 
 with steps were devised for undoing the mischief which had 
 thus, as they believed', been introduced amongst the people. 
 Curiously enough we are indebted for the most detailed 
 account of these proceedings to Tyndale's discarded amanu- 
 ensis, William Roye, who has given us, in the uncouth and 
 " railing rhymes " of that very satire which Tyndale has so 
 severely condemned, a connected narrative of the whole 
 transaction. 
 
 According to Roye, it was Standish, Bishop of St. Asaph, 
 whom he represents as a liar and a gambler, who brought the 
 matter under the notice of Wolsey. Several of the principal 
 prelates were immediately summoned, under the presidency 
 of the cardinal, to deliberate upon the course of conduct 
 which they ought to pursue. Wolsey, with his customary 
 liberality, and his shrewd appreciation of the urgent necessity 
 of a Reformation, is said to have expressed himself on the 
 matter in the words of Pilate, " I find no fault therein ; " but 
 
 ' Harleian MSS., 421. 
 
THE BISHOPS ORDER IT TO BE BURNT. 149 
 
 such a policy found no adherents in that audience. Tunstal 
 urged a stringent prohibition of the book ; and it was resolved 
 with unanimous consent that the English New Testament 
 should be publicly burned wherever it was discovered.^ Roye 
 was, of course, deeply interested in the work in which he had 
 himself been so intimately concerned ; he enjoyed many 
 opportunities of communication with England ; and his state- 
 ments may be accepted as probably, in the main, correct. 
 They are certainly corroborated by everything else that has 
 been recorded. Thus Henry, in the preface to his English 
 translation of his reply to Luther's letter, after specifying as 
 an aggravation of Luther's guilt that he had fallen " into device 
 with one or two lewd persons, born in this our realm, for the 
 translating of the New Testament into English, as well with 
 many corruptions of that holy text, as certain prefaces and 
 other pestilent glosses in the margin" proceeds to inform his 
 " dearly-beloved people " that out of his " special tender zeal 
 towards them " he had " with the deliberate advice of the most 
 reverend father in God, Thomas Lord Cardinal, Legate de 
 latere of the See ApostoUc, Archbishop of York, Primate and 
 Chancellor of this realm, and other reverend fathers of the 
 spirituality, determined the said and untrue translations to be 
 burned!' ^ 
 
 It was probably the end of August or the beginning of Sep- 
 tember, 1526, when this conclave of bishops deliberated as to 
 the appropriate treatment of the Word of God in the English 
 language; and their resolution was not allowed to lie long 
 inoperative. It was determined to mark unmistakably their 
 judgment regarding the circulation of the English New Testa- 
 ment by one of those public displays of which the age was so 
 fond. Tunstal was appointed to preach at Paul's Cross, and 
 denounce the work as replete with errors and dangerous 
 heresies ; and at the conclusion of his sermon the condemned 
 
 ' See Roye's Rede me and be not wrothe, Arber's reprint. 
 
 " See the Preface in Dibdin's Typographical Antiquities, Vol. 11. p. 488 ; see 
 also Appendix A. 
 
l5o TYNDALE'S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 book was publicly thrown into the flames.^ The reader may 
 
 not disdain to read the account of the transaction in Roye's 
 
 rhymes : — 
 
 Jeffray.' Did'st thou not hear what villany 
 
 They did unto the Gospel? 
 Watkins. Why? did they against him [it] conspire? 
 Jeffray. By my troth they set him a-fire 
 
 Openly in London city. 
 Watkins. Who caused it so to be done? 
 Jeffray. In sooth, the Bishop of London, 
 
 With the Cardinal's authority; 
 Which at Paul's Cross earnestly 
 Denounced it to be heresy. 
 
 That the Gospel should come to light : 
 Calling them heretics execrable 
 Which caused the Gospel venerable 
 
 To come unto laymen's sight. 
 He declared there in his furiousness 
 That he found errors more and less 
 
 Above three thousand in the translation. 
 Howbeit, when all came to pass, 
 I dare say unable he was 
 
 Of one error to make probation.^ 
 
 Rumour soon disseminated the fame of Tunstal's sermon all 
 over Europe ; it certainly accomplished its end in attracting 
 public notice, though whether this was any gain to him and 
 his brethren may well be doubted. It was frequently re- 
 marked that the smoke of the fires which consumed the martyrs 
 seemed to infect all upon whom it blew ; and the sermon of 
 Tunstal seems to have convinced many of his hearers, not of 
 the truth, but of the falsehood and weakness of his position. 
 "IVlen mutter among themselves/' says the spokesman in 
 More's Dialogue, " that the book was not only faultless, but 
 very well translated, and was devised to be burnt because men 
 
 ' A letter written by one John Sadler, to Harman, the Antwerp merchant, 
 arrested for circulating the New Testaments, and dated Septembers, 1526, states 
 that " the news in England was that the English New Testaments should be put 
 down and burnt : " the burning therefore was subsequent to September 3. 
 
 " Jeffray and Watkins are the interlocutors in the poem which, in Roye's rough 
 language, was supposed to be " made by a belly beast engendered among the greasy 
 or anointed heap, othenvise called the papistical sect." 
 
 5 Arber's reprint, p. 46. 
 
tunstaUs sermon and injunction. 151 
 
 should not be able to prove that such faults as were at Paul's 
 Cross declared to have been found in it, were never found 
 there indeed, but untruly surmised." What the nature of the 
 charges against Tyndale"s translation may have been we can 
 only conjecture ; probably they were not unlike those subse- 
 quently urged by Sir Thomas More ; and some of them were, 
 in all likelihood, captious and trifling enough ; " there is not 
 so much as one i therein," says Tyndale, "if it lack a tittle 
 over his head, but they have noted it, and number it unto the 
 ignorant people for an heresy." ^ 
 
 The sermon at Paul's Cross was not the only exhibition of 
 Tunstal's hostility. On the 24th of October of the same year, 
 1526, he issued an injunction in which he speaks of the English 
 New Testament as the work of " many children of iniquity, 
 maintainers of Luther's sect, blinded through extreme wicked- 
 ness, wandering from the way of truth and the Catholic faith," 
 and asserts that they had " craftily translated the New Testa- 
 ment into our English tongue, intermingling therewith many 
 heretical articles and erroneous opinions, seducing the simple 
 people, attempting by their wicked and perverse interpretations 
 to profane the majesty of the Scripture, which hitherto hath 
 remained undefiled, and craftily to abuse the most holy Word 
 of God." These books " containing most pernicious poison," 
 he had discovered, were widely dispersed throughout his diocese, 
 in great numbers, " some with glosses and some without ; " 
 and he accordingly enjoined his archdeacons to warn all that 
 lived in the diocese of London to deliver up their English 
 Testaments to his Vicar-general under pain of excommunica- 
 tion.- A similar mandate was issued by Warham, Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, on the 3rd of November •? such was 
 
 ' Preface to The Pentateuch : Tyndale's Works, Vol. I. p. 393. 
 
 ' See Foxe. It is not easy to decide whetlier the sermon or the prohibition 
 came first ; possibly the sermon, for a letter from Campeggio, dated Rome, Novem- 
 ber 2 1 , refers to the burning of the Bible as then known at Rome, which was quite 
 a month's ordinary journey from London. Campeggio states that he " has heard 
 with pleasure of the burning of the translation of the Bible : no holocaust could be 
 more pleasing to God!' Cotton, Vitellius, B. vill. 
 
 ' Wilkins' Concilia, Vol. III. p. 706. 
 
1 5a TYND ALE'S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the reception which the Word of God in the native English 
 language experienced at the hands of those who claimed to 
 be the spiritual guides and overseers of the people. 
 
 It will not have escaped the notice of the reader that these 
 denunciations of the New Testament do not contain any 
 mention of Tyndale as the translator, but ascribe the work 
 vaguely to "children of iniquity, servants of the Lutheran 
 faction." It is not easy to say when the secret of the author- 
 ship of the anonymous work which so greatly troubled the 
 bishops, first became known to the authorities in England. 
 Tunstal was evidently unaware when he issued his injunction, 
 that the book which he denounced so vehemently was the 
 work of that unknown country scholar whom he had coldly 
 repelled from his presence some years before; though it 
 would almost appear as if he had discovered this when he 
 preached at Paul's Cross. "When I heard my Lord of 
 London preach at Paul's Cross," says our former friend, 
 Humphrey Monmouth, "that Sir William Tyndale had 
 translated the New Testament in English, and [that it] was 
 naughtily translated, that was the first time that ever I 
 suspected or knew any evil by him." ^ Monmouth, however, 
 was in the secret of the authorship, and possibly it was his 
 own private knowledge, and not the voice of the preacher, that 
 added the translator's name. 
 
 It is, at all events, certain that about the close of 1526, 
 it came to be known that Tyndale and Roye had been 
 concerned in the production of the translation ; and against 
 them, accordingly, the vengeance of the authorities was after- 
 wards specifically directed. How the secret was disclosed is 
 not yet ascertained ; but it seems a highly probable conjecture, 
 that the sending of a special envoy to Cologne in the autumn, 
 who resided for some months in that city, and was in daily 
 communication with the former ally of Cochloeus, Sir Herman 
 Rinck, may have led to the discovery of the actual authors, as 
 
 ' Harleian MSS., 425. 
 
ROBERT RIDLEY'S LETTER. 153 
 
 their names could not but have been known to Quentel and 
 others in Cologne.' 
 
 The earliest mention of Tyndale as the translator of the 
 New Testament occurs in that letter of Robert Ridley which 
 has been already referred to, and which is so curious that it 
 may be given entire : — 
 
 "Master Golde, I heartily commend me unto you. As 
 concerning this common and vulgar translation of the New 
 Testament done by Mr. William Hichyns, otherwise called Mr. 
 W. Tyndale, and Friar Roye, manifest Lutherans, heretics, 
 and apostates, as doth openly appear, not only by their daily 
 and continual company and familiarity with Luther and his 
 disciples, but much more by their commentaries and annota- 
 tions on Matthew and Mark in the first print, and also by 
 their preface in the second print, and by their introduction 
 into the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, altogether most 
 poisoned and abominable heresies that can be thought. He is 
 not a son of the Church that would receive a Gospel of such 
 damned and precised [excommunicated] heretics, though it 
 were true ; like as Paul and our Saviour Christ would not 
 take the true testimonial of evil spirits that praised Christ true, 
 saying that He was the Son of God, and that Paul was the 
 servant of the true God.^ As for errors, if ye have the first 
 print with annotations on Matthew and Mark, and the preface 
 \i. e., probably the prologue to the quarto] all is mere frenzy : 
 he saith that 'the Gospel is nothing else but the sweet 
 promise of grace,' so that by that means 'do penance' is no 
 
 ' Sir John Wallop was sent to Cologne, where he arrived September 30 ; it was 
 through him that Henry's letter to Luther was conveyed, November 30, to some of 
 the German princes ; Herman Rinck acted as his chief friend and confidential agent ; 
 and I feel certain, though I cannot prove it, that this was the channel through which 
 the discovery came to the English authorities. Wallop's letters, which are 
 preserved in the Cotton Manuscripts {fialba, B. IX), contain no statement on the 
 point ; but it might easily be communicated through the trusty servants whom he 
 sent to Wolsey. 
 
 ''■ Ridley's letter is a patched and piebald affair, filled with scraps of Latin from 
 the Vulgate; these I give in English, so as not to interrupt the sense. Mr. Arber 
 has printed it as it stands in the MS. 
 
154 TYNDALE'S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 part of the Gospel ; the pater-noster is no part of the Gospel ; 
 'go ye cursed into everlasting fire,' no part of the Gospel ; but 
 only such [as] 'the kingdom of heaven is at hand,' 'ye shall 
 find rest unto your souls.' Also he writeth in that preface 
 and annotations that there is no difference between virginity 
 \i.e., the vow of chastity], and a whore of the stews if she 
 come to repentance : also that like as no man doth evil to the 
 intent that he should be punished or hanged therefor, so no 
 man should do good to have any reward therefor, contrary to 
 [the words of Scripture following, viz.], 'That thou mightest 
 be justified when thou punishest,' and the assertion in the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews concerning Moses, 'for he looked to 
 the recompense, or the recompenser/ and to the passage, 
 'Make to yourselves friends of Mammon, that when ye 
 shall fail they may receive you into eternal habitations.' 
 Also [he saith] that by good works we do nothing merit, in 
 opposition to the passage in Corinthians, 'That every one 
 may receive according to his deeds, whether good or evil,' and 
 to the words of Genesis spoken to Abraham, ' Because thou 
 hast done this thing,' etc. [in blessing I will bless thee] ; and 
 also to the words of Matthew, ' Because I was athirst, and ye 
 gave me drink,' etc., and 'Come ye blessed of my Father.' 
 Also he saith that he that doth anything to have high place 
 in heaven is proud as the Devil and Lucifer. / have none of 
 these books, hut only I remember such things I read in the 
 prefaces and annotations. 
 
 "As for the text of the Gospel, first, the title is heretical, 
 saying that it is print as it was written by the Evangelists,^ 
 although it agrees neither with the old version \i.e., the 
 Vulgate] nor that of Erasmus. ' This is the book of generation 
 of Jesus, the Son of Abraham, and also the Son of David' \i.e., 
 Tyndale had translated it so, according to Ridley, whose 
 memory had, however, failed him], whereas in the original it 
 
 ' No title-page, either of the qnarto or octavo, has been preserved, bat probably 
 it simply ran thus, " The New Testament as it was written by the Evangelists and 
 Apostles." 
 
ROBERT RIDLEY'S LETTER. 155 
 
 is expressed absolutely {i.e., The book, not This is thebook\ . . 
 Voluit clam ah ed divertere [St. Matt. i. 17], he translates, 
 ' he would have put her away:' in quo omnes peccaverunt'm. the 
 Epistle to the Romans [he translates], ' in so much that every 
 man hath sinned:' and, fool that he is, he translates pceniten- 
 tiam agite [Matt. iii. 2] repent. By this translation shall we 
 lose all these Christian words, penance, charity, confession, 
 grace, priest, church, which he alway calleth a congregation, 
 as if there were no such thing as a congregation of Turks or 
 beasts, or as if that, too, might be called a Church ; idolatry 
 calleth he worshipping of images. I would that ye should 
 have seen my Lord's books \i.e., Tunstal's copies of the 
 Testament, which doubtless had all the mistakes marked in 
 the margin]. 
 
 " I certify you, if ye look well, ye shall not look three lines 
 without fault in all the book ; but I have not the book to 
 mark them out ; you should have had leisure yourself to have 
 done it. Howbeit, it becometh the people of Christ to obey 
 and follow their rulers which hath \sic'\ given study, and is 
 learned in such matters as their people should hear and 
 believe ; they should not judge the doctrine of Paul nor of 
 Paul's vicars and successors, but be judged by their learning 
 as long as they know nothing contrary [to] God's laws." 
 
 Unable to restrain his indignation, Ridley returns again to 
 the charge in a postscript : — 
 
 " Likewise the expression of Paul ' avoid foolish questions^ 
 is translated, ' beware of foolish problems or questions in the 
 schools ; ' this was undoubtedly said out of hatred of the 
 scholastic theology and the Universities. Such a thing is in 
 the translation, though it be not in the same words. Ego et 
 pater unum sumus [he translates] we are one, as if Christ said, 
 we are one person, and not one substance or one thing. Show 
 ye to the people that if any be of so proud and stubborn 
 stomach that he will believe there is no fault nor error except 
 it be declared [made clear] to him that he may see it, let him 
 come hither to my Lord, which hath examined all, and he 
 
15<5 TYND ALE'S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 shall see and hear errors, except that he be blind and have 
 no eyes." ^ 
 
 As Ridley was one of Tunstal's chaplains, and high in the 
 bishop's favour, we may not unnaturally conclude that he is 
 here merely echoing the criticisms of his master ; and that it 
 was such renderings as those which he has condemned, that 
 were paraded at St. Paul's Cross amongst the three thousand 
 errors which Tunstal boasted of having discovered in Tyndale's 
 New Testament. 
 
 The confession of Tunstal that the New Testaments were 
 thick spread over all his diocese is the best proof of the 
 success with which the merchants had accomplished their 
 undertaking to convey the books in safety to England. For a 
 time the distributors of the work eluded the authorities in 
 a wonderful manner. Within half-a-mile of Tunstal's own 
 palace, Barnes, even when a prisoner at large in Austin Friars, 
 had New Testaments to sell ; and a month before the issue of 
 Tunstal's injunction he sold one of Tyndale's books to John 
 Tyball for three shillings and twopence, making at the same 
 time remarks about the New Testament in Latin being no 
 better than " a cymbal tinkUng and brass sounding," which 
 would have filled his neighbour the Bishop of London with 
 horror.^ 
 
 In fact, the desire to possess the Word of God in the native 
 language was so strong and so widely prevalent, that already 
 enterprising printers began to perceive that it was a safe 
 mercantile speculation to reprint Tyndale's translation ; and 
 before the close of 1526, Christopher of Endhoven, had pre- 
 pared an edition at Antwerp for the supply of the eager 
 demand for the New Testament which existed in England. 
 Attempts were made by the English ambassador at the 
 Court of the Princess Margaret, Regent of the Low Countries, 
 to punish the printer, and to prevent any further importation 
 of English New Testaments ; but his efforts were to a large 
 extent frustrated by the resolute conduct of the Lords of 
 
 ' Cotton MSS., Cleopatra, E. v. » Harleian MSS., 421. 
 
RAPID SALE IN ENGLAND. 157 
 
 Antwerp ; and though he succeeded in seizing and burning 
 some three hundred books, many more escaped his hands, 
 and found their way in due course to London.^ But though 
 open violence had thus proved abortive, in the midst of a 
 mercantile community jealous of its privileges as were the 
 citizens of Antwerp, the English authorities did not desist 
 from their efforts to arrest the introduction of New Testaments 
 from the Low Countries. More subtle schemes were tried, 
 and it was hoped that money might succeed where force had 
 failed ; and, accordingly, gigantic eiiforts were made to suppress 
 entirely the hated work by purchasing all the copies abroad 
 wherever they could be found. Warham expended nearly 
 seventy pounds in this preposterous attempt ; a prodigious 
 sum, for which he may^ probably, have received in return not 
 many short of a thousand Testaments with glosses and without; 
 but as Tyndale had printed six thousand at Worms, and 
 Endhoven more than two thousand at Antwerp, Warham 
 had not succeeded quite so well as he supposed, in what one 
 bishop calls his "gracious and blessed deed, for which God 
 should reward him hereafter."^ Thus secure of purchasers, 
 both amongst friends and enemies, the Dutch printers again 
 reprinted the Testament,^ and, in spite of Warham's extrava- 
 gant expenditure, London was once more supplied with 
 hundreds of the obnoxious volumes. 
 
 It is impossible to say at what precise time or in what exact 
 manner the bishops first became aware of the agency through 
 which England was thus supplied with Tyndale's New Testa- 
 ments. It seems probable, however, that the secret in some 
 way oozed out in consequence of what occurred at the trial of 
 
 * See the correspondence, which is very voluminous, in Cotton MSS., Galba, B. 
 IX., or Anderson's Annals, Vol. I. p. 125, etc. 
 
 ^ Nix, Bishop of Norwich: see Anderson's Annals, Vol. I. p. 159. 
 
 ' George Joye gives the following account of the two Dutch reprints : " The Dutch 
 men got a copy, and printed it again in a small volume, adding the Kalendar in the 
 beginning, concordances in the margent, and the table in the end. . . . After this they 
 printed it again in a greater letter and volume, with the figures [illustrations] in the 
 Apocalypse ; of these two prints there were about five thousand books printed.' 
 George Joye's Apology, Arber's reprint, p. 20. 
 
158 TYNDALE'S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Bilney in November and December, 1527. Bilney defended 
 himself with great ingenuity, and witnesses were summoned to 
 prove that he had not preached against the teaching of the 
 Church. One of these was Dr. Forman, Rector of All 
 Hallows, in Honey Lane, who with his curate, Thomas Garret, 
 and his servant, John Goodall, had for some time been 
 occupied in purchasing and distributing prohibited books on a 
 large scale. Whether or not the suspicions of the authorities 
 were then roused, it is certain that in a very short time after 
 the examination of Forman, Wolsey was in possession of the 
 clue to the secret. No time was lost in following up the clue 
 once discovered ; Garret was seized ; Oxford was searched ; 
 no fewer than three hundred and fifty-four volumes of pro- 
 hibited works, including some of Tyndale's New Testaments, 
 were found to have been lately introduced there ; and Clark, 
 Fryth, and others who had been implicated were arrested 
 and imprisoned. The whole agency was discovered by the 
 voluntary admissions of some of those who were then examined. 
 Tunstal instituted a rigorous inquisition ; and in a short time 
 the extensive ramifications of the "brethren" in Essex and 
 other parts of his diocese were brought to light; scores of 
 simple country people, who had for some time been secretly 
 rejoicing in that new treasure the Word of God in their native 
 tongue, were summoned before the bishop or his official, and 
 compelled to abjure ; the merchants whose enterprise had 
 introduced the condemned books were imprisoned, or forced 
 to flee for safety; and for a time, doubtless^ the circulation of 
 the New Testament in England was sensibly arrested.^ 
 
 Of these rigorous measures for hunting down the English 
 New Testament, Wolsey was not so much the instigator, as 
 the passive instrument in the hands of the prelates. This 
 attitude of passive hostility was, however, exchanged for a 
 feeling of bitter animosity by the appearance of those " railing 
 
 * The whole may be seen in Foxe, Vol. v., with the appended documents, which 
 are very valuable, in the Religious Tract Society's edition : Strype's Ecclesiastical 
 Memorials, Vol. I. Parts l. and II., etc., and Appendix A. 
 
WOLSEY'S ENMITY. 159 
 
 rhymes " which Roye and Jerome had concocted at Strasburg. 
 The cardinal was not very seriously affected by attacks upon 
 the doctrines and ritual of the Church ; but he could not 
 brook any reflections upon his own faults ; and the satire, 
 which bore on its very frontispiece the coarsest insinuations 
 against him, stung him to the quick. The work appeared 
 anonymously, and was at first attributed to Tyndale,^ who 
 had already suffered enough from his association with his 
 troublesome companion, without being made responsible for 
 his violent and offensive poetry. Tyndale took the earliest 
 opportunity, therefore, of disclaiming all connection with 
 Roye ; and however desirous of " doing his good deeds secretly, 
 and being content with the conscience [consciousness] of well- 
 doing, and that God seeth us," he prefixed his own name to 
 his next publication, that he might not be saddled with the 
 offences of others. For a time, however, his disclaimer was 
 not believed ; and Wolsey, who was still in the plenitude of 
 his power, and had agents willing to serve him at all hazards, 
 was diligently endeavouring to ascertain the abiding-place of 
 Tyndale and Roye, that he might, if possible, not only seize 
 their books, but also get possession of their persons. Hackett, 
 too, the envoy in the Low Countries, was indefatigable ; but 
 there were no laws of extradition in those days, and Wolsey's 
 influence with the German emperor was on the wane ; so that 
 Tyndale had ample warning of his designs, and long before 
 the cardinal- had finished his inquiries, the translator had 
 removed to a place of safety, where even Wolsey was power- 
 less to annoy him. 
 
 At first it seems to have been supposed that Tyndale and 
 Roye had gone to the Low Countries, and West, a priest 
 of that order of friars to which Roye and Jerome belonged, 
 was sent to track Tyndale and his associates. In a letter 
 
 ' " ' Who made that second book [the satire] ? ' " asks the interlocutor, in More's 
 Dialogue. "'Forsooth,' quoth I, 'it appeareth not in the book; for the book is 
 put forth nameless, and was in the beginning reckoned to be made by Tyndale ; and 
 whether it be so or not, we be not yet very sure.' " So writes Sir Thomas at the 
 close of 1528. 
 
l6o TYND ALE'S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 dated from the convent of the Observants at Antwerp, Sep- 
 tember %, 1528, he thus communicates his success to Hackett, 
 the English envoy in the Low Countries : — 
 
 " I have spoken to Francis Byrkman, bookbinder of this 
 town, and he tells me that Petygnell [sic), Roye and Jerome 
 Barlowe, friars of our religion, and Hucthyns otherwise 
 Tyndall, made the last book that was made against the King 
 and my lord cardinal [Roye's Rede me, which, however, 
 Tyndale had no hand in], and that John Schott, a printer of 
 Strasburg, printed them. There is a whole pipe of them at 
 Frankfort, and he desired me to write him a letter whether he 
 should buy them or not. If so he intends to send Roye with 
 the other two to Cologne to receive the money for the books, 
 where I and Herman Ryng of Cologne shall take them." 
 
 This nicely concocted scheme, however, proved abortive, as 
 the letter of the other conspirator Herman Rinck to Wolsey 
 will show : — 
 
 "The letter of your Grace given to me by Master John 
 West, priest of the Observant Order of St. Francis, written 
 the 5th of August, at Hampton Court, in your Grace's palace, 
 was sent and conveyed to me from Cologne to Frankfort in 
 two days, by a speedy messenger, on the aist of September, 
 concerning the purchasing up everywhere books written in 
 the English language, and seizing Roye and Hutchins. But 
 they and their accomplices have not been seen at Frankfort 
 since Easter [April la] and the market next to Lent [Feb- 
 ruary 26] ; nor is it known where they have gone to, or 
 whether they are alive or dead. And John Schott, a citizen 
 of Strasburg, and their printer, declares that he does not know 
 where they have disappeared to. Their books, however, are 
 crammed with heresy, and full of envy and infamy against 
 the magnificence and honour of your Grace ; books which, 
 very wickedly and contrary to Christian charity, render his 
 royal highness, my most gracious lord, and most noble and 
 illustrious prince, infamous to all worshippers of Christ. I, 
 however, as your most humble, faithful, and diligent servant, 
 
RINCl^S LETTER TO WOLSEY. l6l 
 
 heard and understood, three weeks before the receipt of your 
 Grace's letter, that those books had been pledged to the Jews 
 at Frankfort for a sum of money, and I was then anxiously 
 considering with myself how to obtain possession of them as 
 soon as possible. John Schott, the printer, demanded, in 
 addition to the interest that must be paid to the Jews, pay- 
 ment for his labour and the cost of the paper ; and declared 
 he would sell them to whoever offered most money; and 
 therefore when your Grace sent the letter and the instructions 
 to me from England, at once, as in duty bound, I spared 
 neither person, nor money, nor pains ; but I availed myself of 
 the privilege formerly conferred by his imperial majesty; by 
 gifts and presents I conciliated the consuls of Frankfort and 
 several senators and judges, so that I might collect and gather 
 together all those books from all quarters. This has been 
 done in three or four places ; so I hope that all the books of 
 this kind which have been printed are in my possession, except 
 two, which your Grace's agent, the aforesaid John West, re- 
 quested and received of me for the greater benefit and advan- 
 tage of the King and your Grace. And these books, but for 
 my discovering and interposing, would have been packed into 
 paper wrappers and concealed; and having been inclosed in 
 ten hampers cunningly covered with flax, would have been in 
 due time sent across the sea to England and Scotland, there 
 to be sold simply as clean paper ; but I believe that very few, 
 if any, have been carried away or sold. Moreover, in the 
 presence of the consuls of Frankfort, after exchange of oaths, 
 I procured that the books should not be printed again ; and 
 the printer was bound by oath to send the original copy and 
 manuscript of them to me.^ Besides, I shall endeavour with 
 the utmost care both to seize the foresaid Roye and Hutchins 
 and other rebels against the King and your Grace, and to 
 ascertain what places they frequent." 
 
 All this trouble and expense, he explains, he had willingly 
 
 ' The manuscript is here illegible from the effects of fire; but the above is 
 certainly the sense of the passage. 
 
 M 
 
1 63 TYN DALE'S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 incurred in the service of Wolsey and Henry ; hoping, however 
 that some suitable reward would at a future time be bestowed 
 upon him. He then enters into a detailed and somewhat un- 
 intelligible account of his public services since the year 1502, 
 apparently intending to remind Wolsey that he had been of 
 considerable assistance in securing for the King of England 
 the right of searching through the whole German empire for 
 traitors against his authority. This privilege, he suggests^ 
 might easily be obtained in even a more extended form from 
 Charles V., so as to include not only traitors, but, still more, 
 heretics. " Edmund de la Pole, who called himself Duke of 
 Suffolk," he continues, " was demanded of King Philip, to be 
 brought into England ; and William Roye, William Tyndale, 
 Jerome Barlow, Alexander Barclay, and their adherents,^ 
 formerly Franciscans of the Observant order, now apostates, 
 also George Constans [Constantine], and many others who 
 rail against your Grace, ought to be apprehended, punished, 
 and delivered up, both in order to destroy the Lutheran heresy, 
 and to confirm the Christian faith, as was exceedingly necessary 
 in England." The full consideration of this most important 
 matter, however, he leaves to Wolsey's superior wisdom ; he 
 himself undertaking, as soon as he received the necessary 
 authority, to put it into force with all his energy. Again re- 
 turning to what had happened at Frankfort, he once more 
 supplies us with some further information concerning Tyndale. 
 " In the presence of the consuls, judges, and senators of Frank- 
 fort, I compelled John Schott, the printer, on oath to confess 
 how many books of that sort he had printed in the English, 
 German, French, or any other language. And on taking the 
 oath he acknowledged that he had only printed one thousand 
 copies of six signatures, and in addition a thousand of nine 
 signatures, in the English language, and this by the orders 
 of Roye and Huchyns ; who being in want of money were 
 not able to pay for the books that were printed, and much 
 
 ^ Here a blank occurs in the MS. , probably representing some other name, which 
 Rinck at the moment had forgotten. 
 
RINCK'S SEARCH UNSUCCESSFUL. 163 
 
 less to procure their being printed in other languages. Where- 
 fore almost the whole of these books having been purchased by 
 me are kept by me at my house in Cologne. Dated at 
 Cologne, October 4, 1528." ^ 
 
 Rinck's narrative need not be implicitly received by us, 
 either as to his own exploits or as to his version of the evi- 
 dence given by the Strasburg printer ; it affords us, however, 
 an interesting and authentic glimpse of the dangers and an- 
 noyances amongst which Tyndale had to pursue his work. 
 To the poverty of which the printer spoke to Rinck, Tyndale 
 was no doubt occasionally exposed, notwithstanding the 
 liberality of his friends in England ; for the golden age of 
 authorship had not yet dawned ; Tyndale received no copy- 
 money for that glorious work of his which no amount 
 of money could ever have adequately rewarded, and had 
 no doubt to guarantee the printer against any contingent 
 loss. 
 
 In spite of Schott's confession, it is still considered doubtful 
 whether any of Tyndale's works were printed at Strasburg ; ^ 
 the description given by the printer would, indeed, correspond 
 sufficiently well to the size of The Wicked Mammon, or 
 The Prologue to the Romans ; but no copy of either book 
 is in existence which has any claim whatever to have issued 
 from Schott's press. In short, it seems certain that Rinck's 
 information was somewhat stale and out of date ; the co- 
 partnership of Tyndale and Roye had been dissolved long 
 before 1538 ; and Rinck, with all his indefatigable energy, had 
 failed to strike upon the track of either of the offenders. 
 Roye seems actually to have been in England at the very time 
 when the Cologne senator was spurring in hot haste in search 
 
 ' Cotton MSS., Vitellius, B. xxi. pp. 49, etc. The entire letter, which is in 
 many parts extremely obscure, has been printed by Arber in his edition of the 
 Grenville Fragment, 
 
 '' Arber says the first edition of Roye's Rede me consists of nine signatures. This 
 would be the book referred to by Schott. The other of six quires might be Roye's 
 Dialogue between the father and the son, inter patrem Christianum etfilium con- 
 tumacem. This dialogue seems to be lost. 
 
 M a 
 
164 TYND ALE'S TESTAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 of him ; 1 and Tyndale had in all probability found a quiet 
 resting-place on the banks of the Lahn, nearly a year before 
 Rinck had set out in quest of him. 
 
 The very names of the associates who are mentioned in 
 Rinck's letter suffice to show that it was about Roye rather 
 than Tyndale that he had succeeded in gaining information. 
 Jerome Barlow, if, as seems natural, we suppose him to be the 
 Jerome, a member of the same Observant Monastery at 
 Greenwich to which Roye belonged,^ whom Tyndale mentions, 
 in the Preface to his Parable of the Wicked Mammon, had 
 left Worms in the beginning of 1527 to join Roye at Strasburg. 
 Alexander Barclay, also, totally unknown as a friend of the 
 Reformation, is the well-known author of an exceedingly 
 clever sarcastic poem. The Ship of Fools ; and this tendency, 
 we may be sure, was not likely to recommend him as an asr 
 sociate of one who protested so emphatically as Tyndale did^ 
 against the impropriety of " using railing rhymes," instead of 
 that Word of God which was, in his eyes, the only "right 
 weapon to slay sin, vice, and all iniquity." 
 
 For the time, therefore, Tyndale had eluded his enemies ;- 
 dangers, indeed, threatened him on every side, but his work 
 was not yet done ; he had still much to accomplish before the 
 approach of that terrible end which, from the first, he foresaw 
 to be in store for him. 
 
 ' See a letter of West to Cromwell, December 17, 1528, Greenwich, in which he 
 complains that he is not allowed to " come to London to seek for them that my 
 lord knoweth of and to enquire where Roye was, when he was in England with 
 his mother" etc. Cotton MSS. Vitellius, B. x. 171. 
 
 " West's letter, quoted on p. 160, makes it absolutely certain that Jerome Barlowe. 
 had been an Observant friar. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 TYNDALE AT MARBURG; PUBLISHES "THE WICKED 
 MAMMON," AND " THE OBEDIENCE OF A CHRISTIAN MAN." 
 
 A.D. 1528. 
 
 Some fifty miles north of Frankfort, in the beautiful valley of 
 the Lahn, that tributary which pours its waters into Father 
 Rhine opposite Coblentz, the picturesque city of Marburg 
 fringes the foot of an eminence whose summit is crowned 
 by a venerable castle, the residence in Tyndale's time of 
 the Landgrave of Hesse- Cassel. Philip the Magnanimous, 
 the Landgrave of that day, had been among the first 
 of the German potentates to espouse the cause of the 
 Reformation; and having thrown the whole vigour of his 
 nature into the movement, he had acquired a position of 
 great prominence amongst the Reformers, and might in 1538 
 almost be looked upon as sharing the responsibility of the 
 leadership with Luther himself. 
 
 The Landgrave was commonly styled "the disciple of 
 Melanchthon," that gentle Reformer having been mainly 
 instrumental in inducing him to adopt the doctrines of the 
 Reformation; but Philip the Magnanimous of Hesse-Cassel 
 had not very much in common with Philip the Scholar of 
 Wittemberg. He had already diverged from the opinions of 
 Luther and Melanchthon, and had exhibited a very decided 
 preference for the bolder and more sweeping views of Zwingle 
 and the Swiss and French Reformers. In 1527, inspired 
 with an eager desire to promote learning in his dominions, he 
 founded a University in his quiet and somewhat secluded 
 
l66 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 capital, the earliest of the Universities to which the Reforma- 
 tion gave birth, and which, in spite of many vicissitudes, still 
 continues to flourish. 
 
 At the same period, also, and probably in consequence of 
 the Landgrave's patronage, Hans Luft established a printing- 
 press in Marburg, whose productions, albeit by no means 
 master-pieces of the typographic art, were for many years the 
 favourite reading of the lovers of the Reformation in England, 
 and are now of priceless estimation in the eyes of collectors. 
 In short, under the protection of the young and enthusiastic 
 Landgrave, Marburg had become one of the great centres 
 from which the principles of the Reformation were vigorously 
 propagated ; and for a few years this great inland town, so 
 little known to fame, that some historians of literature have 
 written about " Marlborough in the land of Hesse," as if it 
 were an entirely mythical locality,^ divided public interest with 
 Wittemberg, Speyers, and the other great cities of the Empire. 
 
 Nowhere was the Reformation more thoroughly carried out, 
 or the doctrines of the Reformers more rigorously pushed to 
 their logical conclusion. All practices that savoured of 
 idolatry or superstition were retrenched ; the old-established 
 constitution of the '^ Church was abolished, and was recon- 
 structed from the very foundations, modelled after a pattern 
 of democratic simplicity, suggested by the clear-headed 
 Frenchman, the famous Francis Lambert, of Avignon, who 
 was entrusted with chief authority in ecclesiastical matters. 
 This reconstruction, moreover, was carried out with a consist- 
 ency which was then certainly without parallel in any of the 
 Churches of the Reformation,^ in accordance with Lambert's 
 favourite maxirn, "Whatever is deformed must be reformed." 
 Into this quiet resting-place, undisturbed as yet by any of 
 those unfortunate tendencies which afterwards made Marburg 
 and its Landgrave unhappily notorious, Tyndale had come 
 
 ^ [See a curious passage in Dr. Mombert's William Tyndale' s Five Books of 
 Moses, pp. xxix. to xxxiii. See also the Athenaum for April i8th, 1885. Editor.] 
 ^ See D'Anbigne's History of the Reformation, and the authorities he quotes. 
 
NOTHING KNOWN OF HIS LIFE THERE. 167 
 
 for shelter some time during the year 1537 ; leaving Worms 
 probably when the publication of Roye's satire seemed 
 likely to compromise his safety. At Marburg there was 
 much to solace him in his exile. Here at least he was to all 
 appearance safe, in an unknown retreat, beyond the reach of 
 Wolsey's emissaries^ and under the protection of a prince who 
 was a zealous adherent of the doctrines of the Reformation. 
 In the literary labours which he was diligently prosecuting, 
 the infant University would probably be of some assistance to 
 him ; and through the press of Hans Luft he enjoyed a ready 
 means of instructing the inhabitants of his dear native land. 
 Of personal incidents during his residence in Marburg this 
 biography has still very few to tell ; it is, as before, not of the 
 man, but of his work that we have to speak. Indeed, to 
 Tyndale himself may, with eminent appropriateness, be 
 applied his own quaint words concerning John the Baptist. 
 He^ too, might have said to the English nation what John 
 said to the Jews, " I am the voice of a crier : my voice only 
 pertaineth to you ; those outward things which ye wonder at 
 [the strange vicissitudes of his life] pertain to myself only, 
 unto the taming of my body : to you am I a voice only, and 
 that which I preach." ' 
 
 We have not, in fact, any authentic record of a single 
 incident in his life at Marburg ; yet, from what we know from 
 various sources, we can supply what may at least be accepted 
 as illustrations of his residence there. 
 
 Whether or not he was present at the formal inauguration of 
 the University in the old Dominican Convent on the 30th of 
 May, 1527, we may feel assured that he enjoyed the friend- 
 ship of the eminent men of learning whom the liberality of 
 the Landgrave had attracted to Marburg. Foremost among 
 these was the Professor of Divinity, the pious and eloquent 
 Lambert of Avignon, already alluded to, who, after a life of 
 vicissitude and adventure, which would admirably qualify 
 him to be the companion and consoler of Tyndale, had come 
 
 1 The Parable of the Wicked Mammon : Works, Vol. I. p. 104. 
 
i68 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 to Marburg to enjoy, alas ! only three years of peace before 
 the sweating sickness prematurely cut short his days. Her- 
 man Buschius, too, who had already met Tyndale at Worms, 
 had found in the infant University on the banks of the Lahn 
 a peaceful refuge from the opposition which the sallies of his 
 too witty pen had provoked ; and Tyndale, himself a man of 
 shrewd satirical humour, must have listened with no ordinary 
 relish to one who had played so prominent a part in the 
 revival of letters, who had been the associate of Erasmus and 
 Von Hutten, whose reminiscences would embrace much of the 
 secret history of those mighty movements in learning and 
 religion, which will make the commencement of the sixteenth 
 century for ever memorable in the annals of mankind. 
 
 Moreover, though Marburg was sufficiently secluded to 
 render it unlikely that any emissaries from Tyndale's enemies 
 in England would resort thither, it was well enough known 
 to the friends of the Reformation on the Continent ; and 
 religious refugees from England and Scotland were continually 
 passing through it on their way to or from Wittemberg. It 
 was at Marburg, therefore, in all probability that the interview 
 between Tyndale and Barnes took place, which Sir Thomas 
 More declares to have had such important results. " I am 
 right credibly informed/' writes Sir Thomas, "by a very 
 virtuous man, whom God hath of His goodness illumined and 
 called home again out of the dark Egypt of their blind 
 heresies [Barlow probably is meant], that at such time as 
 Friar Barnes and Tyndale first met, and talked together 
 beyond the sea, after that he [Barnes] fled out of the Friars 
 [Austin Friars in Northampton], where he was enjoined to 
 tarry for his penance after he had borne his faggot, Tyndale 
 and he were of sundry sects. For Friar Barnes was of 
 Zwinglius' sect against the sacrament of the altar, believing 
 that it is nothing but bare bread. But Tyndale was yet at 
 that time not fully fallen so far in that point, but though he 
 were bad enough beside, was yet not content with Friar 
 Barnes for the holding of that heresy. But within a while 
 
PATRICK HAMILTON AT MARBURG. 169 
 
 after, as he that is falling is soon put over, the Friar made the 
 fool mad outright, and brought him blindfold down into the 
 deepest dungeon of that devilish heresy, wherein he sitteth 
 now fast bounden in the chair of pestilence with the chain of 
 pertinacity."^ Sir Thomas, indeed, whose language the 
 reader will have perceived is somewhat violent, is not 
 implicitly to be trusted in matters which he only repeats at 
 second-hand ; but his information is never to be despised ; 
 and whatever we may believe as to the process by which 
 Tyndale's opinions on the Sacrament were changed, it seems 
 tolerably certain that they were, in point of fact, changed 
 between the commencement of 1538 and 1530. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of Barnes' visit to Marburg, there 
 is no doubt that during part of the summer and autumn of 
 1527, there resided there a young Scotsman of high rank, 
 of considerable learning, and of sound judgment in Holy 
 Scripture. Patrick Hamilton, who had incurred suspicion in 
 his native country by his zeal for the Reformation, had left 
 Scotland with three companions on the customary pilgrimage 
 to Wittemberg. The plague, however, was then raging in the 
 Saxon University, and the young Scotsmen consequently 
 repaired for a short time to the new school of learning at 
 Marburg, where their names are still to be seen enrolled in 
 the University Album.^ 
 
 Hamilton's residence at Marburg was of very brief duration, 
 for at the close of 1537 he was again in his native land ; but 
 it was long enough to conciliate the warm affection of Lambert, 
 who subsequently paid a grateful tribute of admiration to the 
 zeal and piety of the noble stranger who only returned 
 home to perish at the stake, the proto-martyr of the Scottish 
 Reformation.^ 
 
 Short as was Hamilton's residence in Marburg, it was not 
 
 ^ Sir Thomas More's Confutation ; Works, p. 482. 
 
 " Three names are inscribed, Patrick Hamilton, John Hamilton, and Gilbert 
 Winram from Edinburgh. 
 
 ' Lambert's eulogy is contained in his commentary on the Apocalypse. (See 
 Lorimer, Precursors of Knox, p. 238.) If Marburg was indebted to Hamilton, he, 
 
tyo TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 uneventful. Following the practice of Luther and other 
 Reformers, he had exhibited at Marburg certain theses or 
 doctrinal propositions, treating almost exclusively of that 
 which formed the main burden of the teaching of the German 
 Reformation — the doctrine of Justification by Faith ; and as 
 this was the first effort of the kind in the nascent University, it 
 naturally created considerable excitement. " Patrick's Places," 
 as they were called, originally written, of course, in Latin,, 
 were translated by Fryth after his arrival at Marburg ; and 
 the Martyrologist Foxe has reproduced them at length in his 
 Acts and Monuments} 
 
 It may be assumed as extremely probable that Tyndale 
 and Hamilton were contemporaries at Marburg, and if they 
 did actually meet there, there was one mighty bond to join 
 them in cordial amity. For Tyndale's New Testament had 
 not merely been conveyed to the translator's native land ; 
 Scotland, too, had participated in the benefit. Hackett, the 
 busy emissary of Wolsey, whose zeal in seizing copies of 
 Tyndale's Testament in various parts of the Low Countries 
 has already made him known to the reader, intimates to 
 Wolsey in January, 1537, that "divers merchants of Scotland 
 bought many of such like books, and took them to Scotland, 
 a part to Edinburgh, and most part to the town of St. 
 Andrew." With his usual ready officiousness, the English 
 envoy had attempted to seize them, and make a "good fire of 
 them ; " but he was too late : the ships had sailed the day 
 before he arrived in Zealand, and were thus able to proceed 
 unmolested with their blessed cargo.^ If Hamilton was 
 aware of what was passing in his absence in his native country, 
 
 too, was indebted to Marburg, as the Scotch poet, John Johnstone, has elegantly- 
 confessed in his eulogy on Hamilton : 
 
 " E ccelo alluxit primam Germania lucem. 
 
 Qua Lanus, et vitreis qua fluit Albis aquis. 
 Intulit hinc lucem' nostrae Dux prsevius orse ; 
 O felix terra ! h5c si foret usa Duce." 
 See Appendix to McCrie's Life of Knox. 
 ' Foxe, Vol. IV. p. 563, etc. 
 " Letter from Hackett in Cotton MSS., Gal/ia, B. vi. 
 
TYNDALE AND FRYTH. 171 
 
 as it is extremely probable he was, we may easily conceive 
 how he would value the opportunity of enjoying Christian 
 communion with one whom he would regard as having con- 
 ferred an inestimable benefit upon Scotland. 
 
 The intercourse between Hamilton and Fryth, which has 
 by some recent writers been supposed to have occurred while 
 both were resident in Marburg, must now be finally rejected 
 as impossible. Fryth, it is quite certain,^ did not leave Eng- 
 land till the close of 1528; and long before he joined Tyndale 
 at Marburg, the brave young Scotsman had glorified God in 
 the flames." Nearly a year after Hamilton's departure, Fryth 
 arrived at Marburg ; and with such a companion, the confidant 
 of former years when hopes were brighter, Tyndale must have 
 spent some months of happiness that would seem like an 
 oasis in the desert. It is difficult, indeed, for us, accustomed 
 to rapid and frequent communication with our distant friends, 
 to realise the comfort which the presence of Fryth brought to 
 Tyndale. 
 
 Four weary years had now been spent in exile ; and though 
 cheered by the occasional visits of friends, yet he had hitherto 
 had no companion entirely like-minded with himself, and able 
 to give him full information of those matters which he longed 
 so earnestly to know. In Fryth, however^ his "own son 
 according to the faith," he had at length procured a comrade 
 whose opinions were entirely in accordance with his own, and 
 who, having been himself at one of the great centres of action, 
 could report the success of that great cause, for the promotion 
 of which Tyndale had abandoned all the delights of home and 
 country. Fryth could tell, as few others could, the whole 
 story of the progress of the Reformation, both in Cambridge 
 and Oxford. The work of Bilney, the conversion of Latimer, 
 the fall of Barnes, the secret circulation of the English New 
 Testament, the hostility of the bishops, the proposed Royal 
 
 ' See Appendix A. 
 
 " He was burned at St. Andrew's on the last day of February, 1528: " Pridie 
 kalendas Martii" says his friend Lambert, in his eulogy on him. 
 
173 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 divorce, the hopes and fears that were beginning to find 
 expression in England — all these were well known to Fryth ; 
 and in the interest which the narrative thus told from 
 personal experience would excite, Tyndale would almost 
 forget that he had been so long absent from the land which 
 he loved so well. That Fryth should express himself with 
 some bitterness of the cardinal and the bishops was natural 
 and inevitable ; he had been imprisoned, degraded, compelled 
 to abandon his country, for no crime, except merely for 
 reading the Word of God in the English language, and 
 studying the works of the Continental Reformers ; and surely 
 it was neither inexcusable nor blamable, that Tyndale should 
 have felt indignant at the conduct of those who thus sought 
 to deprive the people of England of that book, which God 
 had ordained for their spiritual guidance and comfort. From 
 this time onwards we can trace in Tyndale's works an 
 accession of sharpness in writing of the proceedings of the 
 clergy: let those who feel inclined to censure him for "speak- 
 ing evil of dignities," first of all make some attempt fairly to 
 estimate the provocation offered to him. 
 
 But we are somewhat anticipating the course of our narra- 
 tive. Some months before the arrival of Fryth, Tyndale had 
 issued from the press of Hans Luft, one of the most famous 
 of his works, The Parable of the Wicked Mammon. Foxe, 
 indeed, in his collected edition of the works of Tyndale, has 
 assigned- The Wicked Mammon to an earlier date, the 8th of 
 May, 1527; and the bibliographers, adopting the statement 
 without inquiry,^ have asserted, with almost unanimous 
 consent, that the work was issued at Worms on the day 
 
 ' See Lowndes, Tanner, Lewis, Wood, or any other writer, professing to give the 
 dates of T3mdale's works. Anderson, as has been ahready mentioned, assigns the 
 book to 1527 ; yet even he was startled by the curious fact of the first and second 
 edition being issued on the same day in successive years. I need not say that in the 
 case of books of this early date, the ordinary bibliographical manuals are not of 
 much value ; they usually repeat the statements of previous writers without any 
 inquiry, and even when they describe a book from actual examination, they take for 
 granted that everything stated on the title-page is literally and exactly true, with a 
 simplicity that is singularly unsuspicious. 
 
« THE WICKED MAMMON^ 173 
 
 mentioned by Foxe, and was reprinted on the same day in 
 the next year by Luft at Marburg. Not only, however, has no 
 one ever pretended to have seen this edition of WormSj but 
 such an early date is in plain contradiction to Tyndale's own 
 express words. In the Preface he gives the account of his 
 separation from Roye, which has been already quoted, and 
 adds the following very precise narrative of what occurred sub- 
 sequently: — "After we were departed [separated] he went 
 and gat him new friends . . . and when he had stored him of 
 money, he gat him to Argentine [Strasburg] ; a year after 
 that, and now twelve months before the printing of this work, 
 came one Jerome through Worms to Argentine." According, 
 therefore, to Tyndale's own express statement. The Wicked 
 Mammon was not printed till quite two years after Roye 
 had left him ; but Roye was with him, as we know from the 
 testimony of Cochloeus, in September, 1525, and remained 
 with him till "that was ended which he could not do alone 
 without one both to write, and to help him to compare the 
 texts together," that is, probably, till March or April, 1536, 
 so that it seems extremely probable that Hans Luft's edition of 
 May 8th, 1838, was the first issue of Tyndale's work.^ 
 
 The Parable of the Wicked Mammon is an exposition of 
 what is more usually known in this country as the Parable 
 of the Unjust Steward. In reality, however, the work is a 
 treatise on the doctrine of Justification by Faith, in which 
 Tyndale with great clearness and acuteness examines all those 
 texts which were usually cited as incompatible with that 
 
 ' That this is not inconsistent with Tyndale's words in his Practice of Prelates, 
 will be shown subsequently. One other circumstance connected with the biblio- 
 graphy of The Wicked Mammon may here be explained. There are m existence 
 two different editions, one in quarto, the other in octavo, both bearing the imprint 
 of Hans Luft, Marburg, May 8, 1528. This has been explained by Professor 
 Walter, by supposing that the one was for rich readers, the other for poor. On, 
 inspecting the quarto in the British Museum, my suspicions of its genuineness were 
 aroused ; and Mr. BuUen, of the Museum, who was kind enough to examine it with 
 care, assures me that it was not printed in 1528, nor in Germany, but almost 
 certainly in London, and in the reign of Edward VI. ; so that Professor Walter's, 
 theory must be discarded. 
 
174 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 doctrine, and shows that when rightly interpreted, according 
 to the general scope of the New Testament, they were not 
 inconsistent with it. Besides this negative clearing away 
 of objections, The Wicked Mammon also contains a plain 
 summary of the real meaning of the doctrine, and an exposi- 
 tion of the passages of Scripture which seem most precisely to 
 affirm it. The choice of subject may fairly enough be con- 
 sidered an indication of the paramount influence which Luther 
 now exercised over the mind of Tyndale ; and, indeed, there 
 are several striking similarities of sentiment and expression 
 which were almost certainly suggested by the writings of the 
 great German Reformer. Tyndale, at the same time, treats 
 the subject in a perfectly original manner, with the boldness and 
 clearness of a man who had perfectly grasped it in his own 
 mind ; and also, it must be added, without any of that 
 occasional extravagance of language which has, not altogether 
 without reason, exposed Luther to the animadversions of more 
 cautious theologians. The work itself, however, will be its 
 own best expositor ; and both from its own importance in the 
 history of the English Reformation, and from its value as 
 illustrating the opinions of Tyndale, the reader may naturally 
 demand a few passages by way of sample of its contents. 
 
 If the "ancient doctor," near Little Sodbury, who first 
 hinted to Tyndale the idea that the Pope was Antichrist, 
 survived to read The Wicked Mammon, he must have con- 
 templated with feelings of satisfaction, almost of amaze- 
 ment, the powerful hold this idea had taken of the mind of 
 Tyndale. Thus boldly, for example, he treats the subject 
 in the Preface ; and, as we shall subsequently see, the idea 
 seemed to grow and to strengthen with years in his mind, 
 and he waxes ever bolder and more bitter in his treatment 
 of it. 
 
 " Mark this also above all things, that Antichrist is not an outward thing, 
 that is to say, a man that should suddenly appear with wonders, as our 
 fathers talked of him. No, verily ; for Antichrist is a spiritual thing ; and 
 is as much to say as, against Christ j that is, one that preacheth false 
 doctrine, contrary to Christ. Antichrist was in the Old Testament, and 
 
ANTICHRIST. 1 75 
 
 fought with the prophets ; he was also in the time of Christ and the 
 Apostles, as thou readest in the epistles of John, and of Paul to the 
 Corinthians and Galatians, and other epistles. Antichrist is now, and 
 shall (I doubt not) endure till the world's end. But his nature is (when he 
 is uttered [disclosed], and overcome with the Word of God) to go out of 
 the play for a season, and to disguise himself, and then to come in again 
 with a new name and new raiment. As thou seest how Christ rebuketh 
 the Scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel, (which were very Antichrists,) 
 saying : ' Woe be to you, Pharisees ! for ye rob widows' houses ; ye pray 
 long prayers under a colour ; ye shut up the kingdom of heaven, and suffer 
 not them that would to enter in ; ye have taken away the key of knowledge ; 
 ye make men break God's commandments with your traditions ; ye beguile 
 the people with hypocrisy and such like ; ' which things all our prelates do, 
 but have yet gotten them new names, and other garments and weeds, and 
 are otherwise disguised. There is difference in the names between a pope, 
 a cardinal, a bishop, and so forth, and to say a Scribe, a Pharisee, a senior, 
 and so forth; but the thing is all one. Even so now, when we have 
 uttered him, he will change himself once more, and turn himself into an 
 angel of light. Read the place, I exhort thee, whatsoever thou art that 
 readest this, and note it well. The Jews look for Christ, and He is come 
 fifteen hundred years ago, and they not aware : we also have looked for 
 Antichrist, and he hath reigned as long, and we not aware : and that 
 because either of us looked carnally for him, and not in the places where 
 we ought to have sought. The Jews had found Christ verily, if they had 
 sought Him in the law and the prophets, whither Christ sendeth them to 
 seek. We also had spied out Antichrist long ago, if we had looked in the 
 doctrine of Christ and His Apostles ; where because the beast seeth himself 
 now to be sought for, he roareth, and seeketh new holes to hide himself in, 
 and changeth himself into a thousand fashions, with all manner wiliness, 
 falsehood, subtlety, and craft. Because that his excommunications are 
 come to light, he maketh it treason unto the king to be acquainted with 
 Christ. If Christ and they may not reign together, one hope we have, that 
 Christ shall live for ever. The old Antichrists brought Christ unto Pilate, 
 saying, ' By our law He ought to die ; ' and when Pilate bade them judge 
 Him after their law, they answered, ' It is not lawful for us to kill any 
 man ; ' which they did to the intent that they which regarded not the shame 
 of their false excommunications, should yet fear to confess Christ, because 
 that the temporal sword had condemned Him. They do all things of a 
 good zeal, they say ; they love you so well, that they had rather burn you, 
 than that you should have fellowship with Christ. They are jealous over 
 you amiss, as saith St. Paul. They would divide you from Christ and His 
 holy Testament ; and join you to the pope, to believe in his testament and 
 promises. 
 
 " Some man will ask, peradventure, Why I take the labour to make this 
 work, inasmuch as they will burn it, seeing they burnt the Gospel ? I 
 answer, In burning the New Testament they did none other thing than 
 
I7<5 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 that I looked for ; no more shall they do if they burn me also, if it be God's 
 will it shall so be. 
 
 " Nevertheless, in translating the New Testament I did my duty, and so 
 do I now, and will do as much more as God hath ordained me to do. And 
 as I offered that to all men, to correct it, whosoever could, even so I do 
 this. Whosoever, therefore, readeth this, compare it unto the Scripture. 
 If God's Word bear record unto it, and thou also feelest in thine heart that 
 it is so, be of good comfort, and give God thanks. If God's Word 
 condemn it, then hold it accursed, and so do all other doctrines ; as Paul 
 counselleth his Galatians. Believe not every spirit suddenly, but judge 
 them by the Word of God, which is the trial of all doctrine, and lasteth for 
 ever. Amen." 
 
 Tyndale's purpose was, as has been already stated, to give 
 what he considered the true meaning of those passages of 
 Scripture which were generally interpreted as opposed to the 
 doctrine of Justification by Faith, or as he himself, imitating 
 the phraseology of Erasmus, expresses it, "to expound them 
 aright and to bring the Scripture unto the right sense, and to 
 dig again the wells of Abraham, and to purge and cleanse 
 them of the earth of worldly wisdom wherewith these 
 Philistines have stopped them." Of the nature of his teaching 
 on the subject the following specimen will abundantly satisfy 
 the reader : — 
 
 " This is plain, and a sure conclusion, not to be doubted of, that there 
 must be first in the heart of a man, before he do any good work, a greater 
 and a preciouser thing than all the good works in the world, to reconcile 
 him to God, to bring the love and favour of God to him, to make him love 
 God again, to make him righteous and good in the sight of God, to do 
 away his sin, to deliver him and loose him out of that captivity wherein he 
 was conceived and bom, in which he could neither love God nor the will of 
 God. Or else, how can he work any good work that should please God, 
 if there were not some supernatural goodness in him, given of God freely, 
 whereof the good work must spring ? even as a sick man must first be 
 healed or made whole, ere he can do the deeds of an whole man ; and as 
 the blind man must first have sight given him, ere he can see ; and he that 
 hath his feet in fetters, gyves, or stocks, must first be loosed, ere he can 
 go, walk, or run ; and even as they which thou readest of in the Gospel, 
 that they were possessed of the devils, could not laud God till the devils 
 were cast out. 
 
 " That precious thing which must be in the heart, ere a man can work 
 any good work, is the Word of God, which in the Gospel preacheth, 
 proffereth, and bringeth unto all that repent and believe, the favour of God 
 
i©llUa\ti €^nt>alc ot^^iwife t$il^ 
 
 pM^^jHdce anb peace !!»iti> ftS'mftncr fpf 
 W^^^Mritaa^ftaUngt Mb livingc cooi^ 
 ilB^^t^y of t^e Fynbnee of €^iifi I be 
 
 A^m\i t0e i»ift*of (^b 2f mc. C^e cm^c tr^y 
 3fett mv name befoie t^is litk trtotyfe Sb^» 
 h not ratber bone it th t^ e new tcfJament t6 
 t^ftt t^cn 3 fotorec&^^c coirnfelf of(f{)«(? no? 
 ^ic^ejc^ottet^iiientriatt^.vj.to £>oo t^ej^c 
 0oob feeabes fecretJy ab to be contf t tvit^ t{)e 
 cofcienceofwcCFboynge/anb t^at (Sobfect^ 
 t)ft/ anb pacientlj? to abybe t^e rtwarbe of t^c 
 taff Xfixftw^ic^ (Q)^fl^at]) ptirc^afeb foj wft 
 flb now apolb faj>ne |>a»e bone lyf e ceyfe / BtJt 
 MX compeffcb otj^er tPifc to boo, 
 
 t£>^ile3i«bobc afayt^fulf copuijjcon w* 
 ^(c|) note ^at& taff anot|erB)>O0e4pS.^iJtl/ 
 to p*eficj> tfljM'fl w^ere (3 fuppoft) t« !"»** "* 
 r er )7et ptea<;^eb(J(6ob tofiifi) putt tn ^ie> ^tt* 
 te t^it^er to 0OO (enbetjffrfpitte voit^ ^iW^^ 
 foite ^tTtt anb^btin^e ^le purpofe to^oob if^ 
 fecte)one Q^iSlaKoj^e 4 man fomctv^at craf 
 tycw^en ^ecomet!i>rnK ncto aecoj^ntaunce 
 Anb beJTMc %t be t{)6tot& t^owen anb namely 
 tri>f affifi fpft/ came »nto rtiltcb offereb ^i» 
 |>elp«.2l0lon0cad^e {>ab no monej^/font* 
 iv^a 1 3 coUlb rtiele |u but oe font ae ^e i>a^' 
 
 '-■r^A ' 
 
 •jA 
 
THE WORD OF GOD IN THE HEART. 177 
 
 in Christ. Whosoever heareth the Word and believeth it, the same is 
 thereby righteous ; and thereby is given him the Spirit of God, which 
 leadeth him unto all that is the will of God ; and [he] is loosed from the 
 captivity and bondage of the devil ; and his heart is free to love God, and 
 hath lust to do the will of God. Therefore it is called the word of life, the 
 word of grace, the word of health, the word of redemption, the word of 
 forgiveness, and the word of peace : he that heareth it not, or believeth it 
 not, can by no means be made righteous before God. This confirmeth 
 Peter in the fifteenth of the Acts, saying that God through faith doth purify 
 the hearts. For of what nature soever the Word of God is, of the same 
 nature must the hearts be which believe thereon, and cleave thereunto. 
 Now is the Word Hving, pure, righteous, and true ; and even so maketh it 
 the hearts of them that believe thereon." 
 
 If it was objected to this teaching that there were many 
 who believe, or professed to believe, and yet in whose lives no 
 change was perceptible, Tyndale replied : — 
 
 "These are they which Judas [Jude] in his epistle calleth dreamers, 
 which deceive themselves with their own fantasies. For what other thing 
 is their imagination, which they call faith, than a dreaming of the faith, 
 and an opinion of their own imagination wrought without the grace of 
 God ? These must needs be worse at the latter end than at the beginning. 
 These are the old vessels that rend when new wine is poured into them ; 
 that is, they hear God's Word, but hold it not, and therefore wax worse 
 than they were before. But the right faith springeth not of man's fantasy, 
 neither is it in any man's power to obtain it ; but it is altogether the pure 
 gift of God poured into us freely, without all manner doing of us, without 
 deserving and merits, yea, and without seeking for of us ; and is (as saith 
 Paul in the second to the Ephesians) even God's gift and grace, purchased 
 through Christ. Therefore is it mighty in operation, full of virtue, and 
 ever working; which also reneweth a man and begetteth him afresh, 
 altereth him, changeth him, and tumeth him altogether into a new nature 
 and conversation ; so that a man feeleth his heart altogether altered and 
 changed, and far otherwise disposed than before ; and hath power to love 
 that which before he could not but hate ; and delighteth in that which 
 before he abhorred ; and hateth that which before he could not but love. And 
 it setteth the soul at liberty, and maketh her free to follow the will of God, 
 and doth to the soul even as health doth unto the body, after that a man 
 is pined and wasted away with a long soking [exhausting] disease : the 
 legs cannot bear him, he cannot lift up his hands to help himself, his taste 
 is corrupt, sugar is bitter in his mouth, his stomach abhorreth,' longing 
 after slibbersauce and swash, at which a whole stomach is ready to cast 
 his gorge. When health cometh, she [it] changeth and altereth him clean ; 
 
 ' Apparently some words are here oiQitted ; and in the copy in the Museum the 
 words good meat are supplied in ink by an old hand. 
 
 N 
 
178 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 giveth him strength in all his members, and lust to do of his own accord 
 that which before he could not do, neither could suffer that any man 
 exhorted him to do ; and hath now lust in wholesome things, and his 
 members are free and at liberty, and have power to do, of their own 
 accord, all things which belong to an whole man to do, which afore they 
 had no power to do, but were in captivity and bondage. So likewise in 
 all things doth right faith to the soul. 
 
 "The Spirit of God accompanieth faith, and bringeth with her [i.e., with 
 faith] Hght, wherewith a man beholdeth himself in the law of God, apd 
 seeth his miserable bondage and captivity, and humbleth himself, and 
 abhorreth himself: she [faith] bringeth God's promises of all good things 
 in Christ. God worketh with His Word, and in His Word : and when 
 His Word is preached, faith rooteth herself in the hearts of the elect ; and 
 as faith entereth, and the Word of God is believed, the power of God 
 looseth the heart from the captivity and bondage under sin, and knitteth 
 and coupleth him to God and to the will of God ; altereth him, changeth 
 him clean, fashioneth, and forgeth him anew ; giveth him power to love, 
 and to do that which before was impossible for him either to love or do ; 
 and tumeth him unto a new nature, so that he loveth that which he before 
 hated, and hateth that which he before loved ; and is clean altered, and 
 changed, and contrary disposed ; and is knit and coupled fast to God's will, 
 and naturally bringeth forth good works, that is to say, that which God 
 commandeth to do, and not things of his own imagination. And that doth 
 he of his own accord, as a tree bringeth forth fruit of her own accord. 
 And as thou needest not to bid a tree to bring forth fruit, so is there no law 
 put unto him that believeth, and is justified through faith, as saith Paul in 
 the first epistle to Timothy, the first chapter. Neither is it needful ; for 
 the law of God is written and graved in his heart, and his pleasure is 
 therein. And as without commandment, but even of his own nature, he 
 eateth, drinketh, seeth, heareth, talketh, and goeth ; even so of his own 
 nature, without co-action or compulsion of the law, bringeth he forth good 
 works. And as a whole [healthy] man, when he is athirst, tarrieth but for 
 drink, and when he hungreth, abideth but for meat, and then drinketh and 
 eateth naturally ; even so is the faithful ever athirst and an hungred after 
 the will of God, and tarrieth but for occasion. And whensoever an 
 occasion is given, he worketh naturally the will of God : for this blessing 
 is given to all them that trust in Christ's blood, that they thirst and hunger 
 to do God's will. He that hath not this faith, is but an unprofitable 
 babbler of faith and works ; and wotteth neither what he babbleth, nor 
 what he meaneth, or whereunto his words pertain : for he feeleth not the 
 power of faith, nor the working of the Spirit in his heart ; but interpreteth 
 the Scriptures, which speak of faith and works, after his own blind reason 
 and foolish fantasies, and not of any feeling that he hath in his heart ; 
 as a man rehearseth a tale of another man's mouth, and wotteth not 
 whether it be so or no as he saith, nor hath any experience of the thing 
 itself." 
 
WHAT WE OWE TO OUR NEIGHBOUR. 179 
 
 The treatise, however, is not entirely occupied with doctrinal 
 discussions ; Tyndale had a practical English mind, and 
 entertained quite as high an opinion of the extent of the 
 obligation under which we lie to our neighbours, as of the 
 value of that doctrine which it was the chief purpose of his 
 treatise to expound. "If," says he, "my neighbour need 
 and I give him not, neither depart [share] liberally with him 
 of that which I have, then withhold I from him unrighteously 
 that which is his own. And this unrighteousness in our 
 mammon see very few men, because it is spiritual ; and in 
 those goods which are gotten most truly and justly are men 
 much beguiled. For they suppose they do no man wrong in 
 keeping them ; in that they got them not with stealing, 
 robbing, oppression, and usury, neither hurt any man now 
 with them." And with still more emphatic plainness he 
 declares, "If thy neighbour need, and thou help him not, 
 being able, thou withholdest his duty from him, and art a thief 
 before God :" "Among Christian men love maketh all things 
 common ; every man is other's debtor, and every man is 
 bound to minister to his neighbour, and to supply his 
 neighbour's lack, of that wherewith God hath endowed him." 
 And still more copiously in a passage well worthy of the 
 consideration of those who suppose that Tyndale was merely 
 a fierce polemical theologian :— 
 
 " The order of love or charity, which some dream [of], the Gospel of 
 Christ knoweth not of, that a man should begin at himself, and serve 
 himself first, and then descend, I wot not by what steps. Love seeketh 
 not her own profit (2 Cor. xii.) ; but maketh a man to forget himself, and 
 to turn his profit to another man, as Christ sought not Himself, nor His 
 own profit, but ours. This term, myself, is not in the Gospel ; neither yet 
 father, mother, sister, brother, kinsman, that one should be preferred in 
 love above another. But Christ is all in all things. Every Christian man 
 to another is Christ Himself; and thy neighbour's need hath as good right 
 in thy goods as hath Christ Himself, which is heir and lord over all. 
 And look what thou owest to Christ, that thou owest to thy neighbour's 
 need. To thy neighbour owest thou thine heart, thyself, and all that thou 
 hast and canst do. The love that springeth out of Christ excludeth no 
 man, neither putteth difference between one and another. In Christ we 
 are all of one degree, without respect of persons. Notwithstanding, though 
 
l8o TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 a Christian man's heart be open to all men and receiveth all men, yet 
 because that his ability of goods extendeth not so far, this provision is- 
 made, that every man shall care for his own household, as father and 
 mother, and thine elders that have holpen thee, wife, children, and 
 servants. If thou shouldest not care and provide for thine household, then 
 wert thou an infidel ; seeing thou hast taken on thee so to do, and 
 forasmuch as that is thy part committed to thee of the congregation. 
 When thou hast done thy duty to thine household, and yet hast further 
 abundance of the blessing of God, that owest thou to the poor that cannot 
 labour, or would labour and can get no work, and are destitute of friends ; 
 to the poor, I mean, which thou knowest, to them of thine own parish. 
 For that provision ought to be had in the congregation, that every parish 
 care for their poor. If thy neighbours which thou knowest be served, and 
 thou yet have superfluity, and hearest necessity to be among the brethren 
 a thousand miles off, to them art thou debtor. Yea, to the very infidels 
 we be debtors, if they need, as far forth as we maintain them not against 
 Christ, or to blaspheme Christ. Thus is every man that needeth thy help, 
 thy father, mother, sister, and brother in Christ ; even as every man that 
 doth the will of the Father is father, mother, sister, and brother unto 
 Christ. 
 
 " Moreover, if any be an infidel and a false Christian, and forsake his 
 household, his wife, children, and such as cannot help themselves, then 
 art thou bound, and \i.e., if] thou have wherewith, even as much as to 
 thine own household. And they have as good right in thy goods as thou 
 thyself: and if thou withdraw mercy from them, and hast wherewith to 
 help them, then art thou a thief. If thou show mercy, so doest thou thy 
 duty, and art a faithful minister in the household of Christ ; and of Christ 
 shalt thou have thy reward and thanks. If the whole world were thine, 
 yet hath every brother his right in thy goods ; and is heir with thee, as we 
 are all heirs with Christ." 
 
 And these were not mere idle words in Tyndale's case, 
 expressing nothing more than pious sentimentalism ; he 
 believed them with all his heart, and honestly attempted to 
 walk in accordance with them. "He reserved for himself," 
 says Foxe in his account of his life at Antwerp, "two days in 
 the week, which he named his days of pastime, namely, 
 Monday and Saturday : " the one of these was devoted to 
 visiting all English refugees in the city and relieving their 
 wants ; on the other "he walked round about the town, seek- 
 ing out every corner and hole where he suspected any poor 
 person to dwell, and where he found any to be well occupied 
 and yet overburdened with children, or else aged or weak, 
 
"THE WICKED MAMMON" CONDEMNED. i8i 
 
 those also he plentifully relieved: and thus he spent his two 
 days of pastime." 
 
 Such passages as these, which are a fair specimen of the 
 style and teaching of The Parable of the Wicked Mammon, 
 will probably be regarded by the I'eader as embracing at 
 once sound theology and admirable morality. Even those 
 who might be inclined to object that some of the doctrinal 
 interpretations of the writer are over-refined, would admit 
 that his speculative subtlety was amply compensated by the 
 lofty tone of pure moral teaching which pervades the book. 
 It was not thus, however, that Tyndale's orthodox contem- 
 poraries judged of the work. In a public instrument issued by 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Wicked Mammon was 
 singled out for condemnation as "containing many detest- 
 able errors and damnable opinions." The work was also 
 condemned by an assemblage of prelates and doctors sum- 
 moned by Henry to deliberate as to the character of the 
 English books then in circulation in the country. Preachers 
 were instructed to hold it up to public detestation, and to 
 exhort their hearers to expel from their hearts all evil influences 
 that they might have imbibed by reading so pernicious a 
 book. A catalogue of nine-and-twenty distinct heretical 
 propositions was drawn up from the dangerous publication, 
 and was held up to execration, that all good Christians might 
 abhor "those great errors and pestilent heresies."^ To possess 
 a copy of a book esteemed so wicked was a heinous fault ; and 
 those who were guilty were rigorously examined, whether 
 they were prepared to adopt Tyndale's opinions and to incur 
 the consequent penalties, or to renounce and retract them. 
 
 Perhaps, -however, nothing so completely demonstrates the 
 perfect hatred with which the book was received by the 
 authorities of the Church in England, as the bitter language 
 which Sir Thomas More uniformly employs in speaking of 
 what he calls, with wilful metathesis, " The Wicked Book of 
 Mammon," "very mammona iniquitatis, a very treasury, and 
 
 ' Wilkins' Concilia, Vol. iii ; Foxe, Vol. iv. 
 
l82 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 well-spring of wickedness" . . . . "a book by which many- 
 have been beguiled, and brought into many wicked heresies ; 
 which thing (saving that the devil is ready to put out men's 
 eyes, that are content willingly to wax blind) were else, in 
 good faith, to me no little wonder : for never was there made 
 a more foolish frantic book."^ Of the amount of provocation 
 given by the book to the authorities, the reader is perfectly 
 qualified to judge, for the only passage that could be con- 
 sidered in any way offensive is that on Antichrist, which has 
 already been quoted ; and if in the sequel we shall find 
 Tyndale waxing sharper and fiercer in the language which he 
 employs, it must not be forgotten that his first writings, though 
 comparatively mild and temperate, were notwithstanding 
 condemned as "frantic," and abounding "in pestilent heresies^ 
 contagious, and damnable." But it has never been easy 
 to propitiate the approbation of the " children sitting in the 
 market-place." 
 
 One other remark on The Wicked Mammon is of sufii- 
 cient interest to be inserted before we pass on to the con- 
 sideration of Tyndale's next and greater work. By way of 
 exegetical comment upon the word "Mammon,^' Tyndale 
 ventures to say, " Mammon is an Hebrew word, and signifieth 
 riches or temporal goods ; and namely [especially] all super- 
 fluity, and all that is above necessity, and that which is 
 required unto our necessary uses ; ^yherewith a man may help 
 another, without undoing or hurting himself: for hamon, 
 in the Hebrew speech, signifieth a multitude, or abundance or 
 many ; and therehence cometh mahamon or mammon, abund- 
 ance, or plenteousness of goods or riches." Without entering 
 into any philological disquisition, it will be apparent to 
 any one acquainted with Hebrew that Tyndale's criticism 
 is that of a man who well understood the genius of that 
 language ; and, in Tyndale's time, it probably indicated 
 an amount of knowledge and familiarity with Hebrew such as 
 only the fewest possessed. 
 
 ^ Sir Thomas More's Confutation of Tyndale's Answer. 
 
" THE OBEDIENCE OF A CHRISTIAN MAN." 183 
 
 It seems not improbable that The Parable of the Wicked 
 Mammon had been written some time before it was printed ; 
 possibly, indeed, it was written at Worms, and its publication 
 was delayed by the necessity under which Tyndale lay of 
 consulting for his safety by flight. On the very same day on 
 which it issued from the press at Marburg, there also issued, 
 according to some authorities, the largest of all Tyndale's 
 original works, his treatise entitled, The Obedience of a 
 Christian man, and how Christian rulers ought to govern, 
 wherein also, if thou mark diligently, thou shalt find eyes 
 to perceive the crafty conveyance of all jugglers. ^ The date 
 is not an impossible one, although it lacks confirmation : but if 
 77;!^ Obedience were printed at the same time as The Wicked 
 Mammon, it was certainly written after it, for it contains 
 allusions to The Mammon, as a work previously composed. 
 
 In fact, it is plain, from an examination of The Obedience, 
 that it was not printed until the outburst of that first violent 
 assault upon the circulation of the English Bible, which 
 marked the commencement of the year 1528. "The Preface 
 to the Reader" was inspired by the occurrences of which Tyn- 
 dale probably had just heard through the narrative of some 
 refugee for conscience' sake.^ The arrest and recantation of 
 Bilney and Arthur, the flight of George Joye, the discovery of 
 Garret's proceedings at Oxford, the imprisonment of Fryth 
 and Clarke and their associates, the infirmity of so many 
 of the brethren, who, to secure themselves from danger, 
 revealed all that they knew of the manner by which the New 
 Testament and other books were introduced into England, 
 
 1 An edition of this date was No. 3728 of the catalogue of the late George Offor's 
 Library. " Tyndale, Obedience of a Christian Man . . [also the Parable of the Wicked 
 Mammon\ No colophon to the first part, i. e. the Obedience, so that Walter's de- 
 scription is wrong. Quarto, by me Hans Luft, the VIII of May, 1528. Query ; was 
 this booh burnt? " Tyndale, in his Practice of Prelates, which was probably written 
 at the close of 1 5 30, says, "Well toward three years agone I set forth The Obedience ; ' • 
 to which May, 1528, would pretty well correspond; October, the date of the next 
 edition, though not totally inconsistent with Tyndale's words, does not quite so well 
 answer to them. 
 
 ' Such as George Joye, who left England in December, 1527. 
 
184 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 all this had evidently come to the knowledge of Tyndale, 
 and he writes accordingly in that tone of consolation which 
 befitted men overwhelmed with innumerable misfortunes. 
 Tribulation and persecution, he reminds his readers, were 
 in general a sign of the favour and love of God ; the truth 
 had always been opposed by the world ; and those whom 
 God designed to honour with His special favour, were 
 generally led through tribulation and adversity. ''If God," 
 says he, in a passage which smacks of the boldness of Luther, 
 "promise riches, the way thereto is poverty; whom He loveth, 
 him He chasteneth: whom He exalteth, He casteth down; 
 whom He saveth, He damneth first. He bringeth no man to 
 heaven, except He send him to hell first. If He promise life, 
 He slayeth first : when He buildeth, He casteth all down 
 first. He is no patcher; He cannot build on another man's 
 foundation." 
 
 The Obedience is the largest and most elaborate of all 
 Tyndale's works ; next to his translation of Holy Scripture, it 
 was the book by which he was best known to his con- 
 temporaries, that which exerted the greatest influence upon 
 those who were friendly to the Reformation, and which gave 
 deepest offence to the authorities of the Church : it is the 
 book, in a word, in which the mind of Tyndale is most fully 
 portrayed by himself; and it is entitled, therefore, to a 
 prominent place in a biography which attempts to give to 
 posterity an image of the mind of the great Reformer. No 
 apology therefore, it is conceived, is due for the length of the 
 following extracts, without a careful perusal of which, indeed, 
 the work of Tyndale and his position will scarcely be in- 
 telligible to the reader. 
 
 Henry, as we have seen, had ordered Tyndale's translation 
 to be burned ; and Tunstal and Warham had stigmatised it, 
 even in the edition without glosses, as " containing pestiferous 
 and pernicious poison." But, in truth, it was not merely 
 against Tyndale's translation that their rage was directed, 
 but against any version in the English tongue. It was, for 
 
THE BIBLE IN THE MOTHER-TONGUE. 185 
 
 examplejassertedthatitwasnot necessaryforthe people to have 
 the Word of God in their own native language, and that many 
 disagreeable and disastrous consequences might follow if the 
 laymen had the Holy Scriptures in their hands in the mother- 
 tongue. Against this monstrous opinion, Tyndale argues at 
 considerable length and with great acuteness in his Preface : — 
 
 "The sermons which thou readest in the Acts of the Apostles, and 
 all that the Apostles preached, were no doubt preached in the mother- 
 tongue. Why, then, might they not be written in the mother-tongue ? 
 As, if one of us preach a good sermon, why may it not be written ? 
 Saint Jerom also translated the Bible into his mother-tongue : why may 
 not we also ? They will say it cannot be translated into our tongue, it is 
 so rude. It is not so rude as they are false liars. For the Greek tongue 
 agreeth more with the English than with the Latin. And the properties 
 of the Hebrew tongue agreeth a thousand times more with the English 
 than with the Latin. The manner of speaking is both one : so that in 
 a thousand places thou needest not but to translate it into EngUsh, word 
 for word, when thou must seek a compass in the Latin, and yet shall 
 have much work to translate it well-favouredly, so that it have the same 
 grace and sweetness, sense and pure understanding with it in the Latin, 
 and as it hath in the Hebrew. A thousand parts better may it be trans- 
 lated into the English, than into the Latin. Yea, and except my memory 
 fail me, and that I have forgotten what I read when I was a child, thou 
 shalt find in the English Chronicle, how that King Adelstone caused the 
 Holy Scripture to be translated into the tongue that then was in England, 
 and how the prelates exhorted him thereto.^ 
 
 " Moreover, seeing that one of you ever preacheth contrary to another ; 
 and when two of you meet, the one disputeth and brawleth with the 
 other, as it were two scolds ; and forasmuch as one holdeth this 
 doctor, and another that ; one followeth Duns [Scotus], another St. 
 Thomas [Aquinas], another Bonaventure, Alexander de Hales, Raymond, 
 Lyre, Brygot, Dorbel, Holcot, Gorram, Trumbett, Hugo de Sancto Victore, 
 De Monte Regio, De Nova Villa, De Media Villa, and such hke out of 
 number ;^ so that if thou hadst but of every author one book, thou 
 couldst not pile them up in any warehouse in London, and every author 
 is one contrary unto another. In so great diversity of spirits, how shall I 
 know who lieth, and who sayeth truth ? Whereby shall I try and judge 
 
 ' There seems to be no authority for this, which is also stated in Foxe : perhaps 
 there was some confusion in Tyndale's memory, or in the Chronicle, between 
 Athelstone and Alfred. 
 
 ^ These, the reader will sufficiently imderstand, are the names of some of the most 
 famous of the schoolmen : they and their works do not concern us here ; those who 
 wish to know more regarding them may consult the customary authorities on such 
 matters. 
 
1 86 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 them ? Verily by God's Word, which only is true. But how shall I that 
 do, when thou wilt not let me see Scripture ? 
 
 "Nay, say they, the Scripture is so hard, that thou couldst never 
 understand it but by the doctors. That is, I must measure the meteyard 
 by the cloth. Here be twenty cloths of divers lengths and of divers 
 breadths : how shall I be sure of the length of the meteyard by them ? 
 I suppose, rather, I must be first sure of the length of the meteyard, and 
 thereby measure and judge of the cloths. If I must first believe the 
 doctor, then is the doctor first true, and the truth of the Scripture de- 
 pendeth of his truth ; and so the truth of God springeth of the truth of 
 man. Thus Antichrist tumeth the roots of the trees upward. What is 
 the cause, that we damn some of Origen's works, and allow some ? How 
 know we that some is heresy and some not ? By the Scripture, I trow. 
 How know we that St. Augustine (which is the best, or one of the best, 
 that ever wrote upon the Scripture) wrote many things amiss at the 
 beginning, as many other doctors do ? Verily, by the Scriptures ; as he 
 himself well perceived afterward, when he looked more diligently upon 
 them, and revoked many things again. He wrote of many things which 
 he understood not when he was newly converted, ere he had thoroughly 
 seen the Scripture ; and followed the opinions of Plato, and the common 
 persuasions of man's wisdom that were then famous 
 
 " Finally, that this threatening and forbidding the lay people to read 
 the Scripture is not for the love of your souls (which they care for as the 
 fox doth for the geese), is evident, and clearer than the sun ; inasmuch 
 as they permit and suffer you to read Robin Hood, and Bevis of Hampton,. 
 Hercules, Hector and Troilus, with a thousand histories and fables of 
 love and wantonness, and ribaldry, as filthy as heart can think, to corrupt 
 the minds of youth withal, clean contrary to the doctrine of Christ and of 
 His Apostles : for Paul saith, ' See that fornication, and aU uncleanness, 
 or covetousness, be not once named among you, as it becometh saints ; 
 neither filthiness, neither foolish talking nor jesting, which are not comely : 
 for this ye know, that no whoremonger, either unclean person, or covetous 
 person, which is the worshipper of images, hath any inheritance in the 
 kingdom of Christ and of God.' And after saith he, 'Through such 
 things Cometh the wrath of God upon the children of unbelief.' Now 
 seeing they permit you freely to read those things which corrupt your 
 minds and rob you of the kingdom of God and Christ, and bring the 
 wrath of God upon you, how is this forbidding for love of your souls .■' " 
 
 The whole book, in fact, is argumentative and polemical ; it 
 was intended as a defence of the Reformers from the imputa- 
 tions made against them that "they caused insurrection, 
 and taught the people to disobey their heads and governors, 
 and to rise against their princes, and to make all common, 
 and to make havoc of other men's goods." Such was the 
 
TYNDALE'S VIEWS ON THE KINGSHIP. 187 
 
 common accusation of the day against the doctrine of the 
 Reformers, who were often charged with having instigated all 
 the excesses of the unfortunate war of the peasants in Germany, 
 although in truth no one had condemned them more severely 
 than Luther. The Reformers are still sometimes spoken of 
 as if they had been apostles of sedition and instigators of 
 rebellion ; and, unfortunately, some of them cannot be entirely 
 freed from this charge ; but to allege it against Tyndale or 
 any of those who are usually esteemed the leaders of the 
 English Reformation, is simply to exhibit unaccountable and 
 inexcusable ignorance. Against the usurped authority of the 
 pope and the clergy, who claimed exemption from the 
 jurisdiction of the civil power, and lorded it over the 
 persons and property of all subjects, Tyndale protests in 
 the strongest terms ; but to the lawful sovereign he ac- 
 knowledges himself bound to show an entire and implicit 
 submission of the most absolute kind, as far removed from 
 anything seditious as can well be imagined. It would, in fact, 
 be much nearer to the truth to charge Tyndale, Latimer, and 
 Cranmer with inculcating an almost slavish obedience to 
 kings, than to insinuate that they justly exposed themselves 
 to punishment by abetting treason and sedition. 
 
 " The King," says Tyndale, " is, in this world, without law ; and may 
 at his lust [pleasure] do right or wrong, and shall give accounts but to 
 God only. . . . Heads and governors are ordained of God, and are even 
 the gift of God, whether they be good or bad. And whatsoever is done to 
 us by them, that doth God, be it good or bad. If they be evil, why are 
 they evil ? Verily, for our wickedness' sake are they evil ; because that 
 when they were good, we would not receive that goodness of the hand of 
 God, and be thankful, submitting ourselves unto His laws and ordinances ; 
 but abuse the goodness of God unto our sensual and beastly lusts. There- 
 fore doth God make His scourge of them, and turn them to wild beasts, 
 contrary to the nature of their names and offices, even into lions, bears, 
 foxes, and unclean swine, to avenge Himself of our unnatural and blind 
 
 unkindness, and of our rebellious disobedience Evil rulers then 
 
 are a sign that God is angry and wroth with us Let us receive all 
 
 things of God, whether it be good or bad ; let us humble ourselves under 
 His mighty hand, and submit ourselves unto His nurture and chastising, 
 and not withdraw ourselves from His correction. Read Hebr. xii. for thy 
 
i88 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 comfort ; and let us not take the staff by the end, or seek to avenge our- 
 selves on His rod, which is the evil rulers. The child, as long as he 
 seeketh to avenge himself upon the rod, hath an evil heart ; for he 
 thinketh not that the correction is right, or that he hath deserved it, 
 neither repenteth, but rejoiceth in his wickedness : and so long shall he 
 never be without a rod : yea, so long shall the rod be made sharper and 
 sharper. If he knowledge his fault and take the correction meekly, and 
 even kiss the rod, and amend himself with the learning and nurture of 
 his father and mother, then is the rod taken away and burnt. 
 
 " So, if we resist evil rulers, seeking to set ourselves at liberty, we shall, 
 no doubt, bring ourselves into more evil bondage, and wrap ourselves in 
 much more misery and wretchedness. For if the heads overcome, then 
 lay they more weight on their backs, and make their yoke sorer, and tie 
 them shorter. If they overcome their evil rulers, then make their way for 
 a more cruel nation, or for some tyrant of their own nation, which hath 
 no right unto the crown. If we submit ourselves unto the chastising of 
 God, and meekly knowledge our sins for which we are scourged, and kiss 
 the rod, and amend our living ; then will God take the rod away, that is, 
 He will give the rulers a better heart. Or if they continue their malice 
 and persecute you for well-doing, and because ye put your trust in God, 
 then will God deliver you out of their tyranny for His truth's sake. It is 
 the same God now that was in the old time, and delivered the fathers 
 and the prophets, the apostles, and other holy saints. And whatsoever 
 He sware to them He hath sworn to us. And as He delivered them out 
 of all temptation, cumbrance, and adversity, because they consented and 
 submitted themselves unto His will, and trusted in His goodness and truth ; 
 even so will He do to us, if we do likewise. 
 
 " A Christian man, in respect of God, is but a passive thing ; a thing 
 that suffereth only, and doth nought ; as the sick, in respect of the sur- 
 geon or physician, doth but suffer only. The surgeon lanceth and cutteth 
 out the dead flesh, seareth the wounds, thrusteth in tents, seareth, bumeth, 
 seweth or stitcheth, and layeth to caustics, to draw out the corruption ; 
 and, last of all, layeth to healing plaisters, and maketh it whole. The 
 physician likewise giveth purgations and drinks to drive out the disease, 
 and then with restoratives bringeth health. Now if the sick resist the 
 razor, the searching iron, and so forth, doth he not resist his own health, 
 and is cause of his own death ? So likewise is it of us, if we resist evil 
 rulers, which are the rod and scourge wherewith God chastiseth us ; the 
 instruments wherewith God searcheth our wounds ; and bitter drinks to 
 drive out the sin and to make it appear, and caustics to draw out by the 
 roots the core of the pocks of the soul that fretteth inward. A Christian 
 man, therefore, receiveth all things of the hand of God, both good and 
 bad, both sweet and sour, both wealth and woe. If any person do me 
 good, whether it be father, mother, and so forth, that receive I of God, 
 and to God give thanks : for He gave wherewith, and gave a command- 
 ment, and moved his heart so to do. Adversity also receive I of the hand 
 
THE BENEFITS OF PERSECUTION. 189 
 
 of God, as a wholesome medicine, though it be somewhat bitter. Temp- 
 tation and adversity do both kill sin, and also utter [manifest] it. For 
 though a Christian man knoweth every thing how to Uve, yet is the flesh 
 so weak, that he can never take up his cross himself, to kill and mortify 
 the flesh : he must have another to lay it on his back. In many also sin 
 lieth hid within, and festereth and rotteth inward, and is not seen ; so 
 that they think how they are good and perfect, and keep the law : as the 
 young man Matt. xix. said, he had observed all of a child ; and yet lied 
 falsely in his heart, as the text following well declareth. When all is at 
 peace and no man troubleth us, we think that we are patient and love our 
 neighbours as ourselves ; but let our neighbour hurt us in word or deed, 
 and then find we it otherwise. Then fume we, and rage, and set up the 
 bristles, and bend ourselves to take vengeance. If we loved with godly 
 love, for Christ's kindness' sake, we should desire no vengeance ; but pity 
 him, and desire God to forgive and amend him, knowing well that no 
 flesh can do otherwise than sin, except that God preserve him. Thou 
 wilt say. What good doth such persecution and tyranny unto the righteous ? 
 First, it maketh them feel the working of God's Spirit in them, and that 
 their faith is unfeigned. Secondarily, I say that no man is so great a 
 sinner, if he repent and believe, but that he is righteous in Christ and in 
 the promises : yet if thou look on the flesh, and unto the law, there is no 
 man so perfect that is not found a sinner ; nor any man so pure that 
 hath not somewhat to be yet purged. This shall suffice at this time as 
 concerning obedience." 
 
 To charge such sentiments as these with any tendency 
 to encourage insubordination and rebellion, is a manifest 
 absurdity; they are, in fact, tantamount to a profession of 
 passive obedience in its strictest and simplest form. 
 
 But Tyndale does not rest satisfied with merely defending 
 himself and his friends from the imputations made against 
 them by their enemies ; he carries the war boldly into the 
 enemy's camp. It was not the Reformers, it was the pope 
 and the clergy, he asserted, who in reality instigated men 
 to refuse obedience to the civil power. They claimed for 
 themselves a superiority to all secular authority. They had 
 presumed to excommunicate kings, and to lay nations 
 under interdict. They refused to bear their share in the 
 ordinary burdens which devolved upon subjects. They 
 declined to submit to the jurisdiction of the secular courts. 
 In open defiance of the example of Christ and the admoni- 
 tion of His Apostle, "Let every soul submit himself unto 
 
19° TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 the higher powers ; whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth 
 the ordinance of God ; " popes and bishops, monks and 
 friars, had arrogated to themselves an exemption from the 
 authority of the temporal sovereign. Here, Tyndale main- 
 tained, was the true fountain of insubordination and rebellion ; 
 here were the true apostles of sedition against whom the terror 
 of the civil authority should be wielded. " If," says he, " the 
 office of princes, given them of God, be to take vengeance of 
 evil-doers, then by God's Word are all princes damned [con- 
 demned], even as many as give liberty or license unto the 
 spirituality to sin unpunished ; and not only to sin unpun- 
 ished themselves, but also to open sanctuaries, privileged 
 places, churchyards, St. John's holds ; yea, and if they come 
 too short unto all these, yet to set forth a neck-verse to save 
 all manner trespassers, from the fear of the sword of the 
 vengeance of God, put in the hand of princes to take 
 vengeance of all such." ^ The ambition of the clergy had 
 thrown all civil government into confusion ; they had almost 
 monopolised all offices of authority in the State, to the great 
 injury both of religion and of good government. 
 
 " Is it not a shame above all shames," asks Tyndale, 
 " and a monstrous thing, that no man should be found able 
 to govern a worldly kingdom save bishops and prelates, that 
 have forsaken the world, and are taken out of the world, 
 and appointed to preach the kingdom of God ? . . . To 
 preach God's Word is too much for half a man : and to 
 minister a temporal kingdom is too much for half a man 
 also. Either other requireth a whole man. One therefore 
 cannot well do both. He that avengeth himself on every 
 trifle is not meet to preach the patience of Christ, how that 
 
 ^ The clergy, as is well known, had, by long persevering efforts, succeeded in 
 establishing for themselves an exemption from the ordinary civil courts; they had 
 opened sanctuaries of various Icinds where criminals might find refuge, and evade 
 the lay courts. To such an extent did this abuse go, that any one who declared that 
 he was, or meant to be, in holy orders, and could, as a proof, repeat the iirst verse 
 of the fifty-first psalm, might claim to be handed over to the spiritual courts. Hence 
 the popular name for the verse, which often saved a man's neck from the hangman's 
 rope. 
 
THE APOSTLES OF ANTICHRIST. 191 
 
 a man ought to forgive and to suffer all things. He that 
 is overwhelmed with all manner riches, and doth but seek 
 more daily, is not meet to preach poverty. He that will 
 obey no man, is not meet to preach how we ought to obey 
 all men. . . . Paul saith, ' Woe is me if I preach not.' A 
 terrible saying, verily, for popes, cardinals, and bishops ! 
 If he had said, 'Woe be unto me if I fight not and move 
 princes unto war, or if I increase not St. Peter's patrimony, 
 as they call it, it had been a more easy saying for them.' " 
 
 These were sharp words, sure to give offence to the English 
 prelates ; but these are not the sharpest of Tyndale's utter- 
 ances in his Obedience. General charges, however strong, 
 lack the force of specific and detailed accusations ; and 
 Tyndale's most damaging attack upon the Church of Rome, 
 was his detailed and elaborate exposure of the false pretences 
 of " The Apostles of Antichrist." 
 
 " Christ, when He had fulfilled His course, anointed His 
 Apostles and disciples with the Spirit, and sent them forth, 
 without all manner disguising \i.e., as he explains it, neither 
 shaven nor shorn, nor anointed with oil], like other men, 
 to preach the atonement and peace which Christ had made 
 between God and man. The Apostles likewise disguised no 
 man, but chose men anointed with the same Spirit ; one to 
 preach the Word of God, whom we call, after the Greek 
 tongue, a bishop or a priest ; that is, in English, an overseer 
 and an elder. . . . This overseer, because he was taken from 
 his own business and labour, to preach God's Word unto 
 the parish, hath right, by the authority of his office, to 
 challenge an honest living of the parish, as thou mayest 
 see in the Evangelists, and also in Paul. For who will have 
 a servant, and will not give him meat, drink, and raiment, 
 and all things necessary } How they would pay him, whether 
 in money, or assign him so much rent, or in tithes, as the 
 guise now is in many countries, was at their liberty. Likewise 
 in every congregation chose they another after the same 
 example, whom, after the Greek word, we call deacon ; that 
 
192 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 is to say, in English, a servant or minister, whose office was 
 to help and assist the priest, and to gather up his duty, and 
 to gather for the poor of the parish, which were destitute 
 of friends, and could not work." With this Christian and 
 Apostolic order he contrasts that of Antichrist : — 
 
 " Antichrist of another manner hath sent forth his disciples, those 
 ' false anointed,' of which Christ warneth us before, that they should come 
 and show miracles and wonders, even to bring the very elect out of the 
 way, if it were possible. He anointeth them after the manner of the Jews ; 
 and shaveth them and sheareth them after the manner of the heathen 
 priests, which serve the idols. He sendeth them forth not with false oil only, 
 but with false names also : for compare their names unto their deeds, and 
 thou shall find them false. He sendeth them forth, as Paul prophesied of 
 them, with lying signs and wonders. What sign is the anointing ? That 
 they be full of the Holy Ghost. Compare them to the signs of the Holy 
 Ghost, which Paul reckoneth, and thou shalt find it a false sign. 
 
 "'A bishop must be faultless, the husband of one wife.' 'Nay,' saith 
 the pope, ' the husband of no wife, but the holder of as many concubines 
 as he listeth.' God commandeth all degrees, if they burn, and cannot live 
 chaste, to marry. The pope saith, ' If thou burn, take a dispensation for 
 a concubine, and put her away when thou art old ; ' or else, as our lawyers 
 say, Si non caste tamen cautej that is, ' If ye live not chaste, see ye play 
 the knave secretly.' 
 
 " ' Harborous ' [hospitable] ; yea, to whores and bawds ; for a poor man 
 shall as soon break his neck as his fast with them, but of the scraps and 
 with the dogs, when dinner is done. 
 
 " ' Apt to teach,' and, as Peter saith, ' ready always to give an answer to 
 every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that ye have, and that with 
 meekness.' Which thing is signified by the boots which doctors of divinity 
 are created in, because they should be ready always to go through thick 
 and thin, to preach God's Word ; and by the bishop's two-homed mitre, 
 which betokeneth the absolute and perfect knowledge that they ought to 
 have in the New Testament and the Old. Be not these false signs ? For 
 they beat only, and teach not. ' Yea,' saith the pope, ' if they will not be 
 ruled, cite them to appear ; and pose them sharply, what they hold of the 
 pope's power, of his pardons, of his bulls, of purgatory, of ceremonies, of 
 confession, and such hke creatures of our most holy father's. If they miss 
 in any point, make heretics of them, and bum them. If they be of mine 
 anointed, and bear my mark, disgrace them (I would say, disgraduate 
 them), and after the ensample of noble Antiochus (2 Mace, vii.), pare the 
 crowns and the fingers of them, and torment them craftily, and for very 
 pain make them deny the truth.' ' But now,' say our bishops, ' because 
 the truth is come too far abroad, and the lay-people begin to smell our 
 wiles, it is best to oppress them with craft secretly, and to tame them in 
 
ANTICHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. 
 
 193 
 
 prison. Yea, let us find the means to have them in the king's prison, and 
 to make treason of such doctrine : yea, we must stir up some war, one 
 where or another, to bring the people into another imagination.' ' If they be 
 gentlemen, abjure them secretly. Curse them four times in the year. 
 Make them afraid of everything ; and, namely [especially], to touch mine 
 anointed; and make them to fear the sentence of the Church, suspensions, 
 excommunications and curses. Be they right or wrong, bear them in 
 hand that they are to be feared yet. Preach me and mine authority, and 
 how terrible a thing my curse is, and how black it maketh their souls. On 
 the holidays, which were ordained to preach God's Word, set up long 
 ceremonies, long matins, long masses, and long evensongs, and aU in Latin, 
 that they understand not ; and roll them in darkness, that ye may lead 
 them whither ye will. And lest such things should be too tedious, sing 
 some, say some, pipe some, ring the bells, and lull them and rock them 
 asleep.' And yet Paul (i Cor. xiv.) forbiddeth to speak in the church or 
 congregation, save in the tongue that all understand. For the layman 
 thereby is not edified or taught. How shall the layman say Amen (saith 
 Paul) to thy blessing or thanksgiving, when he wotteth not what thou 
 sayest ? He wotteth not whether thou bless or curse. 
 
 " What then saith the pope ? ' What care I for Paul ? I command by 
 the virtue of obedience, to read the Gospel in Latin. Let them not pray 
 but in Latin, no, not their Pater nosier. If any be sick, go also and say 
 them a Gospel, and all in Latin : yea, to the very com and fruits of the 
 field, in the procession week, preach the Gospel in Latin : make the people 
 believe, that it shall grow the better.' It is verily as good to preach it to 
 swine as to men, if thou preach it in a tongue they understand not. How 
 shall I prepare myself to God's commandments ? How shall I be thankful 
 to Christ for His kindness ? How shall I beheve the truth and promises 
 which God hath sworn, while thou teUest them unto me in a tongue which 
 I understand not ? 
 
 "What then saith my lord of Canterbury to a priest that would 
 have had the New Testament gone forth in English? 'What,' saith 
 he, 'wouldest thou that the lay-people should wete [know] what we 
 do?' 
 
 " ' No fighter : ' which, I suppose, is signified by the cross that is borne 
 before the high prelates, and borne before them in procession. Is that also 
 not a false sign ? What realm can be in peace for such turmoilers? What 
 so little a parish is it, but they will pick one quarrel or another with them, 
 either for some surplice, chrisom, or mortuary, either for one trifle or other, 
 and cite them to the Arches ? Traitors they are to all creatures, and have 
 a secret conspiration between themselves. One craft they have, to make 
 many kingdoms, and small ; and to nourish old titles or quarrels ; that 
 they may ever move them to war at their pleasure ; and if much lands by 
 any chance fall to one man, ever to cast a bone in the way, that he shall 
 never be able to obtain it, as we now see in the emperor. Why .-' For as 
 long as the kings be small, if God would open the eyes of any to set a 
 
 O 
 
194 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 reformation in his realm, then should the pope interdict his land, and send 
 in other princes to conquer it. 
 
 " ' Not given to filthy lucre, but abhorring covetousness ; ' and, as Peter 
 saith, ' Taking the oversight of them, not as though ye were compelled 
 thereunto, but willingly ; not for desire of filthy lucre, but of a good mind ; 
 not as though ye were lords over the parishes.' Over the parishes, quoth 
 he ! O Peter, Peter, thou wast too long a fisher ; thou wast never brought 
 up at the Arches, neither wast Master of the Rolls, nor yet Chancellor of 
 England. They are not content to reign over king and emperor, and the 
 whole earth ; but challenge authority also in heaven and in hell. It is not 
 enough for them to reign over all that are quick, but have created them 
 a purgatory, to reign also over the dead, and to have one kingdom more 
 than God Himself hath. ' But that ye be an ensample to the flock,' saith 
 Peter ; ' and when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive an 
 incorruptible crown of glory.' This 'abhorring of covetousness' is 
 signified, as I suppose, by shaving and shearing of the hair, that they 
 have no superfluity. But is not this also a false sign ? Yea, verily, it is 
 to them a remembrance to shear and shave, to heap benefice upon 
 benefice, promotion upon promotion, dignity upon dignity, bishopric upon 
 bishopric, with pluralities, unions and TOT QUOTS. 
 
 " First, by the authority of the Gospel, they that preach the Word of 
 God in every parish, and other necessary ministers, have right to challenge 
 an honest living like unto one of the brethren, and therewith ought to be 
 content. Bishops and priests that preach not, or that preach aught save 
 God's Word, are none of Christ's, nor of His anointing ; but servants of 
 the beast, whose mark they bear, whose word they preach, whose law they 
 maintain clean against God's law, and with their false sophistry give him 
 greater power than God ever gave to His Son Christ. 
 
 " But they, as insatiable beasts, not unmindful why they were shaven 
 and shorn, because they will stand at no man's grace, or be in any man's 
 danger, have gotten into their own hands, first the tithe or tenth of all the 
 realm ; and then, I suppose within a little, or ahogether, the third foot of 
 all the temporal lands. 
 
 " Mark well how many parsonages or vicarages are there in the realm, 
 which at the least have a plow-land apiece. Then note the lands of 
 bishops, abbots, priors, nuns, knights of St. John's, cathedral churches, 
 colleges, chauntries, and firee-chapels. For though the house fall in 
 decay, and the ordinance of the founder be lost, yet will not they lose the 
 lands. What cometh once in, may never more out. They make a free- 
 chapel of it ; so that he which enjoyeth it shall do nought therefore. 
 Besides all this, how many chaplains do gentlemen find at their own cost, 
 in their houses ? How many sing for souls by testaments ? Then the 
 proving of testaments, the prizing of goods, the bishop of Canterbury's 
 prerogative ; is that not much through the realm in a year .? Four offering 
 days, and privy tithes. There is no servant, but that he shall pay 
 somewhat of his wages. None shall receive the body of Christ at Easter, 
 
ANTICHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. 195 
 
 be he never so poor a beggar, or never so young a lad or maid, but they 
 must pay somewhat for it. Then mortuaries for forgotten tithes, as they 
 say. And yet what parson or vicar is there that will forget to have a 
 pigeon-house, to peck up somewhat both at sowing-time and harvest, 
 when corn is ripe ? They will forget nothing. No man shall die in their 
 debt ; or if any man do, he shall pay it when he is dead. They will lose 
 nothing. Why? It is God's; it is not theirs. It is St. Hubert's rents, 
 St. Alban's lands, St. Edmund's right, St. Peter's patrimony, say they, 
 and none of ours. Item, if a man -die in another man's parish, besides 
 that he must pay at home a mortuary for forgotten tithes, he must there 
 pay also the best that he there hath ; whether it be an horse of twenty 
 pound, or how good soever he be ; either a chain of gold of an hundred 
 marks, or five hundred pounds, if it so chance. It is much, verily, for so 
 little pains-taking in confession, and in ministering the sacraments. Then 
 bead-rolls. Item chrysome, churchings, banns, weddings, offering at 
 weddings, offering at buryings, offering to images, offering of wax and 
 lights, which come to their vantage ; besides the superstitious waste of 
 wax in torches and tapers throughout the land. Then brotherhoods and 
 pardoners. What get they also by confessions ? Yea, and many enjoin 
 penance, to give a certain [sum] for to have so many masses said, and 
 desire to provide a chaplain themselves ; soul-masses, dirges, month- 
 minds, year-minds, All-souls'-day, and trentals. The mother-church, and 
 the high-altar, must have somewhat in every testament. Offerings at 
 priests' first masses. Item, no man is professed, of whatsoever religion it 
 be, but he must bring somewhat. The hallowing, or rather conjuring, of 
 churches, chapels, altars, super-altars, chalice, vestments, and bells. 
 Then book, bell, candlestick, organs, chalice, vestments, copes, altar- 
 cloths, surplices, towels, basins, ewers, ship, censer, and all manner 
 ornament, must be found them freely ; they will not give a mite thereunto. 
 Last of all, what swarms of begging friars are there ! The parson 
 sheareth, the vicar shaveth, the parish priest poUeth, the friar scrapeth, 
 and the pardoner pareth ; we lack but a butcher to pull off the skin. 
 
 " What get they in their spiritual law, as they call it, in a year, at the 
 Arches and in every diocese ? What get the commissaries and officials 
 with their somners and apparitors, by bawdery in a year ? Shall ye not 
 find curates enough which, to flatter the commissaries and officials withal, 
 that they may go quit themselves, shall open unto them the confessions 
 of the richest of their parishes ; whom they cite privily, and lay to their 
 charges secretly ? If they desire to know their accusers, ' Nay,' say they, 
 'the matter is known well enough, and to more than ye are ware of. 
 Come, lay your hand on the book ; if ye forswear yourself, we shall bring 
 proofs, we will handle you, we will make an ensample of you.' Oh, how 
 terrible are they ! ' Come and swear,' say they, 'that you will be obedient 
 unto our injunctions.' And by that craft wring they their purses, and 
 make them drop, as long as there is a penny in them. In three or four 
 years shall they in those offices get enough to pay for a bishop's bull. 
 
 O 3 
 
196 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 What other thing are these in a realm save horse-leeches, and even very 
 maggots, cankers, and caterpillars, which devour no more but all that is 
 green ; and those wolves which Paul prophesied should come, and should 
 not spare the flock ; and which Christ said should come in lambs' skins ; 
 and bade us beware of them, and judge them by their works ? 
 
 "Though, as I have before sufficiently proved, a Christian man must 
 suffer all things, be it never so great unright, as long as it is not against 
 God's commandment; neither is it lawful for him to cast any burden ofT 
 his back by his own authority, till God pull it off, which laid it on for our 
 deservings ; yet ought the kings everywhere to defend their realms from 
 such oppression, if they were Christians ; which is seldom seen, and is a 
 hard thing verily, though not impossible. For, alas ! they be captives or 
 ever they be kings, yea, almost ere they be born. No man may be suffered 
 about them but flatterers, and such as are first sworn true unto our most 
 holy fathers the bishops ; that is to say, false to God and man. 
 
 " If any of the nobles of the realm be true to the king, and so bold 
 that he dare counsel him that which should be to his honour and for the 
 wealth of the realm ; they will wait a season for him, as men say ; they 
 will provide a ghostly father for him. God bring their wickedness to 
 light ! There is no mischief whereof they are not the root ; nor bloodshed 
 but through their cause, either by their counsel, or in that they preach 
 not true obedience, and teach not the people to fear God. If any 
 faithful servant be in all the court, he shall have twenty spies waiting 
 upon him ; he shall be cast out of the court, or, as the saying is, con- 
 veyed to Calais, and made a captain or an ambassador ; he shall be 
 kept far enough from the king's presence. 
 
 "The kings ought, I say, to remember that they are in God's stead, 
 and ordained of God, not for themselves, but for the wealth of their 
 subjects. Let them remember that their subjects are their brethren, 
 their flesh and blood, members of their own body, and even their own- 
 selves in Christ. Therefore ought they to pity them, and to rid them 
 from such tyranny, which increaseth more and more daily. And though 
 that the kings by the falsehood of the bishops and abbots, be sworn to 
 defend such liberties ; yet ought they not to keep their oaths, but to 
 break them ; forasmuch as they are unright and clean against God's 
 ordinance, and even but cruel oppression, contrary unto brotherly love 
 and charity. Moreover, the spiritual officer ought to punish no sin ; but 
 and if any sin break out, the king is ordained to punish it, and they not ; 
 but to preach and exhort him to fear God, and that they sin not. 
 
 " And let the kings put down some of their tyranny, and turn some 
 unto a common wealth. If the tenth part of such tyranny were given 
 the king yearly, and laid up in the shire-towns, against the realm had 
 need, what would it grow to in certain years ? Moreover, one king, one 
 law, is God's ordinance in every realm. Therefore ought not the king to 
 suffer them to have a several law by themselves, and to draw his subjects 
 thither. It is not meet, will they say, that a spiritual man should be 
 
ANTICHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES. 197 
 
 judged of a worldly or temporal man. O abomination ! see how they 
 divide and separate themselves : if the layman be of the world, so is he 
 not of God ! If he believe in Christ, then is he a member of Christ, 
 Christ's brother, Christ's flesh, Christ's blood, Christ's spouse, coheir 
 with Christ, and hath His Spirit in earnest, and is also spiritual. If they 
 would rob us of the Spirit of God, why should they fear to rob us of worldly 
 goods 1 Because thou art put in office to preach God's Word, art thou 
 therefore no more one of the brethren ? Is the Mayor of London no 
 more one of the city, because he is the chief officer? Is the king no 
 more of the realm, because he is head thereof? The king is in the room 
 of God ; and his law is God's law, and nothing but the law of nature and 
 natural equity, which God graved in the hearts of men. Yet Antichrist 
 is too good to be judged by the law of God ; he must have a new, of his 
 own making. It were meet, verily, that they went to no law at all. No 
 more needed they, if they would study to preach God's Word truly, and 
 be contented with sufficient, and to be like one of their brethren. 
 
 " If any question arose about the faith of the Scripture, then let them 
 judge by the manifest and open Scriptures, not excluding the lay-men ; 
 for there are many found among the lay-men, which are as wise as the 
 officers. Or else, when the officer dieth, how could we put another in his 
 room ? Wilt thou so teach twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty years, that no 
 man shall have knowledge or judgment in God's Word save thou only ? 
 Is it not a shame that we Christians come so oft to church in vain, 
 when he of fourscore years old knoweth no more than he that was born 
 yesterday .'' " 
 
 Even this by no means exhausts the catalogue of charges 
 which Tyndale brings against the clergy. They had corrupted 
 the teaching of Holy Scripture regarding the sacraments. 
 Baptism, and " the sacrament of the Body and Blood of 
 Christ," had promises annexed to them,^ and were, therefore, 
 true sacraments ; but to these they had added other cere- 
 monies which had no right to the title, and which had been 
 the source of many abuses. They had invented purgatory; 
 they had introduced pilgrimages and worshipping of saints, 
 for the sake of the offerings. They had debased prayer by 
 selling it for money. Above all, they had obscured the 
 meaning of Scripture, by overlooking the literal sense, and 
 inventing imaginary " tropological, allegorical, and anagogical 
 senses." 
 
 ^ Tyndale expresses himself so briefly and cautiously on the subject of the Holy 
 Communion, that it is impossible to decide whether he still held Luther's opinion 
 or had adopted Zwingle's. 
 
198 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 Tyndale had already, in treating of the sacraments and 
 prayers to saints, shown himself far in advance of the position 
 which the English Reformers were as yet prepared to take 
 up ; and his clearness of view on the subject of the true inter- 
 pretation of Scripture, is worthy of more than a mere passing 
 note. " Scripture," he says, with excellent judgment, far beyond 
 the theology of his time, " hath but one sense, which is the 
 literal sense. And that literal sense is the root and ground of 
 all, and the anchor that never faileth, whereunto if thou cleave 
 thou canst never err or go out of the way. And if thou leave 
 the literal sense, thou canst not but go out of the way. . . . 
 Allegory proveth nothing, neither can do. For it is not the 
 Scripture, but an ensample or a similitude borrowed of the 
 Scripture, to declare a text or a conclusion of the Scripture 
 more expressly, and to root it and grave it in the heart. For 
 a similitude, or an ensample, doth print a thing much deeper 
 in the wits of a man than doth a plain speaking, and leaveth 
 behind him [it] as it were a sting to prick him forward and 
 to awake him withal. Moreover, if I could not prove with 
 an open text that which the allegory doth express, then were 
 the allegory a thing to be jested at, and of no greater value 
 than a tale of Robin Hood." Such words as these may seem 
 mere reiteration of truisms to a modern reader ; but in 
 Tyndale's time, when all true theology had been lost in a 
 wilderness of wild, allegorical, and fanciful interpretations of 
 Scripture, these assertions, which pointed men to the only 
 true method of expounding the Word of God, were not 
 commonplaces, but startling novelties, the first enunciation of 
 a true system of exegesis. 
 
 One other passage may be cited as a specimen at once 
 of Tyndale's clear grasp of his subject, and of the vigorous 
 logic, diversified with occasional touches of grim irony, with 
 which he conducts his argument : — 
 
 " The spirituality increaseth daily. More prelates, more priests, more 
 monks, friars, canons, nuns, and more heretics, (I would say heremites,) 
 with like draff. Set before thee the increase of St. Francis' disciples in 
 
TYNDAL£s logic and irony. 199 
 
 so few years. Reckon how many thousands, yea, how many twenty 
 thousands, not disciples only, but whole cloisters, are sprung out of hell 
 of them in so little space. Pattering of prayers increaseth daily. Their 
 service, as they call it, waxeth longer and longer, and the labour of their 
 lips greater ; new saints, new service, new feasts, and new holidays. 
 What take all these away ? Sin ? Nay ; for we see the contrary by ex- 
 perience, and that sin groweth as they grow. But they take away first 
 God's Word, with faith, hope, peace, unity, love, and concord ; then 
 house and land, rent and fee, tower and town, goods and cattle, and the 
 very meat out of men's mouths. All these live by purgatory. When other 
 weep for their friends, they sing merrily ; when other lose their friends, 
 they get friends. The pope, with all his pardons, is grounded on purga- 
 tory. Priests, monks, canons, friars, with all other swarms of hypocrites, do 
 but empty purgatory, and fill hell. Every mass, say they, delivereth one 
 soul out of purgatory. If that were true, yea, if ten masses were enough for 
 one soul, yet were the parish priests and curates of every parish sufficient 
 to scour purgatory : all the other costly workmen might be well spared. 
 
 " The pope, which so fast looseth and purgeth in purgatory, cannot, 
 with all the loosings and purgations that he hath, either loose or purge 
 our appetites, and lust, and rebellion that is in us against the law of God. 
 And yet the purging of them is the right purgatory. If he cannot purge 
 them that are alive, wherewith purgeth he them that are dead? The 
 Apostles knew no other ways to purge, but through preaching God's 
 Word, which Word only is that that purgeth the heart, as thou mayest 
 see, (John xv.) ' Ye are pure,' saith Christ, ' through the Word.' Now 
 the pope preacheth not to them whom they feign to lie in purgatory, no 
 more than he doth to us that are alive. How then purgeth he them ? 
 The pofieis kin to Robin Goodfelloiu j which sweepeth the house, tvasheth 
 the dishes, and purgeth all by night; but when day cometh, there is 
 nothing found clean" 
 
 The peroration is not unworthy of what had preceded : — 
 " Remember that Christ is the end of all things. He only is our rest- 
 ing-place, and He is our peace. For as there is no salvation in any 
 other name, so is there no peace in any other name. Thou shalt never 
 have rest in thy soul, neither shall the worm of conscience ever cease 
 to gnaw thine heart, till thou come at Christ ; till thou hear the glad 
 tidings, how that God for His sake hath forgiven thee all freely. If 
 thou trust in thy works, there is no rest. Thou shalt think, I have not 
 done enough. Have I done it with. so great love as I should do? Was 
 I so glad in doing, as I would be to receive help at my need ? I have 
 left this or that undone ; and such like. If thou trust in confession, 
 then shalt thou think. Have I told all? Have I told all the circum- 
 stances? Did I repent enough? Had I as great sorrow in my re- 
 pentance for my sins, as I had pleasure in doing them ? Likewise in 
 our holy pardons and pilgrimages gettest thou no rest. For thou seest 
 
300 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 that the very gods themselves, which sell their pardon so good cheap, or 
 some whiles give them freely for glory sake, trust not therein themselves. 
 They build colleges, and make perpetuities, to be prayed for, for ever ; 
 and lade the lips of their headmen, or chaplains, with so many masses, 
 and diriges, and so long service, that I have known of some that have bid 
 the devil take their founders' souls, for very impatiency and weariness of 
 so painful labour. 
 
 "As pertaining to good deeds, therefore, do the best thou canst, and 
 desire God to give strength to do better daily ; but in Christ put thy 
 trust, and in the pardon and promises that God hath made thee for His 
 sake ; and on that rock build thine house, and there dwell. For there 
 only shalt thou be sure from all storms and tempests, and from all wily 
 assaults of our wicked spirits, which study with all falsehead to undermine 
 us. And the God of all mercy give thee grace so to do, unto whom be 
 glory for ever ! Amen." 
 
 The extracts which have been given will enable the reader 
 to form a tolerably adequate notion of the style and character 
 of the largest and most elaborate of all Tyndale's original 
 works. The Obedience, it is almost superfluous to remark, 
 after such specimens, is characterised by plain bold speaking. 
 The trumpet gives forth no uncertain sound. Nor is it the 
 production of a man who was simply dissatisfied with the 
 state of religion around him, and who was longing for redress 
 and reformation. Tyndale writes as one who had not only 
 a keen eye to detect the abuses that everywhere existed, but 
 who had also the rarer faculty of discerning how and whence 
 it was possible to provide a remedy. He was not simply^ 
 as some Reformers have been, destructive ; he could not only 
 assist in the overthrow of error and superstition ; he saw 
 clearly how the fabric could be reconstructed on a firmer 
 foundation. He had, in the seclusion of his exile, seen and 
 thought much, and had carefully examined all the opinions 
 which formed his religious belief; and as the result, he had 
 to a wonderful extent divested himself of all the ecclesiastical 
 traditions in which he had been " noselled." 
 
 Nor is it unworthy of notice that he wields the English 
 language with a strength and facility, such as make his 
 writings easy and pleasant reading even in our day. There 
 is no trace of obsolescence about The Obedience ; which 
 
SIR THOMAS MORE ON "THE OBEDIENCE." 20i 
 
 contains many passages worthy of the writer to whom we owe 
 the plain, strong English of our Bible. Tyndale was no vulgar 
 railer, like Roye, although his language is sharp, and his 
 condemnation sufficiently energetic. If there be any to whom 
 it appears that he sometimes degenerates into unjustifiable 
 violence, the present biographer does not venture to apologise 
 for violent personal abuse, whether used by Tyndale or by 
 his opponents ; he ventures, however, to suggest that violence 
 is a relative term, and that the man who in calm curiosity 
 looks at the field of battle when all is peace, and the 
 verdure of three centuries hides the desolation of the combat, 
 is not precisely the fittest person to gauge the excitement 
 of the struggle, when life and death were in the issue of 
 every blow. 
 
 To us, the gigantic papal system of the sixteenth century, 
 that wonderful imperiuvt in imperio, with its proud claims, its 
 tens of thousands of satellites, its endless abuses, is in general 
 little more than some extinct geological system, which we 
 study with the mild excitement of antiquarian curiosity. To 
 Tyndale it was a terrible chimera, devouring the life of all 
 religion and all thought ; or a huge, pitiless machine, remorse- 
 lessly pursuing its own purposes, reckless of the lives and 
 happiness of those who stood in its onward path ; or, as he 
 himself would probably have preferred to say, it was very 
 Antichrist, arrayed in lies, and armed with vengeance against 
 all the true followers of Christ. 
 
 The reader is, of course, prepared to be told that The 
 Obedience was severely condemned by the English prelates; it 
 assailed them, root and branch, and they visited it with no 
 measured condemnation in return. Sir Thomas More pours 
 out the full vials of his wrath upon " that frantic book of 
 Obedience ... a book able to make a Christian man that 
 would believe it, leave off all good Christian virtues, and lose 
 the merit of his Christendom ... a book wherein the writer 
 raileth at large against all popes, against all kings, against all 
 prelates, against all priests, against all religions, against all 
 
2,02 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 the laws, against all saints, against the Sacraments of Christ's 
 Church, against all virtuous works, against all divine service, 
 and, finally, against all thing that good is ... a malicious 
 book, wherein the writer showeth himself so puffed up with the 
 poison of pride, malice, and envy, that it is more than marvel 
 that the skin can hold together ; for he hath not only sowked 
 out the most poison that he could find through all Luther's 
 books, or take of him by mouth, and all that hath spette out 
 in this book, but hath also in many things far passed his master, 
 running forth so mad for malice that he fareth as though he 
 heard not his own voice." ^ 
 
 In proportion to the violence with which More and the 
 prelates condemned the book, was the esteem in which it was 
 held by those in England who sympathised with the doctrines 
 of the Reformation. Full of consolation and encouragement, 
 it seems to have contributed in a marked manner to revive 
 the sinking spirits of the English Reformers, who had been 
 awed into timidity and retractation by the vigorous measures 
 of the bishops. It is certainly noteworthy that Bilney, when, 
 after his lamentable fall, he felt his spiritual strength again 
 returning to him, and set out, as he so pathetically expressed 
 it, "to go up to Jerusalem," carried with him, apparently as 
 powerful sources of support, Tyndale's New Testament and 
 his Obedience of a Christian Man. 
 
 And Bilney was not the only one who derived strength to 
 be faithful unto the end from the noble teaching of Tyndale. 
 Bainham, who, like Bilney, had been terrified into recantation, 
 was filled with remorse for his apostasy ; and after weighing 
 the matter carefully in his heart, and, no doubt, imploring 
 strength from the Lord whom he had denied, and now wished to 
 confess before men, " he came the next Sunday to St. Austin's 
 with the New Testament in his hand, in English, and The 
 Obedience of a Christian Man in his bosom ; and stood up 
 there before the people in his pew, declaring openly, with 
 
 ' Sir Thomas More's Confutation : the reader will perceive that Sir Thomas 
 ■was, to say the least, quite a match for Tyndale in violent language. 
 
INFLUENCE OF "THE OBEDIENCE r 203, 
 
 weeping tears, that he had denied God ; and prayed all the 
 people to forgive him, and to beware of his weakness, and not 
 to do as he had done." " After this," adds the Martyrologist, 
 " he was strengthened, and bore the cruel death by fire with 
 remarkable courage." 
 
 But the utility of Tyndale's work must not be measured 
 even by such instances as these, noble proof though they be 
 of its power to inspire fresh life into the fainting hearts of 
 the English Reformers. The Obedience brought for the first 
 time into prominence the two great truths which constitute 
 the very essence of the English Reformation — the supreme 
 authority of Scripture in the Church, and the supreme 
 authority of the king in the State. Truths such as these, so 
 sweeping in their application, so obvious to the comprehension, 
 when set forth with all Tyndale's wonderful force of expres- 
 sion and clearness of argument, at once took root in the minds 
 of the English people. From this time forward the Reformers 
 in England had a definite aim and purpose; and the goal 
 being once placed before them, their progress became steady and 
 rapid. A few years of strife and confusion, and the clergy 
 were shorn of their civil independence ; the king was ac- 
 knowledged supreme head over all subjects, clerical and lay; 
 the Holy Scripture was recognised as the ultimate standard 
 by which all controversies were to be decided ; and those 
 principles were generally received, of which the English Re- 
 formation was the natural result, and the normal, though, 
 perhaps, not the complete, development. 
 
 To this consummation Tyndale's writings most powerfully 
 contributed ; it was he that pointed out the goal towards 
 which their course was to be directed ; it was his works that 
 gave clearness and distinctness to what had formerly been but 
 vague feelings of dissatisfaction with the existing state of 
 things, and indefinite longings after their improvement. The 
 impulse which he communicated was propagated by others ; 
 in the writings of such men as Latimer the thoughts and 
 words of Tyndale can perpetually be traced; and thus the 
 
204 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 distant exile continued through life to be the prophet and 
 instructor of that country which he was never again to see ; 
 and was one of the prime originators and directors of that 
 mighty movement in England which he was not himself spared 
 to witness. For to the end he worked without reward, and like 
 the Jewish patriarch, only saw in distant vision that promised 
 land which he was not to be allowed to enter. 
 
 To what has already been written of the influence, open 
 and secret, actual and probable, which The Obedience exercised 
 in England, an addition has still to be made which savours 
 more of the sentimental excitement of a love-story than 
 of the calm dignity of history, and yet rests on trustworthy 
 authority. Of all Englishmen the man whom it was most 
 desirable, and at the same time, most unlikely that the book 
 should reach, was the man whose strong hands then swayed 
 the destinies of England. To him, also, however, in a strange 
 manner the words of Tyndale were conveyed, through 
 the operation of that lawless passion which was to be over- 
 ruled for the accomplishment of such mighty events. The 
 tale, which sounds like an extract from a novel, and reads 
 best in the simple language of the old memorialist who 
 has recorded it,^ is here subjoined for the reader's benefit. 
 
 "Upon the Lady Anne [Boleyn] waited a fair young 
 gentlewoman named Mrs. Gaynsford ; and in her service was 
 also retained Mr. George Zouch, father to Sir John Zouch. 
 This gentleman, of a comely sweet person, a Zouch indeed 
 [Zouch = douce=dulcis = sweet], was a suitor in way of 
 marriage to the said young lady ; and among other love- 
 tricks, once he plucked from her a book in English, called 
 Tyndale's Obedience, which the Lady Anne had lent her to 
 read. About which time the Cardinal had given command- 
 ment to the prelates, and especially to Dr. Sampson, Dean of the 
 King's Chapel, that they should have a vigilant eye over all 
 people for such books that they came not abroad ; that so, as 
 much as might be, they might not come to the King's reading. 
 
 ' Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. I. pp. 172, etc. 
 
HENRY VIII. READS "THE OBEDIENCE." 205 
 
 But this which he most feared fell out upon this occasion. 
 ' For Mr. Zouch '—I use the words of the MS.— [Foxe's MSS,], 
 ' was so ravished with the Spirit of God, speaking now as well 
 in the heart of the reader as first it did in the heart of the 
 maker of the book, that he was never well but when he was 
 reading of that book. Mrs. Gaynsford wept, because she 
 could not get the book from her wooer, and he was as ready 
 to weep to deliver it. But see the providence of God : Mr. 
 Zouch, standing in the chapel before Dr. Sampson, ever read- 
 ing upon this book, and the Dean never having his eye off the 
 book in the gentleman's hand, called him to him, and then 
 snatched the book out of his hand, asked his name, and whose 
 man he was. And the book he delivered to the Cardinal. In 
 the meantime, the Lady Anne asketh her woman for the book. 
 She on her knees told all the circumstances. The Lady Anne 
 showed herself not sorry nor angry with either of the two. 
 But, said she, " Well, it shall be the dearest book that ever the 
 Dean or Cardinal took away." The noble woman goes to the 
 King, and upon her knees she desireth the King's help for her 
 book. Upon the King's token [the royal signet probably], 
 the book was restored. And now bringing the book to him, 
 she besought his Grace most tenderly to read it. The King 
 did so, and delighted in the book ; for, saith he, " This book is 
 for me and all kings to read" And in a little time the King, 
 by the help of this virtuous lady, by the means aforesaid, had 
 his eyes opened to the truth, to search the truth, to advance 
 God's religion and glory, to abhor the Pope's doctrine, his lies, 
 his pomp and pride, to deliver his subjects out of the Egyptian 
 darkness, the Babylonian bonds, that the Pope had brought 
 him and his subjects under.' " 
 
 It may seem preposterous to look for any formal confir- 
 mation of the truth of this " love-trick," yet singularly enough 
 it is corroborated, in at least its substance, by the narrative of 
 George Wyatt, grandson of the poet, who was a contemporary 
 of Anne Boleyn, and whose name, indeed, has been unjustly 
 associated with that of the unfortunate Queen as having been 
 
2,06 TYNDALE AT MARBURG. 
 
 one of the partners of her guilt. He repeats what, with 
 variations in detail, is essentially the same story. Anne 
 Boleyn it seems had, notwithstanding all prohibitions, obtained 
 and read The Obedience} "marking with her nail such 
 passages " as seemed worthy of the King's knowledge ; her 
 maid took up the book as it lay in a window, and her suitor 
 in his turn walked forth reading it, and met one of Wolsey's 
 men, who borrowed the book and carried it to the Cardinal. 
 Anne was informed of what had happened, and immediately 
 told the King how she had been treated and what was the 
 nature of the book thus seized. " And," says Wyatt, " she 
 was but newly come from the King, but [when] the Cardinal 
 came in with the book in his hands to make complaints of 
 certain points in it that he knew the King would not like of 
 [so that Wolsey also had read The Obedience\, and withal 
 to take occasion with him against those that countenanced 
 such books in general, and specially women, and, as might be 
 thought, with mind to go farther against the Queen [so Wyatt 
 calls Anne Boleyn, but she was not yet Queen] more directly, 
 if he had perceived the King agreeable to his meaning. 
 But the King that somewhat afore distasted [disliked] the 
 Cardinal, finding the notes the Queen had made, all turned 
 the more to hasten his ruin, which was also furthered on all 
 aides." 
 
 No truer criticism was ever pronounced on The Obedience 
 than that here ascribed to Henry, that it was a book for him 
 and all kings to read ; and whatever deduction may be made 
 from Foxe's panegyric, on the score of his partiality having 
 led him to attribute an exaggerated influence to Tyndale's 
 work, it cannot be doubted that it was perused by Henry 
 most opportunely at a momentous crisis, when he was about 
 
 • See Wyatt's narrative in Singer's Edition of Cavendish's Wolsey, Vol. II. 
 The Obedience is not specified; Wyatt merely says that "it was a book of 
 those controversies then waged concerning religion, and specially of the 
 authority of the Pope and his clergy, and of their doings against Kings and 
 States ; " a description which leaves no reasonable doubt that The Obedience was 
 intended. 
 
HENRY VIII. INFLUENCED BY ''THE OBEDIENCE." 207 
 
 to assume into his own hands the reins of power which Wolsey 
 had hitherto held ; and whether or not the future policy of the 
 English monarch was in any way derived from the inspiration 
 of Tyndale's pages, it is unquestionable that in The Obe- 
 dience we can see as in prophetic forecast the outlines of 
 those great measures which have made the reign of Henry 
 for ever memorable. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MARBURG; ANTWERP; HAMBURG; PUBLICATION OF THE 
 " PENTATEUCH " AND " THE PRACTICE OF PRELATES." 
 
 A.D. 1529— 1530. 
 
 George Joye, in his ill-tempered reply to Tyndale, has 
 ventured to speak of the illustrious martyr as if he were idle 
 and averse to work. " All this long while," says he, speaking 
 of the period at which we have now arrived, " Tyndale slept, 
 for nothing came from him so far as I could perceive."* 
 Whether George Joye lived in such absolute unconsciousness 
 of all the occurrences of the day as these words seem to imply ; 
 whether he simply used them to annoy Tyndale ; or whether 
 he merely intended to assert that Tyndale had taken no steps 
 to fulfil the promise of revising his translation of the New 
 Testament, which he had so solemnly made at the close 
 of the Worms octavo, need not be here discussed ; the reader, 
 who has seen in the previous chapter something of the 
 literary labours of Tyndale during the year 1538, will 
 scarcely feel disposed to acquiesce in the accuracy of Joye's 
 insinuation that Tyndale was "asleep." His life, since he 
 left England, had been one of ceaseless exertion ; and the 
 first rest from his labour was that which came to him some 
 few years later in prison. 
 
 The Parable of the Wicked Mammon and The Obedience 
 of a Christian Man were not the sole occupation of Tyndale 
 during the year 1538 ; possibly he might even have been 
 inclined to look upon them not as, properly speaking, his 
 work, but rather as a species of relaxation from what was the 
 
 ' Joye's Apology and Answer, Arber's reprint, p. 21. 
 
TYND ALE'S PENTATEUCH. 209 
 
 real labour to which his whole energies were devoted. For he 
 had resolved to complete the boon of which he had already 
 bestowed upon his countrymen so precious an instalment, by 
 adding to his translation of the New Testament a translation 
 of the Old. Perhaps this had been included by him in that 
 famous declaration of his at Sodbury, that if God spared him, 
 he would cause the boy that driveth the plough to know more 
 of Holy Scripture than the clergy of England did ; at all 
 events, he had been prosecuting his studies in Hebrew with 
 great diligence ever since his arrival on the Continent, and 
 this was beyond all question with the view of employing his 
 knowledge in the translation of the Old Testament from the 
 original. 
 
 Traces of his Hebrew studies have already appeared in some 
 of the extracts selected from The Wicked Mammon; and 
 in The Obedience there are several passages which give 
 plain indication of the manner in which Tyndale was then 
 engaged. The freedom from disturbance which he enjoyed 
 at Marburg, and the assistance of his favourite disciple, Fryth, 
 who, as we believe, arrived before the close of 1528, were 
 eminently favourable for the accomplishment of Tyndale's 
 design ; and by the end of 1529 the Pentateuch was com- 
 pleted, and was ready for Hans Luft. It has been supposed 
 by some that the books of Genesis and Deuteronomy were 
 printed early in that year and sent to England ; but of this, 
 as will appear subsequently, there is no sufiScient evidence. 
 In 1530, however, it is certain the five books of Moses were 
 printed and circulated very early in the year ; and the com- 
 pletion and final revision of this important instalment of the 
 Old Testament would certainly occupy Tyndale during the 
 greater part of the year 1529. The Pentateuch is not very 
 much inferior in size to the whole of the New Testament ; 
 Tyndale was doubtless not so familiar with Hebrew as with 
 Greek ; his translation was performed with most scrupulous 
 care; and this work must therefore have been almost the 
 chief employment of his energies since the completion of his 
 
 P 
 
no TYNDALE'S LITERARY LABOURS IN 1529. 
 
 New Testament. Of the character and merits of the transla- 
 tion of the Pentateuch we shall have to speak at a later period ; 
 at present some reference must be made to the other literary 
 labours ascribed to Tyndale during that year 1539, at which 
 we have now arrived. 
 
 It would almost appear, if we may trust the vague rumours 
 mentioned in contemporary documents, that Tyndale published 
 at this time two, or even three, works, all on the subject of 
 marriage, viz.. An Exposition of the Seventh Chapter of the 
 First Epistle to the Corinthians, another treatise called The 
 Matrimony of Tyndale, and possibly even a third, entitled. 
 The Christian State of Matrimony} All three, if they were 
 really distinct treatises, have been entirely lost, except a 
 few fragments preserved in Warham's proclamation ; and it 
 seems a legitimate conjecture that the three titles were simply 
 different names for one and the same book, just as The 
 Parable of the Wicked Mammon was sometimes called a 
 treatise on Justification by Faith. The formal name of the 
 work was doubtless that first given. An Exposition of the 
 Seventh Chapter of First Corinthians, and from the subject 
 of the book it was popularly known as The Matrimony of 
 Tyndale. It is not, however, certain that Tyndale was the 
 author of this work. It was published anonymously, as we 
 learn from the testimony of Sir Thomas More, and was by 
 some persons supposed to be the work of Tyndale's quondam 
 amanuensis, William Roye. The mere fact of the work ap- 
 pearing anonymously, at a time when Tyndale was especially 
 careful to prefix his name to his writings, for the express pur- 
 pose of not being made responsible for anything that proceeded 
 from Roye, seems to make it extremely doubtful whether his 
 contemporaries were not mistaken in their conjecture as to the 
 author of the book.^ 
 
 ^ See the three names in Warham's Proclamation in Wilkins, Vol. III. p. 728 ; 
 the Preacher's Bill, which follows ; and the Proclamation against Heretics, Foxe, 
 Vol. IV. p. 676. 
 
 ^ Preface to Sir Thomas More's Confutation. 
 
''THE MATRIMONY OF TYNDALE" ail 
 
 If we may trust the extracts given by Warham, and stigma- 
 tised by him as " ungodly and erroneous," some of the opinions 
 advocated in the lost book on Matrimony were somewhat 
 peculiar, and such as would not be likely to meet with general 
 acceptance at the present day in Protestant England, any more 
 than they did in the Catholic England of Henry the Eighth. 
 But the truth is, that on this subject Tyndale did unques- 
 tionably hold some very strange opinions ; ^ and no argument 
 against the authenticity of the book can be founded on the 
 fact that it enunciates views which we should not like to asso- 
 ciate with the name of our great translator. Enough, however, 
 has already been said of a work which no one has seen, which 
 can only be criticised conjecturally, and which has an exceed- 
 ingly doubtful claim to be regarded as the production of 
 Tyndale.^ 
 
 Hitherto, we have had frequent occasion to remark the 
 obscurity which seems to surround all Tyndale's personal 
 history. Apart from his writings, we know scarcely anything 
 of him ; and the story of his life consequently wants that 
 variety of incident which appeals so forcibly to human sym- 
 pathy, and communicates to a biography its chief and deepest 
 interest. Just at this precise crisis, however, of Tyndale's life, 
 when the reader is almost wishing that some enemy, prying 
 and communicative like Cochloeus, but without his power to 
 give annoyance, had lived in the neighbourhood of Marburg, 
 the old English chronicler Hall comes to our help, and affords 
 us, if only we can perfectly trust his narrative, the first definite 
 
 ^ For example, that the marriage of brothers and sisters is not so tinnatnral as 
 some other alliances (^e.g., a. man with his nncle's wife), and that in some cases it 
 might be permitted. See his Practice of Prelates. 
 
 ' Christopher Anderson gives a detailed description of the Exposition, as if he 
 had seen and examined it. It had prefixed to it, he says, " An Exhortation to the 
 diligent study of Scripture, made by Erasmus Roterodamus, and translated into 
 English," and at the end was the colophon, " At Malborow, in the land of Hesse, 
 1529, XX day of June, by me, Hans Luft." But, notwithstanding this minute 
 description, the book is lost, and Anderson never saw it. It is perhaps right to 
 add that in the list of prohibited books in Bonner's Register, and in the Lambeth 
 MSB. 306, The Matrimony, and the Exposition on Corinthians, Chapter VII., are 
 enumerated as distinct works. 
 
 p a 
 
2ii HALL'S STORY ABOUT TYNDALE. 
 
 glimpse of Tyndale since we saw him sailing up the Rhine to 
 Worms. 
 
 To understand Hall's narrative, it may be premised that in 
 the summer of 1529 negotiations were carried on at Cambray 
 to conclude, if possible, the long warfare that had been waged 
 between Francis I. and Charles V. At these negotiations Sir 
 Thomas More and Tunstal were present to watch over the 
 interests of England ; and through their instrumentality a 
 treaty was signed between England and the German Empire, 
 one provision of which was especially directed against the 
 printing of heretical books in either country for circulation in 
 the other. The treaty of Cambray was concluded on the Sth 
 of August ; and the English representatives were then at 
 liberty to return to their native land. Instead, however, of 
 returning, as was natural, by the shortest route, which lay 
 through the English seaport of Calais, Tunstal made a detour 
 by Antwerp, in order to signalise himself by some extensive 
 seizure of Tyndale's New Testaments, just as Sir Thomas 
 More had signalised himself by his famous Dialogue in 
 refutation of the opinions of Luther and Tyndale. It may 
 have been about the middle of August when Tunstal arrived 
 at Antwerp, full of his purpose ; and by a singular coincidence 
 Tyndale also was there, and may perhaps have caught a last 
 glimpse -of that " still Saturn," whom he certainly had small 
 reason to love. What actually did occur cannot be better told 
 than in the quaint words of the simple chronicler : — 
 
 " Here it is to be remembered that at this present time 
 William Tyndale had newly translated and imprinted the New 
 Testament in English ; and the Bishop of London, not pleased 
 with the translation thereof, debated with himself how he 
 might compass and devise to destroy that false and erroneous 
 translation (as he said) ; and so it happened that one Augus- 
 tine Packington, a merchant and mercer of London, and of a 
 great honesty, the same time was in Antwerp where the Bishop 
 then was, and this Packington was a man that highly favoured 
 Tyndale, but to the Bishop utterly showed himself to the con- 
 
TUNSTAL BUYS UP THE TESTAMENTS. 313 
 
 trary. The Bishop, desirous to have his purpose brought to pass, 
 communed of the New Testaments, and how gladly he would 
 buy them. Packington, then, hearing that [what] he wished 
 for, said unto the Bishop, ' My lord, if it be your pleasure, I 
 can in this matter do more, I dare say, than most of the mer- 
 chants of England that are here ; for I know the Dutchmen 
 and strangers that have bought them of Tyndale and have 
 them here to sell ; so that if it be your lordship's pleasure to 
 pay for them (for otherwise I cannot come by them, but I 
 must disburse money for them), I will then assure you to have 
 every book of them that is imprinted and is here unsold.' 
 The Bishop, thinking he had God by the toe, when indeed he 
 had, as after he thought, the Devil by the fist, said, ' Gentle 
 Mr. Packington, do your diligence and get them ; and with all 
 my heart I will pay for them whatsoever they cost you, for 
 the books are erroneous and nought, and I intend surely to 
 destroy them all, and to burn them at Paul's Cross.' Augus- 
 tine Packington came to William Tyndale, and said, ' William, 
 I know thou art a poor man, and hast a heap of New Testa- 
 ments and books by thee, for the which thou hast both 
 endangered thy friends and beggared thyself ; and I have now 
 gotten thee a merchant, which with ready money shall despatch 
 thee of all that thou hast, if you think it so profitable for your- 
 self.' ' Who is the merchant ? ' said Tyndale. ' The Bishop of 
 London,' said Packington. ' Oh, that is because he will burn 
 them,' said Tyndale. ' Yea, marry,' quoth Packington. ' I am 
 the gladder,' said Tyndale, ' for these two benefits shall come 
 thereof : I shall get money to bring myself out of debt, and 
 the whole world will cry out against the burning of God's 
 Word ; and the overplus of the money that shall remain to me 
 shall make me more studious to correct the said New Testa- 
 ment, and so newly to imprint the same once again, and I 
 trust the second will much better like you than ever did the 
 first.' And so, forward went the bargain ; the Bishop had the 
 books; Packington had the thanks; and Tyndale had the 
 money." 
 
214 RESULT OF TUNSTAL'S PURCHASE. 
 
 The reader feels instinctively that this story has been some- 
 what embellished by old Hall, who loved a joke almost as 
 much as a city feast or a royal progress ; and it is probably 
 unadvisable to place implicit confidence in all the details. 
 There seems, however, no sufficient reason for rejecting the 
 main facts of the story, which are in perfect keeping with all 
 that is known of Tunstal's character and proceedings ; for he 
 considered himself specially commissioned to condemn and 
 destroy Tyndale's translation, and nothing is more probable 
 than that he should avail himself of his proximity to Antwerp 
 to achieve distinction for himself by an extensive seizure of the 
 books which so much distressed his peace of mind. His friend 
 and fellow Commissioner, Sir Thomas More, understood the 
 principles of political economy better, and had remonstrated 
 with Tunstal upon the folly of his contemplated purchase, but 
 in vain ; some time elapsed before the Bishop was convinced 
 that he had effected nothing by his fruitless expenditure. 
 
 " After this," the story continues, " Tyndale corrected the 
 same New Testaments again, and caused them to be newly im- 
 printed, so that they came thick and threefold over into 
 England. When the Bishop perceived that, he sent for Pack- 
 ington, and said to him, ' How cometh this, that there are so 
 many New Testaments abroad ? You promised me that you 
 would buy them all.' Then answered Packington, 'Surely, I 
 bought all that were to be had : but I perceive they have 
 printed more since. I see it will never be better so long as 
 they have letters and stamps [for printing with] : wherefore 
 you were best to buy the stamps too, and so you shall be 
 sure : ' at which answer the bishop smiled, and so the matter 
 ended. 
 
 " In short space after, it fortuned that George Constantino 
 was apprehended by Sir Thomas More, who was then Chan- 
 cellor of England [made Chancellor October 24, 1539], sus- 
 pected of certain heresies. During the time that he was in the 
 custody of Master More, after divers communications, amongst 
 other things Master More asked of him, saying, ' Constantino, 
 
GREAT BURNING AT PAUL'S CROSS. 215 
 
 I would have thee be plain with me in one thing that I will 
 ask ; and I promise thee I will show thee favour in all other 
 things whereof thou art accused. There is beyond the sea, 
 Tyndale, Joye, and a great many of you : I know they cannot 
 live without help. There are some that help and succour them 
 with money ; and thou, being one of them, hadst thy part 
 thereof, and therefore knowest from whence it came. I pray 
 thee, tell me, who be they that help them thus ? ' ' My lord,' 
 quoth Constantine, ' I will tell you truly : it is the Bishop of 
 London that hath holpen us, for he hath bestowed among us a 
 great deal of money upon New Testaments to burn them ; and 
 that hath been, and yet is, our only succour and comfort.' 
 ' Now, by my troth,' quoth More, ' I think even the same, for 
 so much I told the Bishop before he went about it.' " ^ 
 
 All this, as has already been said, may be received as 
 probably true in the main facts and incidents ; but somewhat 
 confused and considerably embellished in the minor details. 
 Tunstal and More were undoubtedly in the Low Countries in 
 August, as appears from official documents ; and in May 1530, 
 there was, as had been threatened, a public burning of New 
 Testaments on a large scale, at Paul's Cross, under the super- 
 intendence of Tunstal, who had then, indeed, been translated 
 to Durham, but still continued to administer the diocese of 
 London till the return of Stokesley from the Continent. We 
 are scarcely inclined, however, to believe that Tyndale had 
 many New Testaments to sell in 1529. He himself had 
 not reprinted the New Testament since the commencement of 
 1526 ; and the great majority of the six thousand copies of 
 the octavo and quarto must, long before this period, have been 
 sold and circulated in England, or seized and destroyed by the 
 emissaries of the bishops. We believe, therefore, that Tun- 
 stal's purchase could not have included many of the Testaments 
 which had been printed at Worms under Tyndale's own super- 
 intendence ; and, indeed, Tyndale was hardly the man likely 
 from the pressure of any temporary pecuniary want to dispose 
 ' Hall's Chronicle : Foxe, Vol. IV. p. 670, etc. 
 
2l6 TYNDALE AT ANTWERP. 
 
 of the sacred volume to a purchaser who had no object in view- 
 but to burn it. 
 
 Such Testaments as were sold to Tunstal consisted chiefly, 
 we should suppose, of copies of the various surreptitious 
 editions which had already appeared at Antwerp ; and if these 
 were, as George Joye says, so disfigured by the blunders 
 of ignorant Dutch printers, that "the simple reader might 
 ofttimes be tarried and stick," then the loss to England was all 
 the less serious. Tyndale himself was much more likely to 
 sell whatever superfluous copies he might still possess of his 
 own writings. His other books would be scarcely less 
 acceptable to Tunstal than the English New Testament ; 
 and if he really were in need of money, either for his own 
 necessities, or to satisfy the demands of his printer, he 
 might consider the Episcopal merchant as sent by Providence 
 to help him in his need. 
 
 That Tyndale employed the money thus unexpectedly 
 received in issuing a revised edition of his translation is 
 extremely improbable : he had, indeed, promised to revise it, 
 and the printers had repeatedly and most urgently requested 
 him to undertake the work ; but five years more were still to 
 elapse before he found leisure for the task. It is possible, 
 however, that he may have in some way suggested the publica- 
 tion of a new edition, with which the Introduction to the 
 Epistle to the Rojnans was for the first time incorporated ; 
 for Bayfield, who was accused of bringing over Testaments 
 from Antwerp in 1530, confessed to having introduced amongst 
 many other books " the New Testament in English, with an 
 introduction to the Romans." ^ There is no reason to believe 
 that Tyndale revised this reprint ; but he may have contributed 
 something towards providing the necessary funds for producing 
 it, or may have given some directions in order to secure, if 
 possible, greater accuracy and completeness in the work, and 
 
 1 Foxe, Vol. IV. p. 685. In the Record Office (4320, 4327, 4328, 4396, etc.) 
 there are papers referring to a suspected heretic, Dewham, who " had bought in Paris 
 the New Testament in English with an Introduction to the Epistle to the Romans." 
 
CThe forme of Aaron loiA 9II his appai;eI|L^ 
 
HOW HE USED TUNSTAL'S MONEY. 217 
 
 so in some measure may have justified Foxe's assertion that 
 he " corrected the New Testament once again." 
 
 We are able, however, for the first time, to suggest a much 
 more probable, and not less curious application of part of the 
 money which Tunstal's short-sighted policy placed in the 
 hands of Tyndale. At the time of Tunstal's visit to Antwerp, 
 the translation of the Pentateuch was just completed and 
 ready for press ; and it seems not unlikely tuat it was in order 
 to make arrangements for its safe transmission into England, 
 or perhaps even to procure the necessary type for printing it, 
 that Tyndale had journeyed from Marburg to what was then 
 the chief centre of intercourse between England and the 
 Continent. This new instalment of his great work, moreover, 
 having been accomplished without any of the interruption 
 which had driven him so precipitately from Cologne, and 
 compelled him to change his plans, was furnished with all the 
 appliances which Tyndale deemed necessary for the English 
 reader. It had marginal glosses, separate prologues to all the 
 books, and tables expounding such words as might perplex 
 the uninstructed. There were also eleven coarsely-cut illustra- 
 tions of the Tabernacle and its furniture interspersed in the 
 Book of Exodus ; and it is in these that we see a strong proof 
 of Tyndale's journey to Antwerp in the autumn of 1529. For 
 these illustrations are in every line and blot identically the 
 same that had been used in 1528, in the Dutch Bible printed 
 by Vorstermann in Antwerp. Four years later, however, when 
 Vorstermann reprinted his Bible, the illustrations were changed ; 
 the blocks from which they were printed were evidently 
 no longer in his possession ; they had been taken to Marburg 
 by Tyndale, and were there used in the first English version of 
 the Pentateuch. Whatever else, therefore, Tyndale may have 
 done with any money received from Tunstal, it seems highly 
 probable that he purchased with it the blocks which were 
 employed in the Book of Exodus ; and the rude wood-cuts 
 of this rare work are thus invested with a curious interest, 
 when we look at them as virtually the contribution of that 
 
21 8 THE CONFERENCE AT MARBURG IN 1529. 
 
 prelate who prided himself on his zeal in condemning and 
 burning the English Bible. 
 
 Accepting, therefore, the narrative of Hall as establishing 
 the fact of Tyndale's visit to Antwerp in August, and assuming 
 it as highly probable that he went there to make arrangements 
 for the circulation in England of that translation of the 
 Pentateuch which was so soon to be issued, and also that he 
 purchased from Vorstermann the blocks for illustrating his 
 work, it seems only natural to conclude that he would return 
 without loss of time to Marburg to superintend the printing of 
 his translation. Against this, however, some of Tyndale's 
 biographers have protested, from the same mistaken reason 
 which we have already repeatedly noticed, namely, a feeling 
 of alarm lest they should detract from Tjmdale's originality, 
 by admitting the possibility of an interview between the 
 English Reformer and Luther. For in the commencement of 
 October 1529, Luther and the Swiss divines met at Marburg 
 to discuss the basis of agreement, if agreement were still 
 possible, on that perplexing question of the nature of the 
 presence of Christ in the Sacrament, which threatened to split 
 up the Continental Reformers into two fiercely hostile factions ; 
 and if Tyndale returned from Antwerp soon after his negotia- 
 tion with Packington, it seems indisputable that he must have 
 been at Marburg during that stormy conference which proved 
 the death-blow to peace and unanimity among the Churches of 
 the Reformation. 
 
 To us who, without any preconceived theory, have simply 
 followed the indication of facts, and who have seen how largely 
 Tyndale was influenced by Luther in his writings, and especially 
 in his translation of the New Testament, it seems in no way 
 improbable that he may, on this occasion, have once again, and 
 for the last time, enjoyed the pleasure of conversing with his 
 great German contemporary. Nor do we consider that we are 
 detracting from Tyndale's merit or originality, if we still 
 further suppose that he was one of the favoured fifty who were 
 admitted into the halls of the old castle, to be present at the 
 
TYNDALE AT HAMBURG. aig 
 
 gladiatorial contest in which Luther and Melanchthon measured 
 swords with Zwingle and Oecolampadius ; and the holy 
 mysteries of the Christian faith were debated with an unhappy 
 animosity which widened the breach between the German and 
 Swiss Reformers.'^ There is not a tittle of positive evidence 
 either in favour of, or against the supposition of Tyndale's 
 presence in Marburg at the conference ; yet we cannot help 
 thinking that the moderation with which he himself discusses 
 the doctrine of the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, 
 and the earnest advice which he gave to Fryth, " of the presence 
 of Christ's body in the Sacrament meddle as little as you can, 
 that there appear no division among us," were inspired by 
 melancholy recollections of that ill-omened contest between 
 the angry dogmatism of Luther and the defiant sarcasm of 
 Zwingle, which afforded too sure a presage of the impending 
 disunion which has so seriously crippled the Reformation. 
 
 The real difficulty in fixing Tyndale's residence and occu- 
 pation for the last four months of 1529, arises from a state- 
 ment of Foxe, which from its unwonted circumstantiality of 
 detail, and its apparent chronological precision, cannot be 
 dismissed without some careful consideration of its probability. 
 Utterly oblivious of the transactions at Antwerp in August, 
 which he had borrowed from Hall, Foxe, in his biography 
 of Tyndale,^ says, " At what time he had translated the fifth 
 book of Moses, called Deuteronomy, minding to print the 
 same at Hamburg, he sailed thitherward ; where by the way, 
 upon the coast of Holland, he suffered shipwreck, by which 
 he lost all his books, writings, and copies, and so was com- 
 pelled to begin all again anew, to his hindrance, and doubling 
 of his labours. Thus, having lost by that ship both money, 
 his copies, and his time, he came in another ship to Hamburg, 
 where, at his appointment, Master Coverdale tarried for him, 
 and helped him in the translating of the whole five books 
 of Moses, from Easter till December, in the house of a 
 
 1 See D'Aubign^ Vol. iv. ; Ranke, Vol. III. 
 ' Vol. V. pp. 120, etc. 
 
230 TYNDALE AT HAMBURG. 
 
 worshipful widow, Mistress Margaret Van Emmerson, A.D. 
 1539 ; a great sweating sickness being at the same time in 
 the town. So, having dispatched his business at Hamburg, 
 he returned afterwards to Antwerp again." 
 
 If this statement of Foxe is to be accepted in its integrity, 
 it is of course absolutely incompatible not only with the sup- 
 position that Tyndale spent the autumn of 1529 in Marburg, 
 but also with what Foxe himself had narrated of the inter- 
 view with Packington in Antwerp, in August. Foxe, indeed, 
 is not proverbial for minute accuracy, and is exceedingly liable 
 to confusion in the chronological arrangement of his materials ; 
 yet his authority cannot be entirely disregarded, especially 
 in the total absence of any more authentic evidence to guide 
 us. There are, however, several circumstances in his narrative 
 which considerably detract from its value. It is suspicious, 
 for example, that he represents Tyndale as "minding to 
 print" the Pentateuch at Hamburg, a place where there is 
 not the slightest reason to believe that there was as yet a 
 single printer; and equally suspicious that he speaks of him 
 as assisted in his translation by " Master Coverdale," who 
 at that time was hardly able to render Tyndale much more 
 effective aid than that which Roye had formerly afforded as 
 amanuensis.^ 
 
 It has been proposed, in order to bring the conflicting 
 narratives into harmony, that Foxe should be considered as 
 erroneously assigning Tyndale's visit to Hamburg to 1529, 
 instead of i530. But, in the present instance, Foxe's narrative 
 is confirmed by external evidence ; it has been ascertained 
 that in 1529 the sweating-sickness was raging in Hamburg, 
 and that there was then resident in the city the widow of 
 
 1 It is amusing to observe how modem writers give the cold shoulder to Cover- 
 dale. Mr. Lemuel Chester, in his Life of Sogers, ridicules the whole narrative as 
 one of Foxe's minor fictions ; and even the editor of Coverdalis Remains for the 
 Parker Society is most careful to decline the honour accorded to him by Foxe of 
 having assisted Tyndale in his translation. So little is known of this part of 
 Coverdale's life that I think it rash to decide dogmatically : Foxe's narrative ought 
 not, however, to be rejected without some documentary evidence. 
 
THE PENTATEUCH PRINTED IN 1530. 221 
 
 a senator called Van Emmerson, who would be entitled in 
 etiquette to the style of Worshipful ;'^ and Foxe's narrative, 
 thus confirmed, cannot be set aside on mere conjecture. If 
 theory may be admitted on the question, it seems more 
 allowable to suppose that Foxe was mistaken as to the 
 duration of Tyndale's visit to Hamburg ; he may have re- 
 turned from that city to Antwerp about the end of August, 
 in time to allow of the interview with Packington, which 
 has been quoted from the pages of Hall; or the interview 
 may have taken place in that intermediate return to Antwerp 
 which seems to have followed his shipwreck. 
 
 At all events, on the 17th of January, 1530,^ the Penta- 
 teuch was printed by Hans Luft at Marburg. This was 
 Tyndale's second great contribution towards that sacred work 
 to which he had devoted his life ; and deserves, therefore, 
 more than a mere passing notice, especially as the book is 
 a rare one,^ not often seen, and has been imperfectly described 
 even in collected editions of Tyndale's writings. In addition 
 to the text, the volume contains a general preface, from 
 which we have already extracted many interesting autobio- 
 graphical details. A separate preface is also prefixed to 
 each book; lists are appended to Genesis, Exodus, and 
 Deuteronomy, explaining the meaning of some unusual words 
 that occur ; and marginal glosses are added, generally strongly 
 controversial in their tone. 
 
 What first strikes the reader on glancing at the volume, 
 is the peculiarity of its typography. The Book of Genesis 
 is printed in the customary Black letter of the period ; 
 
 ' Preface to Bagster's English Hexapla. The inquiries were made by Offor, 
 which is certainly not a very satisfactory recommendation. 
 
 '' This is the date on the colophon of Genesis : the other books were either issued 
 contemporaneously, or immediately afterwards. 
 
 ^ Only one perfect copy exists in the Grenville Library in the British Museum ; 
 but there are several others nearly perfect. The copy in Sion College, I may here 
 say, does not want the Book of Numbers, as Mr. Anderson and others allege. In 
 the Bodleian, there is a perfect copy of Genesis alone ; with the same colophon as in 
 the Pentateuch, viz., " Emprented at Marlborow, in the land of Hesse, by me, 
 Hans Luft, the yere of oure Lorde M.ccccc.xxx., the xvil daye of Januarii." 
 
232 TYND ALE'S PENTATEUCH. 
 
 Exodus and Leviticus are in Roman letter; Numbers is in 
 the same Black letter as Genesis; and in Deuteronomy we 
 have once again the Roman letter as in Exodus. At the 
 end of Genesis is the colophon "Printed at Marlborow in 
 the year 1530;" but there is no other note of time, place, 
 or printer throughout the volume. The Book of Numbers 
 evidently proceeded from the same press as Genesis ; but it 
 has been suggested, as a possible explanation of the piebald 
 appearance of the volume, that the other three books were 
 printed somewhere else than Marburg.^ If future investiga- 
 tion shall succeed in clearing up the obscurity that hangs 
 over Tyndale's movements in 1529 and 1530, we shall 
 probably be able to explain perfectly this patched typo- 
 graphy of his Pentateuch ; meantime, however, as the result 
 of a very careful examination, we feel convinced that all five 
 books were printed by Hans Luft, at Marburg. The orna- 
 mental title-pages prefixed to the books are the same through- 
 out, and are unquestionably Hans Luft's ; what is technically 
 called the " forme " is the same ; and in the books in Roman 
 letter we observe the same watermarks, and the same wire- 
 lines, which are found in those in Black letter, which no one 
 doubts to have been printed at Marburg. 
 
 Evidently the five books were intended .for circulation 
 separately as well as collectively; and some writers have sup- 
 posed that Genesis and Deuteronomy were issued considerably 
 earlier than the others, and probably some time before the 
 close of 1529, but the evidence of this is extremely imperfect.^ 
 If it be objected that the date, "January 17, 1530," must 
 
 ^ At Hamburg, say Anderson and others ; but this is out of the question. 
 
 ^ Anderson maintains this on the authority of a list (given in Foxe, Vol. IV. p. 
 679) of books prohibited by a royal proclamation in 1529. The proclamation 
 itself, however, mentions only Latin books. The' English books, among which 
 are " The chapters of Moses called Genesis," and " The chapters of Moses called 
 Deuteronomy," are taken from a list written in the margin of the proclamation in 
 Tunstal's Register, and of doubtful authority. It mentions, e.g.. The Practice of 
 Prelates, which was certainly not in England at the date to which Anderson 
 assigns the proclamation. Anderson, indeed, acknowledges that this is a mistake ; 
 and evidently the English list is not contemporary with the Latin one. 
 
TYND ALE'S PENTATEUCH. 323 
 
 mean, according to the modern method of reckoning, 153 1, it 
 may be replied, that the practice of reckoning the commence- 
 ment of the year from January i, was by no means unknown 
 among the Continental printers ; that some part of the Pen- 
 tateuch was undoubtedly in circulation in England before 
 the month of May, 1530, when the translation of the Old 
 Testament was denounced ; and still further, that Tyndale 
 himself, in his Practice of Prelates, which was certainly 
 written before the close of 1530, refers his readers to Exodus 
 and Deuteronomy in such a manner as to imply that these 
 books were already accessible in English. It may be accepted, 
 therefore, as proven by sufficient evidence, that the Pentateuch 
 was printed at Marburg in the beginning of 1530; and we 
 turn from these bibliographical details to the book itself. 
 
 That Tyndale was a respectable Hebrew scholar, who had 
 carefully studied the genius of that language, and was well 
 able to render the books of Moses from the original, can be 
 demonstrated by an overwhelming concurrence of evidence. 
 The testimony of Buschius is given on p. 130 ; some of 
 Tyndale's attempts at Hebrew verbal criticism we have also 
 read ; and in truth Tyndale so frequently alludes to the subject, 
 and so freely expresses his views on the grammatical and idio- 
 matic peculiarities of the language, that it is mere folly to doubt 
 his competency to translate the Old Testament from the original 
 Hebrew.^ That in the prosecution of his work he should avail 
 himself of all appliances within his reach, was what might have 
 been expected from his procedure in translating the New 
 Testament. It is no impeachment of his scholarship or his 
 originality to suppose that he consulted Luther and the 
 Vulgate ; rather this is an indication of the pains and good 
 sense with which he accomplished his task ; and the English 
 Bible is all the richer for the treasures thus gathered from 
 other fields. There are indications in the Pentateuch that 
 
 ' See for example his Preface to St. Matthew in his revised translation, Works, 
 Vol. I. p. 468 ; also Vol. ni. p. 75. [For an able, but as we venture to think not 
 conclusive, argument against Tyndale's Hebrew scholarship, see &eAthenaum for 
 May 2, 1885. Editor.] 
 
224 SPECIMENS OF TYNDALE'S TRANSLATION. 
 
 Tyndale worked with Luther and the Vulgate open before 
 him ; while, for those who are jealous of his independence, 
 there is unanswerable evidence on every page, that he never 
 for a moment surrendered his own judgment, but that the 
 work is throughout, in the strictest sense, his own. With 
 what ability the translation was accomplished, and how truly 
 his version of the Old Testament is still essentially in tone and 
 even in language the version of the English Bible, will be 
 manifest from the following specimens, selected simply on the 
 ground of their universal familiarity. In this case the words 
 within brackets show the changes in the Authorised Version. 
 
 Genesis XXII. vv. 4-13. 
 
 4 The third day (Then on the third day) Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the 
 place afar off. 
 
 5 And said (Abraham said) unto his young men, Bide here (Abide ye 
 here) with the ass ; I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again 
 tinto yon. 
 
 6 And Abraham took the wood of the sacrifice (burnt-offering), and laid it upon 
 Isaac his son, and took fire (he took the fire) in his hand, and a knife ; and they 
 went both of them together. 
 
 7 Then spake Isaac (And Isaac spake) unto Abraham his father, and said, My 
 father ; and he answered (said), Here am I, my son. And he said, See here is fire 
 and wood (Behold the fire and the wood), but where is the sheep (lamb) for 
 sacrifice (a bumt-offering) ? 
 
 8 And Abraham said. My son, God will provide him a sheep for sacrifice 
 (himself a lamb for a burnt-offering) : So went they both (and they went both of 
 them) together. 
 
 9 And when (omitted) they came unto the place which God shewed him (had 
 told him of), Abraham made (built) an altar there, and dressed the wood (laid the 
 wood in order), and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar above (omitted) 
 upon the wood. 
 
 10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to have killed (to 
 slay) his son. 
 
 11 Then (And) the angel of the Lord called unto him from heaven, saying 
 (and said), Abraham, Abraham ; and he answered (said). Here am I. 
 
 12 And he said. Lay not thine hands (hand) upon the child (lad), neither do 
 any thing at all (omits at all) unto him ; for now I know that thou fearest God, in 
 that (seeing) thou hast not kept thine only son (withheld thy son, thine only son) 
 from me. 
 
 1 3 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked about (omits about') ; and 
 behold there was (behold behind him) a ram caught by the horns in a thicket (in a 
 thicket by his horns) : and he (Abraham) went and took the ram, and offered him 
 up for a sacrifice (burnt-offering) in the stead of his son. 
 
SPECIMENS OF TYNDALE'S TRANSLATION. 225 
 The following is Tyndale's version of the Decalogue : — 
 
 And God spake all these words and said : I am the Lord thy God which have 
 brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. 
 
 Thou shalt have none other gods in my sight. 
 
 Thou shalt make thee no graven image, neither any similitude that is in heaven 
 above, either in the earth beneath, or in the water that is beneath the earth : See 
 that thou neither bow thyself unto them, neither serve them : for I the Lord thy 
 God am a jealous God, and visit the sin of the fathers upon the children unto the 
 third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and yet shew mercy unto 
 thousands among them that love me and keep my commandments. 
 
 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will 
 not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 
 
 Remember the Sabbath-day that thou sanctify it. Six days mayest thou labour 
 and do all that thou hast to do : but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord 
 thy God, in it thou shalt do no manner work ; neither thou nor thy son, nor thy 
 daughter, neither thy manservant nor thy maidservant, neither thy cattle, neither 
 yet the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made both 
 heaven and earth and the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; 
 wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. 
 
 Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which 
 the Lord thy God giveth thee. 
 
 Thou shalt not kill. 
 
 Thon shalt not break wedlock. 
 
 Thou shalt not steal. 
 
 Thou shalt bear no false witness against thy neighbour. 
 
 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house : neither shalt covet thy neighbour's 
 wife, his manservant, his maid, his ox, his ass, or aught that is his. 
 
 Balaam's prophecy (Numbers xxiv) is thus rendered : — 
 
 And he took up his parable and said : Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and 
 the man whose eye is open hath said : he hath said which heareth the words of 
 God and seeth the visions of the Almighty, which falleth down and his eyes are 
 opened. 
 
 How goodly are the tents of Jacob and thine habitations, Israel : even as the 
 broad valleys and as gardens by the river-side : as the tents which the Lord hath 
 pitched and as cypress-trees upon the water. 
 
 The water shall flow out of his bucket, and his seed shall be many waters, and 
 his king shall be higher than Agag : and his kingdom shall be exalted. 
 
 God that brought him out of Egypt is as the strength of an unicorn unto him ; and 
 he shall eat the nations that are his enemies, and break their bones, and pierce 
 them through with his arrows. 
 
 He coucheth himself and lay down as a lion, and as a lioness who shall stir him 
 up 7 Blessed is he that blesseth them, and cursed is he that curseth them 
 
 I see him but not now. I behold him but not nigh. 
 
 There shall come a star of Jacob, and rise a sceptre of Israel which shall smite 
 the coasts of Moab, and undermine all the children of Seth. And Edom shall be 
 
 Q 
 
226 TYNDALE'S ORIGINALITY. 
 
 his possession, and the possession of Seir shall be their enemy's, and Israel shall do 
 manfully. And out of Jacob shall come he that shall destroy the remnant of the 
 cities. 
 
 In the last passage the reader will have observed that 
 Tyndale's version varies considerably, and certainly not for 
 the better, from that now used in our churches. Curiously 
 enough, however, even this inferiority affords another proof of 
 his originality; for the translation of Luther, which he un- 
 questionably had before him, approaches very much nearer to 
 our Authorised Version ; and it is thus evident that Tyndale 
 did not follow it with the slavish deference of a copyist, as he 
 is sometimes said to have done. 
 
 Hitherto this question of Tyndale's originality has unfortu- 
 nately been discussed too much by theorists who have never 
 taken the trouble to examine and compare the works of 
 Tyndale and Luther ; and extravagant assertion on the one 
 hand has been met by equally extravagant counter-assertion 
 on the other. But to any scholar who sits down to collate 
 with care the versions of the English and the German trans- 
 lators, two facts speedily become plain and indisputable, viz., 
 that Tyndale had Luther's work before him, and constantly 
 consulted and occasionally adopted it ; and that he never 
 implicitly follows Luther, but translates from the original with 
 the freedom of a man who had perfect confidence in his own 
 scholarship. Theories, however ingenious, and however obsti- 
 nately maintained, must in the end yield to the inexorable 
 logic of facts ; and it is to be hoped that that species of 
 criticism which has so long reigned in this department of 
 literature, and which presumes to pronounce dogmatically on 
 the merits of works which have not only not been studied, but 
 in some cases have not even been seen, will not much longer 
 continue to flourish. 
 
 The marginal glosses with which the translation is accom- 
 panied are extremely pungent and controversial in their tone. 
 Not a single passage is overlooked from which any comment 
 could be drawn against the doctrines and practices of the Pope 
 
THE GLOSSES IN THE PENTATEUCH. 237 
 
 and the clergy. In their force, their downright plainness, and 
 their quaint satire, they remind a reader strongly of the 
 writings of Luther. " The spirit and even the style of Luther," 
 says Westcott, "is distinctly visible in them;"i and one 
 naturally expects, therefore, to find that they are still more 
 largely borrowed from the German than were the glosses in 
 the New Testament. This, however, is not the case. Strange 
 as it may appear, it is actually the fact that in his notes on 
 the Pentateuch, Tyndale has taken nothing whatever from 
 his German contemporary. Amongst upward of a hundred 
 glosses, there is only one instance of similarity sufficiently 
 strong to suggest that Tyndale had borrowed from Luther ; 
 and the note is in that case so very obvious and common-place, 
 as to afford no ground for asserting that even this one solitary 
 gloss has been translated from the German.^ 
 
 Perhaps it would have been better if Tyndale had in this 
 matter more closely followed his German predecessor ; for the 
 greatest of Tyndale's admirers must admit that his keen 
 sarcasms are by no means so suitable an accompaniment to 
 the sacred text as Luther's topographical and expository 
 notes. It can hardly be doubted that Tyndale must have had 
 some motive for thus entirely discarding in the Old Testament 
 what he had so liberally availed himself of in the New ; and 
 whatever other explanation may be suggested, it seems at all 
 events a probable supposition that he intended thereby, as it 
 were, to protest against the popular slander that he was 
 nothing more than an English echo of the great German 
 heresiarch. 
 
 ' History of the English Bible, p. 55. 
 
 ^ I refer to the note on Deuteronomy xviii. 15, "The Lord thy God will 
 raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee," etc., on which Tyndale 
 remarks, as Luther had done in similar words, " Christ is here promised, a preacher 
 of better tidings than Moses ; " a remark so obvious that it is simply absurd to 
 speak of its being borrowed. I have gone carefully over the whole Pentateuch in 
 the English and the German, and out of about one hundred and eight glosses there 
 are only three, besides the one in the text, which have the very faintest resemblance 
 to any of the notes in Luther's Pentateuch. 
 
 Q2 
 
238 SPECIMENS OF THE GLOSSES. 
 
 Tyndale could think and speak for himself, and that as 
 sharply and as boldly as Luther ever did, as his enemies must 
 have felt when they read such glosses as the following : — 
 
 On Genesis xxiv. 60, " They blessed Rebekah," he remarks, 
 " To bless a man's neighbour is to pray for him and to wish 
 him good, and not to wag two fingers over him" a satirical 
 allusion to episcopal benediction with two fingers out- 
 stretched. 
 
 On Genesis ix. 6, " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man 
 shall his blood be shed," he writes as he had done in The 
 Obedience, " This law and such like to execute, were kings 
 and rulers ordained of God, wherefore they ought not to suffer 
 the Pope's Cains thus to shed blood, their own not shed again, 
 neither yet to set up their abominable sanctuaries, and 
 neck-verses clean against the ordinance of God, but unto their 
 damnation." 
 
 The exemption of the Egyptian priests from certain burdens 
 (Genesis xlvii. a6) is thus criticised : " The blind guides get 
 privileges from \i.e., excusing from] bearing with their 
 brethren, contrary to Christ's law of love. And of these 
 priests of idols did our compassing ivy-trees learn to creep 
 up by little and little, and to compass the great trees of the 
 world with hypocrisy, and to thrust the roots of idolatrous 
 superstition into them, and to suck out the juice of them with 
 their poetry [inventions], till all be sere boughs and nothing 
 green save their own common-wealth ; " a criticism which was 
 subsequently expanded into one of the most famous passages 
 in his works. 
 
 On the command so oft repeated, to teach the children 
 the meaning of the ceremonies of the Jews' religion, he 
 remarks, " Our signs be dumb : we know not the reason of 
 our baptism ; yea, and we must say our prayers and our Belief 
 in a tongue not understood : and yet if we answer not our 
 prelates when they be angry, even as they would have it, we 
 must to the fire without redemption, or forswear God." 
 
 The greed of the clergy was specially satirised : on the 
 
t^cmountft)?neei'ft^ceaficfaj>«rt0€:coine (f ? 
 
 <urfeme3«cob/C(Mnc<in&t»f|Temc 3r«"*^» ? 
 
 fyaMot^from t^c toppe c|f ^ rotFce 3 fc ^titt . 
 
 cplen)*ffbtrc6rb3i> ^imrdfeahbnMtffnot be j ,; 
 
 t^c b»(i of S^^eb ^ t^c ttiimbjeof r^c foort| 
 p«rtUf SfrflfLSpiftye (B^br^at myro"!*/ 
 mayc fer* t^« b«t^ of r^ ri0^tcc«6 / ftb t^ftfc 
 m)?Ia(ienbemftrcbcIiF<^t6.' K 
 
 tpoti i'&ncvntomtijfcttptocutfc mfnemt 
 mj?cs:ant> bcj^ote^/ t^tou bItflVfl t^cm . 2InJ» » 
 
 |)eattfTO<Kbflnbfaj>cb;mj!(i3nctf<P«tM ^ ■ 
 
 <inbfpc*Fctr/tr{>t<^ t|)c £oibe ^at^ put in ;t" 
 mjf inoitt^ef2(nb ^aF<ic fay cb rnw himtife* 
 
 me 3 pt«rct^et»tt^me t>nro Another pfAc^ - , 
 
 rtmcfic parte of t^em 5b fbftli not fe tfxm OB 
 «nb airfe inettcm t^rt . 
 
 2Inb ^e b:ott0Et ^tm in to A pfa^ne fclbe 
 w^crc men m^^gpt fc fxrre/cucn to t^c toppe 
 ofPif^A/anh bylt.vi\,alttta &nb ojfcreb an 
 ore anb a r.a on ciiery altcr.21nb ^ faycb »n* 
 to Balocfionbe ^ere bf tf>i facnfycexv^yU 
 3^oo)ronbcr, anbt^Cwb^mm Bftf^na . 
 Anb pcjttpotbcfitn ^i^moutf) anb faycbrrtoo - 
 #0«^nc vijtd 3afoc5bi^0 iiipe,Znh wpctt . 
 
 
SPECIMENS OF THE GLOSSES. 339 
 
 words, " None shall appear before me empty " (Exod. xxxiv. 
 20), he curtly remarks, " That is a good text for the Pope ; " 
 and on the declaration that the people brought " too much," 
 and were therefore restrained from offering (Exod. xxxvi. 6), 
 he asks, with pointed satire, " When will the Pope say, Hoo ! 
 [hold] and forbid to offer for the building of St. Peter's 
 Church ? and when will our spirituality say, Hoo ! and forbid 
 to give them more land and to make more foundations } 
 Never, verily, until they have all." 
 
 " How can I curse whom God hath not cursed ? " asks 
 Balaam : " The Pope can tell how," rejoins Tyndale, with 
 grim irony in the margin. " Talk of the Lord's words when 
 thou sittest in thine house," says Moses, in recapitulating the 
 Law : " Talk of Robin Hood, say our prelates," is the cutting 
 gloss which Tyndale has appended. 
 
 In such comments as these, terribly plain and almost 
 fierce in their hostility to the Pope and the clergy, we have 
 the natural expression of that profound emotion which all 
 that he had suffered, and all that he had witnessed, produced 
 in the mind of Tyndale. Decorous ecclesiastical historians, 
 like Collier, would have been shocked by the " irreverent 
 language " which Tyndale applies to clerical dignitaries and 
 time-honoured ceremonies ; those who have followed him 
 during long dreary years of exile and persecution can under- 
 stand the bitterness of heart which thus found vent in sharp 
 and angry words, and can sympathise with him, even if they 
 believe that his version of the five books of Moses would 
 have been improved by the omission of this admixture of 
 human resentment. 
 
 Of the various prefaces to the books we need not speak 
 at length. The most noteworthy feature in them is the admir- 
 able good sense with which he insists upon the necessity of 
 adhering to the literal meaning of Scripture, and eschewing 
 all manner of allegorical interpretations. This was the charac- 
 teristic of his prefaces which would make the deepest im- 
 pression upon his contemporaries ; for all true interpretations 
 
330 THE LITERAL INTERPRETA TION OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 of Scripture had been lost, and the expositor perplexed his 
 readers with whimsical allegorical conundrums. No greater 
 service, therefore, could be rendered to sound theology than 
 by thus recalling men to the only true system of exposition ; 
 and independently, therefore, of his pre-eminent merits as a 
 translator, Tyndale is entitled to be reverenced by all English- 
 men, as the founder of all rational Scriptural interpretation 
 in England. In the following extract from the Preface to 
 Leviticus we have the enunciation of a revolution in theology, 
 quite as important and as fundamental as the greatest of the 
 changes effected at the Reformation : — ^ 
 
 " Because that few know the use of the Old Testament, and the most 
 part think it nothing necessary but to make allegories, which they feign 
 every man after his own brain at all wild adventure, without any certain 
 rule ; therefore, though I have spoken of them in another place [in The 
 Obedience], yet, lest the book come not to all men's hands that shall read 
 this, I will speak of them here also a word or twain. 
 
 " We had need to take heed everywhere that we be not beguiled with 
 false allegories, whether they be drawn out of the New Testament or the 
 Old, either out of any other story, or of the creatures of the world, but 
 namely [especially] in this book [the Pentateuch]. Here a man had 
 need to put on all his spectacles, and to arm himself against invisible 
 spirits. 
 
 " First, allegories prove nothing; and by allegories understand examples 
 or similitudes borrowed of strange matters, and of another thing than that 
 thou entreatest of. As, though circumcision be a figure of baptism, yet 
 thou canst not prove baptism by circumcision. For this argument were 
 very feeble. The Israelites were circumcised, therefore we must be baptised. 
 And in like manner, though the offering of Isaac were a figure or ensample 
 of the resurrection, yet is this argument naught, Abraham would have 
 offered Isaac, but God delivered him from death ; therefore we shall rise 
 again : and so forth in all other. 
 
 " But the very use of allegories is to declare [illustrate] and open a text, 
 that it may be the better perceived and understood. As, when I have a 
 clear text of Christ and the apostles, that I must be baptised, then I may 
 borrow an example of circumcision to express the nature, power, and fruit, 
 or effect of baptism. For as circumcision was unto them a common 
 badge, signifying that they were all soldiers of God, to war His war, and 
 separating them from all other nations disobedient unto God ; even so 
 
 ' The whole Preface is well worth reading : I do not know any better exposition 
 of the true meaning and purpose of the ceremonies of the Jewish economy. 
 
THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 331 
 
 baptism is our common badge, and sure earnest, and perpetual memorial, 
 that we pertain unto Christ, and are separated from all that are not 
 Christ's. And as circumcision was a token certifying them that they were 
 received unto the favour of God, and their sins forgiven them ; even so 
 baptism certifieth us that we are washed in the blood of Christ, and 
 received to favour for His sake : and as circumcision signified unto them 
 the cutting away of their own lusts, and slaying of their free-will, as they 
 call it, to follow the will of God; even so baptism signifieth unto us 
 repentance, and the mortifying of our unruly members- and body of sin, to 
 walk in a new hfe, and so forth. 
 
 " And likewise, though that the saving of Noe, and of them that were 
 with him in the ship, through water, is a figure, that is to say, an example 
 and likeness of baptism, as Peter maketh it (i Pet.iii.), yet I cannot prove 
 baptism therewith, save describe it only. For as the ship saved them in 
 the water through faith, in that they believed God, and as the other that 
 would not believe Noe perished ; even so baptism saveth us through the 
 word of faith which it preacheth, when all the world of the unbelieving 
 perish. And Paul (l Cor. x.) maketh the sea and the cloud a figure of 
 baptism ; by which, and a thousand more, I might declare it, but not prove 
 it. Paul also in the said place maketh the rock, out of which Moses 
 brought water unto the children of Israel, a figure or ensample of Christ ; 
 not to prove Christ (for that were impossible), but to describe Christ only; 
 even as Christ Himself (John iii.) borroweth a similitude or figure of the 
 brasen serpent, to lead Nicodemus from his earthly imagination into the 
 spiritual understanding of Christ, saying : ' As Moses lifted up a serpent 
 in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that none that 
 believe in Him perish, but have everlasting life.' By which similitude the 
 virtue of Christ's death is better described than thou couldst declare it 
 with a thousand words. For as those murmurers against God, as soon as 
 they repented, were healed of their deadly wounds, through looking on 
 the brasen serpent only, without medicine or any other help, yea, and 
 without any other reason but that God hath said it should be so ; and not 
 to murmur again, but to leave their murmuring : even so all that repent, 
 and believe in Christ, are saved from everlasting death, of pure grace, 
 without, and before, their good works ; and not to sin again, but to fight 
 against sin, and henceforth to sin no more. 
 
 " Even so with the ceremonies of this book thou canst prove nothing, 
 save describe and declare only the putting away of our sins through the 
 death of Christ. For Christ is Aaron, and Aaron's sons, and all that offer 
 the sacrifice to purge sin. And Christ is all manner offering that is 
 offered : He is the ox, the sheep, the goat, the kid, and the lamb ; He is 
 the ox that is burnt without the host, and the scape-goat that carried all 
 the sin of the people away into the wilderness : for as they purged the 
 people from their worldly uncleannesses through blood of the sacrifices, 
 even so doth Christ purge us from the uncleannesses of everlasting death 
 with His own blood ; and as their worldly sins could no otherwise be 
 
232 TYNDALEfS WARNING AGAINST ALLEGORIES. 
 
 purged, than by blood of sacrifices, even so can our sins be no otherwise 
 forgiven than through the blood of Christ. All the deeds in the world, 
 save the blood of Christ, can purchase no forgiveness of sins ; for our 
 deeds do but help our neighbour, and mortify the flesh, and help that we 
 sin no more : but and if we have sinned, it must be freely forgiven through 
 the blood of Christ, or remain for ever. 
 
 " And in like manner of the lepers thou canst prove nothing : thou canst 
 never conjure out confession thence, howbeit thou hast an handsome 
 example there to open the binding and loosing of our priests with the key 
 of God's Word ; for as they made no man a leper, even so ours have no 
 power to command any man to be in sin, or to go to purgatory or hell. 
 And therefore, (inasmuch as binding and loosing is one power), as those 
 priests healed no man ; even so ours cannot of their invisible and dumb 
 power drive any man's sins away, or deliver him from hell or feigned 
 purgatory. Howbeit if they preached God's Word purely, which is the 
 authority that Christ gave them, then they should bind and loose, kill and 
 make alive again, make unclean and clean again, and send to hell and 
 fetch thence again ; so mighty is God's Word. For if they preached the 
 law of God, they should bind the consciences of sinners with the bonds of 
 the pains of hell, and bring them unto repentance : and then if they 
 preached unto them the mercy that is in Christ, they should loose them 
 and quiet their raging consciences, and certify them of the favour of God, 
 and that their sins be forgiven. 
 
 " Finally, beware of allegories ; for there is not a more handsome or apt 
 thing to beguile withal than an allegory ; nor a more subtle and pestilent 
 thing in the world to persuade a false matter, than an allegory. And 
 contrariwise ; there is not a better, vehementer, or mightier thing to make 
 a man understand withal, than an allegory. For allegories make a man 
 quick-witted, and print [imprint] wisdom in him, and make it to abide, 
 where bare words go but in at the one ear, and out at the other. As this, 
 with such like sayings : ' Put salt to all your sacrifices,' instead of this 
 sentence, 'Do all your deeds with discretion,' greeteth and biteth (if it be 
 understood) more than plain words." And when I say, instead of these 
 words, ' Boast not yourself of your good deeds,' ' Eat not the blood nor the 
 fat of your sacrifice ; ' there is as great difference between them as there is 
 distance between heaven and earth. For the life and beauty of all good 
 deeds is of God, and we are but the carrion-lean ; we are only the instru- 
 ment whereby God worketh only, but the power is His : as God created 
 Paul anew, poured His wisdom into him, gave him might, and promised 
 him that His grace should never fail him, etc., and all without deservings, 
 except that murdering the saints, and making them curse and rail on 
 Christ, be meritorious. Now, as it is death to eat the blood or fat of any 
 sacrifice, is it not (think ye), damnable to rob God of His honour, and to 
 glorify myself with His honour ? " 
 
 Those best acquainted with the theology of the English 
 
THE BEAUTY OF TYND ALE'S ENGLISH. 233 
 
 Reformation will be the first to admit that we shall look in 
 vain in Cranmer, Latimer, or Ridley for any such clearness 
 of apprehension and precision of language as are here dis- 
 played by Tyndale. Sometimes, indeed, his language is not 
 only precise but exquisitely beautiful, and worthy of that 
 master of English eloquence to whom we owe our New 
 Testament. Would not the reader, for example, be inclined 
 to believe that the following sentence from Tyndale's Preface 
 to Exodus was one of the gems of Jeremy Taylor ? " The 
 ceremonies were not permitted only, but also commanded of 
 God ; to lead the people in the shadows of Moses and night 
 of the Old Testament ; until the light of Christ and day of the 
 New Testament were come." 
 
 The New Testament had been issued with an Epistle 
 desiring the " learned to amend if aught were found amiss : " 
 but those who had condemned the work as full of errors 
 had taken no steps to provide the only proper remedy — a 
 translation free from errors. The prelates, " those stubborn 
 Nimrods which so mightily fight against God," instead of 
 amending whatever needed correction, had, as Tyndale indig- 
 nantly protests, stirred up the civil authorities " to torment 
 such as tell the truth, and to burn the Word of their souls' 
 health, and slay whosoever believe thereon." In spite of their 
 fierce declamations, however, he declined to be provoked into 
 any dogmatic assertion of his own immunity from error in 
 that work to which he had devoted his own best industry 
 and learning. He had done his best ; but if he had erred 
 through lack of knowledge he was willing to be guided by 
 those whose scholarship was greater than his own. He was 
 willing that himself, and even his work, should perish, if by 
 any other means the cause of God could be more successfully 
 promoted. " I submit this book," such is the conclusion of 
 his General Preface, " and all other that I have either made 
 or translated, or shall in time to come, if it be God's will that 
 I shall further labour in His harvest, unto all them that submit 
 themselves unto the Word of God, to be corrected of them ; 
 
234 THE NOBLE SPIRIT OF TYNDALE. 
 
 yea, and moreover to be disallowed and also burnt, if it seem 
 worthy, when they have examined it with the Hebrew, so 
 [provided] that they first put forth of their own translating 
 another that is more correct.'' 
 
 It was not the will of God that Tyndale should labour 
 much longer in His harvest ; he still continued, indeed, to 
 prosecute his translation of the Old Testament, but the 
 publication of the Pentateuch may be considered as his last 
 formal contribution on any large scale to the English Bible : 
 and these noble words of his Preface will, perhaps, serve to 
 explain to the thoughtful reader what still seems mysterious 
 and incredible to some minds, the continued prevalence, 
 namely, in our Authorised Version of the spirit and the 
 language of the first translator, in spite of the vast advance 
 in verbal knowledge since his days. No translation, the 
 work of a mere verbal scholar, has ever attained a permanent 
 existence in literature ; if words are to live, they must come 
 living from the heart of him that writes them ; and it is 
 because the words of Scripture had been so incorporated 
 with the spiritual life of Tyndale as to have become in a 
 manner the very utterances of his own soul, that they have 
 maintained their hold over the hearts of his countrymen, 
 when the labours of later scholars more learned in the minutiae 
 of grammatical lore have been consigned to oblivion. 
 
 We have assumed that at the close of 1529 Tyndale had 
 returned to Marburg to superintend the printing of his trans- 
 lation of the Pentateuch, that being a work of too much 
 importance to be left to the care of printers ignorant of the 
 English language.^ Possibly he may have remained at 
 Marburg during the whole of 1530, for he was still safe there 
 from any personal danger ; or not impossibly he may have 
 paid that long visit to Hamburg, lasting from Easter to 
 December, which Foxe has assigned, erroneously as some 
 
 • The peculiar typography of the volume has already been noticed: in other 
 respects it is well printed, except that there is extreme irregularity in the numbering 
 of the pages. 
 
TYNDALE LEAVES MARBURG. 235 
 
 think, to the previous year. In either city he would be 
 exposed to the attacks of that mysterious disease which was 
 looked upon as the peculiar scourge of the English nation, 
 but which was then for the first time desolating the cities 
 of Germany. 1 In Marburg, Francis Lambert, the chief glory 
 of the infant University, fell a victim to the plague, and 
 his death must have deprived Tyndale of a friend whose 
 piety, zeal, and manifold experience may often have served 
 to stimulate and comfort him in his work ; and whose bold 
 views on all questions of ecclesiastical order may have had 
 more influence than has generally been imagined, on the 
 opinions of our translator. 
 
 The death of Lambert would leave a very considerable 
 blank in Marburg, which had not, in truth, much beyond 
 its comparative security to attract Tyndale ; for with all its 
 zeal for orthodoxy the town was by no means distinguished 
 for the purity of its morals ; already there were signs of that 
 laxness which subsequently grew into open and scandalous 
 immorality. Lambert, it is said, was broken-hearted with 
 what he saw around him, and was contemplating removal 
 from the place when death put an end to his grief; and 
 probably Tyndale, vexed with what was so uncongenial to 
 his mind, was not sorry to take up his abode elsewhere. 
 
 But wherever Tyndale's abode may have been during this 
 year, we can with perfect certainty determine his occupation. 
 Two great works must have fully engaged all his energies. 
 In the summer of 1539, just before starting on his embassy 
 to Cambrai, Sir Thomas More had published an elaborate 
 condemnation of Tyndale's translation of the New Testament, 
 and a refutation of the opinions advanced in The Wicked 
 Mammon and The Obedience; and from the reputation of 
 his antagonist and the ability of his work, it was absolutely 
 indispensable that Tyndale should prepare to defend himself, 
 
 ' Cochloeus, in the work which has been already quoted, expressly states that 
 this was the first outbreak in Germany of that " pestis quadam quce sudor Anglicanus 
 dicebatur ; " Commentarii de actis et scriptis M. Lutheri, p. 203. 
 
336 " THE PRACTICE OF PRELATES!' 
 
 and not seem to retire vanquished from the conflict. This 
 controversy, a most interesting episode in Tyndale's career, 
 we reserve for separate treatment in the next chapter, and 
 we only allude to it now as explaining Tyndale's occupation 
 during the year 1530. 
 
 The other great work is the bitterest of all Tyndale's con- 
 troversial writings, his famous Practice of Prelates. Since 
 Tyndale had left his native country great changes had taken 
 place ; for it was an age of change and revolution, and events 
 moved on with startling rapidity. The royal project for a 
 divorce, originating, perhaps, in scruples of conscience on 
 Henry's part, had been instigated and encouraged by Wolsey 
 until it had grown beyond all control, and threatened a re- 
 bellion against the supremacy of Rome. Wolsey's "angel 
 wit " had at length failed him amidst the perplexities which 
 surrounded him on all hands ; he had forfeited the confidence 
 of his sovereign, and had fallen from the meridian of his 
 glory. Parliament had assembled, after a long interval of 
 almost irresponsible government by the great Cardinal; a 
 layman, Sir Thomas More, occupied that highest place of 
 oflSce which had come to be looked upon as the sacred pre- 
 rogative of an ecclesiastic, and the House of Commons had 
 dared to rise against the power of the Church, and had cur- 
 tailed the exactions of the clergy. The two Universities had 
 been compelled, by somewhat rough means, it is true,'^ to 
 pronounce a decision on the question of the royal divorce, 
 which was tantamount to an infringement of the authority of 
 the Pope. Wolsey was in retirement in his northern diocese ; 
 and the heart of the nation was stirring with the first impulses 
 of that mighty movement which issued in spiritual freedom. 
 Few even of those who shared most prominently in the move- 
 ment had any true conception of the nature or tendency of 
 the work in which they were engaged ; and Tyndale, looking 
 on from a distance, imperfectly supplied with information, 
 hearing only one side of the question from men who were 
 ' See Demaus' Latimer, p. 75, etc. 
 
THE FALL OF WOLSEY. 237 
 
 themselves badly informed, and who were in general agents 
 of a very humble class, was certainly by no means in a posi- 
 tion to form any accurate judgment of the character or 
 probable result of the mighty revolution which was in pro- 
 gress in England, or of the motives of the chief agents on 
 either side. 
 
 This much it seemed desirable to premise by way of 
 apology for Tyndale ; for, although his sagacity has been by 
 some biographers lauded with the most extravagant pane- 
 gyrics, the truth is that his view of the political situation in 
 England is utterly baseless, and such as he would never 
 have published had he been resident in his native land. He 
 actually believed that the fall of Wolsey and the reformation 
 of abuses in Parliament were mere tricks on the part of the 
 Cardinal to tide over the difficulties of a " jeopardous year ;" 
 that his disgrace was "nothing save a cast of his old prac- 
 tice," " to bring the world into a fool's paradise " with what 
 was merely " faces of reformations ;" and that all things 
 would return to their former course as soon as that " con- 
 stellation was overrun whereof the prelates were afraid." It 
 is unnecessary to prove that this was an entire misappre- 
 hension of the nature of the crisis ; Tyndale in venturing into 
 the region of politics had travelled somewhat out of his own 
 sphere, and his opinions on subjects which he so imperfectly 
 understood must be received with a certain amount of quali- 
 fication and reserve. 
 
 The general value and importance of The Practice of 
 Prelates are, however, altogether independent of Tyndale's 
 peculiar opinions as to the situation of affairs in England, 
 and the character and motives of the chief movers there. 
 The book is a sort of historical summary of the practices by 
 which the Pope and the clergy gradually grew up from 
 primeval poverty and humility into that universal supremacy 
 which in Tyndale's time they enjoyed ; and the story is re- 
 lated with a boldness and bitterness which were not likely 
 to conciliate the favour of the rulers of the Church. In 
 
238 THE FAMOUS ''PROPER SIMILITUDE^ 
 
 treating of this theme, Tyndale was perfectly at home; it 
 had been the subject of his thoughts and of his observation 
 for ten years ; his exile and his persecution had deepened and 
 embittered his convictions; in The Practice of Prelates, he 
 gives full vent to the accumulated indignation of half a life- 
 time, and his w^ords fall upon the reader with the terrible 
 emphasis of the denunciations of the Hebrew prophets. There 
 is probably nowhere in the English language any passage 
 superior in force and graphic skill to the well-known descrip- 
 tion of the rise of the Pope, in which Tyndale has expanded 
 one of the marginal glosses on his Pentateuch into an elaborate 
 parable. The passage is probably not unknown to some 
 readers, but it is too characteristic a specimen of the style 
 of The Practice of Prelates to be omitted from a Life of 
 Tyndale. 
 
 " A proper similitude to describe our holy Father. 
 
 " And to see how our holy father came up, mark the ensample of an ivy 
 tree. First it springeth out of the earth, and then awhile creepeth along by 
 the ground till it find a great tree. Then it joineth itself beneath alow 
 [below] unto the body of the tree, and creepeth up a little and a little, fair and 
 softly. And at the beginning, while it is yet thin and small, [so] that the 
 burden is not perceived, it seemeth glorious to garnish the tree in the 
 winter, and to bear off the tempests of the weather. But in the mean 
 season it thrusteth roots into the bark of the tree, to hold fast withal : and 
 ceaseth not to climb up, till it be at the top and above all. And then 
 it sendeth his branches along by the branches of the tree, and overgroweth 
 all, and waxeth great, heavy, and thick ; and sucketh the moisture so sore 
 out of the tree and his branches, that it choaketh and stifleth them. And 
 then the foul stinking ivy waxeth mighty in the stump of the tree, and 
 becometh a seat and a nest for all unclean birds, and for blind owls, 
 which hawk in the dark, and dare not come at the light. 
 
 " Even so the Bishop of Rome, now called pope, at the beginning crope 
 along upon the earth ; and every man trod upon him in this world. But 
 as soon as there came a Christian emperor, he joined himself unto his feet 
 and kissed them, and crope up a little with begging now this privilege, 
 now that ; now this city, now that ; to find poor people withal, and the 
 necessary ministers of God's Word. And he entitled' the emperor with 
 choosing the pope and other bishops ; and promoted in the spiritualty, 
 
 ' i.e., bestowed upon him the title or claim to choose the popes and other 
 bishops ; which, says Tyndale, in his marginal note, " pertained unto the emperor 
 and kings once." 
 
THE FAMOUS "PROPER SIMILITUDE." 239 
 
 not whom virtue and learning, but whom the favour of great men com- 
 mended ; to flatter, to get friends, and defenders withal. And the alms of 
 the congregation which was the food and patrimony of the poor and 
 necessary preachers, that he called St. Peter's patrimony, St. Peter's 
 rent, St. Peter's lands, St. Peter's right ; to cast a vain fear and a 
 heathenish superstitiousness into the hearts of men, that no man should 
 dare meddle with whatsoever came once into their hands for fear of 
 St. Peter, though they ministered it never so evil ; and that they which 
 should think it none alms to give them any more, because they had too 
 much already, should yet give St. Peter somewhat, as Nabuchodonesser 
 gave his god Beel [Bel], to purchase an advocate and an intercessor of St. 
 Peter, and that St. Peter should at the first knock let them in. And thus, 
 with flattering and feigning, and vain superstition, under the name 
 of St. Peter, he crept up and fastened his roots in the heart -of the emperor, 
 and with his sword clamb up above all his fellow-bishops, and brought 
 them under his feet. And as he subdued them with the emperor's sword, 
 even so by subtilty and help of them (after that they were sworn faithful) 
 he clamb above the emperor, and subdued him also, and made him stoop 
 unto his feet and kiss them another while. Yea, Pope Ccelestinus crowned 
 the Emperor Henry the Fifth [Sixth], holding the crown between his feet: 
 and when he had put the crown on, he smote it off' with his feet again, 
 saying, that he had might to make emperors and to put them down again. 
 
 "And as the pope played with the emperor, so did his branches and his 
 members, the bishops, play in every kingdom, dukedom, and lordship ; in- 
 somuch that the very heirs of them by whom they came up, hold now 
 their lands of them, and take them for their chief lords. And as the 
 emperor is sworn to the pope, even so every king is sworn to the bishops 
 and prelates of his realm : and they are the chiefest in all parliaments ; 
 yea, they and their money, and they that be sworn to them, and come up 
 by them, rule altogether. 
 
 " And thus the pope, the father of all hypocrites, hath with falsehood 
 and guile perverted the order of the world, and turned the roots of 
 the trees upward, and hath put down the kingdom of Christ, and set 
 up the kingdom of the devil, whose vicar he is ; and hath put down the 
 ministers of Christ, and hath set up the ministers of Satan, disguised yet in 
 names and garments like unto the angels of hght and ministers of 
 righteousness. For Christ's kingdom is not of the world (John xviii.) ; 
 and the pope's kingdom is all the world. 
 
 "And Christ is neither judge nor divider in this world (Luke xii.) : but 
 the pope judgeth and divideth all the world, and taketh the empire and all 
 kingdoms, and giveth them to whom he lusteth. 
 
 " Christ saith, ' Blessed are the poor in spirit : ' so that the first step 
 in the kingdom of Christ is humbleness, or humility; that thou canst 
 find in thine heart to do service unto all men, and to suffer that all men 
 tread thee. 
 
 "The pope saith, 'Blessed be the proud and high-minded, that 
 
a40 KEENNESS OF TYNDALE'S CRITICISM. 
 
 can climb and subdue all under them, and maintain their right, and 
 such as will suffer of no man : ' so that he which was yesterday taken 
 from the dunghill and promoted this day by his prince, shall to-morrow, 
 for the pope's pleasure, curse him, and excommunicate him, and interdict 
 his realm. 
 
 "Christ saith, 'Blessed be the meek,' or soft, that be harmless as 
 doves. 
 
 "The pope blesseth them that can set all the world together by the ears, 
 and fight, and slay manfully for his sake, that he may come hot from 
 blood-shedding to a bishoprick : as our cardinal did, and as St. Thomas 
 of Canterbury did, which was made bishop in the field, in complete 
 harness on his horseback, and his spear bloody in his hand. ^ 
 
 " Christ hath neither holes for foxes, nor nests for birds, nor yet where- 
 on to lay His head, nor promised aught in this world unto His disciples, 
 nor took any to His disciple but him that had forsaken all. 
 
 "The ivy- tree, the pope, hath under his roots throughout all Christendom, 
 in every village, holes for foxes, and nests for unclean birds in all 
 his branches, and promiseth unto his disciples all the promotions of the 
 world. 
 
 " The nearer unto Christ a man cometh, the lower he must descend, 
 and the poorer he must wax. But the nearer unto the pope ye come, the 
 higher ye must climb, and the more riches ye must gather, whence- 
 soever ye can get them, to pay for your bulls, and to purchase a glorious 
 name, and license to wear a mitre, and a cross, and a pall, and goodly 
 ornaments." 
 
 With the same clearness and boldness, and with a very- 
 considerable amount of historical learning, Tyndale traces the 
 various practices by which this usurped supremacy was 
 maintained and defended ; the perversion of Scripture, the 
 universal corruption of morals, the degradation of all religion 
 into form, the commutation of all duty into the payment of 
 money to the clergy. Tyndale was a sharp critic ; but the 
 disease required a merciless knife. That which should have 
 been the noblest principle in human nature had become the 
 most corrupt ; the depth of a man's devotion was gauged by 
 the amount of his offering before the shrine of a favourite 
 saint ; and amidst all the routine of worship, one plain fact 
 alone, it has been truly said, was conspicuous to the under- 
 
 ' It is not historically correct to say that Becket was made bishop in the field ; 
 but the language of his chaplain and biographer, William Fitz-Stephen, might 
 seem to Tyndale to imply that he was so. 
 
>it&^j£^iill 
 
TYNDALE'S WARNING AGAINST VIOLENCE. 341 
 
 standing of the people at large, " that all evils which could 
 touch either their spirits or their bodies might be escaped by- 
 means which resolved themselves, scarcely disguised, into the 
 payment of moneys." ^ 
 
 Against a system so degrading, Tyndale's soul rose in 
 abhorrence ; and he uses accordingly language of unmeasured 
 vituperation. Advocates of moderation in controversy, men 
 who insist that religious revolutions should be carried on 
 in a decorous constitutional manner, will find small pleasure 
 in perusing The Practice of Prelates. Tyndale hated the 
 system with his whole heart, and he condemns it with his 
 whole strength. In his eyes the pope was Antichrist and the 
 whore of Babylon ; the clergy were his myrmidons employed 
 to spy and rob the laity; the monks and friars were cater- 
 pillars, horse-leeches, drone-bees, draff. All this and more 
 may be read in The Practice of Prelates ; for Tyndale's 
 indignation, sharpened by years of exile and homesick longing, 
 knew no bounds, and his words knew no moderation. Yet 
 with all this violence of language, it must be noted that 
 Tyndale protested against using any physical violence ; and 
 carefully warned his readers " not to resist the hypocrites with 
 violence, which vengeance pertaineth unto God." Let this 
 fact be fairly borne in mind by those who condemn his violent 
 language. His language, we have not concealed, is fierce and 
 bitter, perhaps unduly fierce and bitter ; but bitter words were 
 not so hard to bear as exile, not so cruel as imprisonment, not 
 so terrible as the fires of martyrdom. 
 
 The general summary of The Practice of Prelates was 
 concluded by a special exposition of the misgovemment of 
 England by Wolsey [ Wolf see, Tyndale calls him, after the 
 punning system of the time], and here Tyndale's indignation 
 culminates in a fierce attack upon the Cardinal. His descrip- 
 tion of Wolsey is in truth a terrible pendant to the softened 
 portrait given by the "gentle Griffiths." ^ 
 
 ' Froude's History of England, Vcl. 11. 
 ■■' Shakespere, Henry VIII. 
 
 R 
 
242 TYNDAL^S PORTRAIT OF WOLSEY. 
 
 " When the King's Grace came first to the right of the crown, and unto 
 the goverance of the realm, young and unexpert, Thomas Wolfsee, a man 
 of lust and courage and bodily strength, to do and to suffer great things, 
 and to endure in all manner of voluptuousness ; expert and exercised in 
 the course of the world, as he which had heard, read, and seen much 
 policy, and had done many things himself, and had been of the secret 
 counsel of weighty matters ; as subtle as Sinon that betrayed Troy ; 
 utterly appointed to semble and dissemble,' to have one thing in the heart 
 and another in the mouth ; being thereto as eloquent as subtle, and able 
 to persuade what he lusted to them that were unexpert ; so desirous and 
 greedy of honour, that he cared not but for the next [nearest] and most 
 compendious way thereto, whether godly or ungodly ; this wily wolf, I say 
 and raging sea, and shipwreck of all England (though he showed himself 
 pleasant and calm at the first), came unto the King's Grace, and waited 
 upon him, and was no man so obsequious and serviceable, and in all games 
 and sports the first and next at hand, and as a captain to courage other, 
 and a gay finder out of new pastimes, to obtain favour withal. 
 
 "And ever as he grew in promotions and dignity, so gathered he unto 
 him of the most subtle-witted, and of them that were drunk in the desire 
 of honour, most like unto himself: and after they were sworn, he 
 promoted them, and with great promises made them in falsehood faithful, 
 and of them ever presented unto the King's Grace, and put them into his 
 service, saying, 'This is a man meet for your Grace.' And by these spies, 
 if aught were done or spoken in the court against the cardinal, of that he 
 had word within an hour or two; and then came the cardinal to court 
 with all his magic, to persuade the contrary. If any in the court had 
 spoken against the cardinal, and the same not great in the king's favour, 
 the cardinal bade him walk a villain, and thrust him out of the court 
 headlong. If he were in conceit with the King's Grace, then he flattered, 
 and persuaded, and corrupted some with gifts, and sent some ambassadors, 
 and some he made captains at Calais, Hames, Guines, Jersey, and 
 Guernsey, or sent them to Ireland, and into the north ; and so occupied 
 them, till the King had forgot them, and other were in their rooms, or tiU 
 he had sped what he intended. 
 
 "And, after the same example, he furnished the court with chaplains of 
 his own sworn disciples, and children of his own bringing-up, to be alway 
 present, and to dispute of vanities, and to water whatsoever the cardinal 
 had planted. If among those cormorants any yet began to be too much 
 in favour with the King, and to be somewhat busy in the court, and to 
 draw any other way than as my lord cardinal had appointed that the 
 plough should go, anon he was sent to Italy or to Spain ; or some quarrel 
 was picked against him, and so was thrust out of the court, as Stokesley 
 was. 
 
 ' To semble is to pretend to be what a man is not ; to dissemble, is to pretend 
 not to be what a man really is. 
 
TYND ALE'S PORTRAIT OF WOLSEY. 243 
 
 "He promoted the Bishop of Lincoln that now is [Longland], his most 
 faithful friend and old companion, and made him confessor: to whom of 
 whatsoever the King's Grace shrove himself, think ye not that he spake so 
 loud that the cardinal heard it? And not unright; for as God's creatures 
 ought to obey God and serve His honour, so ought the pope's creatures to 
 obey the pope and serve his majesty. 
 
 "Finally, Thomas Wolfsee became what he would, even porter of 
 heaven, so that no man could enter into promotion but through him." 
 
 The whole of Wolsey's administration is criticised with the 
 same unsparing severity; the wars with France and Scotland; 
 the treachery, at one time, against Francis, at another against 
 Charles ; the lavish expenditure of money ; the capricious 
 changes of public policy; all had been directed by the Car- 
 dinal, all were intended to gratify his pleasure and to promote 
 the interests of the pope ; and to obtain these ends the well- 
 being of the nation had been sacrificed. 
 
 Of the truth and justice of this political survey, on the part 
 of Tyndale, we need not again speak ; much of it is admirably 
 true and just; some of it was unfounded — the result of de- 
 fective information, and of want of communication with the 
 promoters of the Reformation movement in England. The 
 most conspicuous instance of this is to be seen in Tyndale's 
 singular opinions on the subject of the royal divorce. In 
 England, those who were in favour of the Reformation were, 
 almost to a man, advocates of the divorce, as a first step 
 towards the curtailment of the monstrous assumptions of the 
 Papal See. To Tyndale, however, the whole proceeding bore 
 quite a different aspect : it was in his eyes simply one of the 
 " old practices of the prelates," a trick which they had devised 
 in order to promote their own ends, and to advance the in- 
 terests of the Church. Nothing could, indeed, more effectually 
 demonstrate Tyndale's perfect honesty and independence, than 
 the maintenance of such an opinion ; we do not need his own 
 assurance to induce us to believe that, in thus writing, he " was 
 discharging his conscience," and performing a duty which 
 every person " baptised in the heart with repentance of evil, 
 and with faith of forgiveness in the blood of Christ," should 
 
 R a 
 
344 TYNDALFfS VIEW' OF HENRY'S DIVORCE. 
 
 with due deliberation undertake. At the same time it would 
 be superfluous to prove that in this view Tyndale was con- 
 siderably mistaken ; and probably the position which he thus 
 assumed may have detracted from the influence of his work. 
 For his theory on the subject of the divorce could not but be 
 unacceptable to the English Reformers ; whilst his opinions 
 on the " practices of prelates " would certainly not commend 
 him to the approbation of his old enemies. His opinions thus 
 tended in some respects to alienate both the great parties in 
 England ; and some years later, when it was obvious to all 
 that the prosecution of Henry's divorce had most materially 
 contributed to the overthrow of the Papal Supremacy, and 
 when the daughter of Anne Boleyn wielded the sceptre of a 
 Protestant nation, it was deemed necessary, in republishing 
 The Practice of Prelates, to omit nearly everything that 
 Tyndale had written on the great question of the royal 
 marriage. 
 
 The work concluded with words of noble, earnest appeal 
 to all classes of Englishmen, from the King to the lowest of 
 his subjects, urging them to repent and to follow that plain rule 
 of life which God had laid down in Holy Scripture. 
 
 " I beseech his Grace," says he, in words almost identical 
 with those which Latimer was at that moment penning in 
 England,^ " to have mercy of his own soul, and not to suff"er 
 Christ and His Holy Testament to be persecuted under his 
 name any longer, that the sword of the wrath of God may. 
 be put up again, which, for that cause no doubt, is most 
 chiefly drawn. 
 
 "And as for them which for lucre, as Judas, betray the 
 truth, and write against their consciences;^ and which, for 
 honour, as Balaam, enforce to curse the people of God ; I 
 would fain, if their hearts were not too hard, that they did 
 
 ' Demaus' Latimer, pp. 99, etc. 
 
 ^ This is directed against Sir Thomas More, and is certainly written on imperfect 
 infonnation. Sir Thomas has much to answer for in his treatment of the English 
 Reformers both in word and deed, but he was quite incapable of writing "for 
 lucre against his conscience." 
 
CONCLUSION OF "THE PRACTICE." 345 
 
 repent. And as fain I would that our prelates did repent, if 
 it were possible for them to prefer God's honour before their 
 own. 
 
 "And unto all subjects I say that they repent. For the 
 cause of evil rulers is the sin of the subjects, [as] testifieth 
 the Scripture. And the cause of false preachers is, that 
 the people have no love unto the truth, [as] saith Paul, in 
 the second chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. 
 
 " And, finally, if the persecution of the King's Grace, and 
 of other temporal persons conspiring with the spiritualty, 
 be of ignorance, I doubt not but that their eyes shall be 
 opened shortly, and they shall see and repent, and God shall 
 show them mercy. But and if it be of a set malice against 
 the truth, and of a grounded hate against the law of God 
 by the reason of a full consent they have to sin, and to walk 
 in their old ways of ignorance, whereunto 'being now past 
 all repentance,' they have utterly yielded themselves, to follow 
 with full lust, without bridle or snaffle, which is the sin 
 against the Holy Ghost; then ye shall see, even shortly, 
 that God shall turn the point of the sword, wherewith they 
 now shed Christ's blood, homeward to shed their own again, 
 after all the examples of the Bible. 
 
 " And let them remember that I, well toward three years 
 agone,-^ to prevent all occasions and all carnal beasts that 
 seek fleshly liberty, sent forth The true Obedience of a 
 Christian Man, which yet they condemned, but after they 
 had condemned the New Testament, as right was, whence 
 
 ' These words of course afford a valuable clue to the chronological arrangement 
 of Tyndale's works ; and had the colophon stated, as is usual in Hans Luft's 
 books, the day of publication, we might have assigned all his early writings to a 
 definite date. Unfortunately, however, in this case we have nothing more precise 
 than the year 1530, and can only conjecture the period of the year to which the 
 book may have belonged. It certainly was not issued earlier than May, or 
 it wonld have been condemned in the Council which then met in London ; 
 and it was as certainly written before Wolsey's final arrest was known on the 
 Continent. Anderson thinks it contains allusions to what was passing in England 
 in August and September; and it seems to me extremely probable that it was 
 written in those months, but not printed till the very end of the year. 
 
246 ''THE PRACTICE'' CONDEMNED. 
 
 The Obedience had his authority. Now then, if when the 
 light is come abroad, in which their wickedness cannot be 
 hid, they find no such obedience in the people unto their 
 old tyranny, whose fault is it ? This is a sure conclusion : 
 none obedience, that is not of love, can long endure ; and 
 in your deeds can no man see any cause of love : and 
 the knowledge of Christ, for whose sake only a man would 
 love you, though ye were never so evil, ye persecute. Now 
 then, if any disobedience rise, are ye not the cause of it 
 yourselves ? 
 
 " Say not but that ye be warned ! " 
 
 With these words of solemn and prophetic warning, to 
 which the almost contemporary death of Wolsey would give 
 terrible emphasis, T3mdale's voice, as the public prophet of 
 his country, was silenced; henceforward he devoted himself 
 more exclusively to those labours as a translator and inter- 
 preter of Scripture to which he had at first consecrated his 
 life, and which, after all that has been justly said in praise 
 of his other writings, constitute his true claim upon the 
 gratitude of his countrymen. 
 
 It was not to be expected that a work so bitter and so 
 able should escape the condemnation with which Tyndale's 
 previous works had been visited. It figures in all the lists 
 of prohibited books ; and Sir Thomas More does not omit 
 to censure it in his Confutation, though with less severity 
 than usual, perhaps, because his criticism had considerable 
 foundation in fact. " Then we have," says he, " The Practice 
 of Prelates, wherein Tyndale had weened to have made a 
 special show of his high worldly wit, and that men should 
 have seen therein that there was nothing done among princes, 
 but that he was fully advertised of all the secrets, and that 
 so far forth, that he knew the privy practice made between 
 the King's Highness and the late Lord Cardinal, and the 
 reverend Father Cuthbert, then Bishop of London and me, 
 that it was devised wilily that the Cardinal should leave the 
 Chancellorship to me, and the Bishopric of Durham to my 
 
SIR THOMAS MORE CENSURES " THE PRACTICE" 247 
 
 said Lord of London for a while, till he list himself to take 
 them both again." ^ 
 
 Tyndale was, as we have admitted, probably misinformed 
 as to the private policy of the King and the Cardinal, but, 
 as Sir Thomas speedily discovered, he was not an enemy to 
 be demolished by a sneer. 
 
 ' Preface to Mora's Confutation. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 The literary duel between Tyndale and Sir Thomas More, a 
 most important occurrence in the life of both these illustrious 
 men, has been reserved for description in a distinct chapter, so 
 as not to interfere with the continuity of the preceding and 
 succeeding narrative. The combat may be said to have been 
 maintained with more or less vigour for some five or six 
 years, and forms by far too prominent an episode in Tyndale's 
 biography to be lightly passed over. 
 
 One of the earliest precautions adopted by the English 
 authorities in order to isolate England from contamination by 
 the Lutheran opinions which were spreading on the Continent, 
 was to prohibit, under severe penalties, any one to import, sell, 
 read, or possess heretical books. As early as 1521 Wolsey 
 had peremptorily commanded all who possessed Lutheran 
 works to give them up ; but the ingenuity of adventurous 
 merchants, and the zeal of devoted colporteurs, contrived 
 without much difficulty to elude the vigilance of the authori- 
 ties. The works of the Continental Reformers were imported 
 into England in great numbers, and were widely circulated in 
 London, in the Universities, and in those districts where the 
 people had imbibed the opinions of the Wickliffites. Occasional 
 discoveries of these books were made by the authorities ; stray 
 volumes were seized and publicly burned ; but the bishops 
 were quite unaware of the enormous dimensions which the 
 circulation of those prohibited books had reached. The dis- 
 closures of the winter of 1537 and the spring of 1538 at length 
 revealed to them something of the extent to which, in spite of 
 
PROSCRIBED BOOKS IN ENGLAND. 349 
 
 their prohibitions, the forbidden works had been introduced 
 into England. Upwards of three hundred and fifty such 
 books had been introduced into Oxford in a single visit by a 
 single agent ; and they were, with very little reserve, offered 
 for sale in the streets of London in hundreds. 
 
 In these circumstances, when it was at last ascertained that 
 Tyndale's New Testament, and the works of Luther, Lambert, 
 Wickliffe, Zwingle, and other Reformers had been for years 
 extensively read, it became evident to the bishops that it was 
 necessary, if possible, to provide some antidote to what they 
 considered the fatal poison, of which so many had already 
 partaken. By greater diligence in the future, or by the 
 strange device of purchasing all dangerous books, they hoped 
 to be able to arrest the progress of heresy in time to come ; 
 but some other expedient must be adopted to undo the 
 mischief that had already been done. Tunstal was prepared 
 with a remedy. He resolved to use in defence of the Church 
 the same weapon that had been so successfully employed 
 against her. The press had circulated the poison, he deter- 
 mined that the antidote should likewise be circulated by the 
 press. 
 
 For this task of defending the Church with his pen against 
 all assaults, one man. Sir Thomas More, was pre-eminently 
 qualified, both by his incomparable genius and by his devoted 
 adherence to the Church. It could not be objected to him 
 that he was an ignorant bigot, and a foe to all polite learning, 
 for he was one of the most distinguished scholars in Europe ; 
 it could not even be alleged that he was unable to enter into 
 the feelings of the Reformers, and that his eyes were blinded 
 by unreasoning prejudice, for he had been the bosom friend of 
 Erasmus and Colet, and must therefore have been a.ble to 
 sympathise to some extent with the opinions which these 
 great men had been amongst the first to propagate. Possessed 
 of very considerable learning and inexhaustible ingenuity; 
 naturally mild and placable ; honest and sincere in his own 
 beliefs, and hitherto an advocate for freedom and toleration ; 
 
25° CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 of personal character above all suspicion ; and, finally, beyond 
 all question, superior to all living Englishmen in every species 
 of literary accomplishment ; Sir Thomas More was of all men 
 the best fitted to be the champion of the Church ; the man 
 most likely to present her cause in the most favourable light, 
 and to produce the most plausible arguments against all her 
 assailants. If Sir Thomas More could not defend the Church, 
 her cause was hopeless. 
 
 Tunstal accordingly addressed himself to More, and entreated 
 him to come to the help of the Church against her enemies. 
 On the 7th of March, 1528,^ he wrote to Sir Thomas, lamenting 
 that " many children of iniquity had been found who endea- 
 voured to introduce into England both the old and damnable 
 heresy of Wickliffe, and also that of Luther by translating cor- 
 rupt books into the Vernacular language, and printing them 
 in great numbers ; whereby it was greatly to be feared lest the 
 Catholic faith should be endangered, unless good and learned 
 men zealously opposed this malice by setting out in the 
 common language books that should impugn these wicked 
 doctrines. And forasmuch," he continues with elegant flattery, 
 " as you can play the Demosthenes both in our native tongue 
 and in Latin^ and are wont to be a most zealous defender of 
 Catholic truth in every assault, you will never be able to make 
 a better use of any spare hours that you can redeem from 
 your occupation, than by publishing in our native tongue 
 something that will expose even to rude and simple people the 
 crafty malice of the heretics, and make them better prepared 
 against those impious enemies of the Church." The example 
 of Henry, who had descended into the arena of literary conflict 
 to defend the Seven Sacraments against Luther, was naturally 
 cited to stimulate More to the task ; and the invitation was 
 accompanied by a formal licence to read the heretical books 
 which were supposed to be so seriously threatening the 
 
 ' 1527, says Tunstal's Register; but as it is added, "in the sixth year of our 
 consecration," 1528 is meant; for Tunstal was consecrated October 19, 1522; 
 Stnbbs' Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum. 
 
MORE'S "DIALOGUE." %^i 
 
 Catholic faith, and of which copies were forwarded to the 
 champion of orthodoxy for his perusal ; for, adds Tunstal, " it 
 is of great avail towards victory to know the counsels of the 
 enemy, and to understand perfectly what they think and 
 whither they tend." ^ 
 
 Thus invited and encouraged by a prelate for whom he 
 entertained the highest respect, and stimulated by the 
 example of his sovereign, Sir Thomas More entered the lists 
 as the Goliath of the falling Church. Tunstal's letter had not 
 specified Tyndale by name as one of the "sons of iniquity" 
 who were seducing the people from the faith ; but More, in 
 the course of his study of the volumes sent to him, speedily 
 discovered that the translator of the New Testament was the 
 most formidable of the antagonists whom he had to encounter; 
 and the perusal of The Wicked Mammon and The Obedience, 
 which reached England while he was engaged on his work, 
 would wonderfully deepen this conviction. In little more 
 than a year from the date of Tunstal's letter, Sir Thomas was 
 ready with a considerable volume, occupying upwards of a 
 hundred and eighty closely-printed folio pages in his collected 
 works, entitled, "A dialogue of Sir Thomas More, Knight, 
 one of the Council of our Sovereign Lord the King and 
 Chancellor of his Duchy of Lancaster, wherein be treated 
 divers matters, as of the veneration and worship of images and 
 relics, praying to saints and going on pilgrimage ; with many 
 other things touching the pestilent sect of Luther and Tyndale, 
 by the tone [one] begun in Saxony, and by the tother [other] 
 laboured to be brought into England." ^ 
 
 Of this Dialogue, one of Tyndale's biographers has 
 ventured to assert that " the English language had never been 
 so prostituted before Sir Thomas More took up his pen. . . . 
 No solitary selected expressions can convey an adequate idea 
 of the virulence, not to say the verbosity, and fallacious 
 
 * Willcins' Concilia, Vol. in. p. 711, from Tunstal's Register. 
 ^ First Edition, June, 1529; Second, May, 1530, says Ames; Sir Thomas 
 More's Works, edition of 1557, pp. ,104-288. 
 
25a CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 reasoning of this writer. It certainly would exhaust the 
 patience of most readers, in the present day, to wade through 
 his folio Dialogue!'^ But this is a grossly unfair misrepre- 
 sentation of Sir Thomas's contribution to the defence of that 
 Church for which he died a martyr. Virulence and ver- 
 bosity may indeed, with perfect justice, be alleged against 
 M ore's subsequent Confutation of Tyndale's reply to his 
 Dialogue, his Debellation of Salem and Byzance, and other 
 works known only to the intrepid reading of two or three 
 unwearied scholars ; but the Dialogue itself, though in- 
 dulging occasionally in somewhat sharp abuse of Tyndale 
 and the other Reformers, contains very little to justify such 
 an epithet as virulent. There can be no battle without blows, 
 no controversy without sharp words ; and as we have hither- 
 to protested against any condemnation of Tyndale because 
 he employed strong and bitter language in assaihng what 
 seemed to him intolerable abuses in the religion of Christ, 
 so on the same grounds we protest against the condemna- 
 tion of More for employing equally strong language in 
 repelling attacks upon what seemed to him most holy and 
 sacred. 
 
 Nor could any epithet be less suitable to the Dialogue 
 than tedious. It is anything but tedious ; indeed, after many 
 years' study of our older literature, we still doubt if any work 
 of equal size had appeared in the English language since the 
 days of Chaucer which could be less appropriately styled 
 tedious. The reader whose patience is unequal to the perusal 
 of More's folio Dialogue may conclude with certainty that 
 he is totally destitute of any true literary taste. The Dia- 
 logue is written with consummate skill; and is probably as 
 able and ingenious a defence as is anywhere to be met with, 
 of those doctrines and practices of the Church of Rome, which 
 Protestants have generally attacked as amongst the most 
 fertile sources of corruption in religion. Tunstal had made a 
 wise selection of a champion : there was no subtler wit in 
 ' Anderson's Annals, Vol. i. p. 237. 
 
STRUCTURE OF " THE DIALOGUE." 253 
 
 England, no more facile pen, no better or more devoted son 
 of the Church ; and if Sir Thomas More could not defend the 
 veneration of images and relics and going on pilgrimage, 
 nothing but the rack and the stake could defend them. 
 
 The Dialogue professes to be a discussion between More 
 and a messenger, whom some friend had sent to Chelsea, to 
 consult him about the great religious events of the day, the 
 trial and abjuration of Bilney, and the public burning of 
 Tyndale's New Testament, after its formal condemnation by 
 Tunstal. This friend, the quod he as Tyndale ironically calls 
 him, is represented as leavened with a considerable partiality 
 for the doctrines of the Reformers (an admission probably 
 that this had come to be a common state of opinion among 
 the educated classes); and he accordingly speaks to some 
 extent as the apologist of the Reformers, repeats some of 
 their objections to the ordinary teaching of the Church and 
 the common religious observances of the day, and in fact 
 exhibits a considerable amount of controversial fence, only, 
 of course, to be disarmed and vanquished when the proper 
 moment arrives for More to appear on the scene in all the 
 glory of victory. 
 
 The structure of the book, it will thus be perceived, was 
 eminently fitted to promote the purpose which it was intended 
 to serve. It afforded More the opportunity of replying in the 
 most inipressive way to the customary arguments directed 
 against the Church; it had the interest which a personal 
 narrative possesses over a didactic treatise ; it had the appear- 
 ance of great candour and impartiality; whilst at the same 
 time it left it perfectly free for Sir Thomas to evade any 
 discussions that might seem inconvenient or injurious to his 
 cause. Into many topics, accordingly, which were prominent 
 among the complaints of the Reformers, he declines to enter. 
 The ignorance and immorality of the clergy, for example, 
 were open and notorious, and could neither be denied nor 
 defended. Sir Thomas More, however, declines to enter into 
 any full discussion of such topics ; many of the clergy, he 
 
354 CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 admits, were " very lewd and naught," but indeed, he adds, 
 " we are all bad, clergy and laity alike ; may God make us 
 better ! " and with this confession he omits as impertinent any 
 further treatment of an unpleasant subject, which more, 
 perhaps, than any other had contributed to make the Reform- 
 ation necessary; for the vices of the clergy were patent to all, 
 and all had suffered by them. 
 
 All the ordinary arguments of the Romish controversialist 
 are introduced and handled with great skill and force; the 
 abstract metaphysical defences which have so often proved 
 so serviceable to the Church of Rome are nowhere exhibited 
 with more clearness and cogency; whilst the discussion is 
 kept from being tedious by an interesting framework of 
 pleasant gossip often containing charming autobiographical 
 glimpses, by a varied narrative, by frequent anecdotes and 
 stories (not always so decorous as they should be),^ and by 
 personal sallies against the English Reformers, who had 
 hitherto displayed a most unworthy timidity in the hour of 
 danger.^ On the whole, TAe Dialogue produces on the 
 mind of a reader who honestly attempts to study it without 
 prejudice, the impression that it is the work of one who was a 
 master of every device of literary skill, and who anticipated 
 an easy victory over antagonists who were looked upon as a 
 mere illiterate rabble ; and, moreover, that it was certain to 
 inflict material damage on the cause of the Reformation, 
 unless it were speedily and effectually answered. 
 
 The Dialogue was published in June, 1529, and some time, 
 probably, would elapse before Tyndale could procure a copy; 
 but doubtless, long before the close of the year, whether 
 at Antwerp or at Hamburg, he had become possessed of that 
 book which in the eyes of the English bishops had completely 
 demolished all his former writings, and he had studied it with 
 
 ' Tyndale very properly censures the indecency of the legend of St. Valeri, as 
 related by Sir Thomas. 
 
 ^ Up to this time the history of the Refonnation in England had been a history 
 of bold words followed by timid and scandalous recantations ; witness Barnes, 
 Bilney, Arthur, Garret, and many others. 
 
TYNDALE'S "ANSWER" TO "THE DIALOGUE." 355 
 
 the attention which it deserved. Tyndale had not sought a 
 controversy with this champion of the Church ; but Sir 
 Thomas More's book left him no alternative. He had been 
 singled out by name on the very title-page of The Dialogue 
 and had been virtually challenged to the combat ; and he had 
 no choice except to take up the gauntlet thus thrown down, 
 or to acknowledge by his silence that he was unable to defend 
 the position which the Reformers in England had assumed. 
 The cause of the Reformation in England had already been 
 seriously compromised by the timidity of many of its leaders, 
 who had retracted and abjured when threatened with punish- 
 ment ; and irreparable injury would be inflicted upon it if 
 Sir Thomas More's work were to be left unanswered, to be 
 paraded, of course, as unanswerable. 
 
 From the moment, therefore, when he received the work, 
 Tyndale must have formed the resolution to reply to it. 
 The Practice of Prelates may indeed be considered as in 
 part an answer to The Dialogue; it treats of many of the 
 subjects which More had discussed, and it contains several 
 extremely severe reflections upon More's conduct in hiring 
 out his pen to defend the Church, as Balaam had let out 
 his prophetical skill for hire, in defiance of God and his 
 conscience. This, however, would not suffice to meet the 
 emergencies of the time ; a specific reply to Sir Thomas 
 More's book was imperatively required, and the preparation 
 of it must have been Tyndale's chief occupation during the 
 year 1530 ; and when in the close of that year or the com- 
 mencement of the next he finally left Marburg for Antwerp, 
 he had already completed his defence;^ although, out of 
 courtesy to his sovereign, who had been greatly offended by 
 the plain speaking of The Practice of Prelates, its publi- 
 cation was for a short time delayed. Some time, however, 
 in the spring or early summer of 1531 his Answer was 
 committed to the press, and was issued, according to Joye,^ 
 
 ' See Vaughan's letters in next chapter. 
 ^ Joye's Afology. 
 
35<5 CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 by some printer in Amsterdam under the superintendence of 
 Fryth. 
 
 Tyndale's Answer consists of two, parts ; "First," to 
 use his own words, "he declareth what the Church is, and 
 giveth a reason of certain words which Master More rebuketh 
 in the translation of the New Testament ; after that he 
 answereth particularly unto every chapter which seemeth to 
 have any appearance of truth throughout all his four books." 
 As a literary production, Tyndale's Answer is unquestion- 
 ably inferior to the work of his more skilful and more prac- 
 tised antagonist. It lacks the structural skill, the variety, the 
 artistic grace, which make Sir Thomas's book pleasant even 
 to the mere literary reader who has no interest in the theo- 
 logical controversy. 
 
 The argumentative value of the book, however, is vastly 
 superior to its literary merit. Tyndale grapples in a plain, 
 straightforward manner with the real essence of the contro- 
 versy between the Church and the Reformers. With clear, 
 hard-headed common sense he sets aside More's abstract 
 metaphysical subtleties, and goes straight to the practical 
 questions at issue. Sir Thomas, for example, had demon- 
 strated with wonderful subtlety that the Church cannot err, 
 that all that she ordains must be right and profitable, that 
 it was sinful presumption in any individual, most especially 
 in a layman, to presume to judge what so many popes and 
 holy men had praised and practised. Tyndale with a single 
 stroke cuts all the intricacies of this Gordian knot : he appeals 
 to every man, in the use of that judgment which God had 
 given him, to decide whether fact and experience confirmed 
 what theory and assumption boasted of demonstrating. More 
 demanded submission and obedience, Tyndale asserted free- 
 dom and the right of judgment. "The Holy Ghost," says 
 he, "rebuketh the world for lack of judgment; the spiritual 
 judgeth all things, even the very bottom of God's secrets, how 
 much more ought we to judge our holy father's secrets! 
 judge, therefore, reader, whether the pope with his, be the 
 
TYND ALE'S WRITINGS CONDEMNED. 357 
 
 Church, whether their authority be above the Scripture, 
 whether all they teach without Scripture be equal with the 
 Scripture; whether they have erred, and not only whether 
 they can" Sir Thomas's arguments, thus brought to the 
 test of experience, fare very badly in Tyndale's hands ; what 
 looked beautiful in theory had been depraved and corrupted 
 by endless abuses in practice; that defence which seemed 
 so strong when it set forth what might be, was completely 
 overthrown when it was confronted with what was and had 
 been. 
 
 In expounding his own opinions in the first part of the 
 book, Tyndale is clear and copious ; in his detailed criticism 
 of The Dialogue he is brief and almost contemptuous. 
 Throughout his Answer, indeed, he writes in a tone of 
 extreme personal bitterness towards More, excited apparently 
 by two reasons which it is fair that the reader in judging 
 the work should bear in mind. In May, 1530, there had been 
 assembled in London " certain of the chief prelates and chief 
 learned men of the Universities," and by them, after long 
 deliberation and discussion, it had been solemnly determined, 
 in the presence of Henry, not only that Tyndale's works 
 were full of heresies and errors, but especially that his trans- 
 lation of Scripture was " corrupted as well in the Old Testa- 
 ment as in the New ; " and he was accordingly held up to 
 public execration all over the kingdom.^ Sir Thomas More 
 was one of the chief members of this assembly; and Tyndale, 
 whether on good or bad information, believed that his sinister 
 wit and eloquence had been mainly instrumental in procuring 
 the public condemnation of his books, and the official asser- 
 tion by the sovereign that " it was not necessary for Christian 
 men to have the New Testament in their native language." 
 He expressly states that in the assembly "More was the 
 special orator of the bishops to feign lies for their purpose." ^ 
 This suspicion, which probably rested on a basis of fact, was 
 
 ■ Warham's Proclamation, and Preacher^ Bill: Wilkins, Vol. III. p. 728. 
 ' Tyndale's Answer to More, p. 168. 
 
 S 
 
358 CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 quite sufficient to have infused some bitterness into Tyndale's 
 reply ; how else but bitterly could he speak of the man whom 
 he considered the great enemy to the free circulation of the 
 Word of God in the English tongue ? 
 
 But worse, far, than this, Tyndale had been informed that 
 Sir Thomas was bribed by the bishops with promises of 
 money, and prospects of advancement, to appear as the de- 
 fender of doctrines and practices which, in his own conscience, 
 he disbelieved and condemned. To this Tyndale not un- 
 naturally makes perpetual allusion throughout his Answer. 
 A single specimen will indicate to the reader what he thought 
 of the motives of his antagonist : — " I exhort him in Christ," 
 he says, "to take heed, for though Judas were wilier than 
 his fellows to get lucre, yet he proved not most wise at the 
 last end ; neither though Balaam the false prophet had a 
 clear sight to bring the curse of God upon the children of 
 Israel for honour's sake, yet his covetousness did so blind 
 his prophecy that he could not see his own end."^ In this 
 suspicion we know that Tyndale had been misled by mere 
 baseless gossip ; More, whatever his faults were, was quite 
 incapable of the baseness here imputed to him ; but the 
 reader who remembers that Tyndale, on what seemed suf- 
 ficient grounds, looked upon his antagonist as actuated by 
 the vilest of motives, as little better than the traitor apostle 
 or the prostitute prophet, will cease to be surprised at the 
 tone of bitter contempt which pervades the Answer, and 
 will allow that it was not more bitter than appearances 
 warranted. 
 
 More's chief resentment was directed against Tyndale's 
 New Testament; he declares that it was "corrupted and 
 changed from the good and wholesome doctrine of Christ 
 to devilish heresies of his own," it was "clean contrary to 
 the Gospel of Christ;" "above a thousand texts in it were 
 wrong and falsely translated;" it was incurably bad, and 
 
 ' Tyndale's Answer to More, p. 15. 
 
MORE'S CRITICISM OF TYNDALE'S TESTAMENT. 359 
 
 could only be amended by translating it ail afresh, for, as 
 he wittily remarked, "it is as easy to weave a new web of 
 cloth as to sow up every hole in a net."^ When pressed 
 by quod he to give a more specific answer, Sir Thomas ad- 
 duces as unpardonable heresies the substitution of congrega- 
 tion for church, seniors for priests, love for charity, favour 
 iox grace, knowledge for confession, repentance for penance, 
 troubled for contrite ; in fact, he alleged that Tyndale had, 
 in general, neglected the use of those words which long 
 custom had sanctioned as being appropriately ecclesiastical, 
 and had adopted others which had no peculiar association 
 with theology. 
 
 To this charge Tyndale's answer was easy and obvious ; 
 not only was his rendering in accordance with the strict 
 signification of the original, but the terms which he had 
 avoided were depraved by so many abuses that their use 
 could only mislead the unwary reader. The Church had come 
 to be synonymous with the clergy, " the multitude of shaven, 
 shorn, and oiled;" the priests had almost been confounded 
 with the old heathen priests, their real origin and their real 
 purpose having almost dropped out of sight ; charity had 
 ceased to be the name of an inward. Divine grace, and 
 denoted only certain outward ostentatious deeds sanctioned 
 by the ecclesiastics ; confession, penance, grace, contrition were 
 " the great juggling words wherewith, as St. Peter prophesied, 
 the clergy made merchandise of the people." In such cir- 
 cumstances, to continue to employ terms which could only 
 convey erroneous ideas to the mind of the ignorant reader, 
 would be to perpetuate error, and to throw the sanction of 
 Scripture over abuses which had sprung up in defiance or 
 ignorance of Scripture. All such technical language, there- 
 fore, Tyndale avoided, and employed instead plain words 
 which had not yet been introduced into the nomenclature of 
 the Church, and were free from any misleading ecclesiastical 
 
 ' Dialogue, B. III. c. viii, 
 
 s a 
 
2,6o CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 associations.^ The subsequent revisions of the English Bible 
 have not in all cases followed Tyndale's views ; but circum- 
 stances have altered since his time, and there is no longer 
 any serious apprehension of countenancing error or super- 
 stition by the use of terms which have been so long isolated 
 from their former associations. And yet it may be doubted 
 whether even amongst ourselves the popular conception of 
 the noblest of Christian graces has not been materially lowered 
 and injured by styling it charity, as Sir Thomas More recom- 
 mended, and not love, as our translator originally rendered it. 
 On the other great themes of the Dialogue, the worship 
 of images and relics, going on pilgrimage, and religious cere- 
 monies in general, Tyndale's answer is plain, clear, and con- 
 vincing. All ceremonies, he admits, had, doubtless, been 
 instituted for some laudable purpose ; they had once had a 
 meaning, and so long as that meaning continued to be known 
 they might have been used, if not profitably, at least in- 
 nocuously. It had been so under the Old Testament ; the 
 ceremonies of the law of Moses were " signs preaching unto 
 the people one thing or another ; " and so long as the people 
 observed and understood them as such, they were of service 
 to the Jews. But in process of time the meaning of the 
 ceremonies was lost, whilst the ceremonies continued, and 
 came to be valued for their own sakes, and to be substitutes 
 for those real virtues in heart and life of which they were 
 merely the symbols and sacraments. So, also, had it been 
 in the Christian Church. Signs, sacraments, ceremonies, "three 
 words of one signification," had been borrowed from the Jews 
 or invented by the zeal of pious worshippers. 
 
 " At the beginning there were significations unto them. And so long 
 as it was understood what was meant by them, and they did but serve 
 the people, and preach one thing or another unto them, they hurted not 
 greatly : though that the free servant of Christ ought not to be brought 
 violently into captivity under the bondage of traditions of men ; as 
 
 ' Sir Thomas More justly objected to seniors, that it only called up incongruous 
 French associations; Tyndale admits this objection, and had already, he says, 
 substituted for it the genuine English elders. 
 
THE USE AND ABUSE OF CEREMONIES. 261 
 
 St. Augustine complaineth in his days, how that the condition and state 
 of the Jews was more easy than the Christians under traditions ; so sore 
 had the tyranny of the shepherds invaded the flock already in those 
 days. And then what just cause have we to complain of our captivity 
 now ; unto whose yoke from that time hitherto, even twelve hundred 
 years long, hath ever somewhat more weight been added to, for to keep 
 us down and to confirm us in blindness : howbeit, as long as the signifi- 
 cations bode [remained], they hurted not the soul, though they were 
 painful unto the body. Nevertheless, I impute this our grievous fall into 
 so extreme and horrible blindness (wherein we are so deep and so deadly 
 brought asleep) unto nothing so much as unto the multitude of cere- 
 monies. For as soon as the prelates had set up such a rabble of cere- 
 monies, they thought it superfluous to preach the plain text any longer, 
 -and the law of God, faith of Christ, love toward our neighbour, and the 
 order of our justifying and salvation (forasmuch as all such things were 
 played before the people's faces daily in the ceremonies, and every child 
 wist the meaning) ; but got them unto allegories, feigning them every 
 man after his own brain, without rule, almost on every syllable ; and 
 ■from thence unto disputing, and wasting their brains about words, not 
 attending [i.e., heeding] the significations ; until at the last the lay-people 
 had lost the meaning of the ceremonies, and the prelates the under- 
 standing of the plain text, and of the Greek, and Latin, and specially of 
 the Hebrew, which is most of need to be known, and of all phrases, the 
 proper manner of speakings, and borrowed speech of the Hebrews. 
 
 "And as soon as the signification of the ceremonies was lost, and 
 the priests preached Christ no longer, then the common people began 
 to wax mad and out of their minds upon the ceremonies. And that 
 trust and confidence, which the ceremonies preached to be given unto 
 God's Word and Christ's blood, that same they turned unto the ceremony 
 itself; as though a man were so mad to forget that the bush at the 
 •tavern-door did signify wine to be sold within, but would believe that 
 the bush itself would quench his thirst. And so they became servants 
 unto the ceremonies : ascribing their justifying and salvation unto them, 
 supposing that it was nothing else to be a Christian man than to serve 
 ceremonies, and him most Christian that most served them ; and con- 
 trariwise, him that was not popish and ceremonial, no Christian man at 
 all. For I pray you, for what cause worship we our spiritualty so highly, 
 or wherefore think we their prayers better than the poor layman's, than 
 for their disguisings and ceremonies ? Yea, and what other virtue see 
 we in the holiest of them, than to wait upon dumb superstitious cere- 
 monies ? 
 
 " Yea, and how cometh it that a poor layman, having wife and twenty 
 children, and not able to find [maintain] them, though all his neighbours 
 know his necessity, shall not get with begging for Christ's sake, in a long 
 summer's day, enough to find them two days honestly, when if a dis- 
 ^ised monster come, he shall, with an hour's lying in the pulpit, get 
 
.362 CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 enough to find thirty or forty sturdy lubbers a month long, of which 
 the weakest shall be as strong in the belly, when he cometh unto the 
 manger, as the mightiest porter in the weigh-house [custom-house], or 
 best courser that is in the king's stable? Is there any other cause 
 than disguising and ceremonies ? For the deeds of the ceremonies we 
 count better than the deeds which God commandeth to be done to our 
 neighbour at his need. Who thinketh it as good a deed to feed the 
 poor, as to stick up a candle before a post, or as to sprinkle himself 
 with holy water ? Neither is it possible to be otherwise, as long as the 
 signification is lost. For what other thing can the people think, than 
 that such deeds be ordained of God ; and because, as it is evident, they 
 serve not our neighbour's need, to be referred unto the person of God, 
 and He, though He be a Spirit, yet served therewith ? And then he 
 cannot but forth on [thenceforth] dispute, in his blind reason, that as 
 God is greater than man, so is that deed that is appointed to serve God 
 greater than that which serveth man. And then, when it is not possible 
 to think them ordained for nought, what can I otherwise think than that 
 they were ordained to justify ; and that I should be holy thereby, accord- 
 ing to the pope's doctrine ; as though God were better pleased, when 
 I sprinkled myself with water, or set up a candle before a block, than 
 if I fed or clothed, or holp at his need, him whom He so tenderly loveth 
 that He gave His own Son unto the death for him, and commanded 
 me to love him as myself ? 
 
 " And when the people began to run that way, the prelates were glad, 
 and holp to heave after with subtle allegories and falsifying the Scripture ; 
 and went and hallowed the ceremonies, to make them more worshipful, 
 that the lay people should have them in greater estimation and honour, 
 and to be afraid to touch them, for reverence unto the holy charm that was 
 said over them; and affirmed also that Christ's death had purchased such 
 grace unto the ceremonies to forgive sin and to justify. O monster! 
 Christ's death purchased grace for man's soul, to repent of evil, and to 
 believe in Christ for remission of sin, and to love the law of God, and his 
 neighbour as himself; which is the true worshipping of God in the spirit ; 
 and He died not to purchase such honour unto unsensible things, that 
 man to his dishonour should do them honourable service, and receive his 
 salvation of them. 
 
 " This I have declared unto you that ye might see and feel everything 
 sensibly. For I intend not to lead you in darkness. Neither though twice 
 two cranes make not four wild geese \ would I, therefore, that ye should 
 believe that twice two made not four. Neither intend I to prove unto you, 
 that Paul's steeple is the cause why Thames is broke in about Erith, or 
 that Tenterden steeple is the cause of the decay of Sandwich haven, as 
 Master More jesteth. Nevertheless, this I would were persuaded unto you 
 (as it is true), that the building of them and such like, through the false 
 
 1 One of Sir Thomas's jokes in his Dialogue. 
 
TYNDALE'S RETORTS. 263 
 
 faith that we have in them, is the decay of all the havens in England, and 
 of all the cities, towns, highways, and shortly of the whole commonwealth. 
 For since these false monsters crope up into our consciences, and robbed 
 us of the knowledge of our Saviour Christ, making us believe in such 
 pope-holy works, and to think that there was none other way unto heaven, 
 we have not ceased to build them abbeys, cloisters, colleges, chauntries, 
 and cathedral churches with high steeples, striving and envying one 
 another who should do most. And as for the deeds that pertain unto our 
 neighbours and unto the commonwealth, we have not regarded at all, as 
 things which seemed no holy works, or such as God would not once look 
 upon. And, therefore, we left them unseen to, until they were past remedy, 
 or past our power to remedy them ; inasmuch as our slow bellies, with their 
 false blessings, had juggled away from us that wherewith they might have 
 been holpen in due season. So that the silly poor man (though he had 
 haply no wisdom to express his mind, or that he durst not, or that Master 
 More fashioneth his tale as he doth other men's, to jest out the truth), 
 saw that neither Goodwin Sands, nor any other cause alleged, was the 
 decay of Sandwich haven, so much as that the people had no lust to 
 maintain the commonwealth, for blind devotion which they have to pope- 
 holy works. 
 
 This specimen of Tyndale's Answer will, far better than any- 
 lengthened description, enable the reader to judge of the style 
 and execution of the work, the clearness and occasional 
 bitterness of its language, the force and practical character of 
 its reasonings. Tyndale does not, like More, make any 
 systematic attempt at employing wit as an auxiliary to his 
 argument ; but he had a shrewd humour of his own, and when 
 he does condescend to play at satire, his retorts are occasionally 
 very happy. Thus, in criticising Sir Thomas's elaborate 
 distinctions concerning the amount of reverence implied in 
 doulia, hyperdoulia, and latria, he asks with exquisite irony, to 
 which of these varieties of reverence should be referred " the 
 worship done by More and others to my lord the cardinal's 
 hat ; " alluding, of course, to the ridiculous scene which he has 
 described in his Practice of Prelates. He shows considerable 
 wit also in the manner in which he twits More, a man who 
 "was bigamus and past the grace of his neck-verse," with 
 coming forward in the strange character of the champion of 
 the celibacy of the clergy. 
 
 There is nothing finer in More's Dialogue than the 
 
264 CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 ironical comments of Tyndale upon Sir Thomas's fundamental 
 proposition, that the Church could not err in its judgments; 
 "whatsoever, therefore, the Church, that is to wit, the pope 
 and his brood say, it is God's Word ; though it be not written, 
 nor confirmed with miracle, nor yet good living ; yea, and 
 though they say to-day this, and to-morrow the contrary, all is 
 good enough and God's Word; yea, and though one pope 
 condemn another, nine or ten popes a-row with all their works 
 for heretics, as it is to see in the stories, yet all is right and 
 none error. And thus good night and good rest ! Christ is 
 brought asleep, and laid in His grave, and the door sealed to, 
 and the men of arms about the grave to keep Him down with 
 pole-axes. For that is the surest argument to help at need, 
 and to be rid of these babbling heretics, that so bark at the holy 
 spiritualty with Scripture, being thereto [besides] wretches of 
 no reputation, neither cardinals nor bishops, nor yet great 
 beneficed men ; yea, and without totquots and pluralities, 
 having no hold but the very Scripture, whereunto they cleave 
 as burs, so fast that they cannot be pulled away, save with 
 very singeing of them off! " ^ 
 
 His answer to Sir Thomas's violent peroration is equally 
 cogent in its argument and its sarcasm. " Look on Tyndale," 
 said More, " how in his wicked book of Mammonis, and after 
 in his malicious book of Obedience, he showed himself so 
 puffed up with the poison of pride, malice, and envy that it is 
 more than marvel that the skin can hold together. . . . He 
 barketh against the Sacraments much more than Luther. . . . 
 He knoweth that all the fathers teach that there is the fire 
 of purgatory, which I marvel why he feareth so little, but if he 
 be at a plain point with himself to go straight to hell." ^ 
 To this, the most bitter passage in the Dialogue, Tyndale 
 replies with calm sarcasm : '' He intendeth to purge here unto 
 the uttermost of his power ; and hopeth that death will end 
 and finish his purgation. And if there be any other purging, 
 
 ' Tyndale's Answer to More, p. 102. 
 
 ^ More's Dialogue, p. 283 ; edition of 1557. 
 
MORE'S "CONFUTATION" 2,65 
 
 he will commit it to God, and take it as he findeth it, when 
 he Cometh at it; and in the meantime take no thought 
 therefore, but for this that is present, wherewith all saints 
 were purged, and were taught so to be. And Tyndale mar- 
 velleth what secret pills they take to purge themselves, which 
 not only will not purge here with the cross of Christ, but also 
 buy out their purgatory there of the pope, for a groat or a 
 sixpence." ^ 
 
 If More's Dialogtte left Tyndale no choice but to attempt a' 
 reply or acknowledge himself vanquished, Tyndale's A^iswer 
 placed More precisely in the same predicament. Tyndale had 
 shown himself not unworthy to enter the arena with the great- 
 est genius in England ; he had defended with unquestionable 
 ability the opinions of the Reformers ; he had re-stated with 
 the most cogent clearness the objections which More had 
 evaded in his Dialogue; he had roughly and effectually 
 silenced many of the arguments of his antagonist ; and, beyond 
 a doubt, he remained in several points of importance master of 
 the field. Such an enemy could not be disregarded. What 
 stronger proof, indeed, could be given of the ability of Tyndale's 
 work than the fact that Sir Thomas More, now Lord Chan- 
 cellor of England, and involved in the endless occupations 
 of the chief legal adviser of the crown at a most momentous 
 crisis in English history, felt constrained to prolong the con- 
 troversy } 
 
 Tyndale's Answer had not been printed till about mid- 
 summer of 153 1 ; but before the month of May of the next 
 year,^ Sir Thomas had published the first part of an elaborate 
 Confutation, which he continued after his resignation of his 
 office, till it swelled into five hundred folio pages. In truth, 
 the refutation of Tyndale may be said to have been More's 
 chief employment down to the day of his death. It forms 
 one of the main themes of his Apology, written after he had 
 
 ' Tyndale's Answer to More, p. 214. 
 
 ' The date is ascertained by the express allusion on the title-page to his being 
 still Lord Chancellor, and he resigned that office in May, 1532. 
 
266 CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 resigned his office; he recurs to the subject again in his 
 treatise entitled the Debellation of Salem and Byzance ;'^ 
 and once more he pursues it through an "Answer to the 
 Poisoned Book, which a nameless heretic [Tyndale] hath 
 named the Supper of the Lord." Altogether the controversy 
 with Tyndale, directly or indirectly, occupies upwards of a 
 thousand folio pages in the collected edition of the great Lord 
 Chancellor's writings. 
 
 This statement alone is almost tantamount to the asser- 
 tion that Sir Thomas had the worst of the controversy; and 
 probably no one who has read the whole of More's writings 
 on the subject will venture to dispute this assumption. Brevity 
 is the soul of wit, it is the essence of retort ; and a Confuta- 
 tion, ten times the size of the book which it was intended to 
 demolish, was, ipso facto, a failure. Such, as More himself 
 confesses, was the general verdict of contemporary readers. 
 He had commenced his Confutation with the intention of 
 elaborately answering Tyndale sentence by sentence, and 
 almost word by word ; or as he himself somewhat vain- 
 gloriously expresses it, he trusted "to draw the serpent out 
 of his dark den, as Hercules drew Cerberus from hell into 
 the light," and to expose Tyndale so that he should " have 
 never a dark corner to creep into, able to hide his head 
 in." But when he came to pen his Apology, in 15335 
 he had to confess that men charged his Confutation with 
 being " over long and therefore tedious to read ; " and, more- 
 over, that the learned denied the force of his reasonings, and 
 condemned his uncourteous treatment of Tyndale, and his 
 
 ' More's Apology was in reality an answer to a clever treatise, entitled The 
 Pacifier : and the Debellation was a reply to the rejoinder which the author of the 
 Pacifier had issued under the title of Salem and Byzance. The author of the 
 Pacifier was a lawyer, Christopher Saintgennan by name, whose writings were 
 distinguished, as More admits, by their mild and charitable spirit. His Dialogues 
 on the Laws of England, and the Grounds of those Laws, exhibit an ability beyond 
 his age, and have continued to enjoy a certain reputation down to our own day. 
 His mother, it is noteworthy, was Anne Tyndale, of Hockwold, in Norfolkshire, 
 the aunt of Edward Tyndale, of Pull Court, according to the theory of the 
 genealogists, and, if so, aunt also of the Reformer. 
 
THE "CONFUTATION" A FAILURE. 267 
 
 unworthy attempts to conceal the faults and vices of the 
 clergy.^ 
 
 The biographer of Tyndale will therefore be excused if, after 
 carefully perusing the whole controversy, he endorses this 
 decision of Sir Thomas More's contemporaries. Such a man 
 as More could not, of course, be silenced ; nay, it was im- 
 possible that he should write so much without saying much 
 that was characterised by ingenuity and good sense. He 
 defended his own cause by subtle arguments ; he exposed some 
 minor flaws in Tyndale's translation, and some untenable 
 positions in his reasonings, for Tyndale entertained some 
 singular opinions ; but on the whole, the Confutation was a 
 failure. The spirit of the age was with Tyndale and the 
 Reformers, and Sir Thomas's voluminous Confutation was 
 powerless against the great movement of the time. 
 
 Time eventually confuted the Confutation; when it was 
 begun, the supremacy of the Church was still recognised 
 in England ; before it was finished, the power had passed into 
 the hands of the sovereign, and the approaching downfall of 
 the papal authority cast its shadows before, in such ominous 
 transactions as the divorce of Catherine and the marriage of 
 Anne, in defiance of the pope's express prohibitions. 
 
 The Dialogue had been eminently readable, but the 
 Confutation and subsequent polemical works are tedious. 
 The Dialogue, though occasionally bitter, did not, on the 
 whole, transgress those limits which in a controversy of such 
 vast importance were fairly allowable: the Confutation is 
 extremely virulent. Not to speak of the ribald abuse poured 
 forth in season and out of season upon Luther, the language 
 applied to Tyndale is altogether unpardonable. He is no 
 longer simply a heretic, swollen with pride and malice against 
 the Church, he is " a beast," discharging a " filthy foam of 
 blasphemies out of his brutish beastly mouth ; " he is " a 
 shameful, shameless, unreasonable, railing ribald," he has 
 learned his heresies " from his own father the devil that is in 
 ' Sir Thomas More's Works, pp. 845, etc. 
 
368 CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 hell ; " he is one of the " hellhounds that the devil hath in his 
 kennel." 1 
 
 A single continuous criticism will show how entirely More 
 had lost all self-control. Tyndale had spoken unceremoniously 
 of the writings of Thomas Aquinas, the angel of the schools, 
 as mere "draff;" and Sir Thomas thus fiercely retaliates: 
 "This glorious saint of God . . . doth this devilish drunken 
 soul abominably blaspheme, and calleth them \i.e., Thomas 
 Aquinas and such like] liars and falsifiers of Scripture, 
 and maketh them no better than draff. But this drowsy 
 drudge hath drunken so deep in the devil's dregs, that but if 
 he wake and repent himself the sooner, he may hap ere aught 
 long to fall into the mashing-fat, and turn himself into draff as 
 [which] the hogs of hell shall feed upon and fill their bellies 
 thereof."^ We have throughout this biography attempted 
 to measure out impartial justice to both parties in the great 
 religious controversy of the time ; but surely such a passage as 
 this — and many more such flowers of oratory may be culled 
 from the same garden — must be held to be a conclusive 
 disproof of the delusion, to which some fondly cling, that it is 
 only amongst the illiterate and the Reformers that we find 
 violent and abusive language. Tyndale was bitter and fierce, 
 but he certainly never defiled his pen with such Billingsgate 
 as this ; and whilst some consideration is surely due to an 
 exile who had been persecuted for his faith, and who moreover 
 protested against any use of physical violence ; who shall 
 venture to claim equal allowance for the Lord Chancellor 
 of England, armed with full authority to burn all heretics, and 
 using this authority without scruple in defiance of those 
 principles of toleration and religious freedom which he had 
 advocated in his youth.' 
 
 There can be little doubt that amongst the causes which 
 
 thus lashed into fury the man who had formerly advocated 
 
 toleration, and whose temperament naturally disposed him to 
 
 gentle and lenient measures, considerable weight must be 
 
 ' More's Confutation, pp. 446, 681, etc. " Ibid. p. 679. 
 
MORE'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. 269 
 
 attached to Tyndale's insinuation that, like Judas, he had 
 bartered away his conscience for gold. We have given 
 Tyndale's charge, and it is onlyjustice to Sir Thomas More to 
 insert his reply. " In good faith," says he, " I will not say 
 nay, but that some good and honourable men of the clergy 
 would, in reward of my good will and my labour against these 
 heretics, have given me much more than ever I did or could 
 deserve [so that Tyndale's accusation was not entirely ground- 
 less] : but I dare take God and them also to record, that 
 all they could never feef me with one penny thereof, but, as I 
 plainly told them, I would rather have cast their money 
 into the Thames than take it. For albeit they were, as indeed 
 they were, both good men and honourable, yet look I for 
 my thank of God that is their better, and for whose sake 
 I take the labour." ^ 
 
 More also endeavours to clear himself from the charge 
 of having exhibited extreme cruelty towards the unfortunate 
 heretics who had fallen into his hands, and he denies in 
 the strongest possible terms, the truth of several of the stories 
 which subsequently figured in the pages of Foxe ; but as 
 his denial is accompanied with an important qualification,^ 
 and as he confesses that " there was no man that any meddling 
 had with them [the heretics] into whose hands they were 
 more loth to come," and even declares that " none of them had 
 wrong but that it were, for they were burned no sooner," his 
 defence can hardly be considered a brilliant success. 
 
 On the whole, the perusal of this long-continued controversy 
 is not a pleasant task. The spectacle of two men, so good 
 and so honest as Tyndale and More, heaping terms of abuse 
 upon each other, is not one that can gratify any well-constituted 
 mind ; and one feels disposed to cast a mantle of discreet 
 
 ' Sir Thomas More's Apology : Works, p. 867. 
 
 ^ Thus, when denying that he had caused any one to be bound to a tree in his 
 garden and beaten, he admits that " ke had caused such things to be done by the 
 officers of the Marshalsea to people guilty of sacrilege in a church, carrying away 
 the pix or casting out the blessed sacrament from it^' an admission susceptible of 
 considerable latitude in the interpretation. 
 
270 CONTROVERSY WITH SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 reticence over the unhappy scene. We have endeavoured 
 to judge of the contest without prejudice, and with due 
 allowance for the excitement and irritation incident to 
 theological debates ; and we believe that few who take the 
 trouble to read the controversy will doubt on which side 
 the victory lay. Sir Thomas More's reputation suffered 
 an irreparable injury by his share in the controversy; he lost 
 the sympathy of the public by his unworthy abuse of his 
 antagonist, without gaining the credit of having sufficiently 
 established his own positions. Whatever was gained in the 
 controversy was gained by Tyndale. As the translator of 
 the New Testament, the author of the Mammon and the 
 Obedience, he already exercised a considerable influence 
 over public opinion in England. Sir Thomas More's attack 
 directed public attention still more strongly to him ; and 
 the skill and courage with which he met and foiled the 
 great champion of the Church made his name familiar to 
 all Englishmen, enlisted their sympathies in his favour as their 
 protector against a common enemy, and secured for his works 
 and for the doctrines of the Reformers that favourable con- 
 sideration which was the best means of promoting their 
 success. 
 
 The chancel wall of Old Chelsea Church is still adorned 
 with the handsome marble monument which Sir Thomas 
 More had, in his lifetime, erected for himself; over it, as if 
 in triumphant superiority, there was placed about i8ao, by 
 some churchwarden ignorant probably of all this history, 
 the memorial tablet of one of the Tyndale family. Could 
 the most ingenious sculptor have devised a plainer or more 
 significant allegorical record of the controversy ? 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 TYNDALE AT ANTWERP : NEGOTIATIONS TO INDUCE HIM TO 
 RETURN TO ENGLAND : INTERVIEWS WITH VAUGHAN : 
 HIS CONTINUED LITERARY LABOURS. 
 
 A.D. 1531. 
 
 The reins which had slipped from the relaxing grasp of 
 Wolsey had fallen into the hands of one who better under- 
 stood the spirit of the age. Under the steady guidance of 
 Cromwell, England entered upon a new policy, which resulted 
 in the final emancipation of the country from the spiritual 
 tyranny of a foreign potentate. To the accomplishment of 
 this great purpose, Cromwell's energy was for years steadily 
 directed ; but whilst many were willing to assist and to 
 applaud him in his efforts, there were few indeed able to 
 understand the clear and comprehensive plan of action which 
 he had laid down. Of those who surrounded the king, and 
 who from various motives acquiesced in the royal policy, 
 Cromwell could not as yet depend upon a single individual as 
 an able and intelligent ally. 
 
 The very policy, however, which Cromwell was so steadily 
 pursuing had already been recommended by Tyndale. " One 
 king, one law in the realm ; no class of men exempt from the 
 temporal sword, no law except the law of the land;" such 
 had been the principles advocated in the Obedience of a 
 Christian Man; such were the principles which Cromwell 
 wished to establish as the starting-point of the new political 
 life of England. It was probably on the ground of this 
 community of purpose that Cromwell now became anxious to 
 induce Tyndale to return to England, in order, perhaps, that 
 
372 TYNDALE INVITED TO RETURN TO ENGLAND. 
 
 his powerful pen might be enlisted in defence of the great cause 
 which the new minister was so anxious to promote. The idea 
 is certainly not improbable ; although Cromwell was much 
 mistaken in his man, if he supposed that he should find in 
 Tyndale one ready to defend and follow him in all the crooked 
 and devious ways to which political exigencies reduced him. 
 
 Some have even supposed that this was the real purpose of 
 that visit of Coverdale) to Tyndale which Foxe has assigned 
 to 1529, but which later writers, when they admit it at all, are 
 inclined to place in the following year. This supposition, 
 indeed, has been advanced without any documentary support ; 
 it is, however, certain that at the period at which we have now 
 arrived, the commencement of 153 1, attempts were made by 
 various agents, and apparently with Henry's knowledge and 
 concurrence, to induce the exile to return to England ; and to 
 this we owe at last, after so many years of uncertainty and 
 conjecture, a clear and authentic glimpse of the illustrious 
 translator — the first since the description of him by his 
 generous host, Humphrey Monmouth. For a time, therefore, 
 Tyndale emerges from the obscurity in which he had hitherto 
 been surrounded ; not the voice of the prophet alone, but the 
 personal history of the man, engages our attention and appeals 
 to our sympathies. 
 
 Stephen Vaughan, one of the envoys to the Low Countries, 
 an old friend of Cromwell, and not unfavourable to the opinions 
 of the Reformers, had been specially commissioned to discover 
 Tyndale's place of residence, and, if possible, induce him to 
 return to England ; and he thus reports progress to his royal 
 master : — 
 
 " Most excellent Prince, and my most redoubted Sovereign, 
 mine humble observation due unto your Majesty. My mind 
 continually labouring and thirsting, most dread and redoubted 
 Sovereign, with exceeding desire to attain the knowledge of 
 such things as your Majesty commanded me to learn and 
 practise in these parts, and thereof to advertise you from time to 
 time, as the case should require : — And being often dismayed 
 
VAUGHAN'S NEGOTIATIONS WITH TYNDALE. 273 
 
 with the regard of so many mischances, as always obviate and 
 meet with my labours and policies ; whereby the same, after 
 great hope had to do something acceptable unto your High- 
 ness' pleasure, turn suddenly to become frustrate and of none 
 effect; bringeth me doubtless into right great sorrow and 
 inquietude, considering that where [whereas] of late, I have 
 written three sundry letters unto William Tyndale, and the 
 same sent, for the more surety, to three sundry places, to 
 Frankfort, Hamburg, and Marburg: — I then, not [being] 
 assured in which of the same he was, and had very good hope, 
 after / heard say in England, that he would, upon the promise of 
 your Majesty, and of your most graciotis safe conduct, be content 
 to repair and come into England, that I should, partly therewith, 
 and partly with such other persuasions as I then devised in 
 my said letters, and finally with a promise which I made him 
 that whatsoever surety he would reasonably desire, for his 
 safe coming in and going out of your realm, my friends should 
 labour to have the same granted by your Majesty, that now 
 the bruit and fame of such things, as, since my writing to him, 
 hath chanced within your realm, should provoke the man, not 
 only to be minded to the contrary of that whereunto I had 
 thought, without difficulty, to have easily brought him, but also 
 to suspect my persuasions to be made to his more peril and 
 danger than, as I think, if he were verily persuaded and placed 
 before you (your most gracious benignity, and piteous regard 
 natural, [and] custom, always had towards your humble 
 subjects considered, and specially to those which, know- 
 ledging their offences, shall humbly require your most 
 gracious pardon), he should ever have need to doubt or fear.^ 
 Like as your Majesty, as well by his letter written by his own 
 hand, sent to me for answer of my said letters, as also by the 
 
 ' The meaning of this long and involved sentence is, that Vaughan had written 
 to Tyndale, and put everything in the most favourable way, but that the report 
 of what had occurred in England since he wrote might undo all his efforts, 
 and make Tyndale afraid to come. It is, in fact, a hint to Henry that if he 
 wished to have Tyndale in England, he must take care to restrain the severity of the 
 bishops. 
 
 T 
 
374 VAUGHAN'S NEGOTIATIONS WITH TYNDALE. 
 
 copy of another letter of his, answering some other person, 
 whom your Majesty perhaps had commanded to persuade by 
 like means, may plainly apperceive: which letters, like as 
 together I received from the party, so send I herewith enclosed 
 to your Highness. 
 
 "And whereas I lately apperceived by certain letters 
 directed to me from Mr. Fitzwilliam, treasurer of your house- 
 hold, that I should endeavour myself, by all the ways .... 
 and means I could study and devise, to obtain a copy of the 
 book which, I wrote, was finished by Tyndale, answering to a 
 book put forth in the English tongue by my Lord Chancellor, 
 and the same should send to your Majesty with all celerity; 
 I have undoubtedly so done, and did before the receipt 
 thereof; howbeit, I neither can get any of them, nor, as yet, 
 come to the knowledge that any of them should be put forth 
 [had been printed] ; but, being put forth, I shall then not fail, 
 with all celerity, to send one unto your Highness." ^ 
 
 This letter was written from Barrow, i.e. Bergen-op-Zoom, 
 on the 36th of January, 1530 (by which 1531 is of course 
 meant), and seems to have been Vaughan's first despatch to 
 the sovereign whom he served, although not his first commu- 
 nication as envoy to the Government at home. Unfortunately 
 the two letters from Tyndale, which were enclosed in the 
 dispatch, and which would be, in our ignorance of his history, 
 so acceptable to us, have not been preserved ; and the inter- 
 esting biographical details which they unquestionably contained 
 are, in the meantime, lost, let us hope, not beyond the reach 
 of recovery. We can gather, however, from Vaughan's words, 
 that the accession of Cromwell to power had somewhat 
 changed the policy of England's chief statesman towards 
 Tyndale. The man who had been denounced in May as a 
 perverter of Scripture^ was now solicited to return with promises 
 of protection from the violence of the bishops; and more 
 agents than one were employed on what was evidently 
 deemed a matter of some political importance. 
 
 ' Cotton MSS., Galba, B. *., 46 of new notation. The letter is slightly damaged. 
 
VAUGHAN'S NEGOTIATIONS WITH TYNDALE. a75 
 
 It is quite clear, and this is a point of considerable con- 
 sequence, that there was no intention of trapanning the 
 illustrious translator by false representations, so as to get him 
 within the power of his enemies ; whatever end Vaughan had 
 in view menaced no danger to Tyndale. In this project of 
 inducing Tyndale to return to England, Henry was evidently 
 interested ; although, as will be more apparent from the sequel 
 of the correspondence, he was not at all persuaded of the pro- 
 priety of a step which had been suggested by his new minister, 
 and was in truth only " convinced against his will." 
 
 Of this despatch an exact copy was transmitted to Cromwell, 
 with the accompanying confidential communication, which 
 makes it still more apparent that the scheme for bringing 
 Tyndale into England was not of Henry's but of Cromwell's 
 devising : — 
 
 " Sir, here see you my rudeness and inability to be a writer 
 to so great a Prince ; but his gracious benignity encourageth 
 this to do ; which chancing [if it happen] to be acceptable to 
 his Majesty, shall be to me an exceeding pleasure, and other- 
 wise the contrary. Wherefore I most heartily pray you to 
 wait a time for the delivery thereof, to be taken when you 
 think his Highness will immediately look upon them ; for 
 then may it chance, if any fault be, your goodness towards me 
 will excuse the same in the best manner. Herewith I send 
 you the copy of Tyndale s letters, which he sent to me; the 
 other, for lack of leisure, I could not copy, being so long a 
 matter. The Dialogue of Ockham [treatise by William of 
 Ockham, a well-known schoolman, written against the preten- 
 sions of the pope] I have delivered to Mr. Tuke [one of the 
 royal secretaries], who will bring you it in his mail [his courier's 
 bag], and will depart within four days next.^ I pray you let me 
 know how the King taketh my letters, as soon as is possible. 
 It is unlikely to get Tyndale into England, when he daily heareth 
 so many things from thence which feareth him. After his 
 
 ' Bryan Tnkemay also have been employed, like Vaughan, in attempting to dis- 
 cover Tyudale's abode, and to persuade him to return. 
 
 T % 
 
376 TYND ALE'S BROTHER ARRESTED IN LONDON. 
 
 book, answering my Lord Chancellor's book be put forth, I 
 think he will write no more. The man is of a greater knowledge 
 than the King's Highness doth take him for, which wellappear- 
 eth by his works. Would God he were in England! " ^ 
 
 The proceedings in England, to which Vaughan again alludes, 
 as likely to operate unfavourably on Tyndale's mind, were, 
 doubtless, the vigorous steps taken by Stokesley and Sir 
 Thomas More to enforce the prohibitions of the royal 
 proclamation, and to punish all who were suspected of leaning 
 towards the Reformation. It was about this time that 
 Tyndale's brother John was arrested, along with Thomas 
 Patmore, a draper of London, and was taken before the Star- 
 Chamber, charged with receiving New Testaments from abroad 
 and selling them. He was also accused of sending money to 
 his brother, and carrying on correspondence with him. Both 
 were found guilty, and were sentenced to be exhibited for 
 public ridicule at the Standard in Cheapside, mounted on 
 horseback, with their faces turned ignominiously to the horses' 
 tails, and their cloaks hung round with the prohibited Testa- 
 ments which they had imported. They were also compelled 
 to pay a considerable fine before they were liberated.^ 
 
 And this was not an isolated deed of violence ; throughout 
 the Diocese of London, determined and systematic efforts were 
 made to discover and seize all who had ventured to express 
 opinions contrary to the received doctrines or injurious to the 
 established ceremonies of the Church ; and especially were 
 those marked out for vengeance who were known or suspected 
 to be in possession of Tyndale's writings. Of these violent 
 proceedings Tyndale could not be ignorant ; indeed, it seems 
 certain that his bosom-friend, John Fryth, had ventured into 
 England in the month of March of this year,^ and on his 
 
 ' The rest of the letter is uninteresting to ns. 
 
 = HarleianMSS.,425. 
 
 ' In Stolcesley's Register, the process against Fryth, Jrnie 20, 1533, is regularly 
 entered, and contains the following statement : — ' Interrogatus fatebatur quod venit 
 ultimo a partibus ultra-marinis circa festum Sancti Jacobi ultimo praeteritum et 
 quodfuit in Anglid, in quadragesimd ad duos annos elapses.' It appears, therefore 
 
VAUGHAN'S NEGOTIATIONS WITH TYNDALE. 377 
 
 return he would, of course, faithfully report what he had seen 
 and heard in his native land. It is not surprising, therefore, 
 that Vaughan should speak of the intelligence coming from 
 England as likely to counteract all his efforts to induce Tyn- 
 dale to return to a country where his name was held up to 
 public abhorrence as one of the great heresiarchs of the age. 
 Undismayed, however, by the untoward aspect of affairs, 
 Vaughan continued his efforts to accomplish the commission 
 which had been entrusted to him ; and was successful, as his 
 next letter apprises us, in procuring a copy of Tyndale's reply to 
 Sir Thomas More. On what was then the first day of the New 
 Year, Lady-day, he thus writes to Cromwell from Antwerp : — 
 " So it is that as I lately advertised you by my letters [not 
 preserved] that I have obtained a copy of the third part of 
 Tjmdale's book against my Lord Chancellor's book, which is 
 so rudely scribbled \i.e., it was a MS. copy, the book not 
 being yet printed], that I am constrained to write it again, 
 and am writing of it as busily as I can. When that part is 
 written I intend to labour to obtain the other part, which I 
 will presently ^ write in a fair book and send unto the King's 
 Highness. It containeth, with all the three parts, as I am in- 
 formed, three quires of paper thoroughly written. Sir, he hath 
 made in the beginning of the same an epistle to the King's 
 Highness, as I am informed, which as yet is not come into his 
 hand. I would gladly have your advice whether it be best 
 that I shall put it to his book as he putteth it, or otherwise. 
 I am in doubt whether the King's Highness will be pleased to 
 receive any such epistle from him or not ; I pray you let me 
 have herein your advice, as soon as it is possible. I promise 
 you he maketh my Lord Chancellor such an answer as I am 
 loth to praise or dispraise. No work that ever he made is 
 written in so gentle a style. Sir, this work will he not put in 
 
 that Fryth was in England in Lent two years before 1533, that is, in February and 
 March, 1531 ; for in 1531, Lent began February 22. See extract from Stokesley's 
 Register, in Townsend's Foxe, Vol. v. Appendix xxii. 
 
 * Such is probably the meaning of Vaughan : his word is clearly wyntly, but what 
 that means I do not pretend to say. 
 
378 VAUGHAN'S INTERVIEW WITH TYNDALE. 
 
 print till he know how the King's Highness will accept and 
 take it. If he hear that his Grace take it well, it may then, 
 peradventure, be a means to bring him into England. How- 
 beit, whether he come or not come into England, he will make 
 no more works after this \i.e., Vaughan supposes so]. He 
 would no doubt come into England, and submit him to the 
 King's Highness, if he had any sure hope of his gracious 
 favour. I can little or nothing profit with him by my letters, 
 for so much as the man hath me greatly suspected. Howbeit 
 I have stayed the impression [printing] of this book hitherto, 
 and will hereafter do as much as I can." ^ 
 
 Vaughan's words in this letter almost suggest that he was in 
 communication with some friend of Tyndale : and in a few 
 weeks more his patience received its full reward. The very 
 man of whom he had been so long in search requested an 
 interview with him. Vaughan was as much taken by surprise 
 as Obadiah was when Elijah appeared before him ; and in the 
 full excitement of the impression which Tyndale's earnest 
 words had produced upon his mind, he sat down to narrate 
 the whole proceedings to one little likely to enter into his 
 feelings. His letter is of surpassing interest : — 
 
 "Please it your Majesty to be advertised, how of late I 
 obtained a copy of one part [the third part] of Tyndale's book, 
 answering to the book put forth by my Lord Chancellor, 
 whereof immediately I gave knowledge to my master, Mr. 
 Cromwell, and him required thereof to advertise your Highness, 
 as appertained. Which copy being rudely written, interlined, 
 and difficult to be read, methought uncomely, and not meet 
 in so vile array to be sent to the hands of your Royal 
 Majesty. The regard whereof moved me to write it again, 
 that it might come to your most gracious hands the more 
 legible and easy to your reading. Which part I have 
 herewith sent unto your Highness ; thinking that the matter 
 therein contained, for the modest order thereof in regard of 
 
 ^ State Paper Office : Miscellaneous Letters, Henry VIII. Second Series. This 
 letter has never been printed before. 
 
INTERVIEW WITH TYNDALE. 379 
 
 his former writing, will somewhat better like you than some 
 other of his works, which he hath, with less advisement, more 
 rashness, and ruder spirit, put forth before this time. This 
 part, which your Grace receives now, is but a third or fourth 
 part of his whole work ; but comprehendeth in effect the 
 substance and pith of the other parts ; where he particularly 
 answereth to every chapter of my Lord's book, with such 
 grounds as he hath laid in his first part, though he use in it a 
 larger circumstance. The second part I have in likewise 
 obtained, which I will in likewise write, and send unto your 
 Grace, with all convenient speed and celerity. 
 
 " The day before the date hereof \i.e., April 1 7, as appears 
 from Cromwell's reply] / spake with Tyndale without the 
 town of Antwerp, and by this means : He sent a certain 
 person to seek me, whom he had advised to say that a 
 certain friend of mine, unknown to the messenger, was very 
 desirous to speak with me ; praying me to take pains to go 
 unto him, to such place as he should bring me. Then I to 
 the messenger, ' What is your friend, and where is he .' ' ' His 
 name I know not,' said he ; ' but if it be your pleasure to go 
 where he is, I will be glad thither to bring you.' Thus, 
 doubtful what this matter meant, I concluded to go with him, 
 and followed him till he brought me without the gates of 
 Antwerp, into a field lying nigh unto the same ; where was 
 abiding me this said Tyndale. At our meeting, ' Do you not 
 know me ? ' said this Tyndale. ' I do not well remember you,' 
 saidltohim. 'My name,' said he, ' is Tyndale.' 'But Tyndale !' 
 said I, ' Fortunate be our meeting.' Then Tyndale, ' Sir, I 
 have been exceedingly desirous to speak with you.' ' And I with 
 you ; what is your mind } ' ' Sir,' said he, ' I am informed that 
 the King's Grace taketh great displeasure with me for putting 
 forth of certain books, which I lately made in these parts ; 
 but specially for the book named TAe Practice of Prelates ; 
 whereof I have no little marvel, considering that in it I did 
 but warn his Grace of the subtle demeanour of the clergy of 
 his realm towards his person, and of the shameful abusions by 
 
38o TYND ALE'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. 
 
 them practised, not a little threatening the displeasure [grief] 
 of his Grace and weal of his realm : in which doing I showed 
 and declared the heart of a true subject, which sought the 
 safeguard of his royal person and weal of his commons, to the 
 intent that his Grace, thereof warned, might in due time 
 prepare his remedies against their subtle dreams. If for my 
 pains therein taken, if for my poverty, if for mine exile out 
 of m.y natural country, and bitter absence from, my friends, if 
 for m,y hunger, my thirst, my cold, the great danger wherewith 
 T am everywhere compassed, and finally if for innumerable 
 other hard and sharp fightings which T endure, not yet feeling 
 their asperity, by reason I hoped with my labours to do honour 
 to God, true service to my prince, and pleasure to his commons ; 
 how is it that his Grace, this considering, may either by himself 
 think, or by the persuasions of others be brought to think, that in 
 this doing I should not show a pure mind, a true and incorrupt 
 zeal attd affection to his Grace ? Was there in me any such 
 mind, when I warned his Grace to beware of his cardinal, 
 whose iniquity he shortly after approved {i.e., proved, dis- 
 covered] according to my writing ? Doth this deserve hatred ? 
 Again, may his Grace, being a Christian prince, be so unkind 
 to God, which hath commanded His Word to be spread 
 throughout the world, to give more faith to wicked persuasions 
 of men, which, presuming above God's wisdom, and contrary 
 to that which Christ expressly commandeth in His testament, 
 dare say that it is not lawful for the people to have the same 
 in a tongue that they understand ; because the purity thereof 
 should open men's eyes to see their wickedness? Is there 
 more danger in the King's subjects than in the subjects of all 
 other princes, which in every of their tongues have the same, 
 under privilege of their sufferance [sovereigns ?]. As I now am, 
 very death were more pleasant to me than life, considering 
 man's natiu-e to be such as can bear no truth.' 
 
 " Thus, after a long conversation had between us, for my 
 part making answer as my wit would serve me, which were too 
 long to write, I assayed him with gentle persuasions, to know 
 
TYNDALE DECLINES TO GO TO ENGLAND. 381 
 
 whether he would come into England ; ascertaining him that 
 means should be made, if he thereto were minded, without his 
 peril or danger, that he might so do ; and that what surety he 
 would devise for the same purpose, should, by labour of friends, 
 be obtained of your Majesty. But to this he answered, that 
 he neither would nor durst come into England, albeit your 
 Grace would promise him never so much surety; fearing lest, 
 as he hath before written, your promise made should shortly 
 be broken, by the persuasion of the clergy, which would 
 affirm that promises made with heretics ought not to be kept. 
 
 " After this, he told me how he had finished a work against 
 my Lord Chancellor's book, and would not put it in print till 
 such time as your Grace had seen it ; because he apperceiveth 
 your displeasure towards him, for hasty putting forth of his 
 other work, and because it should appear that he is not of so 
 obstinate mind as he thinks he is reported to your Grace. 
 This is the substance of his conversation had with me, which 
 as he spake I have written to your Grace, word for word, as 
 near as I could by any possible means bring to remembrance. 
 My trust therefore is, that your Grace will not but take my 
 labours in the best part, I thought necessary to be written 
 unto your Grace. After these words, he then, being some- 
 thing fearful of me, lest I would have pursued him, and 
 drawing also towards night, he took his leave of me, and 
 departed from the town, and I toward the town, saying, ' I 
 should shortly, peradventure, see him again, or if not, hear 
 from him.' Howbeit I suppose he afterward returned to the 
 town by another way ; for there is no likelihood that he 
 should lodge without the town. Hasty to pursue him I was 
 not, because I had some likelihood to speak shortly again with 
 him ; and in pursuing him I might perchance have failed of 
 my purpose, and put myself in danger. 
 
 " To declare to your majesty what, in my poor judgment, I 
 think of the man, I ascertain [assure] your Grace, I have not 
 communed with a man — "^ 
 
 ' Cotton MSS., Titus, B. i. 
 
a82 THE MUTILATED DESPATCH. 
 
 Here, however, the copy of the despatch abruptly termi- 
 nates in the very climax of its interest ; and, as it is unlikely 
 that the transcriber would have omitted the sequel if it had 
 been preserved, the suspicion irresistibly arises that the 
 indignant monarch to whom it was addressed, unable to 
 control his patience any longer, had vented his anger upon 
 the honest document which might have saved his reign from 
 one of its foulest blots ; just as the besotted Jewish king cut 
 in pieces the faithful warning of the prophet. Vaughan, in 
 his zeal, had travelled beyond his commission. Receiving 
 his instructions personally from Cromwell, his friend and 
 patron, he had assumed that the wishes of the King were 
 identical with those of the minister, and little suspected that 
 the attempt to induce Tyndale to return to England was 
 simply a part of Cromwell's policy, which the King had 
 been half persuaded to tolerate, but of the expediency of 
 which he was by no means convinced. 
 
 And since Cromwell had conceived this project, circum- 
 stances had occurred which were certain to revive all Henry's 
 prejudices against Tyndale. It is obvious from the date of 
 Vaughan's first despatch (Jan. 36) that he must have received 
 his instructions and must have left England some time before 
 the close of 153O) probably not later than the commencement 
 of December of that year.^ But at that time Tyndale's 
 Practice of Prelates had not yet reached England, as we 
 believe ; and when that work did come to be perused by 
 Henry and Cromwell, then it was inevitable that a change 
 should take place in their feelings towards the writer. If 
 Tyndale had propitiated Cromwell's favour by advocating in 
 The Obedience the very policy which he wished to in- 
 augurate in England, he had certainly given mortal offence 
 to Henry in The Practice of Prelates by denouncing the 
 
 ' He had not only travelled to Bergen from London, but after arriving there and 
 making inquiries, he had viritten and despatched three letters to Tyndale, and had 
 received a reply, an extremely circuitous operation when Tyndale's actual abode 
 was unknown. 
 
CROMWELL'S EMBARRASSMENT. 383 
 
 divorce as a flagitious attempt on the part of the clergy to 
 tamper with the law of God. To the King the policy of 
 Cromwell was a matter of inferior importance ; he knew that 
 he was master of England, and probably felt none of that 
 need for assistance which oppressed his minister : but the 
 matter of the divorce touched him to the quick, and here 
 he could tolerate no opposition. Whatever countenance, 
 therefore, he might have been induced to lend to the design 
 for bringing into England the author of The Obedience 
 would be at once withdrawn when The Practice of Prelates 
 appeared; and his resentment would naturally be increased 
 by the feeling that he had been seduced by false represen- 
 tation into promising his protection to the man who thus 
 dared to oppose and censure his most cherished wish. 
 Tyndale did not speak without good reason of Henry's 
 "great displeasure for his putting forth of the book named 
 The Practice of Prelates;" and the mutilated despatch 
 of the ill-advised envoy may possibly be accepted as no bad 
 indication of the passion which agitated the King on reading 
 the inopportune panegyric of his too honest ambassador. 
 
 If the despatch of Vaughan was annoying to Henry, it 
 must have been terribly embarrassing to Cromwell, whose 
 position with his master was seriously compromised by the 
 precipitation of his subordinate. Between Henry and Vaughan, 
 indeed, Cromwell had a very difficult part to play; and the 
 embarrassment of the unhappy secretary is singularly reflected 
 in the draft of his reply, which is interlined, corrected, and 
 re-corrected, and is evidently the work of a man in the utmost 
 bewilderment. It seems a probable conjecture that the 
 despatch as originally penned, though censuring Tyndale's 
 writings with great severity, was not sufficiently bitter to 
 satisfy Henry; and that Cromwell was therefore compelled 
 to alter his language so as to give it additional force. It 
 has even been supposed that the interlineations are by Henry's 
 own pen ; but, though the handwriting is not unlike Henry's, 
 careful examination inclines us rather to believe that they 
 
a84 FRESH INSTRUCTIONS TO VAUGHAN. 
 
 are the work of Cromwell. The letter as it was finally- 
 prepared for transmission is here subjoined; the original 
 draft, where it differs, being added at the foot of the page 
 for the information of the reader.^ 
 
 "Stephen Vaughan, I commend me unto you, and have 
 received your letters \i.e., letter] dated at Antwerp the 
 eighteenth day of April, with also that part of Tyndale's book 
 sewed and inclosed in leather, which ye with your letters 
 directed to the King's Highness, after the receipt whereof I 
 did repair unto the court, and there presented the same unto 
 his Royal Majesty, who made me answer for that time that 
 his Highness at opportune leisure should visit [inspect] 
 oversee and read the contents as well of your letters as also 
 the said book. And at my next repair thither it pleased 
 his Highness to call for me, declaring unto me as well the 
 contents of your letters, as also much of the matter contained 
 in the said book of Tyndale. 
 
 " And albeit that I might well perceive that his Majesty 
 was right well pleased, and right acceptably considered your 
 diligence and pains taken in the writing and sending of the 
 said book, as also in the persuading and exhorting of Tyndale 
 to repair into this realm : * yet his Highness nothing liked the 
 said book, being filled with seditious, slanderous lies, and 
 fantastical opinions, showing therein neither learning nor 
 truth: and further communing with his Grace I might well 
 conceive that he thought that ye bare much affection towards 
 the said Tyndale, whom in his manners and knowledge in 
 worldly things ye undoubtedly in your letters do much allow 
 and commend; whose works being replete with so abominable 
 slanders and lies, imagined and only feigned to infect the 
 people, doth [do] declare him both to lack grace, virtue, 
 learning, discretion, and all other good qualities, nothing else 
 pretending in all his works but to seduce, deceive, and sow 
 sedition among the people of this realm.* ^ 
 
 1 Cotton MSS., Galba, B. x. 
 
 ^ Such, so far as I can make it out, I believe to be the final form of the despatch ; 
 
TYNDALE NOT TO BE INVITED TO RETURN. 285 
 
 t " The King's Highness, therefore, hath commanded me 
 to advertise you that ye should desist and leave any further 
 to persuade or attempt the said Tyndale to come into this 
 realm ; alleging that he, perceiving the malicious, perverse, 
 uncharitable, and indurate mind of the said Tyndale is in 
 manner without hope of reconciliation in him, and is very 
 joyous to have his realm destitute of such a person ^ f than 
 that he should return into the same, there to manifest his 
 errors and seditious opinions, which (being out of the realm 
 by his most uncharitable, venomous, and pestilent book, 
 crafty and false persuasions) he hath partly done already. 
 For his Highness right prudently considereth that if he were 
 present, by all likelihood he would shortly (which God defend) 
 do as much as in him were to infect and corrupt the whole 
 realm, to the great inquietation and hurt of the commonwealth 
 of the same. 
 
 " Wherefore, Stephen, I heartily pray you in all your doing, 
 providing, and writing to the King's Highness, ye do justly, 
 truly, and unfeignedly, * without dissimulation show yourself 
 
 but the erasures are so numerous that it is difficult to decide what was at last per- 
 mitted to remain. In the original draft the passage within the asterisks ran thus : 
 " .... in the accomplishment of his high pleasure and commandment. Yet I might 
 conjecture by the farther declaration of his Highness' pleasure, which said unto me 
 that he thought that by your writing it manifestly appeared how much affection and 
 zeal ye do bear towards the said Tyndale, whom in his manners, modesty, and 
 simplicity ye undoubtedly do much allow and commend. Then his works being 
 so replete with lies and most abominable slanders imagined and feigned to infect 
 and intoxicate the people may to indifferent judgment declareth [declare] him 
 [show unprejudiced persons what sort of man he is]. For the which your favour 
 supposed to be borne to the said Tyndale (who assuredly showeth himself in my 
 opinion rather to be replete with venomous envy, rancour, and malice than with 
 any good learning, virtue or discretion) hath put the King's Highness in suspicion 
 of you, considering that ye should \i. e., do] in such wise lean unto and favour the 
 evil doctrine of so perverse and malicious a person, and so much praise him who 
 nothing goeth about or pretendeth but only to seduce, deceive, and disquiet the 
 people and commonwealth of this realm." 
 
 * For the passage enclosed between ff the original draft read thus : " Whose 
 coming into England the King's Highness can right well forbear, and hath com- 
 manded me expressly to write unto you that ye should desist and leave any further 
 to persuade or attempt him thereunto ; alleging that His Majesty, so evidently per- 
 ceiving the malicious, perverse, uncharitable mind and disposition of the said 
 Tyndale is rather very glad that he is out of his realm than that, etc.,'' as above. 
 
286 V A UGH AN REPRIMANDED. 
 
 his true, Ibving, and obedient subject, bearing no manner, 
 favour, love, or affection to the said Tyndale^ *ne to his 
 work in any manner of wise, but utterly contemn and 
 abhor the same, assuring you that in so doing ye shall not 
 only cause the King's Royal Majesty, whose goodness at 
 this time is so benignly and graciously minded towards you 
 (as by your good diligence and industry to be used to serve 
 his Highness, and eschewing and avoiding to favour and 
 allow the said Tyndcde, his erroneous works and opinions) 
 so to set you forwards as all your lovers and friends shall 
 have great consolation of the same; and by the contrary 
 doing ye shall acquire the indignation of God, displeasure 
 of your sovereign lord, and by the same cause your good 
 friends, which have been ever glad, prone, and ready to bring 
 you into his gracious favours, to lament and sorrow that their 
 suit in that behalf should be frustrate and not to take effect 
 according to their good intent and purpose.^ Having, there- 
 fore, firm trust that for the love ye owe to yourself and your 
 friends, ye will beware and eschew to enter into any opinions 
 whereby any slander, dishonesty, danger, or suspicion might 
 ensue towards you, whereof I promise you I would be as sorry 
 as your natural father. 
 
 "As touching Fryth, mentioned in your said letter, the 
 King's Highness hearing tell of his towardness in good letters 
 and learning, doth much lament that he should in such wise 
 as he doth, set forth, shew and apply his learning and 
 doctrine in the semination and sowing such evil seed of 
 damnable and detestable heresies, maintaining, bolstering, 
 and advancing the venomous and pestiferous works, erroneous 
 and seditious opinions of the said Tyndale and other .... 
 Wherein his Highness, like a most virtuous and benign prince 
 having charge of his people and subjects, being very sorry 
 
 ' This specific clause was inserted instead of the original, which said more 
 generally, " Show yourself to be no fautor unto the said Tyndale." 
 
 ^ This passage also has been changed from the original, but as the changes had 
 no reference to Tyndale we forbear to transcribe them. 
 
ATTEMPT TO GAIN OVER FRYTH. 387 
 
 to hear tell that any of the same should in such wise run 
 headlong and digress from the laws of Almighty God and 
 wholesome doctrine of holy fathers, into such damnable 
 heresies and seditious opinions; and being ever inclined, 
 willing, and greatly desirous to foresee and provide for the 
 same ; and much desiring the reconciliation of the said Fryth, 
 firmly trusting that he be not so far as yet inrooted in the 
 evil doctrine of the said Tyndale and others, but that by the 
 grace of God, loving, charitable, and friendly exhortations and 
 advertisements of good people, he may be called again to 
 the right way; hath willed me to write unto you that ye, 
 therefore, according to his trust and expectation will, with 
 your friendly persuasions, admonitions, and wholesome ex- 
 hortations, counsel and advise the said Fryth, if ye may 
 conveniently speak with the same, to leave his wilful opinions, 
 and like a good Christian to return unto his native country, 
 where he assuredly shall find the King's Highness most 
 merciful, and benignly, upon his conversion, disposed to 
 accept him to his grace and mercy. 
 
 " Wherefore, eftsoons, I exhort you, for the love of God, 
 not only utterly to forsake, leave, and withdraw your affection 
 from the said Tyndale and all his sort, but also as much as 
 ye can, politiquely and charitably, to allure all the said Fryth 
 and other such persons being in these parts, which in any 
 wise ye shall know or suppose to be fautors and assistants 
 to the same, from all their erroneous minds and opinions. 
 In which doing ye shall not only highly merit in Almighty 
 God, but also deserve high thanks of the King's Royal 
 Majesty, who will not forget your devoirs and labours in 
 that behalf, so that his Majesty may evidently perceive that 
 ye effectually do intend the same." 
 
 The draft of the despatch then concludes with a brief 
 reference to the ordinary topics of official correspondence, 
 which, under other circumstances, might have occupied a 
 more conspicuous place: for the relations between the King 
 and the Emperor were of a somewhat delicate kind ; the 
 
388 CROMWELL'S INDISCREET POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 proposed divorce and the new policy of Cromwell having not 
 unnaturally created considerable jealousy in the breast of 
 Charles. But to the despatch as actually sent there was ap- 
 pended a most incautious postscript on the part of Cromwell, 
 virtually cancelling all the text of the letter, and showing 
 plainly that it was the minister and not the King who was 
 so bent upon inducing Tyndale to return to England. "Not- 
 withstanding the premises in my letter," wrote the audacious 
 and indiscreet secretary^ " if it were possible, by good and 
 wholesome exhortations to reconcile and convert the said 
 Tyndale ... I doubt not but the King's Highness would be 
 much joyous of his conversion . . . and if then he would return 
 into his realm . . . undoubtedly the King's Majesty refuseth 
 none."i 
 
 Tyndale had evidently made a profound impression upon 
 Vaughan. Even before the interview at Antwerp, Vaughan 
 had probably shared in that sympathy for the Reformers, 
 which Sir Thomas More represents as not uncommon among 
 the educated classes in England ; and when he actually met 
 Tyndale he appreciated at once the noble character of the 
 man with whom he had to deal, and from that moment 
 became his friend. There is really no reason to believe that 
 at first either Henry or Cromwell meant to ensnare Tyndale, 
 and so get him into their power ; but, on the contrary, it 
 seems probable that Cromwell hoped to find in him an 
 ally, such as he afterwards had in Latimer, whose eloquence 
 might promote that policy of reformation which he con- 
 templated. 
 
 It is quite certain, at all events, that Vaughan was not 
 likely to lend himself to any dishonourable plot for depriving 
 Tyndale of his liberty; for notwithstanding the sharp repri- 
 mand administered by Cromwell, he still endeavours to 
 produce in Henry a favourable opinion of the man whom 
 he himself so highly esteemed. Cromwell's angry despatch 
 reached Vaughan at Bergen-op-Zoom on the x8th of May, 
 
 ' The whole passage is quoted again in Vaughan's reply: see p. 308. 
 
SECOND INTERVIEW WITH TYNDALE. 389 
 
 and two days afterwards Vaughan replied, giving us a most 
 interesting record of a second interview with Tyndale.-^ After 
 briefly alluding to the peace for two years recently concluded 
 between the Turks and Ferdinand, the growing dissensions 
 between the emperor and his German subjects on religious 
 questions, and the appointment of Mary, Queen of Hungary, 
 as Regent of the Low Countries, in the room of the deceased 
 Lady Margaret, he proceeds to what is of more immediate 
 interest to us : — 
 
 "As touching a young man being in these parts named 
 Fryth, of whom I lately advertised your Majesty, by my 
 former letters [letter], and whom your Royal Majesty giveth 
 me in commandment, with friendly persuasions, admonitions, 
 and wholesome counsels to advertise to leave his wilful opinions 
 and errors, and to return into his native country, I shall not 
 fail, according unto your most gracious commandment, to 
 endeavour, to the utmost of my power, to persuade him 
 accordingly, so soon as my chance shall be to meet with him. 
 Howbeit I am informed that he is very lately married in 
 Holland, and there dwelleth, but in what place I cannot tell. 
 This marriage may, by chance, hinder my persuasions. I 
 suppose him to have been thereunto driven through poverty, 
 which is to be pitied, his qualities considered. 
 
 "I have again been in hand to persuade Tyndale ; and to 
 draw him the rather to favour my persuasions^ and not to 
 think the same feigned, I showed him a clause contained in 
 Master Cromwell's letter, containing these words following : — 
 'And notwithstanding other the premises in this my letter 
 contained, if it Were possible, by good and wholesome exhorta- 
 tions, to reconcile and convert the said Tyndale from the train 
 and affection which he now is in, and to excerpt and take away 
 the opinions and fantasies sorely rooted in him, I doubt not 
 but the King's Highness would be much joyous of his conver- 
 sion and amendment; and so being converted, if then he 
 
 1 Galba, B. x. 7 of the new notation : original in the State Paper Office ; Chapter- 
 house Papers. 
 
 U 
 
290 SECOND INTERVIEW WITH TYNDALE. 
 
 would return into his realm, undoubtedly the King's Royal 
 Majesty is so inclined to mercy, pity, and compassion, that he 
 refuseth none which he seeth to submit themselves to the 
 obedience and good order of the world.' 
 
 "In these words I thought to be such sweetness and virtue 
 as were able to pierce the hardest heart of the world ; and as 
 I thought, so it came to pass. For after sight thereof I 
 perceived the man to be exceedingly altered, and to take the 
 same very near unto his heart, in such wise that water stood 
 in his eyes, and answered, 'What gracious words are these ! I 
 assure you,' said he, ' if it would stand zvitk the King's most 
 gracious pleasure to grant only a bare text of the Scripture to be 
 put forth among his people, like as is put forth among the 
 subjects of the Emperor in these parts, and of other Christian 
 princes, be it of the translation of what person soever shall 
 please his Majesty, T shall immediately make faithful promise 
 never to write more, nor abide two days in these parts after the 
 same; but immediately to repair into his realm, and there most 
 humbly submit m.yself at the feet of his Royal Majesty, offering 
 my body to suffer what pain or torture, yea, what death his 
 Grace will, so that this be obtained. And till that time I will 
 abide the asperity of all chances, whatsoever shall come, and 
 endure my life in as much pains as it is able to bear and suffer. 
 And as concerning my reconciliation, his Grace may be assured 
 that, whatsoever I have said or written in all my life against 
 the honour of God's Word, and [it be] ^ so proved, the same 
 shall I before his Majesty and all the world [utterly] renounce 
 and forsake, and with most humble and meek mind [embrace] 
 the truth, abhorring all error, sooner at the most gracious 
 and benign [request] of his Royal Majesty (of whose wisdom, 
 prudence, and learning I [hear] so great praise and commend- 
 ation), than of any other creature living. But if those things 
 which I have written be true, and stand with God's Word, 
 why should his Majesty, having so excellent [gift] of know- 
 
 ' The words enclosed in brackets in this part of the letter are supplied conjec- 
 turally to fiU up the sense ; the edges of the MSS. having been injured by fire. 
 
THIRD INTERVIEW WITH TYNDALE. 291 
 
 ledge in the Scriptures, move me to do anything against my 
 conscience?' with many other words which were too long to 
 write. 
 
 " Finally, I have some good hope in the man, and would not 
 doubt to bring [him] to some good point, were it that some 
 thing now and then might proceed from your Majesty towards 
 me, whereby the man might take the better comfort of my 
 persuasions. I advertised the same Tyndale that he should 
 not put forth the same book, till your most gracious pleasure 
 were known : whereunto he answered, mine advertisement 
 came too late, for he feared lest one that had his copy would 
 put it very shortly in print, which he would let \i.e., prevent] 
 if he could ; if not, there is no remedy. I shall stay it as 
 much as I can. As yet it is not come forth, nor will not in a 
 while, by that I perceive. Luther hath lately put forth a 
 work against the Emperor, in the German tongue, which I 
 would cause to be translated into Latin and send it to your 
 Majesty, if I knew your gracious pleasure. In it are many 
 things to be seen." 
 
 Though baffled and disappointed, neither Cromwell nor 
 Vaughan was willing to relinquish the attempt to induce 
 Tyndale to return, without a further effort. Writing on the 
 19th of June, Vaughan records yet one more ineffectual 
 attempt to persuade Tyndale : — 
 
 " I cannot come by the book of Luther's [referred to in the 
 previous letter] ; there came but one to all this town, and that 
 was gone or I received answer. I have another put forth by 
 Melanchthon in the Latin tongue, which I obtained while I 
 wrote this, and would have sent it you, but the bearer thought 
 it too great. It is entitled, Confessio fidei exhibita invictissimo 
 Imp. Carolo v. Ccesari, Aug. in Comitiis Angus tcB [a Con- 
 fession of faith presented to the most mighty Emperor Charles 
 V. at the Assembly at Augsburg]. I would gladly send such 
 things to his Highness ; but I am informed he looketh not 
 upon them himself but committeth them to others. I am 
 sorry he so doeth, because I know his high judgment in 
 
 U 2 
 
392 PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 learning to be such as might safely without danger approve 
 men's opinions by reading thereof ... I was never more 
 desirous to speak with you than now, wherefore I pray you 
 help me to come home. / have spoken with Tyndale, and 
 shewed him as you wrote me the King's royal pleasure was, 
 but I find him always singing one note \i.e., always alleging 
 the same objections to returning into England]. You wrote 
 that the answer which he made to the Chancellor was un- 
 clerkly done : and so seem all his works to eloquent men, 
 because he useth so rude and simple style, nothing liking any 
 vain praise and commendation. If the King's royal pleasure 
 had been to have looked thereupon, he should then have 
 better judged it than upon the sight of another man. The 
 prophets Esay and Jonas are put forth in the English tongue 
 [one translated by George Joye from the Vulgate, the other by 
 Tyndale from the Hebrew], and [it] passeth any man's power 
 to stop them from coming forth." ^ 
 
 Here, for a time, the correspondence ceases. Vaughan 
 seems to have obtained that permission to return home which 
 he so urgently requested, and it was not till the month of 
 November that he resumed his functions as envoy in Antwerp ; 
 and he does not appear to have ever re-opened personal 
 communications with the illustrious exile whom he so much 
 admired. And the occurrences of the summer of 1531 in 
 England were of such a nature as to confirm all Tyndale's 
 fears, and to prove conclusively how well-founded had been 
 his disinclination to relinquish his comparative safety in 
 Antwerp and to face the dangers and uncertainties which 
 awaited him in England, where, for a brief season, the enemies 
 of the Reformation seemed to be expending their utmost 
 violence. The commencement of the year, indeed, had been 
 signalised by Cromwell's first great achievement in the 
 humiliation of the clergy. Convocation, after long and fierce 
 debates, had not only been compelled to pay the King an 
 
 • State Paper Office: Miscellaneous Letters, Second Series; printed by Sir 
 Henry Ellis in his collection of Original Letters. 
 
TRACY'S WILL. 293 
 
 enormous fine, as the price of their exemption from the 
 penalties of the Statute of Pramunire, which they had in- 
 curred by acknowledging Wolsey's legatine authority; but, 
 more bitter humiliation still, they had also been forced to 
 recognise Henry to be " the supreme head of the clergy and 
 Church of England," thereby virtually annulling their oath of 
 supreme allegiance to the pope.^ By way of compensating 
 themselves for this degradation, Convocation proceeded to 
 exhibit extreme rigour in prosecuting heretics ; and, probably 
 from reasons of policy, no attempt was made by Henry or 
 Cromwell to restrain them. 
 
 William Tracy, of Toddington in Gloucestershire, a former 
 friend of Tyndale, conspicuous for his piety and his careful 
 study of the works of the Fathers, and especially St. Augus- 
 tine, had died in 1530, and his will was found to contain 
 what was deemed gross heresy. He denied the efficacy of 
 works to procure salvation, impugned the mediation of saints, 
 and directed that no part of his goods should be bestowed 
 to purchase prayers for the benefit of his soul.^ His testament 
 had made such an impression that copies of it had been 
 circulated; and as early as February a5th, 1531, the subject 
 was brought before Convocation, and the will was condemned 
 as " proud, scandalous, contradictory, impious, and heretical;"* 
 and it was decreed that, unless satisfactory reasons could be 
 alleged in explanation, he should be declared a heretic, and 
 his body should be exhumed and cast out of consecrated 
 ground, — a sentence which was subsequently officially pro- 
 nounced, and carried into execution with circumstances of 
 additional atrocity by that same Dr. Parker, Chancellor of 
 Worcester, who, ten years before, had summoned Tyndale 
 before him and rated him like a dog.* 
 
 Proceedings were instituted at the same time against 
 
 ' See Demaus' Latimer, pp. 108, etc. 
 ^ Tyndale's Expositions, p. 272. 
 
 ' Fastosum, scandalosum, sibi refugnans, impiumque, et hereticum" Wilkins' 
 Concilia, Vol. III. p. 725. 
 * See Demaus' Latimer, p. iii. Tyndale's Works, Vol. i. p. 395, 
 
394 PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Latimer, Bilney, and Crome, all Cambridge men, and well 
 known to Tyndale ; and the last of these, a conspicuous re- 
 forming preacher in London, was compelled to abjure. On 
 the last day of March, another distinguished Cambridge 
 scholar, John Lambert or Nicholson, a convert of Bilney, was 
 brought before Convocation. In him Tyndale must have felt 
 a special interest, for he had been " chaplain and preacher to 
 the English House at Antwerp " for upwards of a year, and 
 had been betrayed by Barlowe, the very brother of Greenwich, 
 as some suppose, who had joined Tyndale at Worms after the 
 departure of Roye.-^ These proceedings, which were all 
 reported and probably exaggerated at Antwerp, were cer- 
 tainly not calculated to induce Tyndale to comply with 
 Vaughan's invitation ; they were in all likelihood known to 
 Tyndale before his interview with the envoy, April 17, and 
 amply justified his declaration that " he neither would nor durst 
 come into England, albeit the King v/ould promise him never 
 so much surety, fearing lest his promise made should shortly be 
 broken by the persuasion of the clergy, which would affirm 
 that promises made with heretics ought not to be kept." 
 
 As the summer passed on, the prospect in England grew 
 every day darker and more discouraging. Bilney, whom Tyn- 
 dale had unquestionably known at Cambridge, and from whom 
 he had perhaps imbibed his first love for the doctrines of the 
 Reformers, was apprehended and burnt at Norwich in August.^ 
 
 ' Foxe, Vol. V. p. 181 ; Wilkins, Vol. in. p. 746. Tyndale calls this "brother 
 of Greenwich "y^TOOT^. Rinck's letter, given on page 162, mentions Jerome Bar- 
 lowe as one of the associates of Tyndale ; and it seems, therefore, a fair conclusion 
 that Jerome and Jerome Barlowe were the same person. This person was, according 
 to Tyndale, the author of a poem against the Mass ; and Barlowe, Bishop, of Bath, a 
 martyr in Mary's reign, acknowledged having written against the Mass. The 
 bishop's name, however, was William; but possibly William Barlowe was the 
 correct name, and Jerome only an assumed monastic name. Now Sir Thomas 
 More {Confutation, p. 656) speaks of William Barlowe as "long conversant in 
 Germany," but before 1532 changing his opinions. Was not this therefore the 
 informant against Lambert? and if so, how deeply must Tyndale have been 
 interested ! 
 
 ^ See Demaus' Latimer, p. 221. A friendly critic in the Contemporary Review 
 asks my authority for fixing August 19 as the date of Bilney's execution. Tunstal's 
 
PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND. 295 
 
 A few weeks later, Bayfield, another friend of Tyndale, shared 
 the same fate ; one who, according to Foxe, had been converted 
 to the cause of the Reformation by the study of Tyndale's 
 works, and who, according to the same authority, was 
 "beneficial to Master Tyndale and Master Fryth, for he 
 brought substance with him, and was their own hand, and sold 
 all their works." ^ After two most successful importations of 
 the works of Tyndale and the Continental Reformers, he had 
 been seized, when in possession of a third cargo, and being a 
 relapsed heretic, he was condemned, degraded, and burnt. 
 
 Bayfield was resolute, and could not be induced to make any 
 confession incriminating his associates abroad; but the next 
 person who fell into the hands of Sir Thomas More proved 
 more pliable, notwithstanding the favourable omen of his name. 
 George Constans or Constantine, who had been for years on the 
 Continent, one of those whom Rinck had associated in his letter 
 with Tyndale, Roye, and Jerome, and who had been an active 
 agent in the circulation of Tyndale's works, was seized and car- 
 ried before the Chancellor, then in the height of that fierce career 
 of persecution so totally incongruous with his own gentle 
 character and the tenor of his early opinions. Sir Thomas 
 was anxious if possible to ascertain from whom Tyndale and 
 others received assistance; and he determined to work upon 
 Constantine's fears. The unfortunate man was put in irons, 
 " tied by the leg with a chain like a wild beast," according to 
 Vaughan; and, overcome with terror, he confessed at least 
 part of what Sir Thomas More wished to learn. He re- 
 vealed the name of the merchant who received the prohibited 
 books, " and the marks of the fardels," ^ so that they were 
 
 Register, I am aware, assigns August 26, but this is in a marginal note, and I have 
 repeatedly seen reason to distrust marginal notes. Foxe, without mentioning any- 
 day of the month, says the execution took place on Saturday, being St. Magnus' 
 Day : now in 1531, St. Magnus' Day (August 19) fell on a Saturday. Such a 
 coincidence seems to me always preferable to a bald statement : moreover, Collier 
 and Holinshed also give the 19th. 
 
 ' Foxe, Vol. IV. p. 681. Foxe's account of Bayfield's earlier career is confused 
 and incredible. 
 
 ^ Sir Thomas More's Confutation of Tyndale's Answer, fol. 346. 
 
296 TYND ALE'S BOOK OF THE PROPHET JONAH. 
 
 subsequently seized and burned. He made statements also 
 reflecting upon Vaughan, greatly to the distress of the honest 
 envoy, as we shall subsequently see. It does not appear that 
 he made any disclosures concerning Tyndale; fortunately, 
 however, he contrived to escape from durance, and without 
 loss of time he returned to Antwerp, which he reached in the 
 beginning of December. 
 
 Such are a few of the occurrences of the year 153 1 ; in all 
 which intimate friends and associates of Tyndale were con- 
 cerned, and they were certainly not at all reassuring. Nothing 
 but bonds and death seemed to await him if he returned to 
 England ; and though he was ready, with God^s help, to face any 
 danger when duty called him, he saw no reason for voluntarily 
 courting the fiery doom of Bilney and Bayfield. On the Con- 
 tinent, in the meantime, he was safe ; there were misunder- 
 standings between the Emperor and the King of England, 
 and complaints that might even involve the two nations in 
 hostilities ; and while this state of things lasted, there 
 was no likelihood that Charles would give up Tyndale to 
 gratify Henry's desire for vengeance. That he remained 
 during the whole year at Antwerp cannot with any certainty 
 be affirmed : but as he was there in the months of May and 
 June, when Vaughan had interviews with him, it seems in no 
 way improbable that he spent the greater part of the year 
 there. He was still diligently prosecuting his noble work; 
 and this year he gave to the world the last contribution to the 
 translation of Holy Scripture which was published in his 
 lifetime, — the translation of the prophet Jonah. 
 
 The history of this little work is surrounded with the same 
 element of romantic interest which invests the first issue of 
 the New Testament. Although the book was denounced by 
 name at Paul's Cross by Stokesley, as the New Testament 
 had been by Stokesley's predecessor in the See ; although 
 Vaughan alludes to it, and Sir Thomas More in his Con- 
 futation had with facetious violence declared that "Jonas 
 was never so swallowed up with the whale as by the 
 
PROLOGUE TO THE PROPHET JONAH. 397 
 
 delight of that book a man's soul may be so swallowed up by 
 the devil that he shall never have the grace to get out again;" 
 yet the work had at a very early period become extremely 
 scarce, and, in fact, had so totally disappeared that many 
 writers had begun to deny its existence. The Prologue to 
 the translation had, indeed, been repeatedly reprinted ; but 
 the translation itself had apparently become so rare that in 
 the Bible of 1537, edited by John Rogers, to whom Tyndale 
 is said to have given his manuscripts before his martyrdom, 
 Coverdale's translation of Jonah is printed ; Rogers being, it 
 is presumed, unable to procure a copy of Tyndale's. And 
 the last editor of Tyndale's works has even gone so far as to 
 maintain that Tyndale had merely written the Prologue, and 
 that there never was any translation of the book of the 
 prophet Jonah. ^ 
 
 In 1861, however. Lord Arthur Hervey, then Rector of 
 Ickworth, found in an old volume, which had been in the 
 possession of his family for upwards of two centuries, a 
 copy of the long-lost treatise, containing both the Prologue 
 and the translation, thus setting at rest the question which 
 had so long perplexed biographers. It is a little tract 
 of four-and-twenty leaves, with neither date, nor place, nor 
 name of printer annexed : the author of the work being 
 indicated, as in the Pentateuch, by the simple phrase, " W. T. 
 unto the Christian reader," prefixed to the Prologue. " The 
 type," says Mr. Fry, who has reproduced the book in facsimile, 
 " is the same as that used by Martin Lempereur in the Bible 
 in French, printed at Antwerp in 1530 ; " and as Tyndale was 
 at Antwerp in 1531, and as he employed Lempereur to print 
 for him, there seems no reasonable doubt that the Jonah 
 issued from the same press from which Tyndale's revised 
 New Testament proceeded in 1534.^ 
 
 The Prologue is of course directed against the great errors 
 of the day; but the reader seeks in vain for anything to 
 
 ' Professor Walter ; Parker Society edition of Tyndale's Works. 
 ' See Mr. Fry's Facsimile, Introductory Remarks. _ 
 
^98 PROLOGUE TO THE PROPHET JONAH. 
 
 justify the fierce condemnation of Sir Thomas More. All the 
 errors and abuses that prevailed had sprung, in Tyndale's view, 
 from one great cause ; Scripture had been depraved by 
 allegorical interpretations, and the laity were not permitted to 
 search and ascertain for themselves its true meaning. 
 
 "As the envious Philistines," says he, repeating one of 
 the old illustrations of Erasmus' Enchiridion, "stopped the 
 wells of Abraham, and filled them up with earth, to put the 
 memorial [recollection of them] out of mind, to the intent that 
 they might challenge the ground ; even so the fleshly- minded 
 hypocrites stop up the veins of life which are in the Scripture, 
 with the earth of their traditions, false similitudes, and lying 
 allegories ; and that of like zeal, to make the Scripture their 
 own possession and merchandise, and so shut up the kingdom 
 of heaven, which is God's Word ; neither entering in them- 
 selves, nor suffering them that would." 
 
 They had corrupted all parts of Holy Scripture, " the Law, 
 the Gospel, and the stories which it contained." "When the 
 hypocrites come to the Law, they put glosses to, and make 
 no more of it, than of a worldly law, which is satisfied with the 
 outward work, and which a Turk may also fulfil .... And 
 when they come to the Gospel, there they mingle their leaven 
 and say, 'God now receiveth us no more to mercy, but of 
 mercy receiveth us to penance,' that is to wit, holy deeds that 
 make them fat bellies and us their captives both in soul and 
 body. And yet they feign their idol the pope so merciful, 
 that if thou make a little money glitter in his Balaam's eyes, 
 there is neither penance nor purgatory nor any fasting at all, 
 but to flee to heaven as swift as a thought and at the 
 twinkling of an eye. And the lives, stories, and gests [deeds] 
 of men which are contained in the Bible, they read as things 
 no more pertaining unto them than a tale of Robin Hood, 
 and as things they wot not whereto they serve, save to feign 
 false descant and juggling allegories, to establish their kingdom 
 withal. And one the chiefest and fleshliest study they have, 
 is to magnify the saijits above measure and above the truth, 
 
PROLOGUE TO THE PROPHET JONAH. 399 
 
 and with their poetry to make them greater than ever God 
 made them. And if they find any infirmity or sin ascribed 
 unto the saints, that they excuse with all diligence, diminishing 
 the glory of the mercy of God, and robbing sinners of all their 
 comfort, and think thereby to flatter the saints, and to obtain 
 their favour, and to make special advocates of them, even as 
 a man would obtain the favour of worldly tyrants : as they 
 also feign the saints much more cruel than ever was any 
 heathen man, and more wreakful and vengeable than the 
 poets feign their gods or their furies that torment the souls 
 in hell, if their evens be not fasted, and their images visited 
 and saluted with a Pater noster (which prayer only our lips 
 be acquainted with, our hearts understanding it none at all), 
 and worshipped with a candle and the off"ering of our devotion, 
 in the place which they have chosen to hear the supplications 
 and meek petitions of their clients therein." ^ 
 
 There was, in the circumstances of the age, an obvious 
 reason for selecting the book of Jonah as peculiarly likely 
 to benefit his countrymen. To Tyndale it appeared that the 
 position of Nineveh when visited by the preacher of repent- 
 ance was strictly analogous to that of his own country, long 
 sunk in ignorance, and now summoned to hear and obey the 
 teaching of the Gospel; the only difference being that the 
 Ninevites had at once obeyed the preacher's invitation, while 
 the authorities in England seemed determined to offer the 
 most bitter opposition. Most earnestly, therefore, did he en- 
 treat his countrymen to repent, and so escape those penalties 
 which the indignation of God was sure to inflict upon the 
 impenitent. 
 
 " Since the world began wheresoever repentance was offered 
 and not received, there God took cruel vengeance immediately ; 
 as ye see in the flood of Noah, in the overthrowing of Sodom 
 and Gomorrah and all the country about ; and as ye see of 
 Egypt, of the Amorites, Canaanites, and afterwards of the 
 very Israelites ; and then at the last of the Jews too, and of 
 
 ' From Mr. Fry's Facsimile. 
 
300 PROLOGUE TO THE PROPHET JONAH. 
 
 the Assyrians and Babylonians, and so throughout all the 
 empires of the world. 
 
 " Gildas preached repentance unto the old Britons that 
 inhabited England: they repented not, and therefore God 
 sent in their enemies upon them on every side and destroyed 
 them up, and gave the land unto other nations. And great 
 vengeance hath been taken in that land for sin since that 
 time. Wickliffe preached repentance unto our fathers not 
 long since : they repented not, for their hearts were indurate 
 and their eyes blinded with their own pope-holy righteousness 
 wherewith they had made their souls gay against [for] the 
 receiving again of the wicked spirit that bringeth seven worse 
 than himself with him, and maketh the latter end worse than 
 the beginning ; for in open sins there is hope of repentance, 
 but in holy hypocrisy none at all. But what followed.' They 
 slew their true and right king [Richard II.] and set up three 
 wrong kings a-row [Henry IV., V., VI.], under which all the 
 noble blood was slain and half the commons thereto, what in 
 France, and what with their own sword, in fighting among 
 themselves for the crown, and the cities and towns decayed, 
 and the land [was] brought half into a wilderness in respect 
 of that it was before. 
 
 "And now Christ to preach repentance is risen yet once 
 again out of His sepulchre, in which the pope had buried Him 
 and kept Him down with his pillars^ and poleaxes and all 
 disguisings of hypocrisy, with guile, wiles, and falsehood, and 
 with the sword of all princes which he had blinded with his 
 false merchandise. And as I doubt not of the ensamples that 
 are past, so am I sure that great wrath will follow, except 
 repentance turn it back again and cease it." ^ 
 
 Tyndale still continued to prosecute his translation of the 
 Old Testament, but except a few detached fragments, no 
 more of his work was given to the world during his lifetime. 
 For another great idea had taken possession of his mind, and 
 
 ' Part of the insignia borne before the pope and his legates. 
 ^ From Fry's Facsimile. 
 
EXPOSITION OF FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 301 
 
 he was devoting all his energy to its accomplishment. " It is 
 not enough," he said, " to have translated, though it were the 
 whole Scripture, into the vulgar and common tongue, except 
 we also bring again the light to understand it by, and expel 
 that dark cloud which the hypocrites have spread over the face 
 of the Scripture, to blind the right sense and true meaning 
 thereof."^ With this purpose in view he had written his 
 Prologue to Jonah ; and in prosecution of the same purpose 
 he issued in September of this same year an Exposition of 
 the First Epistle of Saint John ; and, indeed, the greater part 
 of the years 1531 and 1533 was engrossed with the accom- 
 plishment of this new task. These expository works possess 
 very considerable merit, mainly, however, of a polemical kind ; 
 but, in spite of their constant clearness and their occasional 
 eloquence, one cannot help regretting that Tyndale was thus 
 withdrawn from his true function of a translator, in which he 
 stands unrivalled, to labours far less congenial to his capacity. 
 Upwards of two years were thus entirely, or almost entirely, 
 lost to the revision of his New Testament, which he had long 
 before promised, and which the Dutch printers were so 
 earnestly pressing upon him ; and the prosecution of his 
 labours on the Old Testament must have been for a time 
 almost completely arrested. 
 
 The Exposition of Saint John's Epistle is, probably, the 
 least striking of all Tyndale's works to a modern reader. The 
 constant interruption to the continuity of the subject was 
 unfavourable to that earnest and impetuous eloquence which 
 forms the chief charm in his other writings : and while no one 
 has laid down more clearly than Tyndale the true principle 
 of sound Scriptural interpretation, he has not carried his 
 principle into execution, in such a manner as to excite the 
 interest of readers accustomed to the elaborate expositions of 
 modern commentators. It is, accordingly, not those passages 
 that would in strictness of speech be styled expository which 
 arrest our attention ; but rather those in which Tyndale 
 
 ' Prologue to Exposition of I John, 
 
302 EXPOSITION OF FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 breaks out afresh on the old themes on which he was never 
 tired of descanting, and in which his reader never loses his 
 interest. On these the old fire burns as brightly as ever, 
 and his hand deals out as heavy blows on those who were 
 the unrelenting opponents of all attempts to enlighten and 
 reform the Church. 
 
 In a single sentence, he lays down with admirable suc- 
 cinctness the whole scope and purport of the Reformation 
 which he advocated : " We restore the Scripture unto her right 
 understanding [meaning] from your glosses, and we deliver 
 the sacraments and ceremonies unto their right use from your 
 abuse." 
 
 Sir Thomas More did not, of course, omit, in his Con- 
 futation, to censure Tyndale's Exposition, which he de- 
 clares to have been "in such wise expounded that I dare 
 say that blessed apostle [John], rather than his holy words 
 were in such a sense believed of all Christian people, had lever 
 [rather] his epistle had never been put in writing." And 
 Tyndale had, in truth, given fresh provocation to his old 
 adversary by repeating once more, in the most offensive 
 manner, the imputation against his honesty, which he had 
 already advanced in his Answer. " Love not the world," 
 the Apostle said, " nor the things that are in the world : if a 
 man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him ; " 
 and Tyndale, in his Exposition, thus comments upon these 
 words of St. John : — 
 
 " The love of the world quencheth the love of God ; Balaam, for 
 the love of the world, closed his eyes at the clear light which he well 
 saw. For love of the world the old Pharisees blasphemed the Holy 
 Ghost, and persecuted the manifest truth, which they could not improve 
 [disprove]. For love of the world many are this day fallen away ; and 
 many which stood on the truth's side, and defended it awhile, for love of 
 the world have gotten them unto the contrary part, and are become the 
 Antichrist of Rome's Mamelukes, and are waxen the most wicked enemies 
 unto the truth and most cruel against it. They know the truth, but they 
 love the world : and when they espied that the truth could not stand 
 with the honours which they sought in the world, they hated it deadly, 
 and both wittingly and willingly persecuted it, sinning against the Holy 
 
EXPOSITION OF FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 303 
 
 Ghost : which sin shall not escape here unpunished ; as it shall not be 
 without damnation in the world to come ; but shall have an end here with 
 confusion and shame, as had Judas Iscariot, the traitor. 
 
 "And if pride, covetousness, and lechery be the world, as St. John 
 saith, ' all that is in the world, as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, 
 and the pride of good, are not of the Father, but of the world,' then turn 
 your eyes unto the spiritualty, unto the Roman bishop, cardinals, bishops, 
 abbots, and all other prelates, and see whether such dignities be not the 
 world, and whether the way to them be not also the world ! To get the 
 old abbot's treasure, I think it be the readiest way to be the new. How 
 few come by promotion except they buy it, or serve long for it, or both ? 
 To be skilled in war, and in polling to maintain war and lusts, and to be 
 a good ambassador, is the only way to a bishopric ; or to pay truly for it. 
 See whether pluralities, unions [holding of many benefices], tot quots, and 
 changing the less benefice and bishoprick for the greater (for the contrary 
 change, I trow, was never seen), may be without covetousness and pride. 
 And then, if such things be the world, and the world not of God, how is our 
 spiritualty of God ? If pride be seeking of glory, and they that seek 
 glory cannot believe, how can our spiritualty beheve in Christ.' If 
 covetousness turn men from the faith, how are our spiritualty in the faith ? 
 If Christ, when the devil proffered Him the kingdoms of the world and 
 the glory thereof, refused them, as things impossible to stand with His 
 kingdom, which is not of the world; of whom are our spiritualty, which 
 have received them ? If covetousness be a traitor, and taught Judas to 
 sell his Master, how should he not in so long time teach our spiritualty 
 the same craft ? . . . The rich persecute the true believers. The rich 
 will never stand forth openly for the Word of God. If of ten thousand 
 there spring one Nicodemus, it is a great thing." 
 
 All the other topics which Tyndale had so often treated in 
 his former works are again introduced, and discussed, if not 
 with any fresh arguments, at least with unabated earnestness. 
 A single specimen will show that his hand had lost none of 
 its cunning : — 
 
 " To speak of worshipping of saints, and praying unto them, and of 
 that we make them our advocates well nigh above Christ, or altogether 
 [above Christ], though it require a long disputation, yet it is as bright as 
 the day to all that know the truth ; how that our fasting of their evens, 
 and keeping their holy days, going bare-foot, sticking up of candles in 
 the bright day, in the worshipping of them, to obtain their favour, our 
 giving them so costly jewels, offering into their boxes, clothing their 
 images, shoeing them with silver shoes with an ouch of crystal in the 
 midst, to stroke the lips and eyes of the ignorant, as a man would stroke 
 young children's heads to entice them and bring them in, and rock them 
 
304 EXPOSITION OF FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. 
 
 asleep in ignorance, are, with all like service, plain idolatry, that is, in 
 English, image-service. For the saints are spirits, and can have no 
 delectation in bodily things. And because those bodily deeds can be no 
 service unto the spiritual saints, and we do them not to be a service to 
 ourselves or our neighbours, we serve the work and the false imagination 
 of our fleshly wit, after the doctrine of man, and not of God, and are 
 image-servants. And this is it that Paul calleth servire elementis mundi 
 [to serve the elements of the world], to be in captivity under dumb cere- 
 monies and vain traditions of men's doctrine, and to do the work for the 
 work itself; as though God delighted therein, for the deed itself, without 
 all other respect [without regard to anything else]. 
 
 " But and [if] ye will know the true worshipping of saints, hearken unto 
 Paul, where he saith, ' Ye shine as lights in the world, holding fast the 
 word of life unto my glory (or worship), against the day of Jesus Christ, 
 that I have not run nor laboured in vain.' That is to wete, the worship 
 which all true saints now seek, and the worship that all the true 
 messengers of God seek this day, or ever shall seek, is to draw all to 
 Christ with preaching the true Word of God, and with the ensample of 
 pure living fashioned thereafter. Will ye therefore worship saints truly ? 
 Then ask what they preached, and believe their doctrine ; and as they 
 followed that doctrine, so conform your living like unto theirs : and that 
 shall be unto their high worship in the coming again of Christ (when all 
 men's deeds shall appear, and every man shall be judged, and receive his 
 reward, according unto his deeds), how that they not only, while they here 
 lived, but also after their death, with the ensample of their doctrine and 
 living, left behind in writing and other memorials, [served ?] unto the en- 
 sample of them that should follow them unto Christ, that were born five 
 hundred, yea, a thousand years after their death. This was their worship 
 in the spirit at the beginning, as they were spirits ; and lights were sticked 
 before their memorials at the beginning, to be a ceremony to put us in 
 remembrance that we so praised the saints, and boasted their livings, that 
 we followed their ensamples in our deeds ; as Christ saith, ' Let your 
 light so shine before men that they see your good works, and glorify your 
 Father that is in heaven.' For preaching of the doctrine, which is light, 
 hath but small effect to move the heart, if the ensample of living do 
 disagree. 
 
 " And that we worship saints for fear, lest they should be displeased 
 and angry with us, and plague us or hurt us, (as who is not afraid of St. 
 Laurence ? who dare deny St. Anthony a fleece of wool, for fear of his 
 terrible fire, or lest he send the pox among our sheep ?) is heathen image- 
 service, and clean against the first commandment, which is, 'Hear, Israel, 
 the Lord thy God is one God.' Now God in the Hebrew is called El, or 
 Elohim in the plural number, i.e., strength or might. So that the com- 
 mandment is. Hear, Israel, He that is thy power and might, thy sword 
 and shield, is but One ; that is, there is none of might to help or hurt thee, 
 save One, which is altogether thine, and at thy commandment, if thou 
 
EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN. 305 
 
 wilt hear His voice. And all other might in the world is borrowed of 
 Him : and He will lend no might against thee contrary to His promises. 
 Keep therefore His commandments, and He shall keep thee : and if thou 
 have broken them, and He have lent of His power against thee, repent 
 and come again unto thy profession ; and He will return again unto His 
 mercy, and fetch His power home again, which He lent to vex thee, 
 because thou forsookest Him and brakest His commandments. And fear 
 no other creature ; for false fear is the cause of all idolatry." 
 
 As in the case of most of his other works, almost every copy 
 of the original issue of the Exposition has perished. Only 
 one contemporary copy is known to exist, that in the library 
 of St. Paul's Cathedral ; and in it there is nothing to indicate 
 either time or place of publication, the title-page having been 
 destroyed. Sir Thomas More's notice, however, leaves no 
 doubt of the time, which, as we shall see, is sufficiently fixed 
 by one of Vaughan's letters ; and, as to the place, a careful 
 comparison with other books makes it equally certain that 
 the work was printed at Antwerp.^ 
 
 The same ancient copy contains also an Exposition of 
 the Second and Third Epistles of St. John, printed so as to 
 form one continuous whole, and with an index to them all as 
 one book. Evidence both internal and external has been 
 adduced against the authenticity of this Exposition of the 
 two latter Epistles; More, it is alleged, alludes only to the 
 Exposition of the First Epistle ; Foxe reprinted only this ; 
 Vaughan mentions only this ; and there are expressions in the 
 other Expositions which seem quite inconsistent with the 
 opinions repeatedly expressed by Tyndale. On the other 
 hand, Tunstal's Register mentions amongst the prohibited 
 books Tke Exposition of Tyndale, upon the Epistles Canonick 
 of Saint John ; ^ the later Expositions distinctly allude to 
 the preceding Exposition of the First Epistle ; and the 
 oldest copy of the work extant contains, as already noted, all 
 three Expositions evidently treated as parts of one book. 
 
 ^ On examining the copy in St. Paul's, I observed that there occurs at the end of 
 the Prologue a woodcut, which was subsequently used in an edition of the New 
 Testament printed at Antwerp. 
 
 ' See Religious Tract SocietyVFoxe ; Appendix to Vol. v. 
 
 X 
 
306 TYNDALE REMOVES FROM ANTWERP. 
 
 It is true that the later Expositions are very common-place ; 
 but there is nothing in the Epistles themselves to suggest any 
 of those topics on which Tyndale was likely to have expatiated 
 with his characteristic boldness and energy. On the whole, 
 therefore, it may be accepted as probable that Tyndale 
 expounded all the three Epistles;^ and we may fairly consider 
 this work as constituting his chief occupation in Antwerp 
 during the summer of 153 1. 
 
 But the leisure and security thus enjoyed in Antwerp were 
 very precarious. With such an envoy as Vaughan, he was 
 indeed safe from any violence on the part of England ; and 
 the rights and privileges of the great trading city were 
 sufficient to shield him from ordinary dangers : yet he knew 
 too well the sleepless animosity of his enemies, and his own 
 utter helplessness against any unforeseen combination of those 
 who were anxious for his apprehension. His safety was best 
 assured by that obscurity which had so long baffled the 
 ingenuity of his hunters ; and he seems accordingly to have 
 left Antwerp about the close of the year, and for some months 
 to have wandered up and down in Germany, with no definite 
 aim, probably, beyond that of throwing his persecutors off the 
 trail ; and yet, as we shall see, not even in this nomad condition 
 neglecting his great purpose of providing his countrymen 
 with true Expositions of Holy Scripture. 
 
 It was not without good reason that Tyndale left Antwerp 
 at this time. Henry seems, for some cause unknown, to have 
 changed his policy; Vaughan having proved impracticable, a 
 less scrupulous agent was now employed ; and the despatches 
 speak no longer oi persuading Tyndale to return to England 
 under a safe conduct, but of apprehettding him. Vaughan 
 
 ^ Professor Walter refers to the use of charity instead of love, and to an 
 air of mysticism in certain passages in the later Expositions as conclusive 
 against their authority. I do not wish to dogmatise ; but the arguments 
 given above seem to me to render the authenticity, to say the least, highly probable. 
 With these Expositions is also bound up an Exposition of St.Jude, which is, how- 
 ever, clearly in English, not Foreign, Black letter, and was probably written by some 
 one in England, and not till after Tyndale's death. 
 
ATTEMPTS TO SEIZE TYNDALE. 307 
 
 appears to have been in England during the autumn, probably 
 to receive fresh instructions regarding those mutual complaints 
 which were endangering the peace of England and Germany, 
 and perhaps also to enable Cromwell and Henry to judge 
 whether he was likely to aid them in their further designs 
 upon Tyndale. Vaughan's convictions, however, were too 
 deep to be shaken ; and another envoy. Sir Thomas Elyot, 
 a friend of Sir Thomas More, was intrusted with the ignoble 
 task of detecting and apprehending the Translator. Elyot's 
 achievements, however, belong to the following year, and will 
 come before us in due time ; the narrative of the present year 
 will close most appropriately with Vaughan's noble protest 
 2igainst the violent persecution that was raging in England. 
 
 After a long silence since June (explained by his visit to 
 London) he thus, in November, resumes his correspondence 
 with Cromwell :^ "I am informed that George Constantine 
 hath of late declared certain things against me before my 
 Lord Chancellor. If it be true, I pray you let me know what 
 things they be. Be you hereof assured, he can declare nothing 
 against me that is truth to hurt me. Peradventure he hath 
 declared that I spake with Tyndale. If so he have done, 
 what hath he therein declared that I myself have not signified 
 to the King's Highness } Peradventure he hath also declared 
 that I laboured Tyndale, upon the King's safe-conduct, to 
 come into England. This also I have signified to his 
 Highness. What other thing soever he hath declared against 
 me, being true, I care not for it ; if otherwise, Veritas liherabit. 
 I pray you let me have your letters [letter], to know whether 
 you have received my former three letters [all written since 
 his return from England] or otherwise." 
 
 A few days later, November 14th, he again writes to 
 Cromwell, sending along with his letter " another book lately 
 put out by William Tyndale, being An Exposition upon the 
 First Epistle of John" which he requested the secretary to 
 deliver into the hands of the King. Again adverting to the 
 
 ' Titus, B. 1.373: the letter alludes to his recent visit to London. 
 X 3 
 
308 VAUGHAN'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. 
 
 charges made against him, he protests, " I would to God that 
 the thoughts of my heart towards the honour of his Majesty- 
 might be by his Highness seen. Then should he right well 
 apperceive that whatsoever the world, either for malice or fear 
 of themselves, saith or shall report, I am a true and faithful 
 subject of his, and no otherwise, by God's grace, will be, 
 though my death were threatened thereby; yea, be you 
 further assured that no friendship, no promotion, no advance- 
 ment, no promise, no gifts, iinally, no earthly treasures or 
 persuasion can once bow my neck (though to look upon I am 
 but weak) or anything stir my mind and purpose to the 
 contrary." 
 
 Most of all, however, he commends to the notice of Henry 
 and Cromwell a book recently published by Barnes, of which 
 he sends a copy for their perusal, characterising it as " such 
 a piece of work as I yet have not seen one like unto it : I 
 think he shall seal it with his blood." With singular lack of 
 caution, he suggests to Cromwell that it would be a good 
 deed " to help that Doctor Barnes might declare the opinions 
 of his book before the King's Majesty." " Men's errors," he 
 continues, "in my poor judgment should from henceforth 
 cease, were it so that it might please the King's Majesty to 
 have that man examined both before his Highness and the 
 world, whereby his Grace should show himself seriously to 
 regard the truth of God's Word, and that his judges were 
 men virtuous, of good living, and of good learning, and 
 indifferent \i.e., impartial]. Thus doing, the matter were soon 
 tried and the people soon brought out of doubt : and what 
 better deed could his Majesty do than this? When any be 
 secretly examined the world murmureth, and hath thereby 
 cause to deem [judge] wrongfully. Behold the signs of the 
 world which be wondrous !"^ 
 
 Bold as these words were, they are completely eclipsed by 
 the honesty and courage of a subsequent letter, written from 
 Antwerp on the 6th of December, the very day when George 
 
 ' State Paper Office : this interesting letter has never been printed. 
 
VAUGHAN'S PROTEST AGAINST HENRY'S POLICY. 30^ 
 
 Constantine arrived there after his escape from prison in. 
 England. After acknowledging the receipt of some long- 
 expected despatches from Cromwell, he thus proceeds to 
 defend himself and to declare his opinions as to the state of 
 things in England : — 
 
 " And whereas in the same your letters among other things 
 therein contained you signify unto me the taking of George 
 Constantine, and the doubt which your friends putteth, that 
 the said George will accuse me [not] ^ only to be a fautor and 
 adherent to the Lutheran sect, but also to have given help for 
 and towards the setting forth of such books and works as be 
 erroneous and suspect : and therewith cease not, after your 
 accustomed manner, with many friendly, loving, earnest, and 
 discreet exhortations to move, stir, and persuade [me] to be 
 circumspect ; and clearly separating and alienating myself 
 from such sects and erroneous opinions, only to apply and 
 endeavour myself truly and unfeignedly to serve the King his 
 Majesty in such things as his Highness hath trustily com- 
 mended unto me in these parts ; promising me thereby the 
 increase of my laud, praise, and commendation, with other 
 things too long to write. 
 
 " To these things before rehearsed pleaseth it you benignly 
 to receive mine answer in these words following : If Con- 
 stantine have accused me to be of the Lutheran sect, a fautor 
 and setter forth of erroneous and suspected works, I do not 
 thereat mai-vel, for two causes specially. One is, for that my 
 Lord Chancellor, in his examination of the said George and 
 of all other men, as I am credibly informed, being brought 
 before him for cases of heresy, doth deeply inquire to know 
 what may be said of me; and in the examination thereof 
 showeth evident and clear desire in his countenance and 
 haviour to hear something of me whereby an occasion of evil 
 might be fastened against me ; which, no doubt, shall soon be 
 espied in the patient whom he examineth, who app[erceiving] 
 
 ' The words in brackets are supplied from conjecture, the MS. being burnt in 
 those places. 
 
3IO VAUGHAN RECOMMENDS CLEMENCY. 
 
 his desire in that behalf, and trusting, by accusing of me, to 
 scape and avoid his present danger, of pure frailty and 
 weakness spareth not to accuse the innocent. The other is, 
 for that George, besides the imminent peril and danger in 
 which he was, abiding prisoner in my lord's house, was 
 vehemently stirred and provoked, what with the remembrance 
 of his poor wife remaining here desperate, bewashed with 
 continual tears and pinched with hourly sorrow, sighs, and 
 mourning, and the sharp and bitter threatenings of his poor 
 [state] and condition, likely to be brought into an extreme 
 danger of poverty, [and] more hard than the first, by the 
 success [excess?] of his misery, to accuse whom they had 
 longed for, rather than to be tied by the leg with a cold and 
 [heavy] iron, like a beast — as appeared by the shift he made 
 to undo the same and escape such tortures and punishments. 
 Will not these perils, fears, punishments, make a son forget 
 the father which gat him ? and the mother that bare him and 
 fed him with her breasts ? If they will, who should [wonder] 
 though he would accuse me, a thousand times less dear unto 
 him than either father or mother, to rid him out of the same ? 
 "Would God it might please the King's Majesty to look 
 unto these kinds of punishment ; which, in my poor opinion, 
 threateneth a more hurt to his realm than those that be his 
 ministers to execute the same tortures and punishments do 
 think or conjecture ; and by [for] this reason only. It shall 
 constrain his subjects in great number to forsake his realm, 
 and to inhabit strange regions and countries, where they shall 
 not practise a little hurt to the same. Yea, and whereas they 
 think that tortures, punishments, and death shall be a mean to 
 rid the realm of erroneous opinions, and bring men in such 
 fear that they shall not once be so hardy [as] to speak or look : 
 be you assured, and let the King's Grace be thereof advertised 
 of my mouth, that his Highness shall duly approve [discover] 
 that in the end it shall cause the sect to wax greater, and 
 those errors to be more plenteously sowed in his realm than 
 ever afore. For who have so mightily sowed those errors as 
 
VAUGHAN RECOMMENDS CLEMENCY. 311 
 
 those persons which for fear of tortures and death have fled 
 his realm ? Shall they not, by driving men out of his realm, 
 make the rownt^ and company greater in strange countries, 
 and shall not many do more than one or two ? Shall not four 
 write where one wrote afore ? Counsel you the King's High- 
 ness, as his true subject, to look upon this matter, and no more 
 to trust to other men's policies, which threateneth, in mine 
 opinion, the weal of his realm ; and let me no longer be blamed 
 nor suspected for my true saying. That [what] I write I know 
 to be true; and daily do see the experience of that I now 
 write, which, between you and me, I have often said and 
 written, though peradventure you have little regarded it. But 
 tarry a while, and you will be learned by experience. I see it 
 begin already. 
 
 " To some men it shall seem by this my manner of writing, 
 that I being (as they suppose, and as I have been falsely 
 accused to be) one of the sect, do write in this manner because 
 I would that both I and the same sect should be suffered with- 
 out punishment. Nay truly; but rather I would that an evil- 
 doer should be charitably punished, and in such manner as he 
 might thereby be rather won with other than lost with a great 
 many. And let his Majesty be further assured that he shall 
 with no policy, nor with no threatenings of tortures and 
 punishments take away the opinions of his people till his Grace 
 shall fatherly and lovingly reform the clergy of his realm. 
 For there springeth the opinion. From thence riseth the 
 grudge of his people ; out of that take and find men occasions 
 to complain. If I say truth, let it be for such received. If 
 otherwise, I protest before God and the world that whatsoever 
 I here write I mean therein nothing but the honour, glory, and 
 surety of my only Prince and Sovereign, and the public weal 
 of his realm. And as to myself and the fame and opinion of 
 [by] some men had of me, let all men know, whatsoever the 
 world babble of me, that I am neither Lutheran nor Tyndalian 
 
 ^ This word does not occnr, so far as .1 know, in any dictionary or glossary of 
 the English language ; it seems equivalent to the old rout or rabble. 
 
312 VAUGHAN RECOMMENDS CLEMENCY. 
 
 [Tyndalyn in MS.] ; nor have them or any other, or esteem 
 them any other for my gods, nor for the persons in whom or 
 in whose learning I have any trust; nor yet do trust in the 
 doctrine and learning of any earthly creature : for all men be 
 liars, in quantum homines, as Scripture saith \i.e., as for men, 
 they are deceitful] ; and again maledictus qui confidit in homine 
 \i.e., cursed is he who putteth his trust in man]. Christ's 
 Church hath admitted me a learning sufficient and infallible, 
 and by Christ taught, which is the Holy Scripture; let the 
 world brawl, I am sure to have none other. I find not myself 
 deceived, nor I trust shall be. As the world goeth, men's 
 learnings are not to be trusted ; God's learning cannot deceive 
 [me, if] that I embrace it humbly and with reverence. His 
 learning is an only truth in the world ; and among men, 
 besides that, is there found no truth, but the contrary, sin, 
 untruth, corruption, and wretchedness. 
 
 " And as to my truth to my Prince and Sovereign, and my 
 service towards his Grace, be not afraid, nor think that any 
 worldly thing can corrupt my mind or move my body or any 
 member thereof, once to think or do any manner of thing that 
 shall not both become a Christian man and also a true and 
 faithful subject to his Prince. If I were of another sort, and 
 as the more part are, I might by chance obtain more favour. 
 But whatsoever I do or shall do to my Prince I do it not for 
 any reward, nor thereby seek reward, which with half an eye 
 ye may apperceive ; and whether I be rewarded or not 
 rewarded it is all ones to me, I will nevertheless do my duty : 
 God hath eyes to see; and His reward prepared, and will 
 prepare a living for me wheresoever I be come, no less 
 than He doth for those His creatures which neither sow 
 nor mow. I am unkindly handled to have such sharp inquisi- 
 tions made of me in mine absence ; I am unkindly handled 
 for my service. Such stripes and bitter rewards would [make] 
 faint and make weak the heart of some men towards their 
 Prince : but I am the stronger because I know my truth, 
 and am at defiance with all men pretending the contrary. 
 
VAUGHAN RECOMMENDS CLEMENCY. 313 
 
 What should I be longer in declaring my mind ? Receive you 
 the sum thereof in short words. I will not be untrue to my 
 Prince, though he were the odiablest [most odious] person of 
 his realm, though his governance were such as should offend 
 both heaven and [earth]. As his Grace is the very contrary, 
 most noble, gracious, benign, and .... am I not commanded 
 by God to be obedient to my Prince.? Do I not by the 
 contrary break God's ordinance? Am I ignorant in these 
 things, supposeth the world, [whose] eyes are covered with 
 ambition, dissimulation, and such like.' I can no longer 
 forbear, but show you my mind ; it pierceth my heart with 
 a deadly wound when I hear that I am otherwise meant. 
 I had much rather forsake my natural country, my most 
 dear friends and family, and wander into some strange 
 region and country, there to lead the rest of my short life 
 than thus to be handled for my true service and good 
 mind ; considering that truth hath no better estimation, 
 
 is so much standeth in such danger, and is so vilely 
 
 reputed. 
 
 "I hear everywhere how diligently my Lord Chancellor 
 inquireth of all those he examineth in cases of heresy, for 
 me — what are my manners^ my opinions, my conversation, my 
 faith; finally, what is my life ent . . . . [entirely?]. And 
 besides him there be other deputed for such like examinations, 
 which also make like inquisitions. Wherefore take they so 
 great pains? what think they to hear? or what think they 
 that I am less than they ? As concerning my creation, a man, 
 a sinner, a vessel conceived in sin, finally a wretched creature, 
 barren and devoid of goodness : and this might they consider, 
 without so great painstaking. Who so miserable a creature 
 as I am? beholding himself to be threatened with men so 
 .... and puissant would not think himself to be in great 
 danger? Who so unkindly and unchristianly entreated 
 may not wofully sing the verses painted in your stained 
 cloth, resembling [i.e., representing] the evertion [overthrow] 
 of Italy, changing the feminine into the masculine : — 
 
314 VAUGHAN'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. 
 
 ' Et sola et mediis herens in fluctibus, ecce ! 
 Me miseram quantis undique pressa malis.' ' 
 
 " I see there is no remedy but I must depart out of this 
 country. I am here suspected above all men. I would it 
 might please his Grace to license me to come into his realm, 
 and no longer to be here occupied in these things which so 
 dangerously threaten my displeasure [discomfort]. I shall 
 be contented to live in a corner of his realm, far from the 
 company of men, and there to pass the residue of my short 
 time. I have too much laboured in truth. My policies have 
 been here divers; my conversation amongst men, like unto 
 theirs ; amongst Christians, I have been a Christian ; amongst 
 Jews, like to them ; amongst Lutherans, a Lutheran also. 
 What can I here do without such policy? Shall such 
 policies hurt me, because I used them to compass other 
 things? Then, either think they that they sent a fool, or 
 me constrain they to think, that they have no discreet 
 perseverance. 
 
 " Another thing that most grieveth me is this, that by this 
 mean I should [i.e., am likely to] lose a most dear friend and 
 special good master of you, as I have been lately informed, 
 and that you have excused you to the King's Majesty for me 
 \i.e., for recommending me], and showed to him that you are 
 very sorry that ever you commended or advanced me to his 
 Majesty — considering that I am of such sort as I am, and 
 that you were greatly deceived by me — supposing that I had 
 been far otherwise disposed than I now am. Thus saith my 
 Lord Chancellor, and so it is reported to me, of his mouth. 
 If you have so done, then again increase my troubles into a 
 more bitter passion than ever ; and think not but whatsoever 
 you have said, or shall say, have done, or shall do, it cannot 
 yet turn my heart from you, of whom I have received far 
 greater pleasures than these displeasures. But rather I will 
 owe you all my powers (besides that part which longeth to 
 
 ' i. e., Alone and in the midst of the waves, behold with how great evils I, wretch 
 that I am, am on all sides overwhelmed ! 
 
VAUGHAN'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. 315 
 
 God) while I live, and will not be driven from you, though 
 my body should extremely suffer. I speak it not feignedly, 
 intending by such colour and manner of writing to win your 
 favour, or to gape for your gift, having no need thereof; nor, 
 God willing, shall have, being right able, partout, as the 
 Frenchman saith, to get my living. But I declare, by this 
 my writing unto you, the earnest meaning of my heart, and 
 that thereunto your exceeding merits have before drawn 
 me, nolens volens. Here leave I to write any farther of 
 this matter, till I hear either from you or some other my 
 friends. 
 
 " Master Elyot, the king's ambassador [the envoy com- 
 missioned to entrap Tyndale], this day sent me a letter from 
 Toumay with another enclosed to you, wherein I think he 
 desires you to be a solicitor to the King's Majesty and to his 
 honourable Council for him, that he may from time to time 
 have answer of his letters, and be made thereby more able to 
 do the King honour in these parts. It is not well done that 
 he should be so long without letters, considering his little ex- 
 perience in these parts, who, in short time, in mine opinion, 
 
 would do right well if he were a little holpen George 
 
 Constantine came to Antwerp after his breaking from my 
 Lord Chancellor, the sixth day of December. With him nor 
 with none other such, will I meddle or have to do, considering 
 that I am beaten with mine own labours." ^ 
 
 The mysterious silence of the authorities at home, who 
 seemed to receive communication after communication from 
 their diplomatic agents abroad without deigning any acknow- 
 ledgment, still continued. Even this despatch from Vaughan, 
 plain spoken enough, one would have supposed, to have 
 drawn from Henry and Cromwell an immediate reply, and 
 perhaps a sharp reprimand, was treated with the same incom- 
 prehensible reserve. Once more, therefore, and for the last 
 
 ' Cotton MSS., Galba, B. x. pp. 21, etc. I omit the rest of the letter, which 
 contains an elaborate account of the visit of the Emperor Charles to Tournay a few 
 days before. 
 
3i6 VAUGHAN'S DEFENCE OF HIS CONDUCT. 
 
 time Vaughan addresses Cromwell on the subject of his 
 dealing with Tyndale and the imputations in which he had 
 been involved. "Divers and [many letters I] have written 
 and sent to you, trusting again to receive yours, but hith[erto, 
 since] my coming out of England, I have but only received 
 one letter from you, [which] causeth me not so often to write 
 as I would. Wherefore when it shall stand with your pleasure, 
 
 I humbly desire you to have memory of me 
 
 " I hear of divers, as well men as women of the Lutheran 
 sect, whose persons nor names I know not, nor will know, to 
 be fled out of England for fear of punishment, and that lately, 
 bringing with them all that ever they can make : so that by 
 this means it is likely that new Tyndales shall spring or worse 
 than he. I am unwise thus to write, being so unkindly en- 
 treated in England in examinations, so that it seemeth that 
 my poor [house], my body, and finally my life, standeth only 
 in the untrue reports of any evil disposed person within the 
 King's realm ; which being examined of me, will by chance 
 evomit or spit out any venom against me, whereby he may 
 trust to scape himself Doth such unkindness, trow you, 
 move me to use any policy with these manner of people, or 
 to go about anything which by chance might either help or 
 [ease] ? Nay, truly ; but much rather I am utterly determined 
 from henceforth, never to intermeddle or to have communi- 
 cation with any one of them ; but shall rather give place to 
 some other man, which peradventure shall have better luck 
 than I hitherto have had ; whom they go about thus unkindly 
 to threaten, beat, rend, and tear for my service. I marvel of 
 their exceeding thrist \i.e,, thirst] to bring me in danger, 
 which never offended them. What Job could here have 
 patience ? What mind so quiet, would not here be troubled .-' 
 Let their manners, their behaviours, their meanings, their 
 communications, their companies, their opinions, their conver- 
 sations, the orders of their livings in all things, be as nearly 
 examined as mine; as subtilly searched and tried as mine; 
 by so many sundry persons as mine; and what think you 
 
VAUGHAN'S SYMPATHY WITH TYNDALE. 317 
 
 they shall be found innocents ? Nay, nocentes [i.e., guilty] ; 
 yea worse, peradventure, than he of whom they so greedily 
 examine. I would they all, which so greedily examine, did 
 know, I am no heretic, nor for them all will be made one. 
 I neither have so corrupt a mind, so evil a conscience, nor so 
 little understanding as it seemeth they would I had, which 
 seek ways to destroy the innocent. I pray God amend them. 
 If in any part of this my writing I have erred or offended, 
 I ask thereof pardon, my passion is so great I cannot resist."^ 
 Vaughan was evidently alarmed by the proceedings in 
 England ; he had protested with rare boldness against that 
 mistaken policy of violence and persecution which Henry was 
 pursuing, or permitting to be pursued ; he admired Tyndale, 
 and sympathised with the popular desire for a reformation of 
 the clergy; but he was not prepared to expose himself to 
 further danger by openly identifying himself with the cause of 
 the persecuted. He disapproved entirely of the crusade insti- 
 gated by More and the bishops against the English Reformers ; 
 but he was, as he himself said, neither a Lutheran nor a Tyn- 
 dalian. Tyndale was secure from any violent or dishonourable 
 proceeding on the part of Vaughan ; but the kind-hearted 
 and high-souled envoy was only almost, not altogether per- 
 suaded to adopt the opinions of the great Translator. We 
 cannot doubt but that Tyndale deeply appreciated the 
 sympathy which Vaughan had so evidently felt for his 
 unworthy treatment ; and we readily own to a deep debt of 
 gratitude to the official, whose kindness comforted the heart 
 of the noble martyr in his exile, and whose writings have 
 preserved for posterity such genuine and picturesque glimpses 
 of the personal history of the Reformer. 
 
 1 Cotton MSS., Galba B. x. p. 26. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ATTEMPTS TO SEIZE TYNDALE : HIS RENEWED WAN- 
 DERINGS : CONTINUED LITERARY LABOURS : FRYTH 
 ARRESTED AND MARTYRED IN ENGLAND : TYNDALE'S 
 LETTERS TO FRYTH : HIS FINAL REMOVAL TO ANTWERP. 
 
 A.D. 1532—1533- 
 
 The position of Tyndale in those days of ill-defined inter- 
 national law was at once anomalous and dangerous. An 
 exile from "England, he was still a subject of Henry; and, 
 had there been any good understanding between the English 
 King and the Emperor, Tyndale might have been seized 
 and delivered into the hands of his own monarch to be dealt 
 with according to law. Fortunately for Tyndale, the friendly 
 feeling, which had for many years subsisted between two 
 sovereigns allied by marriage and a common policy, had been 
 converted into mutual jealousy, by the agitation of Henry's 
 divorce. In these circumstances Charles was not likely to 
 lend any aid towards the apprehension of Tyndale; but 
 might rather be expected to protect one who was an 
 annoyance to his rival. At the same time it was perfectly 
 competent for Henry, by force or by fraud, to gain possession 
 of this exiled subject, whose writings made him so formidable 
 a power in England. In spite, therefore, of the growing dis- 
 sensions between Henry and the Emperor, which threatened 
 every day to break out into open warfare, Tyndale knew that 
 it was necessary to use every precaution in order to secure 
 his personal safety. We have seen the care which he exer- 
 cised in concealing his residence even from an envoy so 
 friendly as Vaughan ; and as he was probably not uninformed 
 
ELYOT ORDERED TO SEIZE TYNDALE. 319 
 
 of the change which had come over Henry's intentions towards 
 him, he had no resource left but to defeat all further violence 
 by eluding observation. This was not on the whole very 
 difficult to do ; and that Tyndale was perfectly successful, will 
 be apparent from the despatch of the agent, to whom the 
 odious task of apprehending him had been entrusted. Sir 
 Thomas Elyot, for whom Vaughan had entreated Crom- 
 well's sympathy, had at length received instructions from 
 Henry, and cheered by this recognition into an outburst 
 of grateful loyalty, he thus writes from Ratisbon, where he 
 had gone, in the company of Cranmer, not yet archbishop, to 
 be present at the assembly of the German Diet : — ^ 
 
 " My duty remembered, with most humble thanks unto 
 your Grace [that it] pleased you so benevolently to remember 
 me unto the King's High[ness], concerning my return into 
 England. Albeit the King willeth me by [his] Grace's letters, 
 to remain at Brussels some space of time for the apprehension 
 of Tyndale, which somewhat minisheth my hope of soon 
 return : considering that like as he is in wit movable, semblably 
 so is his person uncertain to come by : and as far as T can 
 perceive, hearing of the King's diligence in the apprehension of 
 him, he withdraweth him into such places where he thinketh 
 to be farthest out of danger. In me there shall lack none 
 endeavour. Finally, as I am all the King's except my soul, 
 so shall I endure all that shall be his pleasure, employing my 
 poor life gladly, in that which may be to his honour or wealth 
 of his realm. 
 
 " Pleaseth it your Grace, according as I have written to the 
 King's Highness, the Emperor being yet sore grieved with 
 a fall from his horse, keepeth himself so close that Mr. Cranmer 
 and I can have none access to his majesty, which almost 
 grieveth me as much as the Emperor's fall grieveth him. I 
 
 ' Vitellius, B. XXI. fol. 58 of the new notation. The despatch is addressed to 
 the Duke of Norfolk : he had previously written to the King, but that despatch, 
 like most of those so addressed, has not yet been recovered. The words in brackets 
 are, as usual, supplied from conjecture, the MS. being burnt in those places. 
 
3ao ELYOT'S LETTER FROM RATISBON. 
 
 have promised to the King to write to your Grace the order 
 of things in the town of Nurenburg specially concerning the 
 faith \i.e., an account of the religious practices observed by 
 the Reformed]. But first I will rehearse some other towns, 
 as they lay in our way. The city of Worms [Tyndale's 
 former residence] for the more part and almost the whole, 
 is possessed with Lutherans and Jews ; the residue is indifferent 
 to be shortly the one or the other. Truth it is that the bishop 
 keepeth well his name of Episcopus, which is in English an 
 overseer ; and is in the case that overseers of testaments be 
 in England ; for he shall have leave to look so that he meddle 
 not. Yet sometime men calleth him overseen, that is, drunk, 
 when he neither knoweth what he doeth, nor what he ought 
 to do. The city of Spires, as I hear say, keepeth yet their 
 faith well, except some say, there be many do err in taking so 
 largely this article, sanctorum communionem \i.e., the com- 
 munion of saints], which hath induced more charity than 
 may stand with honesty [in fact, as he goes on to describe, 
 the inhabitants were rather free and easy in their conduct ; 
 or, as the marginal note expresses it, " the city was full of 
 wantonness"]. All towns ensuing be rather worse than 
 better; but I pass them over at this time. Touching Nuren- 
 burg, it is the most proper town, and best-ordered public 
 weal that ever I beheld. . . . Although I had a chaplain, yet 
 could not I be suffered to have him to sing mass, but was 
 constrained to hear theirs, which is but one in a church, and 
 that is celebrated in form following. The priest, in vestments 
 after our manner, singeth every thing in Latin as we use, 
 omitting suffrage ; the Epistle he readeth in Latin. In the 
 meantime the subdeacon goeth into the pulpit, and readeth to 
 the people the Epistle in their vulgar. After, they peruse 
 other things as our priests do. Then the priest readeth softly 
 the Gospel in Latin ; in the mean space the deacon goeth into 
 the pulpit and readeth aloud the Gospel in the Almayne [i.e., 
 German] tongue. Mr. Cranmer said it was showed to him 
 that in the Epistles and Gospels they kept not the order that 
 
FAILURE OF ELYOT'S EFFORTS. 331 
 
 we do, but do peruse every day one chapter of the New 
 Testament: afterwards the priest and the choir do sing the 
 Credo as we do." 
 
 The rest of Elyot's letter does not concern us, and need not 
 be quoted ; the description of Nuremberg has been given 
 mainly because it is believed that Tyndale himself visited that 
 quaint old-fashioned city not very long after the envoy had 
 left it. Elyot's attempts to apprehend Tyndale were perfectly 
 futile ; he tried, by bribery, to ascertain the Reformer's lurking- 
 place, but in vain ; and the only other despatch in which he 
 makes any allusion to this part of his commission is written 
 in a tone of mortified disappointment, which the reader 
 will probably not peruse without a smile of malicious satisfac- 
 tion. Writing to Cromwell in the month of November of this 
 same year, 1533, he bursts out into a vein of extravagant 
 flattery eminently characteristic of the man. 
 
 "When I first heard that his Grace intended to pass the 
 seas," says he, "fear of the great adventure of his most royal 
 person so attacked my heart [it was of a voyage across the 
 Channel from Dover to Boulogne that the envoy speaks in 
 these exaggerated words], that since, unto this day, it hath 
 bereft me the more part of my sleep." He had been comforted, 
 however, and his sleep had been restored to him by the joyful 
 intelligence of Henry's safe return from the prodigious voyage 
 of thirty miles, " of which," says he, with incredible fawning, 
 " I was more glad than of anything that ever happened unto 
 myself." Having thus attempted to propitiate the favour 
 of Cromwell, he proceeded to what was the real purpose of his 
 letter, to complain that in his embassy abroad he had spent 
 far more money than he had received, and had seriously 
 run into debt. " I gave many rewards," he adds, enumerat- 
 ing the various sources of his losses, "partly to the emperor's 
 servants to get knowledge, partly to such as by whose means 
 T trusted to apprehend Tyndale, according to the Kin^s com- 
 mandment." ^ 
 
 ^ Chapter-house Papers, Vol. x. 
 Y 
 
3aa EXPOSITION of 
 
 Tyndale was still earnestly bent on the prosecution of his 
 great design of providing his countrymen with an exposition of 
 Holy Scripture, free from the allegorical fancies and the 
 traditional interpretations which had so long obscured the 
 true meaning. His Exposition of the Epistles of St. John 
 had already appeared in 1531 ; and this year he issued a 
 further and far more important instalment, an Exposition of 
 the Sermon on the Mount; a sermon which he truly declares 
 to be " the key and the door of the Scripture, and the re- 
 storing again of Moses' law corrupt by Scribes and Pharisees," 
 as the Exposition was " the restoring again of Christ's law 
 corrupt by the papists." ^ These words, which formed the 
 title prefixed to the Exposition, sufficiently indicate the 
 polemical tone which was likely to predominate in the book. 
 It was in those days unhappily inevitable, that every ex- 
 position of Scripture must be more or less controversial. 
 It is so at every period of Reformation, at every epoch when 
 the human mind, long bound down by tradition and authority, 
 dares to assert its own freedom and independence. In Tyn- 
 dale's own phraseology, "the Scribes and Pharisees, those 
 wicked and spiteful Philistines, had stopped and filled up the 
 wells of Abraham with the earth of their false expositions .... 
 with the thorns and bushes of their Pharisaical glosses they 
 had stopped up the narrow way and strait gate [so] that few 
 could find them." Christ had in His ministry "digged again 
 the wells of Abraham," and "weeded out the thorns and 
 bushes," amidst manifold opposition and condemnation from 
 the great dignities in Church and State of His day ; and now 
 once more the same function fell to be performed by Tyndale 
 and others who had penetrated through all obstacles to the 
 living wells of Scripture. 
 
 This consideration has been too much overlooked by those 
 who take umbrage at the strong polemical tone which pervades 
 the writings of the Reformers. In an age of unfettered 
 
 ' Such is the title on what I believe to be a copy of the original edition. 
 
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. ^25 
 
 liberty of speech, an expositor may perhaps appropriately 
 develop his own views of Scriptural interpretation without 
 attacking those of others ; but at a time when no liberty of 
 speech was tolerated, when by Imperial edict any man in the 
 Low Countries who wrote or printed any book on any subject 
 whatever without licence from the authorities, that is to say, 
 from the bishop, was exposed to the penalty of a public 
 whipping, and was, besides, to be branded or to lose an eye at 
 the discretion of the judge ; ^ when in England any one who 
 dared to impugn the teaching of the Church in any particular, 
 in public or in private, or who presumed to read any so-called 
 heretical book or even the Holy Scriptures in English, did so 
 at the peril of his goods, his freedom, or his life : at such a 
 time every exposition which was not merely the repetition 
 of the old traditional shibboleths was of necessity polemical. 
 
 Tyndale's Exposition on the Sermon of the Mount is the 
 ablest of all his expository works, distinguished by all his 
 customary clearness, and by a breadth and liberality of view 
 which some writers seem not to have recognised as existing 
 amongst the early Reformers. But of these characteristics 
 Tyndale's own words are better proofs than any assertions of 
 a biographer. 
 
 As in some of his previous works, we can discover in the 
 Exposition traces of the influence of his great German con- 
 temporary. In this same year, 1533, Luther had published 
 in German expository sermons on the same theme, and it 
 is quite clear that Tyndale was acquainted with Luther's 
 work, and used it in the composition of his own Exposition. 
 George Joye, indeed, in his spiteful Apology, declares that 
 Tyndale was wont to praise his own Exposition in such ex- 
 travagant language that his "ears glowed for shame to hear 
 him," whilst it was in reality " Luther that made it, Tyndale 
 only but translating and powdering it here and there with his 
 own fantasies ; " ^ but on this point we are able to judge 
 
 ' Brandt's History of the Reformation in the Low Countries. 
 ' Joye's Apology : Arber's reprint, p. 42. 
 Y a 
 
324 EXPOSITION OF 
 
 for ourselves by comparing the two treatises; and a careful 
 examination shows that while occasional verbal coincidences 
 occur, sufficient to demonstrate that Tyndale had Luther's 
 German work before him as he wrote, there is no real 
 foundation for Joye's ill-natured insinuation. 
 
 The tone of the work is sufficiently indicated in the following 
 paragraphs from the Prologue : — 
 
 "The Church of Christ is the multitude of all them that believe in 
 Christ for the remission of sin ; and of a thankfulness for that mercy, love 
 the law of God purely and without glosses ; and, of hate they have to the 
 sin of this world, long for the life to come. This is the Church that 
 cannot err damnably ; nor any long time ; nor all of them : but as soon 
 as any question ariseth, the truth of God's promise stirreth up one or other 
 to teach them the truth of everything needful to salvation out of God's 
 Word ; and lighteneth the hearts of the other true members to see the 
 same, and to consent thereto. ... To believe in Christ's blood for the 
 remission of sin, and purchasing of all the good promises that help to the 
 life to come ; and to love the law ; and to long for the life to come ; is the 
 inward baptism of the soul, the baptism that only \i.e., alone] availeth in 
 the sight of God ; the new generation \i.e., new birth] and image of 
 Christ ; the only key also to bind and loose sinners ; the touchstone to 
 try all doctrines ; the lantern and light that scattereth and expelleth the 
 mist and darkness of all hypocrisy, and a preservative against all error 
 and heresy ; the mother of all good works ; the earnest of everlasting life, 
 and title whereby we challenge our inheritance. ... If thou wilt be sure 
 that thy faith be perfect, then examine thyself whether thou love the law. 
 And in like manner, if thou wilt know whether thou love the law aright, 
 then examine thyself whether thou believe in Christ only for the remission 
 of sin, and obtaining the promises made in the Scripture. And even so, 
 compare thy hope of the life to come unto faith and love, and to hating the 
 sin of this Ufe ; which hate the love to the law engendereth in thee. And 
 if they accompany not one another, all three together, then be sure that 
 all is but hypocrisy."^ 
 
 Many isolated passages might be selected from the Expo- 
 sition which would admirably illustrate the various features 
 exhibited in the work ; the reader will, however, prefer to see 
 a continuous extract, as a more genuine representation of its 
 general character and execution. The following is, therefore, 
 selected as a fair specimen of Tyndale's style as an expositor : — 
 
 ' Tyndale's Eitpositions, pp. 12-14. 
 
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 325 
 
 St. Matthew v. 13. 
 
 " ' Ye be the salt of the earth : but if the salt be waxen unsavoury, what 
 can be salted therewith ? It is henceforth nothing worth, but to be cast 
 out, and to be trodden under foot of men.' 
 
 " The office of an apostle and true preacher is to salt, not only the 
 corrupt manners and conversation of earthly people, but also the rotten 
 heart within, and all that springeth out thereof : their natural reason, their 
 will, their understanding and wisdom ; yea, and their faith and behef, and 
 all that they have imagined without God's Word concerning righteousness, 
 justifying, satisfaction and serving of God. And the nature of salt is to 
 bite, fret, and make smart. And the sick patients of the world are 
 marvellous impatient, so that, though with great pain they can suffer their 
 gross sins to be rebuked under a fashion, as in a parable afar off ; yet, to 
 have their righteousness, their holiness, and serving of God and His saints, 
 disallowed, improved \i.e., disproved], and condemned for damnable and 
 devilish, that may they not abide : insomuch that thou must leave thy 
 salting or else be prepared to suffer again ; even to be called a railer, 
 seditious, a maker of discord, and a troubler of the common peace ; yea, a 
 schismatic, and an heretic also ; and to be lied upon, that thou hast done 
 and said that thou never thoughtest, and then to be called coram nobis 
 [before us, i.e., to be summoned for trial], and to sing a new song [recant], 
 and forswear salting, or else to be sent after thy fellows that are gone 
 before, and the way thy Master went. 
 
 " True preaching is a salting that stirreth up persecution ; and an office 
 that no man is meet for, save he that is seasoned himself before with 
 poverty in spirit, softness, meekness, patience, mercifulness, pureness of 
 heart, and hunger of righteousness, and looking for persecution also ; and 
 hath all his hope, comfort, and solace in the blessing only, and in no 
 worldly thing. 
 
 " Nay, will some say, a man might preach long enough without 
 persecution, yea, and get favour too, if he would not meddle with the 
 pope, bishops, prelates, and holy ghostly people \i.e., monks] that live in 
 contemplation and solitariness, nor with great men of the world. I answer, 
 tme preaching is salting ; and all that is corrupt must be salted : and 
 those persons are of all other most corrupt, and therefore may not be left 
 untouched. 
 
 " The pope's pardons must be rebuked ; the abuse of the mass, of the 
 sacraments, and of all the ceremonies, must be rebuked and salted. And 
 selling of merits, and of prayers, must be salted. The abuse of fasting 
 and of pilgrimage must be salted. All idolatry and false faith must be 
 rebuked. And those friars that teach men to believe in St. Francis' coat, 
 how that they shall never come in hell or purgatory, if they be buried 
 therein, may not be passed over with silence. 
 
 " The pain and grief of salting made monks fiee to their cloister. Nay 
 (say they), we went thither of pure devotion to pray for the people. Yea, 
 
336 EXPOSITION OF 
 
 but for all that, the more ye increase, and the more ye multiply your 
 prayers, the worse the world is. That is not our fault (say they), but 
 theirs ; that they dispose not themselves, but continue in sin, and so are 
 unapt to receive the influence of our prayers. O hypocrites ! if ye were 
 true salt and had good hearts and loved your neighbours (if dead men be 
 neighbours to them that are ahve), and would come out of your dens, and 
 take pain to salt and season them, ye should make a great many of them 
 so apt that your prayers might take effect. But now seeing, as ye say, 
 they be so unsavoury that your prayers be to them unprofitable, though 
 their goods be to you profitable, and yet ye have no compassion to come 
 out and salt them, it is manifest that ye love not them, but theirs ; and 
 that ye pray not for them, but, under the colour of praying, mock them 
 and rob them. 
 
 " Finally, salt, which is the true understanding of the law, of faith, and 
 of the intent of all works, hath in you lost her virtue ; neither be there 
 any so unsavoury in the world as ye are, nor any that so sore kick 
 against true salting as ye : and therefore are ye to be cast out, and 
 trodden under foot, and despised of all men, by the righteous judgment of 
 God. 
 
 " ' If salt have lost its saltness, it is good for nothing but to be trodden 
 under foot of men.' That is, if the preacher, which for his doctrine is 
 called salt, have lost the nature of salt, that is to say, his sharpness in 
 rebuking all unrighteousness, all natural reason, natural wit and under- 
 standing, and all trust and confidence in whatsoever it be, save in the 
 blood of Christ ; he is condemned of God, and disallowed of all them that 
 cleave to the truth. In what case stand they then that have benefices 
 and preach not? Verily, though they stand at the altar, yet are they 
 excommunicate and cast out of the living Church of Almighty God. 
 
 ' And what if the doctrine be not true salt ? Verily then is it to be 
 trodden under foot ; as must all wearish \i-e., tasteless] and unsavoury 
 ceremonies which have lost their significations, and not only teach not, 
 and are become unprofitable and do no more service to man ; but also 
 have obtained authority as God in the heart of man, that man serveth 
 them, and putteth in them the trust and confidence that he should put in 
 God his Maker through Jesus Christ his redeemer. Are the institutions 
 of man better than God's? Yea, are God's ordinances better now than in 
 the old time ? The prophets trod under foot, and defied the temple of 
 God, and the sacrifices of God, and all ceremonies that God had ordained, 
 with fastings and prayings, and all that the people perverted and committed 
 idolatry with. We have as strait a commandment, to salt and rebuke all 
 ungodliness, as had the prophets. Will they then have their ceremonies 
 honourably spoken of? Then let them restore them to the right use, and 
 put the salt of the true meaning and significations of them to them again. 
 But as they be now used, none that loveth Christ can speak honourably 
 of them. What true Christian man can give honour to that that taketh 
 all honour from Christ? Who can give honour to that that slayeth 
 
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 327 
 
 the soul of his brother, and robbeth his heart of that trust and confi- 
 dence, which he should give to his Lord that hath bought him with His 
 blood ? 
 
 Verses 14-16. 
 
 " ' Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be 
 hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on 
 a candlestick, and so giveth it light to all that are in the house. Let 
 your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and 
 praise your Father that is in heaven.' 
 
 " Christ goeth forth and describeth the office of an apostle and true 
 preacher by another likeness ; as he called them before the salt of the 
 earth, even so here the light of the world : signifying thereby that all the 
 doctrine, all the wisdom, and high knowledge of the world, — whether it 
 were philosophy of natural conclusions, of manners and virtue, or of laws 
 of righteousness, — whether it were of the Holy Scripture and of God 
 Himself, — was yet but a darkness, until the doctrine of His apostles came ; 
 that is to say, until the knowledge of Christ came, how that He is the 
 sacrifice for our sins, our satisfaction, our peace, atonement and redemp- 
 tion, our life thereto, and resurrection. Whatsoever holiness, wisdom, 
 virtue, perfectness, or righteousness, is in the world among men, howso- 
 ever perfect and holy they appear ; yet is all damnable darkness, except 
 the right knowledge of Christ's blood be there first, to justify the heart, 
 before all other holiness. 
 
 "Another conclusion: As 'a city built on a hill cannot be hid,' no 
 more can the light of Christ's Gospel. Let the world rage as much as it 
 will, yet it will shine on their sore eyes, whether they be content or no. 
 
 " Another conclusion : As ' men light not a candle to whelm it under a 
 bushel, but to put it on a candlestick, to light all that are in the house ; ' 
 even so the light of Christ's Gospel may not be hid, nor made a several 
 \i.e., isolated] thing, as though it pertained to some certain holy persons 
 only. Nay, it is the light of the whole world, and pertaineth to all men ; 
 and therefore may not be made several. It is a madness that divers men 
 say, ' The lay people may not know it : ' except they can prove that the 
 lay people be not of the world. Moreover it will not be hid ; but as the 
 lightning, that breaketh out of the clouds, shineth over all, even so doth 
 the Gospel of Christ. For where it is truly received, there it purifieth the 
 heart, and maketh the person to consent to the laws of God, and to begin 
 a new and godly living, fashioned after God's laws, and without all 
 dissimulation : and then it will kindle so great love in him toward his 
 neighbour, that he shall not only have compassion on him in his bodily 
 adversity, but much more pity him over the blindness of his soul, and 
 minister to him Christ's Gospel. Wherefore if they say, ' It is here or 
 there, in St. Francis' coat, or Dominick's and such like, and if thou wilt 
 put on that coat, thou shalt find it there,' it is false. For if it were there, 
 thou shouldest see it shine abroad, though thou creepest not into a cell or 
 
328 EXPOSITION OF 
 
 a monk's cowl, as thou seest the lightning without creeping into the 
 clouds : yea, their light would so shine that men should not only see the 
 light of the Gospel, but also their ' good works,' which would as fast come 
 out as they now run in ; insomuch that thou shouldest see them make 
 themselves poor, to help other, as they now make other poor, to make 
 themselves rich. 
 
 " This light and salt pertained not then to the apostles, and now to our 
 bishops and spiritualty, only. No ; it pertaineth to the temporal men 
 also. For all kings and all rulers are bound to be salt and light ; not only 
 in example of living, but also in teaching of doctrine unto their subjects, as 
 well as they be bound to punish evil doers. Doth not the Scripture testify 
 that King David was chosen to be a shepherd, and to feed his people with 
 God's Word ? It is an evil schoolmaster that cannot but beat only : but it 
 is a good schoolmaster that so teacheth that few need to be beaten. This 
 salt andjlight therefore pertain to the temporalty also, and that to every 
 member of Christ's Church: so that every man ought to be salt and light to 
 other. 
 
 " Every man then may be a common preacher, thou wilt say, and 
 preach every where by his own authority. Nay, verily; no man may 
 yet be a common preacher, save he that is called and chosen thereto by 
 the common ordinance of the congregation, as long as the preacher 
 teacheth the true word of God. But every private man ought to be, in 
 virtuous living, both light and salt to his neighbour : insomuch that the 
 poorest ought to strive to overrun \i.e., excel] the bishop, and preach to 
 him in ensample of living. Moreover, every man ought to preach in word 
 and deed unto his household, and to them that are under his governance, 
 etc. And though no man may preach openly, save he that hath the ofSce 
 committed unto him, yet ought every man to endeavour himself to be as 
 well learned as the preacher, as nigh as it is possible. And every man 
 may privately inform his neighbour ; yea, and the preacher and bishop 
 too, if need be. For if the preacher preach wrong, then may any man, 
 whatsoever he be, rebuke him ; first privately, and then, if that help not, 
 to complain farther. And when all is proved \i.e., tried], according to 
 the order of charity, and yet none amendment had, then ought every man 
 that can to resist him \i.e., passively], and to stand by Christ's doctrine, 
 and to jeopard life and all for it. Look on the old ensamples and they 
 shall teach thee. 
 
 " The Gospel hath another freedom with her than the temporal regiment 
 [z.e., government]. Though every man's body and goods be under the 
 king, do he right or wrong, yet is the authority of God's Word free, and 
 above the king : so that the worst in the realm may tell the king, if he 
 do him wrong, that he doth naught, and otherwise than God hath com- 
 manded him ; and so warn him to avoid the wrath of God, which is the 
 patient avenger of all unrighteousness. May I then, and ought also, to 
 resist father and mother and all temporal power with God's Word, when 
 they wrongfully do or command that \i. e., what] hurteth or killeth the body ; 
 
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 339 
 
 and have I no power to resist the bishop or preacher, that with false 
 doctrine slayeth the souls, for which my master and Lord Christ hath 
 shed his blood ? Be we otherwise under our bishops than Christ and His 
 apostles and all the prophets were under the bishops of the old law ? 
 Nay, verily : and therefore may we, and also ought to do as they did, and 
 to answer as the apostles did, Oportetmagis obedire Deo quam hominibus; 
 'We must rather obey God than man.' In the Gospel every man is 
 Christ's disciple, and a person [?.«., parson, Tyndale here playing on the 
 word] for himself, to defend Christ's doctrine in his own person. The 
 faith of the bishop will not help me, nor the bishop's keeping the law is 
 sufficient for me. But I must believe in Christ for the remission of all sin, 
 for mine ownself, and in mine own person. No more is the bishop's or 
 preacher's defending God's Word enoughforme; but Imust defend it in mine 
 own person, and jeopard life and all thereon when I see need and occasion. 
 " I am bound to get worldly substance for myself and for mine house- 
 hold with my just labour ; and somewhat more for them that cannot, to 
 save my neighbour's body : and am I not more bound to labour for God's 
 Word, to have thereof in store, to save my neighbour's soul ? And when 
 is it so much time to resist with God's Word and to help, as when they 
 which are believed to minister the true word do slay the souls with false 
 doctrine for covetousness' sake ? He that is not ready to give his life for 
 the maintenance of Christ's doctrine against hypocrites, with whatsoever 
 name or title they be disguised, the same is not worthy of Christ, nor can 
 be Christ's disciple, by the very words and testimony of Christ. Never- 
 theless we must use wisdom, patience, meekness, and a discreet process, 
 after the due order of charity, in our defending the Word of God ; lest, 
 while we go about to amend our prelates, we make them worse. But 
 when we have proved \i.e., tried] all that charity bindeth us, and yet in 
 vain ; then we must come forth openly, and rebuke their wickedness in 
 the face of the world, and jeopard life and all thereon." 
 
 Tyndale did not conclude his exposition without once again 
 animadverting severely upon the supposed covetousness of the 
 man who had been so terribly conspicuous in the cruelties 
 perpetrated upon the unhappy Reformers in England. " Covet- 
 ousness" he says, " maketh many whom the truth pleaseth at 
 the beginning to cast it up again, and to be afterward the 
 most cruel enemies thereof, after the ensample of Simon Magus; 
 yea, and after the ensample of Sir Thomas More, Knight, 
 which knew the truth, and for covetousness forsook it again, 
 and conspired first with the cardinal to deceive the king, and 
 to lead him in darkness ; and afterward, when the light was 
 sprung upon them, and had driven them clean out of the 
 
330 PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND IN 1533. 
 
 Scripture, and had delivered it out of their tyranny, and had 
 expelled the dark stinking mist of their devilish glosses, and 
 had wiped away the cobwebs, which those poisoned spiders 
 had spread upon the clear text, so that the spiritualty, as they 
 call themselves, were ashamed of their part, as shameless as 
 they be ; yet for all that, covetousness blinded the eyes of that 
 gleering fox more and more, and hardened his heart against 
 the truth, with the confidence of his painted poetry, babbling 
 eloquence, and juggling arguments of subtle sophistry, 
 grounded on his unwritten verities, as true and authentic as 
 his story of Utopia." ^ 
 
 We have already admitted that Tyndale was misinformed 
 in alleging this charge against Sir Thomas More; but Sir 
 Thomas's severity had been such as to predispose the friends 
 of the Reformation to believe anything of him, however 
 atrocious. The career of persecution still continued in 
 England with unabated violence. Latimer, whom Tyndale 
 had doubtless known at Cambridge, and of whose bold and 
 spirited appeal to Henry to allow the free circulation of the 
 Scriptures in England he had of course heard, had been 
 dragged before Convocation, and forced into an ignominious 
 submission;^ and James Bainham, a learned lawyer, sprung 
 from an old Gloucestershire family, and, therefore, in all 
 probability, not unknown to Tyndale, had died a martyr's 
 death in Smithfield on the last day of April. Stokesley and 
 More had, in the last few months, made grievous inroads 
 upon the circle of Tyndale's former friends and acquaintances ; 
 but the worst blow of all was yet to come. 
 
 At the end of July, 1532,^ John Fryth, his bosom friend 
 and dearest brother in the faith, set out once more on what 
 proved his last journey to England. What induced him to 
 
 ^ Exposition, p. 100. 
 
 ^ See Demaus' Latimer, p. 132, etc. Vaughan, I am happy to say, had written 
 strongly in Latimer's favour. His letter is in the State Paper Office. 
 
 ' The date is given in Stokesley's Register : " Venit ultimo a partibus transma- 
 rinis circiter festum sancti Jacobi ultimo praeteritum : " St. James' Day is July 25. 
 
FRYTH'S RETURN TO ENGLAND. 331 
 
 undertake a journey so likely to be fraught with peril it is 
 now impossible to ascertain. Whether he hoped that Mora's 
 resignation of the Great Seal (May 16) would diminish the 
 rigour exhibited towards the Reformers ; whether he fondly 
 anticipated that the power of the clergy to punish would be 
 seriously curtailed by the legislation^ which had just deprived 
 them of any right to promulgate enactments without the 
 royal licence ; or whether he had been deceived by the false 
 assurances of some emissaries of Henry or the bishops, it is, 
 in the absence of any authentic evidence, vain to inquire. 
 Foxe seems at one time to suggest that he had come over at 
 the request of some friends in England, at another, that his 
 visit was necessary, in order to provide himself with money. 
 At all events, he was not long in discovering the dangers in 
 which his journey involved him. At Reading, whither he 
 seems to have gone on some errand of importance, he was 
 arrested as a vagabond ; and being unable to give a satis- 
 factory account of himself, he was set in the stocks, and kept 
 there till he was half- starved. In his distress he asked that 
 the schoolmaster of the place might be sent for, and to him 
 he communicated the story of his misfortunes, and so charmed 
 him with his learning, and, above all, with his rehearsing some 
 lines of the Iliad in the original Greek, that he used his 
 influence with the magistrates, and the unhappy prisoner was 
 restored to liberty. 
 
 From Reading he directed his steps to London, intending, 
 probably, to avail himself of the first opportunity to rejoin 
 Tyndale on the Continent ; but his presence in England soon 
 became known to Sir Thomas More and the bishops, and 
 every effort was made to seize him. "All the ways and 
 havens were beset ; " and great rewards were offered for his 
 apprehension. Finding himself dogged at every turn, he 
 endeavoured to screen himself by changing his abode, and by 
 adopting a disguise. All, however, was in vain. It was 
 possible to defeat the machinations of his enemies ; but he 
 could not escape the treachery of those who pretended to be 
 
332 FRYTH'S APPREHENSION. 
 
 his friends. At the request of an " old familiar friend," one 
 of whom he says, "for his commendable conversation, and 
 sober behaviour, he might better be a bishop than many that 
 wear mitres, if the rule of St. Paul were regarded in their 
 election," he had written a short treatise on the Sacrament 
 of the Body and Blood of Christ. He had expressed himself 
 with great caution on this fiercely controverted subject ; yet 
 his opinions were sure to be stigmatised as grossly heretical 
 if they came to the notice of the ecclesiastical authorities; 
 and the treatise was incautiously permitted to come into the 
 hands of a traitor, who immediately carried it to Sir Thomas 
 More. So numerous, indeed, were the spies who had wormed 
 themselves into the confidence of the unsuspecting Reformers, 
 that More had two other surreptitious copies of the same 
 treatise offered at the same time, by men who were thus ready 
 to betray those whom they professed to revere. 
 
 Thus surrounded by treachery, Fryth soon fell into the 
 hands of his enemies ; he was taken at Milton-shore (near 
 Southend), in Essex, on his way to embark for the Continent, 
 and was conveyed to London and brought before More and 
 the bishops. All this had apparently occurred in the autumn 
 of 153a; for before the close of the year Sir Thomas More, 
 who seems to have assumed the responsible position of 
 Advocate-General for the Church — or " Proctor for Purgatory," 
 as Tyndale wittily styles him, had printed a reply to that 
 treatise on the Sacrament which had led to Fryth's appre- 
 hension.^ Sir Thomas's reply is written in a very different 
 spirit from his fierce invectives against Tyndale; Fryth is 
 treated as a young and inexperienced scholar, who had been 
 seduced into erroneous opinions by older and more determined 
 heretics, and who might perhaps be gained back to the true 
 faith by argument and kindness. 
 
 Fryth had been, indeed, committed to the Tower; but it 
 almost appeared as if the danger which threatened him might 
 
 ^ Fryth saw it in the Bishop of Winchester's palace on St. Stephen's Day, i. e., 
 December 36th. 
 
CRANMER MADE PRIMATE. 
 
 333 
 
 be dissipated. For rapid changes were taking place in 
 England. A month after Fryth's arrival, Archbishop Warham 
 had died, and Henry had selected, as his successor in the 
 primacy, Thomas Cranmer, a man who could not, indeed, be 
 at that time claimed as a pronounced adherent of the cause 
 of the Reformation, but whose sympathies inclined him 
 strongly towards the Reformers, and who was certainly not 
 disposed to adopt any harsh measures in dealing with men 
 accused of heresy. In the commencement of 1533, moreover, 
 Henry had brought the long-agitated divorce question to a 
 termination by marrying Anne Boleyn ; and Sir Thomas 
 More, who had been holding a species of indefinite deputed 
 authority since his resignation of the Chancellorship, was in 
 January formally divested of his office, and retired into private 
 life. Everything seemed to prognosticate the downfall of 
 that rigime which had rekindled the fires of Smithfield ; and 
 but for the tyranny of previous legislation, the reign of Henry 
 would probably not have been stained by the martyrdom of 
 Frj^h. 
 
 Before intelligence of Fryth's apprehension had reached 
 the Continent, Tyndale, who may have heard in Antwerp the 
 dangers by which his friend was threatened, wrote him a 
 letter of affectionate caution ; warning him especially of the 
 necessity of guarding against committing himself by rash and 
 dogmatic assertions on doctrinal questions that were not of 
 fundamental importarice. Tyndale's letters, unfortunately, 
 have almost all perished, and the reader will, therefore, value 
 the more highly the few that have been preserved to us. To 
 Fryth, the dearest and most like-minded of all his friends, he, 
 as might have been expected, unbosoms himself without 
 reserve ; and the letter is, accordingly, an invaluable piece of 
 autobiography : — 
 
 " The grace of our Saviour Jesus, His patience, meekness, 
 humbleness, circumspection, and wisdom, be with your heart. 
 Amen. 
 
 " Dearly beloved brother Jacob, mine heart's desire in our 
 
334 TYND ALE'S LETTER TO FRYTH. 
 
 Saviour Jesus is, that you arm yourself with patience, and be 
 cold, sober, wise, and circumspect : and that you keep you 
 a-low by the ground, avoiding high questions that pass the 
 common capacity. But expound the law truly, and open the 
 vail of Moses, to condemn all flesh, and prove all men sinners, 
 and all deeds under the law, before mercy have taken away 
 the condemnation thereof, to be sin and damnable : and then, 
 as a faithful minister, set abroach the mercy of our Lord 
 Jesus, and let the wounded consciences drink of the water of 
 Him. And then shall your preaching be with power, and not 
 as the doctrine of the hypocrites ; and the Spirit of God shall 
 work with you, and all consciences shall bear record unto 
 you, and feel that it is so. And all doctrine that casteth a 
 mist on those two, to shadow and hide them (I mean the law 
 of God and mercy of Christ), that resist you with all your 
 power. Sacraments without signification refuse. If they put 
 significations to them receive them, if you see it may help 
 \i.e., may be of any spiritual advantage], though it be not 
 necessary. 
 
 " Of the Presence of Christ's body in the Sacrament, 
 meddle as little as you can, that there appear no division 
 among us. Barnes [a Lutheran, and always hot-tempered] 
 will be hot against you. The Saxons be sore on the affirm- 
 ative; whether constant or obstinate, I remit it to God. 
 Philip Melanchthon is said to be with the French king [a 
 mistaken rumour]. There be in Antwerp that say they saw 
 him come into Paris with a hundred and fifty horses ; and 
 that they spoke with him. If the Frenchmen receive the 
 Word of God, he will plant the affirmative \i.e., the Presence 
 of Christ's body, as held by the Lutherans] in them. George 
 Joye would have put forth a treatise of the matter, but I have 
 stopped him as yet : what he will do if he get money, I wot 
 not. I believe he would make many reasons, little serving 
 the purpose. My mind is that nothing be put forth, till we 
 hear how you shall have sped. I would have the right use 
 [of the Sacrament] preached, and the Presence to be an 
 
TYND ALE'S LETTER TO FRYTH. 335 
 
 indifferent thing, till the matter might be reasoned in peace at 
 leisure of both parties. If you be required, show the phrases 
 of the Scripture \i.e., use simply the words of Scripture], and 
 let them talk what they will. For to believe that God is 
 everywhere, hurteth no man that worshippeth Him nowhere 
 but within in the heart, in the spirit and verity: even so to 
 believe that the body of Christ is everywhere, though it 
 cannot be proved, hurteth no man that worshippeth Him 
 nowhere save in the faith of His Gospel. You perceive my 
 mind : howbeit, if God show you otherwise, it is free for you 
 to do as He moveth you. 
 
 " I guessed long ago, that God would send a dazing into 
 the head of the spiritualty, to be catched themselves in their 
 own subtlety; and I trust it is come to pass. And now 
 methinketh I smell a Council to be taken, little for their 
 profits in time to come. But you must understand that it 
 is not of a pure heart, and for love of the truth ; but to avenge 
 themselves, and to eat the whore's flesh, and to suck the 
 marrow of her bones. Wherefore cleave fast to the rock of the 
 help of God, and commit the end of all things to Him : and if 
 God shall call you, that you may then use the wisdom of the 
 worldly, as far as you perceive the glory of God may come 
 thereof, refuse it not : and ever among thrust in, that the 
 Scripture may be in the mother tongue, and learning set up 
 in the Universities. But and if aught be required contrary to 
 the glory of God and His Christ, then stand fast, and commit 
 yourself to God ; and be not overcome of men's persuasions, 
 which haply shall say, we see no other way \i.e., but yielding 
 and abjuring], to bring in the truth. 
 
 "Brother Jacob, beloved in my heart, there liveth not 
 in whom I have so good hope and trust, and in whom mine 
 heart rejoiceth, and my soul comforteth herself, as in you, not 
 the thousand part so much of \i.e., for] your learning and 
 what other gifts else you have, as that you will creep a-low by 
 the ground, and walk in those things that the conscience may 
 feel, and not in the imaginations of the brain ; in fear, and not 
 
33^ TYND ALE'S LETTER TO FRYTH. 
 
 in boldness ; in open necessary things, and not to pronounce 
 or define of hid secrets, or things that neither help or hinder, 
 whether they be so or no ; in unity, and not in seditious 
 opinions; insomuch that if \i.e., although] you be sure you 
 know, yet in things that may abide leisure, yoU will defer, 
 or say (till other agree with you), ' Methink the text requireth 
 this sense or understanding:' yea, and that if \i.e., although] 
 you be sure that your part be good, and another hold the 
 contrary, yet if it be a thing that maketh no matter, you will 
 laugh and let it pass, and refer the thing to other men, 
 and stick you stiffly and stubbornly in earnest and necessary 
 things. And I trust you be persuaded even so of me. For I 
 call God to record against the day we shall appear before our 
 Lord Jesus, to give a reckoning of our doings, that I never 
 altered one syllable of God's Word against my conscience, nor 
 would this day, if all that is in the earth, whether it be pleasure, 
 honour, or riches, might be given me. Moreover, I take God to 
 record to my conscience, that I desire of God to myself, in this 
 world, no more than that without which I cannot keep 
 His laws. 
 
 " Finally, if there were in me any gift that could help at hand, 
 and aid you if need required, I promise you I would not be 
 far off, and commit the end to God : my soul is not faint though 
 my body be weary. But God hath made me evil-favoured 
 in this world, and without grace in the sight of men, speechless 
 and rude, dull and slow-witted. Your part shall be to supply 
 that lacketh in me ; remembering that as lowliness of heart 
 shall make you high with God, even so meekness of words 
 shall make you sink into the hearts of men. Nature giveth 
 age authority; but meekness is the glory of youth, and 
 giveth them honour. Abundance of love maketh me exceed 
 in babbling. 
 
 " Sir, as concerning purgatory, and many other things, if you 
 be demanded, you may say, if you err, the spiritualty hath so 
 led you ; and that they have taught you to believe as you do. 
 For they preached you all such things out of God's Word, 
 
TYND ALE'S LETTER TO FRYTH. 337 
 
 and alleged a thousand texts; by reason of which texts 
 you believed as they taught you. But now you find them 
 liars, and that the texts mean no such things, and, therefore, 
 you can believe them no longer; but are as ye were before 
 they taught you, and believe no such thing; howbeit you 
 [may say you] are ready to believe, if they have any other 
 way to prove it ; for without proof you cannot believe them, 
 when you have found them with so many lies, etc. If you 
 perceive wherein we may help, either in being still, or doing 
 somewhat, let us have word, and I will do mine uttermost. 
 
 " My Lord of London hath a servant called John Tisen, 
 with a red beard, and a black reddish head, and was once my 
 scholar ; he was seen in Antwerp, but came not among 
 the Englishmen : whether he is gone, an embassador secret, I 
 wot not. 
 
 "The mighty God of Jacob be with you to supplant His 
 
 enemies, and give you the favour of Joseph ; and the wisdom 
 
 and the spirit of Stephen be with your heart and with 
 
 your mouth, and teach your lips what they shall say, and 
 
 how to answer to all things. He is our God, if we despair 
 
 in ourselves, and trust in Him; and His is the glory. 
 
 Amen. 
 
 William Tyndale. 
 
 " I hope our redemption is nigh." 
 
 Tyndale's warning came too late. Before his letter reached 
 England, Fryth had already been entrapped into the very 
 snare against which his more prudent friend had so earnestly 
 cautioned him. He had already committed himself on that 
 very subject of the Presence of Christ in the Supper on which 
 the whole zeal of the Church, shaken on other points, had 
 concentrated itself, as their stronghold against heresy; and 
 though he had expressed himself with caution and moderation, 
 he had unquestionably laid himself open to be accused as 
 a heretic. As Sir Thomas More affirmed, he had taught " all 
 the poison that Wickliffe, Huskyn \i.e., CEcolampadius], 
 Tyndale, and Zwinglius had taught concerning the blessed 
 
 z 
 
33^ FRYTH'S DEFENCE. 
 
 Sacrament of the altar, not only affirming it to be very bread 
 still, as Luther doth, but also, as these other beasts do, saith it 
 is nothing else." 
 
 In these circumstances nothing remained for Fryth but, if 
 possible, to defend his opinion, and to show that what he had 
 taught was in accordance with the plain sense of Scripture and 
 the writings of the early fathers. For some time he could 
 not succeed in procuring a copy of More's letter, which was 
 studiously restricted in its circulation ; at length he obtained 
 " one written copy," and immediately undertook to refute the 
 arguments of his antagonist. He laboured, of course, under 
 serious disadvantage, not only as a youthful champion against 
 one of the most subtle and learned of controversialists ; but 
 also, as he himself with touching simplicity says, " I am, in a 
 manner, as a man bound to a post, and cannot so well bestow 
 me in my play, as if I were at liberty ; for I may not have 
 such books as are necessary for me ; neither get pen, ink, nor 
 paper, but only secretly ; so that I am in continual fear both 
 of the Lieutenant [of the Tower] and of my keeper, lest they 
 should espy any such thing by me. . . . Whensoever I hear 
 the keys ring at the doors, straight all must be conveyed out 
 of the way ; and then if any notable thing had been in my 
 mind, it was clean lost." ^ The change of affairs at the com- 
 mencement of 1533 somewhat relaxed the rigour of his 
 imprisonment ; his keeper, " upon condition of his own word 
 and promise, let him go at liberty during the night to consult 
 with good men;" and thus assisted with possible access 
 to books, he produced a Reply that must have satisfied 
 More that he had been somewhat over-sanguine in anticipating 
 an easy victory over the stripling who had attacked the 
 dogmas of the Church. 
 
 To us the interest of Fryth's Answer to Sir Thomas More 
 
 centres in its allusions to the man whom Fryth knew better than 
 
 any other. Sir Thomas More had spoken of Tyndale as 
 
 a beast, Fryth thus nobly defends his friend : — " Tyndale, I 
 
 * Fiyth's Answer to Rastell. 
 
FRYTH'S ANSWER TO MORE. 339 
 
 trust, liveth, well content with such a poor Apostle's life as 
 God gave His Son Christ, and His faithful ministers in this 
 world, which is not sure of so many mites as ye be yearly of 
 pounds ; although lam sure that for his learning and judgment 
 in Scripture, he were more worthy to be promoted than all the 
 Bishops in England. I received a letter from him which was 
 written since Christmas [of 1533], wherein among other 
 matters he writeth thus : ' I call God to record ' [etc., as in 
 Tyndale's letter already given, which is hereby identified 
 as sent to Fryth]. Judge, Christian reader, whether these 
 words be not spoken of a faithful, clear, innocent heart. And 
 £is for his behaviour, [it] is such that / am sure no man can 
 reprove him of any sin ; howbeit, no man is innocent before 
 God, which beholdeth the heart." ^ And in a noble outburst 
 of Christian enthusiasm he thus replies to More's wish that the 
 Reformers would keep their opinions secret : — " Until we see 
 some means found by the which a reasonable Reformation may 
 be had, and sufficient instruction for the poor commoners, I assure 
 you I neither will nor can cease to speak ; for the Word of 
 God boileth in my body like a fervent fire, and will needs have 
 issue, and breaketh out when occasion is given. But this hath 
 been offered you, is offered, and shall be offered: — Grant that the 
 Word of God, T mean the text of Scripture, may go abroad 
 in our English tongue, as other nations have it in their tongues, 
 and my brother William Tyndale and I have done, and will 
 promise you to write no more. If you will not grant this 
 condition, then will we be doing while we have breath, and 
 show in few words that [what] the Scripture doth in many, and 
 so at the least save some." ^ 
 
 With the increased amount of liberty enjoyed by Fryth in 
 the new state of affairs, there was no serious difficulty in 
 having his answer to More printed and circulated. Some of the 
 good men with whom he was permitted to take counsel might 
 easily contrive to transmit a copy of the work in manuscript to 
 
 ' Fryth's Answer to More, fol. 196. " Ibid., fol. 156. 
 
 Z 2 
 
340 TYND ALE'S DEFENCE OF FRYTH. 
 
 the Continent ; and it has been conjectured that Tyndale him- 
 self superintended the passing of Fryth's book through the 
 press. It is also believed that Tyndale still further aided his 
 friend by himself issuing a defence of Fryth against the 
 attack of Sir Thomas More. 
 
 On the 5th of April, 1533, there appeared from the press of 
 "Nicolas Twonson of Nuremberg," a treatise entitled, "'The 
 Supper of the Lord. . . . wherein incidentally M. More's 
 letter against John Fryth is confuted."^ The work, indeed, 
 was published anonymously, and was by some supposed to be 
 that very treatise by George Joye of which Tyndale, in his 
 letter to Fryth, had spoken in such disparaging terms. Others, 
 however, ascribed the book to Tyndale; and Sir Thomas 
 More, who immediately published a refutation of it, though 
 admitting that the work was not characterised by the customary 
 learning of Tyndale, and branding it as "blasphemous and 
 bedlam-rife," yet proceeds to argue upon the assumption that 
 Tyndale was really its author. Foxe has not printed it with 
 the rest of Tyndale's writings, but speaks doubtfully of it 
 as "a short and pithy treatise touching the Lord's Supper, 
 compiled, as some do gather, by Tyndale, because the method 
 and phrase agree with his, and the time of writing is con- 
 current." On the whole, however, it seems now agreed that 
 the work was Tyndale's, this conviction being strengthened by 
 the fact that Joye, whose self-conceit was boundless, does not 
 claim the authorship of it, as he certainly would have done 
 had the work been his.^ 
 
 The treatise is, in reality, an exposition of the sixth chapter 
 of St. John, and is not unworthy of Tyndale's acuteness as a 
 controversialist ; it retorts upon More with very great logical 
 skill ; and it exposes with very considerable force the absurdities 
 and contradictions involved in the doctrine of transubstantia- 
 
 ' Title and colophon of the original edition in the Bodleian. 
 
 '' On the point, which is not devoid of interest, the reader is referred to the 
 excellent prefatory remarks of Professor Walter in Tyndale's Works, Vol. III. pp. 
 218, etc., and three letters in Notes and Queries, First Series. 
 
TREATISE ON THE LORD'S SUPPER. 341 
 
 tion. To the ordinary modern reader, however, much the 
 most interesting and characteristic part of the treatise is that 
 in which Tyndale sketches his ideal of the proper manner of 
 celebrating the holy ordinance of the Supper. We present 
 it without note or comment to the judgment of the reader: — 
 
 " This holy sacrament therefore, would God it were restored unto the 
 pure use, as the apostles used it in their time ! Would God the secular 
 princes, which should be the very pastors and head rulers of their con- 
 gregations committed unto their cure, would first command or suffer 
 the true preachers of God's Word to preach the Gospel purely and 
 plainly, with discreet liberty, and constitute over each particular parish 
 such curates as can and would preach the word, and that once or twice 
 in the week, appointing unto their flock certain days, after their dis- 
 cretion and zeal to God-ward, to come together to celebrate the Lord's 
 Supper ! At the which assembly the curate would propone and declare 
 them, first, this text of Paul, I Cor. xi. : ' So oft as ye shall eat this 
 bread, and drink of this cup, see that ye be joyous, praise, and give 
 thanks, preaching the death of the Lord,' etc. : which declared, and 
 every one exhorted to prayer, he would preach them purely Christ to 
 have died and been offered upon the altar of the cross for their re- 
 demption ; which only oblation to be sufficient sacrifice, to peace the 
 Father's wrath, and to purge all the sins of the world. Then to excite 
 them with all humble diligence, every man unto the knowledge of himself 
 and his sins, and to believe and trust to the forgiveness in Christ's 
 blood; and for this so incomparable benefit of our redemption (which 
 were sold bondmen to sin), to give thanks unto God the Father for 
 so merciful a deliverance through the death of Jesus Christ, every one, 
 some singing, and some saying devoutly, some or other psalm, or prayer 
 of thanksgiving, in the mother tongue. Then, the bread and wine set 
 before them, in the face of the Church, upon the table of the Lord, 
 purely and honestly laid, let him declare to the people the significations 
 of those sensible signs ; what the action and deed moveth, teacheth, and 
 exhorteth them unto ; and that the bread and wine be no profane com- 
 mon signs, but holy sacraments, reverently to be considered, and received 
 whh a deep faith and remembrance of Christ's death, and of the shedding 
 of His blood for our sins ; those sensible things to represent us the very 
 body and blood of Christ, so that while every man beholdeth with his 
 corporal eye those sensible sacraments, the inward eye of his faith may 
 see, and believe steadfastly, Christ offered and dying upon the cross 
 for his sins, how His body was broken and His blood shed for us, and 
 hath given Himself whole for us, Himself to be all ours, and whatsoever 
 He did to serve us, as to be made for us, of His Father, our righteousness, 
 our wisdom, holiness, redemption, satisfaction, etc. 
 
 " Then let this preacher exhort them lovingly to draw near unto this 
 
34^ TREATISE ON THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 table of the Lord, and that not only bodily, but also, their hearts purged 
 by faith, garnished with love and innocency, every man to forgive each 
 other unfeignedly, and to express, or at leastwise to endeavour them to 
 follow, that love which Christ did set before our eyes at His last supper, 
 when He offered Himself willingly to die for us His enemies ; which 
 incomparable love to commend, bring in Paul's arguments, so that thus 
 this flock may come together, and be joined into one body, one spirit, 
 and one people. This done, let him come down, and, accompanied 
 honestly with other ministers, come forth reverently unto the Lord's table, 
 the congregation now set round about it, and also in their other con- 
 venient seats, the pastor exhorting them all to pray for grace, faith, and 
 love, which all this sacrament signifieth and putteth them in mind of. 
 Then let there be read apertly and distinctly the sixth chapter of John, 
 in their mother tongue ; whereby they may clearly understand, what it 
 is to eat Christ's flesh and to drink His blood. This done, and some 
 brief prayer and praise sung or read, let one or other minister read the 
 eleventh chapter of the first [Epistle] to the Corinthians, that the people 
 might perceive clearly, of those words, the mystery of this Christ's 
 supper, and wherefore He did institute it. 
 
 " These with such like preparations and exhortations had, I would 
 every man present should profess the articles of our faith openly in our 
 mother tongue, and confess his sins secretly unto God ; praying entirely 
 that He would now vouchsafe to have mercy upon him, receive his 
 prayers, glue his heart unto Him by faith and love, increase his faith, 
 give him grace to forgive and to love his neighbour as himself, to garnish 
 his life with pureness and innocency, and to confirm him in all goodness 
 and virtue. Then again it behoveth the curate to warn and exhort every 
 man deeply to consider, and expend \i.e., weigh] with himself, the sig- 
 nification and substance of this sacrament, so that he sit not down an 
 hypocrite and a dissembler, since God is searcher of heart and reins, 
 thoughts and affects, and see that he come not to the holy table of the 
 Lord without that faith which he professed at his baptism, and also 
 that love which the sacrament preacheth and testifieth unto his heart, 
 lest he, now found guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (that is to 
 wit, a dissembler with Christ's death, and slanderous to the congregation, 
 the body and blood of Christ), receive his own damnation. And here 
 let every man fall down upon his knees, saying secretly with all devotion 
 their Paternoster in English ; their curate, as example, kneeling down 
 before them : which done, let him take the bread and eft \i.e., after] the 
 wine in the sight of the people, hearing him with a loud voice, with godly 
 gravity, and after a Christian religious reverence, rehearsing distinctly 
 the words of the Lord's Supper in their mother tongue ; and then 
 distribute it to the ministers, which, taking the bread with great 
 reverence, wiU divide it to the congregation, every man breaking and 
 reaching it forth to his next neighbour and member of the mystic body 
 of Christ, other ministers following with the cups, pouring forth and 
 
FRYTH BROUGHT BEFORE CRANMER. 343 
 
 dealing them the wine, all together thus being now partakers of one 
 bread and one cup, the thing thereby signified and preached printed 
 fast in their hearts." But in this meanwhile must the minister or pastor 
 be reading the communication that Christ had with His disciples after 
 His supper, beginning at the washing of their feet ; so reading till the 
 bread and wine be eaten and drunken, and all the action done : and then 
 let them fall down on their knees, giving thanks highly unto God the 
 Father for this benefit and death of His Son, whereby now by faith 
 every man is assured of remission of his sins ; as this blessed sacra- 
 ment had put them in mind, and preached it them in this outward 
 action and supper. This done, let every man commend and give them- 
 selves whole to God, and depart."^ 
 
 Before this treatise could have been conveyed to England 
 for clandestine circulation, steps had been taken to bring 
 Fryth to punishment. Dr. Curwin, one of the royal chap- 
 lains, availed himself of the opportunity of his officiating 
 before Henry to inveigh against the leniency shown towards 
 heretics who denied the teaching of the Church on the Sacra- 
 ments, especially complaining that there was a prisoner in the 
 town at that very moment, "so bold as to write in defence 
 of that heresy, and yet no man goeth about his reformation." 
 The process of " reformation," as it was facetiously styled by 
 the courtly preacher, was not long delayed. Cranmer, 
 Stokesley, Gardiner, with some others, were appointed to 
 examine Fryth ; who was, therefore, taken from the Tower 
 to the Archbishop's Palace at Croydon. Two of Cranmer's 
 household, a gentleman and a porter, accompanied him ; and 
 as they rowed from the Tower up the river to Lambeth, the 
 gentleman entered into conversation with Fryth, and, doubtless 
 at Cranmer's suggestion, advised him to yield a little in his 
 opinions, and so escape the fate that threatened him. " This 
 I am sure of," he urged, " that my Lord Cromwell, and my 
 Lord of Canterbury, much favouring you, and knowing you 
 to be an eloquent learned young man, and now towards the 
 felicity of your life \i.e., coming to the prime of life], young 
 in years, old in knowledge, and of great forwardness, and 
 likelihood to be a most profitable member of this realm, will 
 
 ' Tynda,le's Works, Vol. ill. pp. 265, etc. 
 
344 FRYTH BROUGHT BEFORE CRANMER. 
 
 never permit you to sustain any open shame, if you will some- 
 what he advised by their counsel: on. the other side, if you 
 stand stiff to your opinion, it is not possible to save your life, 
 for like as you have good friends, so have you mortal foes 
 and enemies/' Fryth was not insensible to the kindness 
 thus exhibited, but he replied that he could not honestly 
 conceal his opinions on the subject of the Lord's Supper, and 
 that even if it should expose him to death, he must openly 
 profess his belief in what he felt convinced was the true 
 teaching of Scripture on that matter. 
 
 After a slight repast at Lambeth, Fryth and his two com- 
 panions set out on foot for Croydon. Their route lay up 
 Brixton Causeway, thick woods environing them on either 
 hand ; and the gentleman who had already shown himself so 
 friendly proposed to the porter an extraordinary project for 
 the escape of the prisoner. Fryth was to be permitted per 
 incuriam, as it were, to wander into the woods which lay to 
 the left of the road, and so escape into his native county, 
 Kent, where he might find refuge till he could leave England ; 
 whilst they, after lingering, so as to allow him time to get 
 free, were to spread the alarm that he had broken from them 
 into the woods on the right of the road towards Wandsworth. 
 Such a proposal, it may be assumed, would never have been 
 made, but on the previous suggestion of Cranmer, who had 
 been unwillingly dragged into the matter, and who, though by 
 no means sharing in Fryth's opinions on the sacrament, was 
 extremely reluctant to adopt any harsh measures against him. 
 The plan was communicated to Fr3^h, but he refused to avail 
 himself of it. In vain they reminded him of his danger, 
 and urged him to use the opportunity which he would so 
 gladly have welcomed some months before. " Before," he 
 replied, " I was indeed desirous to escape, because I was not 
 attached, but at liberty, which liberty I would fain have 
 enjoyed (for the maintenance of my study beyond the sea, 
 where I was reader in the Greek tongue), according to St. 
 Paul's counsel. Howbeit now, being taken by the higher 
 
MARTYRDOM OF FRYTH. 345 
 
 powers, and, as it were, by Almighty God's permission and 
 providence, delivered into the hands of the bishops, only 
 for religion and doctrine's sake, such as in conscience, and 
 under pain of damnation, I am bound to maintain and 
 defend ; if I should now start aside, and run away, I should 
 run from my God, and from the testimony of His Holy 
 Word — worthy, then, of a thousand hells. And, therefore, 
 I most heartily thank you both, for your goodwill toward 
 me, beseeching you to bring me where I was appointed to 
 be brought, for else I will go thither all alone." 
 
 Such a man was not likely either to be awed by threats 
 or cajoled by fair promises. He defended his opinions with 
 great force and clearness; and his examiners were unable 
 to drive him from his stronghold in the Scriptures and in 
 St. Augustine. Cranmer, always gentle and loth to proceed 
 to extremes, " sent for him three or four times, to persuade 
 him to leave his imagination, but, for all that we could do 
 therein, he would not apply to any counsel." ^ For Fryth, 
 as for Cranmer, there was no escape ; the opinions advocated 
 were unquestionably heresy, according to the standard of 
 truth then received ; the law was plain, and the penalty was 
 inevitable. Fryth was left to be dealt with by Stokesley, 
 Longland, and Gardiner; and, although the last of these 
 had been Fryth's tutor at Cambridge, and was favourably 
 disposed towards him, there was no mercy to be expected 
 from the others, who were veterans in persecution. The 
 authority of the Church in England was felt to be trembling 
 to its fall ; but the name of heretic was still terrible, and no 
 one dared to question the sentence which handed Fryth over 
 to the temporal power to die the death of a heretic. The 
 youthful martyr showed no sign of flinching from the dread 
 ordeal; he repeated his opinions before the final tribunal 
 clearly yet modestly; resolutely adhering to those points 
 which seemed of essential consequence, expressing himself 
 with caution on matters less clearly revealed. 
 
 ' Cranmer's Letter to Archdeacon Hawkins : Remains, Letter 14. 
 
34<5 TYND ALE'S SECOND LETTER TO FRYTH. 
 
 Another young Kentishman, entrapped by the same traitor 
 who had ensnared Fryth, perished with him at the same 
 stake on the 4th of July. "And," says the old Martyrolo- 
 gist, " when he was tied unto the stake, there it sufficiently 
 appeared with what constancy and courage he suffered 
 death; for when the faggots and fire were put upon him, 
 he willingly embraced the same, thereby declaring with what 
 uprightness of mind he suffered his death for Christ's sake, 
 and the true doctrine, whereof that day he gave, with his 
 blood, a perfect and firm testimony; the wind made his death 
 somewhat the longer, which bare away the flame from him 
 unto his fellow, that was tied to his back : but he had estab- 
 lished his mind with such patience, God giving him strength, 
 that even as though he had felt no pain in that long torment, 
 he seemed rather to rejoice for his fellow, than to be careful 
 for himself."^ A martyr so steadfast and resolute needed 
 not any human sympathy to encourage him to stand fast; 
 but Tyndale, learning the fresh danger which threatened his 
 friend, wrote once again to comfort and strengthen him for 
 the terrible trial which awaited him. It is exceedingly 
 doubtful whether Tyndale's epistle ever reached Fryth j 
 whether, in fact, Fryth had not been martyred before it was 
 dispatched or even penned ; but it is pervaded by the very 
 spirit in which Fryth acted, and thus affords a most touching 
 illustration of the perfect " like-mindedness " by which the 
 two friends were animated. Foxe has entitled it, " A letter 
 from William Tyndale, being in Antwerp, unto John Fryth, 
 being prisoner in the Tower of London in England." 
 
 ''The grace and peace of God our Father, and of Jesus 
 Christ our Lord, be with you. Amen. Dearly beloved 
 brother John, I have heard say that the hypocrites, now they 
 have overcome that great business which letted them \i.e., 
 the royal divorce], or that now they have at the least way 
 brought it at a stay, they return to their old nature again. 
 The will of God be fulfilled, and that [what] He hath ordained 
 ' Foxe, Vol. V. p. 15. 
 
TYND ALE'S SECOND LETTER TO FRYTH. 347 
 
 to be ere the world was made, that come, and His glory reign 
 over all. 
 
 " Dearly beloved, howsoever the matter be, commit your- 
 self wholly and only unto your most loving Father and most 
 kind Lord, and fear not men that threat, nor trust men that 
 speak fair: but trust Him that is true of promise, and able 
 to make His word good. Your cause is Christ's Gospel, 
 a light that must be fed with the blood of faith. The lamp 
 must be dressed and snuffed daily, and that oil poured in 
 every evening and morning, that the light go not out. Though 
 we be sinners, yet is the cause right. If when we be buffeted for 
 well-doing, we suffer patiently and endure, that is thankful 
 with God ; for to that end we are called. For Christ also 
 suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow 
 His steps, who did no sin. Hereby have we perceived love, 
 that He laid down His life for us : therefore we ought also to 
 lay down our lives for the brethren. Rejoice and be glad, for 
 great is your reward in heaven. For we suffer with Him, that 
 we may also be glorified : who shall change our vile body, that 
 it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according 
 to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things 
 unto Him. 
 
 "Dearly beloved, be of good courage, and comfort your 
 soul with the hope of this high reward, and bear the image 
 of Christ in your mortal body, that it may at His coming be 
 made like to His, immortal: and follow the example of all 
 your other dear brethren, which chose to suffer in hope of 
 a better resurrection. Keep your conscience pure and unde- 
 filed, and say against that nothing. Stick at \i.e., resolutely 
 maintain] necessary things; and remember the blasphemies 
 of the enemies of Christ, ' They find none but that will abjure 
 rather than suffer the extremity.' Moreover, the death of 
 them that come again \i.e., repent] after they have once 
 denied, though it be accepted with God and all that believe, 
 yet is it not glorious ; for the hypocrites say, ' He must needs 
 die; denying helpeth not: but might it have holpen, they 
 
348 TYNDAL^S SECOND LETTER TO FRYTH. 
 
 would have denied five hundred times : but seeing it would 
 not help them, therefore of pure pride, and mere malice 
 together, they speak with their mouths that [i.e., what] their 
 conscience knoweth false.' If you give yourself, cast your- 
 self, yield yourself, commit yourself wholly and only to your 
 loving Father ; then shall His power be in you and make you 
 strong, and that so strong, that you shall feel no pain, and 
 [in ?] that shall be to another present death : and His Spirit 
 shall speak in you, and teach you what to answer, according 
 to His promise. He shall set out His truth by you wonder- 
 fully, and work for you above all that your heart can imagine. 
 Yea, and you are not yet dead ; though the hypocrites all, 
 with all they can make, have sworn your death. Una salus 
 victis nullum sperare salutem. To look for no man's help 
 bringeth the help of God to them that seem to be overcome 
 in the eyes of the hypocrites : yea, it shall make God to carry 
 you through thick and thin for His truth's sake, in spite of 
 all the enemies of His truth. There falleth not a hair till 
 His hour be come: and when His hour is come, necessity 
 carrieth us hence, though we be not willing. But if we be 
 willing, then have we a reward and thanks. 
 
 " Fear not threatening, therefore, neither be overcome of 
 sweet words ; with which twain the hypocrites shall assail 
 you. Neither let the persuasions of worldly wisdom bear 
 rule in your heart; no, though they be your friends that 
 counsel. Let Bilney be a warning to you. Let not their 
 vizor beguile your eyes. Let not your body faint. He that 
 endureth to the end shall be saved. If the pain be above 
 your strength, remember, 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in My 
 name, I will give it you.' And pray to your Father in that 
 name, and He will cease your pain, or shorten it. The Lord 
 of peace, of hope, and of faith, be with you. Amen. 
 
 William Tyndale. 
 
 " Two have suffered in Antwerp, in die Sanctce Crucis 
 [September 14], unto the great glory of the Gospel : four 
 
TYND ALE'S SECOND LETTER TO FRYTH. 349 
 
 at Riselles^, in Flanders : and at Luke hath there one at the 
 least suffered all that same day. At Roan [?>., Rouen] in 
 France they persecute; and at Paris are five Doctors taken 
 for the Gospel. See, you are not alone. Be cheerful : and 
 remember that among the hard-hearted in England there 
 is a number reserved by grace : for whose sakes, if need be, 
 you must be ready to suffer. Sir, if you may w^rite, how 
 short [soever] it be, forget it not ; that we may know how it 
 goeth with you, for our hearts' ease. The Lord be yet again 
 with you, with all His plenteousness, and fill you that you 
 flow over. Amen. 
 
 " If, when you have read this, you may send it to Adrian 
 [or John Byrte], do, I pray you, that he may know how that 
 our heart is with you. 
 
 " George Joye at Candlemas, being at Barrow, printed two 
 leaves of Genesis in a great form, and sent one copy to the 
 King, and another to the new Queen [Anne Boleyn], with 
 a letter to N. for to deliver them ; and to purchase licence, 
 that he might so go through all the Bible. Out of that is 
 sprung the noise of the new Bible [report that there was 
 to be a new translation] ; and out of that is the great seeking 
 for English books at all printers and bookbinders in Antwerp, 
 and for an English priest that should print \i.e., that intended 
 to print]. 
 
 " This chanced the 9th day of May. 
 
 " Sir, your wife is well content with the will of God, and 
 would not, for her sake, have the glory of God hindered. 
 
 "William Tyndale." 
 
 From the superscription of the letter, as well as from its 
 contents, it seems certain that Tyndale, wherever he may 
 have been wandering since Fryth left for England, had re- 
 turned once again to his former abode at Antwerp. In the 
 
 ' Editors have conjectured that by Riselks, Brussels is meant ; and that Luke is 
 the suburb of Brussels, now called Laeken : the very slightest inquiry would 
 have informed them that Riselles is the Flemish name of Lille, as Luke is of 
 
350 TYN DALE'S FINAL REMOVAL TO ANTWERP. 
 
 free cities of the German Empire, he, indeed, enjoyed a 
 greater amount of personal security than in the Low 
 Countries ; but he was far removed from that land which 
 was still his home, and in which all his interests were cen- 
 tred; and it was a tedious, an expensive, and an uncertain 
 process to export his books from the heart of Germany to 
 the shores of Britain. Charles V. had revenged himself for 
 his reluctant toleration of the Protestants in Germany, by 
 the infliction of unrelenting severities upon the unfortunate 
 inhabitants of his hereditary domains. The Inquisition was 
 in vigorous operation ; and every district had its little army 
 of martyrs ;^ the printing of heretical books was punished 
 with extreme cruelty, and a universal system of espionage 
 was established, by which it was hoped that heresy would be 
 effectually rooted out. In spite of these serious drawbacks, 
 Tyndale seems to have determined to take up his residence 
 permanently in Antwerp. There he was near England, and 
 in constant communication with home; and the privileges 
 of the great centres of trade were sufficiently powerful and 
 recognised by the Government, to secure him a very con- 
 siderable amount of protection, so long as he acted with 
 caution. Here, therefore, his wanderings ceased ; yet a few 
 more years, and he was to follow the brave example which 
 his best-loved friend had set, and to die as intrepidly as Fryth 
 had died. 
 
 ' See Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries ; Crespin, Histoire des Martyrs ; 
 Henne, Histoire du Regne de Charles-Quint en Belgique. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TYNDALE'S life at ANTWERP : REVISION OF THE NEW 
 TESTAMENT : CONTROVERSY WITH GEORGE JOYE : 
 SEIZED. 
 
 A.D. i£33— 1535- 
 
 For nearly two years Tyndale seems to have remained quietly 
 in Antwerp, watching the progress of events in his native 
 land, busily engaged in literary labours, and filling up the 
 intervals of leisure with that simple routine of holy and useful 
 living which Foxe has so beautifully described, from the 
 information of the merchant with whom Tyndale chiefly 
 resided. 
 
 " He was," says Foxe, " a man very frugal and spare of 
 body, a great student, an earnest labourer in the setting forth 
 of the Scriptures of God. He reserved or hallowed to himself 
 two days in the week, which he named his pastime, Monday 
 and Saturday. On Monday he visited all such poor men and 
 women as were fled out of England, by reason of persecution, 
 into Antwerp ; and these, once well understanding their good 
 exercises and qualities, he did very liberally comfort and 
 relieve ; and in like manner provided for the sick and diseased 
 persons. On the Saturday he walked round about the town, 
 seeking every corner and hole where he suspected any poor 
 person to dwell ; and where he found any to be well occupied, 
 and yet over-burdened with children, or else were aged and 
 weak, these also he plentifully relieved. And thus he spent 
 his two days of pastime, as he called them. And truly his 
 alms were very large, and so they might well be ; for his 
 
SS^i TYNDALE'S LIFE IN ANTWERP. 
 
 exhibition that he had yearly of the English merchants at 
 Antwerp, when living there, was considerable; and that, for 
 the most part, he bestowed upon the poor. The rest of the 
 days of the week he gave wholly to his book, wherein he most 
 diligently travailed. When the Sunday came, then went he to 
 some one merchant's chamber or other, whither came many 
 other merchants, and unto them would he read some one 
 parcel of Scripture : the which proceeded so fruitfully, sweetly, 
 and gently from him, much like to the writing of John the 
 Evangelist, that it was a heavenly comfort and joy to the 
 audience to hear him read the Scriptures; likewise, after 
 dinner, he spent an hour in the same manner. He was a 
 man without any spot or blemish of rancour or malice, full of 
 mercy and compassion, so that no man living was able to 
 reprove him of any sin or crime ; although his righteousness 
 and justification depended not thereupon before God, but only 
 upon the blood of Christ, and his faith upon the same." 
 
 It is evident from these words of the Martyrologist, that 
 the vague assertion so frequently hazarded, that Tyndale was 
 the chaplain of the merchant adventurers in Antwerp, is quite 
 without foundation. Many of the merchants were undoubtedly 
 favourable to the doctrines of the Reformation ; but at that 
 time it was simply impossible that any person who had taken 
 a prominent part in propagating the opinions of the Reformers 
 could hold the office of chaplain. Lambert, whose opinions 
 were far less developed than those of Tyndale, had, as we 
 have seen, been taken before Sir Thomas More on the charge 
 of heresy; and it is quite evident that Tyndale did not 
 conduct any religious services in Antwerp in an official 
 capacity. Not improbably, indeed, for a considerable period 
 of his exile, Tyndale had never known the happiness of 
 publicly joining in the worship of God ; " He sayeth no 
 service at all," Sir Thomas More has asserted, "neither 
 matins, evensong, nor mass, nor cometh at no church but 
 either to gaze or talk ; " ^ and, making due allowance for 
 
 ' Confutation, p. 415. 
 
mmtmengte" mnmm 
 
 $9^ » II.<ICa»itt9ian0 SThc . I . ll^^tmi^t, 
 ®o t^e iai|)lip0tan«( ^o pbpl^nton. 
 
 9bf .1* of 6 * Wtev t^e*l» of^3o\in* 
 ?riyr.ii«of^«]d?ifi; ^e.u. of S.John. 
 
 5Q[ie eptai^ tsum mt of i|ie 
 
ROGERS AT ANTWERP. 
 
 353 
 
 controversial bitterness, the charge is probably in the main 
 true. The Roman Catholic worship he was not likely to 
 attend ; in Antwerp, no other was tolerated ; and Tyndale's 
 ministrations were evidently nothing more than a species of 
 family devotionad service. 
 
 Another popular error on this point may also be here recti- 
 fied. It has been taken for granted that John Rogers, the 
 proto-martyr of the Marian persecution, immediately suc- 
 ceeded Lambert as chaplain at Antwerp, that he was therefore 
 contemporary with Tyndale for some years in that city, and 
 that he was a man entirely kindred in his opinions to the 
 illustrious Translator. The truth is, however, that Rogers 
 held a living in London till the month of October, 1534 ; and 
 when he came to Antwerp as chaplain he was almost certainly 
 no adherent of the cause of the Reformers ; but, as even Foxe 
 has remarked, " performed the sacred offices after the common 
 custom of the idolaters \i.e., the Romanists] of the time."^ 
 Rogers could only have known Tyndale for a few months 
 before his imprisonment ; but this brief acquaintance sufficed 
 to make a deep impression on his mind. He seems to have 
 succeeded in part to the place which Fryth had previously 
 occupied ; he assisted Tyndale in his literary labours ; and to 
 him was bequeathed, according to a tradition that has never 
 been disputed, the honour of completing that great work to 
 which Tyndale had consecrated his life. 
 
 Vaughan also was again in Antwerp, and to his correspond- 
 ence we are once more indebted for some not uninteresting 
 gossip concerning Tyndale and other refugees. He informs 
 us, among other curious details, that Sir Thomas More, who 
 had then fallen into disgrace, had sent " oftentimes and 
 lately to Antwerp," books to be distributed there, including 
 his Confutation of Tyndale, and his Answer to Fryth, so 
 anxious was the ex- Chancellor that his works should find 
 readers.^ Again, he informs Cromwell that it was reported in 
 
 ' See Life of Rogers, by Lemuel Chester. 
 
 2 State Papers, Vol. vii. p. 489. Vanghan to Cromwell, August 3. 
 
 A a 
 
354 REVISION OF THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 Antwerp that Tyndale had been requested by the party in 
 England opposed to the royal divorce to correct a treatise 
 which had been composed against Henry's marriage with 
 Anne Boleyn, but that he " refused to do so, saying that he 
 would no farther meddle in his Prince's matter, nor would 
 move his people against him, since it [the marriage] was 
 done : " ^ so that Tyndale had probably begun to perceive that 
 his opinions on the royal divorce had brought him into inter- 
 course with strange companions. 
 
 After his settlement at Antwerp, Tyndale seems to have 
 returned with all his energy to his great work of completing 
 and perfecting his translation of Holy Scripture. For some 
 time he had allowed himself to be withdrawn to other labours, 
 which appeared to him indispensable; but, fortunately, his 
 true work again occupied him in these last few months of his 
 life. 
 
 In 1534, he reissued the Pentateuch, with some slight 
 changes in the Book of Genesis, in the Prefaces, and in the 
 appended explanatory tables ; his engagements probably not 
 allowing a more thorough revision at that time. 
 
 The great work of the year 1534, however, was the entire 
 revision of his New Testament, and the issue of a second 
 edition, which has been, not inappropriately, styled " Tyndale's 
 noblest monument." Since the first printing of the work at 
 Worms it had been frequently reproduced, but never under 
 Tyndale's superintendence. The original editioa had been 
 reprinted, but without any attempt to introduce any of those 
 corrections which Tyndale had promised in his " Preface to 
 the Reader," in his first issue ; indeed, so far from being 
 improved in these subsequent reprints, innumerable errors had 
 been permitted to creep in from the ignorance of the foreign 
 printers. 
 
 The history of the English Bible between the years 1526 
 and 1534 is still so badly ascertained that it cannot be given 
 in detail ; but on the whole we may accept, as probably 
 
 ' State Papers, Vol. vii. p. 516. October 21. 
 
REVISION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. j^t^e^ 
 
 coming near to the truth, the abstract given by one who has 
 already been several times mentioned, and who will occupy a 
 prominent place in this chapter — George Joye. 
 
 " Thou shalt know that Tyndale, about eight or nine years 
 ago [Joye is writing in December, 1534, or January, 1535], 
 translated and printed the New Testament in a mean great 
 volume [he means the octavo at Worms], but yet without 
 Kalendar, Concordances in the margin, and Table in the end. 
 And anon after, the Dutchmen got a copy, and printed it 
 again in a small volume, adding the Kalendar in the beginning, 
 Concordances \i.e., parallel passages] in the margin, and the 
 Table in the end. But yet for that they had no Englishman 
 to correct the setting, they themselves, having not the know- 
 ledge of our tongue, were compelled to make many more 
 faults than were in the copy, and so corrupted the book that 
 the simple reader might ofttimes be tarried and stick. After 
 this they printed it again, also without a corrector, in a greater 
 letter and volume, with the figures [woodcuts] in the Apoca- 
 lypse, which was therefore much falser than their first. When 
 these two prints (there were of them both about five thousand 
 books printed), were all sold more than a twelvemonth ago,^ 
 Tyndale was pricked forth to take the Testament in hand, to 
 print it and correct it as he professeth and promiseth to do in 
 the latter end of his first translation. But Tyndale prolonged 
 and deferred so necessary a thing and so just desires of many 
 men : in so much that in the mean season the Dutchmen 
 printed it again the third time in a small volume like their 
 first print, but much more false than ever it was beforei And 
 yet was Tyndale here called upon again, seeing there were so 
 many false printed books still put forth, and bought up so 
 fast ; for now was there given, thanked be God, a little space 
 to breathe and rest unto Christ's Church, after so long and 
 grievous persecution for reading the books \i.e., probably after 
 
 1 Joye, who left England in December, 1527, had remained at Strasburg till about 
 1532, and therefore could only know some of those facts from hearsay; it 
 seems strange, however, that he had never heard of the Cologne quarto, which had 
 Concordances. 
 
 A a 2 
 
^5^ VARIOUS EDITIONS OF 
 
 the legislation of March, 1534]. But yet before this third 
 time of printing the book, the printer desired me to correct it ; 
 and I said, ' It were well done, if ye printed them again, to 
 make them truer, and not to deceive our nation with any 
 more false books; nevertheless, I suppose that Tyndale 
 himself will put it forth more perfect and newly corrected, 
 which if he do, yours shall be nought set by, nor never sold.' 
 This notwithstanding yet they printed them, and that most 
 false, and about two thousand books, and had shortly sold them 
 all. All this long while Tyndale slept, for nothing came from 
 him, as far as I could perceive. Then the Dutch began to 
 print them the fourth time, because they saw no man else 
 going about them ; and after they had printed the first leaf, 
 which copy another Englishman had corrected to them, they 
 came to me and desired me to correct them their copies ; 
 when I answered as before, that, ' if Tyndale amend it, with 
 so great diligence as he promiseth, yours will be never sold.' 
 ' Yes,' quod they, ' for if he print two thousand, and we as 
 many, what is so little a number for all England ? and we will 
 sell ours better cheap, and therefore we doubt not of the sale.' 
 So that I perceived well and was sure that whether I had 
 corrected their copy or not, they had gone forth with their 
 work, and had given us two thousand more books falselier 
 printed than ever we had before. Then I thus considered 
 with myself, England hath enough and too many false Testa- 
 ments, and is now likely to have many more ; yea, and that 
 whether Tyndale correct his or no, yet shall these, now in 
 hand, go forth uncorrected too, except somebody correct 
 them; and what Tyndale doth I wot not, he maketh me 
 nothing of his counsel ; I see nothing come from him all this 
 long while, wherein, with the help that he hath, that is to say, 
 one both to write it and to correct it in the press, he might 
 have done it thrice since he was moved to do it. For Tyndale 
 I know well was not able to do it without such an helper, 
 which he hath ever had hitherto." ^ 
 
 ' Joye's Apology, Arber's Reprint, pp. 20-22. 
 
TYN DALE'S TESTAMENT. 357 
 
 In short, JoyCj at the urgent request of the printer, who 
 was the widow of Christopher of Endhoven, undertook to 
 correct the press for the extremely moderate remuneration of 
 fourpence-halfpenny sterling for every sheet of sixteen leaves. 
 It is probable, it is in fact certain, that Joye has omitted, 
 through ignorance, some of the early surreptitious reprints of 
 Tyndale's New Testament ; but from his statement it is evident 
 that besides Tyndale's own editions, four others had been issued 
 previous to that which Tyndale himself revised in November, 
 1534' Unfortunately, these surreptitious editions have not 
 been identified ; ^ but we are probably not exaggerating 
 when we suppose that on the average, every year since its 
 first issue, a new edition had been printed and circulated 
 in England. And it must be remembered that these editions 
 were all reprints of the octavo of Worms, and that they were 
 therefore without note or comment, containing simply the text 
 of Holy Scripture in English, with references in the margin to 
 parallel passages. 
 
 Some writers, anxious to find excuses for the authorities 
 who prohibited the Bible and punished those that read it, allege 
 that it contained offensive notes, which no authority, lay or 
 clerical, could be expected to tolerate ; but this is a total delusion, 
 a defence of ancient bigotry by modern ignorance. It must 
 not be forgotten, that what was prohibited, what was con- 
 demnedj what was burnt, was the simple text of Holy Scripture, 
 without any note, or comment, or prologue of any kind what- 
 soever.^ The Bible-burners of the sixteenth century would 
 have repudiated with indignation the motives which candid 
 moderns have been kind enough to invent for them. In their 
 judgment the whole question was entirely free from those 
 complications which modern refinement has introduced ; and 
 
 * They are scattered about, if they exist at all, in cathedral libraries and other 
 collections not easy of access. In such places, books of this kind are practically 
 lost, (some of them have in fact disappeared) ; and it is a great pity that they are 
 not placed under proper charge in some accessible position. 
 
 ^ I except, of course, the edition of 1530, in which it is supposed that the 
 Prologue to the Romans was inserted. 
 
358 yOYE'S REVISED EDITION. 
 
 they pronounce their opinion with a plainness which at once 
 supersedes all doubt. 
 
 "The New Testament translated into the vulgar tongue," 
 says one of the chief opponents of the Reformers, " is in truth 
 the food of death, the fuel of sin, the vail of malice, the pretext 
 of false liberty, the protection of disobedience, the corruption 
 of discipline, the depravity of morals, the termination of 
 concord, the death of honesty, the well-spring of vices, the 
 disease of virtues, the instigation of rebellion, the milk of pride, 
 the nourishment of contempt, the death of peace, the destruc- 
 tion of charity, the enemy of unity, the murderer of truth ! " ^ 
 That men who cherished such sentiments as these should 
 proscribe and burn the Bible in the native tongue, was as 
 natural as that men who dread contagion should burn all 
 infected garments. 
 
 The narrative of Joye, which we have just quoted, was 
 intended as a sort of explanation and defence of his conduct in 
 issuing a revised reprint of Tyndale's New Testament, although 
 he was well aware that Tyndale himself had for some time 
 been occupied in a careful revision and correction of his 
 own work. Joye, indeed, took care not to connect Tyndale's 
 name with his edition ; but it was undeniably little more than 
 a reprint of Tyndale's, with a few changes introduced. These, 
 moreover, were made without any attempt to confer the 
 translation with the original Greek, a task for which Joye's 
 scholarship was wholly inadequate. He himself acknowledges 
 that he merely " mended " any words that he found falsely 
 printed, and that when he "came to some dark sentences that 
 no reason could be gathered of them, whether it was by the 
 
 ^ The passage is worth quoting in the original Latin, as a tour de force of 
 rhetoric : " Novum Testamentum, a, Luthero in patriam linguam traductum, vere 
 pabulum est mortis, fomes peccati, velamen malitiss, praetextus falsae libertatis, 
 inobedientiffi prsesidium, disciplinse corruptio, morum depravatio, concordise 
 dissipatio, honestatis interitus, vitiorum scaturigo, virtutum lues, febellionis 
 incendium, superbiae lac, esca contemptus, pacis mors, charitatis peremptio, 
 unitatis hostis, veritatis perduellio." Cochloeus' An licet Laicis, etc., signature 
 B. iv. 
 
yOYI^S REVISED EDITION. 359, 
 
 ignorance of the first translator or of the printers," he had 
 "the Latin text" by him, and "made it plain." In fact, the 
 work had no pretension whatever to be considered an original 
 production, and was simply such a plagiarism as any modern 
 laws of copyright would interdict or punish. It was ushered 
 into the world with a pompous and affected title ; " The New 
 Testament as it was written and caused to be written by them 
 which heard it, whom also our Saviour Christ Jesus commanded 
 that they should preach it unto all creatures ; " and the 
 colophon paraded it as " diligently over-seen and corrected." 
 Not much diligence, however, could be expected for fourpence- 
 halfpenny a sheet ; and although the printers did their part 
 well (for the work is got up with remarkable neatness), Joye's 
 diligence seems to have been in proportion to the smallness of 
 his remuneration.^ 
 
 The changes which he has introduced are few in number, of 
 the very smallest possible consequence, never in any case 
 suggested by the original Greek, and probably not in a single 
 instance effecting any improvement either in the accuracy or 
 the clearness of the version which he thus presumed to correct. 
 In the three chapters of St. Matthew, for example, which 
 contain the Sermon on the Mount, he only ventures to make 
 eight changes : in two of them he is certainly wrong ; in a 
 third he has mistaken the meaning of Tyndale ; in a fourth he 
 has misunderstood the sense of the original ; a fifth is a per- 
 missible-variation in the rendering of a participle; and the 
 remaining three are grammatical trifles, such as the substitution 
 of shall for will, into for to. This may probably be taken as 
 a fair specimen of Joye's work, which scarcely aspires beyond 
 the province of an ordinary corrector of the press, and, except 
 in one respect, was, with all its pretensions, simply a barefaced 
 reprint of Tyndale's Testament.^ 
 
 ^ Only one copy is known to be in existence, tliat in the Grenville Library in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 ^ In St. Matthew vi. 24, Tyndale's New Testament had by mistake the words, 
 " or else he will Une the one and despise the other," which Joye could make 
 
360 JOYE'S REVISED EDITION. 
 
 One change, however, and that not unimportant, Joye did 
 venture with most intolerable arrogance to introduce. In his 
 intercourse with Tyndale there had been frequent discussions 
 on an abstruse doctrinal question much controverted in the 
 Christian Church,— the condition of the souls of the dead 
 between death and judgment. In his controversy with Sir 
 Thomas More, Tyndale had asserted, or, at least, had admitted, 
 that " the souls of the dead lie and sleep till Doomsday," 
 whereas Joye maintained, in common perhaps with most 
 members of the Church, Reformed or un-Reformed, that at 
 death the souls passed not into sleep, but into a higher and 
 better life. On this point, according to Joye's own narrative, 
 he and Tyndale had frequently been engaged in rather sharp 
 discussions ; and he complains that Tyndale had repeatedly 
 treated him in a somewhat abrupt and uncourteous fashion, 
 upbraiding him with his want of scholarship, and ridiculing his 
 arguments, " filliping them forth," as he alleges, " between his 
 finger and his thumb after his wonted disdainful manner." 
 Full of this doctrinal controversy, Joye believed that Tyndale 
 had obscured the meaning of Scripture in several passages by 
 the use of the term resurrection, where it was not the resurrec- 
 tion of the body that was really intended ; and he therefore in 
 his revision struck out the term, and substituted for it the 
 phrase, " life after this," which was more in accordance with his 
 own opinions. 
 
 A single specimen will show more clearly than any descrip- 
 tion the nature of the change thus effected ; and the matter is 
 of so much consequence in the personal history of Tyndale, 
 that it is necessary to understand it accurately. The words of 
 our Lord (St. Matthew xxii. 30, 31), rendered in our Authorised 
 Version, after Tyndale, " in the resurrection they neither marry 
 
 nothing of, and so, conjecturally, he printed, " he will love the one," etc. In 
 Tyndale's own revision the error is of course rectified, "he will lean to the one." 
 I do not pretend to have collated all Joye's book; but after examining several 
 passages in the Gospels and the Epistles, I am satisfied that the estimate in the text 
 is a correct one. Westcott gives an excellent account of it : History of the English 
 Bible, p. 57. 
 
Ofti Aftltbtc . Xpltewfre tlije retente a^ 
 tbetbptb/bnto tDtttutmift Lafte cf 
 all tt)e «K)man bveti airo j;i« wc m tt>t 
 Ipfe af trt t^s/ wtioCc wp«« nal Hx be 
 oftt;^e.b(|^(o»aU^fitl»>3(ru0aRrn;( 
 ccD no bfte bnto tt)^: pt ace btceancD 
 ifihnowenotw^ttbe fctiptu<^( ttua 
 nctt>/nojt pet tl)e bcrtne af soD t ^a> tti 
 tt>t IjifeafMi: tbr?/ t^^v nttljttmatvl 
 bo) ate marpcb: but ace ag ti}t afigel^ 
 dfooDintieaurti. >, 
 
 a«t toncDpnee t^elyfe of t^em ttw< 
 be beeDslane ve notvetxt w^t ijtCa^ 
 
 bet)iU0toaotso6/ni^tcl)bv<t^38)<> <« 
 
 Slb;wi>ani0 i&oD/ anb jraah^ 0ob/an& {(ft, {Mf^ « 
 i()e £00 of 3atob:'<&oB t^ itot ti)e gob 
 df ttx btebibot of t^r ifupnge.Snb (()• 
 t)ent^epe»ple^ccbtct)at/tt)epiw(Kji " \ 
 
 aonpebattj)>£(bO(ci:;me. ^ 
 
 B> ^ urt*«ctwpl»«irrEi !>ab ^rcte^o mar.tff.Ci ^ 
 we(t)atbel)abputtl)era&iKe)3toai<n2.Q(.tfi,f > 
 (e/t^e;>b>euiecogebrr/abwonoftt>{ ^-J 
 
 .w|)j>(l;v»attabdctouE offtaivr afbrb ^ 
 
 dtm a iiiirStS trmprmg; ^tm ? favnge 
 ^aSec wlnttiifs c^r gcncstnmamtS' iqm hi a. 
 m^t m ifje lawt^jeCnfi fapie bnto b«m ' 
 
 t^ouri;Atttoiirtl)rlo>be<&eb wttt)an~ 
 tftpac bfrte/w>pil;aUtt)j'r«iile/Sf »ttti: 
 atttljpmj'nbeiCtiiaisitfteetttiBt^at _ 
 grct (fimaunbmenti 3nb tb»r tjijano' 
 tDecIihebnco tt)teci)oiift)altionetl)y i.m.tir.n 
 
yOYE'S REVISED EDITION. 361 
 
 nor are given in marriage ... as touching the resurrection of 
 the dead, have ye not read ?" etc., are translated by Joye, " in 
 the life after this they neither marry " — and " as touching the 
 life of them that be dead" etc. Joye did not, as has been 
 sometimes said, discard the word resurrection altogether, 
 neither did he intend to express any doubt as to the doctrine 
 of the resurrection of the body ; but he confined the use of the 
 word to those instances in which it was unquestionably the 
 resurrection of the body that was intended {e.g., Acts i. aa) ; 
 and in all other cases, in order, as he supposed, to avoid 
 instilling prejudices into the minds of the unwary readers, 
 he employed such circumlocutions as "the life after this" or 
 " the very life." 
 
 The doctrinal controversy thus raised does not fall within 
 the province of our biography; but some knowledge of the 
 facts involved is indispensable at this period of Tyndale's life, 
 all the more so, as they have been very considerably mis- 
 represented by some previous writers.^ 
 
 From what has just been written the reader will be pre- 
 pared to anticipate the indignation which Joye's proceedings 
 excited in the mind of Tyndale. For many months he had 
 been engaged in a most elaborate revision of his New Testa- 
 ment, which must have cost nearly as much labour as the 
 original translation ; and now, just as his yirork was ready 
 for the press, Joye's edition appeared. Not only was the 
 real author of the translation thereby threatened with the 
 loss of the fruit of his long and weary labours ; not only 
 was he dishonestly defrauded by the employment of his own 
 previous toil against himself; but, to add insult to injury, he 
 saw his translation tampered with by Joye, so as to give 
 countenance to what he had often condemned as the mere 
 " curious speculation " of a stupid and ignorant man. Beyond 
 all question Joye had acted dishonourably; he had injured 
 and insulted Tyndale ; and no human patience could have 
 
 ' I am no admirer of Joye, but I cannot help protesting against the treatment 
 he has received from Anderson. 
 
36a TYNDALE'S REVISED EDITION OF 1534. 
 
 submitted unmoved to his proceedings. Tyndale felt keenly 
 the injury that had been done; he gave vent to his indig- 
 nation in bitter and reproachful terms ; and a personal con- 
 troversy was thus excited, which was not appeased even at 
 the time of his apprehension. 
 
 But before entering upon the narrative of this personal 
 dispute, the work of Tyndale deserves a more detailed notice. 
 Tyndale's first version had been made under considerable 
 difficulties, as we have formerly seen; and he was himself 
 aware that it was susceptible of many improvements. Not 
 only might the text be improved by more accurate, more 
 clear, or more concise, renderings ; but, in his own estima- 
 tion, it was desirable to give the work completeness by 
 separate introductions to each of the books, and by greater 
 attention to the marginal glosses, with which, as with a brief 
 commentary, it was equipped. All this was accomplished 
 with great pains in the edition of 1534. He had diligently 
 gone over the whole of his translation, not only comparing 
 it once again with the Greek text of Erasmus, but bringing 
 to bear upon it that enlarged experience of Hebrew which 
 he had acquired in his translation of the Old Testament, 
 and which he now saw to be of no small service in illustrating 
 the Hellenistic of the New. In his " Epistle to the Reader," 
 he states the general principles on which he proceeded, and 
 they are not unworthy of consideration. 
 
 " Here hast thou, most dear reader, the New Testament 
 or covenant made with us of God in Christ's blood, which 
 I have looked over again, now at the last, with all diligence, 
 and compared it unto the Greek, and have weeded out of 
 it many faults, which lack of help at the beginning, and over- 
 sight, did sow therein. If aught seem changed, or not al- 
 together agreeing with the Greek, let the finder of the fault 
 consider the Hebrew phrase or manner of speech left in the 
 Greek words ; whose preterperfect tense and present tense is 
 often both one, and the future tense is the optative mood 
 also, and the future tense oft the imperative mood in the 
 
TYNDALE'S REVISED EDITION OF 1534. ^1^^ 
 
 active voice, and in the passive ever. Likewise person for 
 person, number for number, and an interrogation for a con- 
 ditional, and such like, is with the Hebrews a common 
 usage.^ I have also in many places set light in the margin 
 to understand the text by. If any man find faults either 
 with the translation or aught beside [which is easier for many 
 to do than so well to have translated it themselves of their own 
 pregnant wits at the beginning, without an ensample), to the 
 same it shall be lawful to translate it themselves, and to put 
 what they lust thereto. If I shall perceive, either by myself 
 or by the information of other, that aught be escaped me, 
 or might more plainly be translated, I will shortly after cause 
 it to be mended. Howbeit, in many places methinketh it 
 better to put a declaration in the margin, than to run too 
 far from the text. And in many places, where the text 
 seemeth at the first chop hard to be understood, yet the 
 circumstances before and after, and often reading together, 
 make it plain enough." 
 
 The diligent correction promised in these words was faith- 
 fully and laboriously carried out, in such a manner as amply 
 to justify the declaration of the title-page, that it was " cor- 
 rected and compared with the Greek." ^ The corrections 
 introduced may be reckoned by thousands, and in the great 
 majority of cases their obvious tendency is to bring the 
 English version into closer correspondence with the Greek 
 original. Tyndale's scholarship comes out in very marked 
 contrast with the carelessness and ignorance of his rival. In 
 the Sermon on the Mount, as we have just seen, Joye intro- 
 duced eight changes in all, half of them mistakes, and none 
 of them improvements ; Tyndale has made no fewer than 
 
 * And yet this is the person who is supposed not to have known anything about 
 Hebrew I 
 
 ' The title is as follows : — " The New Testament diligently corrected and 
 compared with the Greek, by William Tyndale, and finished in the year of our 
 Lord God, 1534, in the month of November." It was printed by Martin Lem- 
 pereur, in Antwerp ; Joye's, by the widow of Christopher of Endhoven, in 
 Antwerp. 
 
364 CORRECTIONS IN TYNDALE'S EDITION. 
 
 fifty-one changes in the same chapters, the merit of which 
 is sufficiently indicated by the fact that, after several subse- 
 quent revisions, many of them still exist in our Authorised 
 Version. 
 
 A specimen of Tyndale's " revision and correction '' will 
 make palpable to the reader the enormous difference between 
 his well-considered alterations and Joye's trifling and heedless 
 changes. In St. Matthew v. 13, the original version of 15^5 
 had run as follows : — " Ye are the salt of the earth, but and 
 if the salt be once unsavoury, what can be salted therewith ? 
 it is therefore good for nothing but to be cast out at the 
 doors, and that men tread it under feet." 
 
 In Tyndale's revision of 1534, it is thus amended, and 
 brought nearer to the Greek : — " Ye are the salt of the earth, 
 but and if the salt have lost her saltness, what can be salted 
 therewith?^ It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast 
 out and to be trodden under foot of men!' 
 
 Again, in verse 16, the previous reading, " See that your 
 light so shine before men," is changed into the more literal 
 and more beautiful, "Let your light so shine before men." 
 And similarly in the succeeding verse the incorrect render- 
 ing, "Ye shall not think that I am come to destroy the 
 law," is more accurately translated, "Think not that I am 
 come;" and the phrase, "Heavenly Father," in verses 
 45 and 48 of the old rendering, is replaced by the more 
 euphonious as well as more accurate, " Father which is in 
 heaven." 
 
 In the sixth chapter, the first translation had omitted 
 the Doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer ; the revised 
 version, founding upon a collation of other printed texts, 
 has inserted it; and several minor improvements are also 
 introduced; thus, e.g., "Consider the lilies" for "behold 
 the lilies ; " " what ye shall put on " for " what raiment ye 
 shall wear." And in the seventh chapter, among other 
 
 ' On this reading see any critical edition of the New Testament. 
 
CORRECTIONS IN TYN DALE'S EDITION. 365 
 
 alterations, he effected a considerable improvement in the 
 force of the last words of the sermon, by bringing the 
 English into closer approximation to the Greek : " It was 
 overthrown, and great was the fall of it," had been the ver- 
 sion of 1535 ; for which Tyndale now substituted the simple 
 rendering which we now use, and which retains the rhetorical 
 figure of the original : " and it fell, and great was the fall 
 thereof." 
 
 These changes may be taken as a specimen of the revision 
 to which Tyndale submitted his former translation ; and only 
 those who have some slight acquaintance with the difficulties 
 that beset the revision of a finished work can fully appreciate 
 the amount of care and labour which Tyndale must have 
 bestowed upon his task. In the vast majority of instances 
 his changes are obvious improvements ; they give clearness 
 to what was previously obscure, or force to what was formerly 
 weak and pointless ; they improve the melody and rhythm of 
 the sentence ; or, above all, they bring the English into more 
 exact grammatical and verbal conformity with the original. 
 Revision is a difficult and delicate task ; seldom undertaken 
 by the writers to whom we owe the original, and seldom ably 
 performed by any other. Tyndale is great in both capacities ; 
 he translated with unequalled felicity; he revised with un- 
 rivalled success ; he has shown his countrymen both the true 
 spirit in which the Holy Scriptures may be worthily rendered 
 into English, and the true method by which that translation 
 may be gradually improved and perfected. 
 
 A more complete examination of the revised edition of 
 1534 would only confirm the verdict that has now been pro- 
 nounced. A highly-competent authority has ascertained, e. g., 
 that thirty-one changes have been introduced into the trans- 
 lation of the First Epistle of St. John ; " of these about a third 
 are closer approximations to the Greek ; rather more are varia- 
 tions in connecting particles or the like, designed to bring out 
 the argument of the original more clearly ; three new readings 
 are adopted ; and in one passage it appears that Luther's 
 
S66 PROLOGUES IN THE REVISED EDITION. 
 
 rendering has been substituted for an awkward paraphrase ; 
 yet it must be remarked that even in this revision the changes 
 are far more frequently at variance with Luther's renderings 
 than in accordance with them."^ 
 
 The New Testament of 1534, besides being carefully revised 
 in the translation, contains Prologues to all the Books except 
 the Acts and the Apocalypse. These have to a considerable 
 extent been translated from the German of Luther ; although, 
 with his characteristic independence, Tyndale in no case con- 
 fines himself to the mere functions of a mechanical translator. 
 In general, he condenses and abridges Luther's works ; but 
 in some cases he writes in direct opposition to his great pro- 
 totype ; and he is always careful to avoid that sweeping and 
 unconditional recklessness of assertion^ which makes- the works 
 of Luther sometimes stumbling-blocks to friends as well as 
 to enemies. His Prologues to Hebrews and to James are, 
 in the main, an argument against the opinions of Luther, 
 who, as is well known, had treated both these books as not 
 entitled to Apostolic authority; and after carefully examining 
 all Luther's reasons, Tyndale concludes, in direct opposition 
 to Luther, that they ought " no more to be refused for holy, 
 godly, and Catholic than the other authentic Scriptures," but 
 "ought of right to be taken for Holy Scripture."^ 
 
 In addition, moreover, to these Prologues, which, with one 
 exception, had all been specially prepared for this revised 
 Testament, Tyndale furnished his work with marginal glosses, 
 intended to throw light upon the text, and to guide the 
 reader to its true meaning and its moral lessons. From the 
 destruction of the original quarto of Cologne, which was also, 
 as the reader will remember, supplied with these marginal 
 comments, it is not possible for us to assert definitely, how 
 far these glosses were composed for the revised edition of 
 
 ^ Westcott, p. 185, and Appendix iii. Tyndale has also indicated the passage 
 (i John V. 7), which is now generally considered spurious, by printing it in 
 smaller type and in brackets. 
 
 ^ Westcott has examined the whole matter with admirable care; pp. 157- 
 203. 
 
GLOSSES IN THE REVISED EDITION. 367 
 
 1534, or how far they were mere reprints of those which had 
 previously appeared. If we may judge, however, from an 
 examination of the fragment of the first quarto which remains, 
 it would seem probable that nearly the whole of the glosses 
 were rewritten for the occasion. They are less polemical, 
 and more strictly expository than those which had been 
 originally appended to the New Testament by Tyndale ; and 
 it will be generally admitted that this dissociation of the Word 
 of God from the expression of human indignation is a vast 
 improvement. They are wonderfully terse, without any affec- 
 tation of rhetorical antithesis ; and they are as favourable 
 specimens of " pregnant and pithy comments " as the English 
 langviage contains. 
 
 Thus on Christ's announcement of His death following im- 
 mediately after that confession of St. Peter, which He had 
 so highly praised, he remarks, " When aught is said or done 
 that should move to pride, He dasheth them in the teeth with 
 His death and passion." What an admirable definition of 
 strong is that contained in the comment on Romans xv. i. : 
 "He is strong that can bear another man's weakness!" How 
 truly does he catch the spirit of the Apostle's advice to the 
 Corinthians on marriage, " If a man have the gift, chastity 
 is good, the more quietly to serve God ; for the married have 
 oft much trouble ; but if the mind of the chaste be cumbered 
 with other worldly business, what helpeth it? and if the 
 married be the more quick-minded thereby, what hurteth it .' 
 Neither, of itself, is better than the other." Occasionally, the 
 gloss is merely a species of catch-word placed in the margin, 
 indicating the subject treated of; and sometimes it is simply 
 explanatory, as when he notes that by " a penny is always 
 to be understood a sum of money equal to sevenpence amongst 
 us." Polemical notes are not entirely omitted, but the sting 
 of them seems to have been deprived of its poison, as the 
 former bitterness of expression is considerably modified. Thus, 
 on St. Paul's advice to the Thessalonians, " That ye study 
 to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with 
 
368 GLOSSES IN THE REVISED EDITION. 
 
 your own hands," he remarks simply, "a good lesson for 
 monks and idle friars." ^ 
 
 The Prologues and glosses do not exhaust the whole of 
 Tyndale's additions to the text of the New Testament. At 
 the close of the work he has added a translation of the 
 "Epistles taken out of the Old Testament, which are read 
 in the Church after the Use of Salisbury," on certain Saints' 
 Days and other occasions. These included not only extracts 
 from the books of the Pentateuch which he had already trans- 
 lated, but also from many of the other parts of the Old 
 Testament, from Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, 
 Hosea, Amos, Zechariah, and Malachi; as well as from the 
 Apocryphal books of Esdras, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus.^ 
 
 In fact, the New Testament of 1534 was an approximation 
 
 ^ I join my regret to that of Westcott that these glosses, along with those on the 
 Pentateuch, were not included in the Parker Society Edition of Tyndale's Works. 
 The Editor has done his work in a most creditable manner, but it is unfortunate 
 that he has omitted writings so characteristic, and on which Tyndale had evidently 
 bestowed so much labour ; all the more so as it is extremely improbable, consider- 
 ing the enormous depreciation of the value of the Parker Society's publications, 
 that any new edition of Tyndale's Works will be issued for many years. In the 
 present case the Editor's omission of these glosses has been attended by a curious 
 result, which shows how important it is that the whole of an author's writings 
 should be comprised in what professes to be a complete edition of his Works. Mr. 
 Chester, in his Life of Rogers, claims for that distinguished martyr the honour of 
 being the first Commentator on Holy Scripture of the English Protestant Church. 
 And in support of this claim he asserts (p. 48, note), " After his most zealous 
 exertions, Professor Walter could collect together only about nine octavo pages of 
 Tyndale's Annotations, while those of Rogers would fill a considerable volume ; 
 moreover, those few notes of Tyndale appear to have had little or no circulation, 
 and it will be seen by examination that Rogers retained very few of them." All 
 this, it is evident, is mere misconception, arising chiefly from Professor Walter's 
 omission to print the glosses in the New Testament of 1534 and in the Pentateuch, 
 which would fill a considerable volume : but proceeding, also, in part from Mr. 
 Chester failing to perceive that the nine octavo pages were not the whole even 
 of Tyndale's glosses on his first Testament, but only all that exist in the few leaves 
 which constitute the Grenville fragment ; a misapprehension which is unaccountable 
 in one so exact and painstaking as I know my friend Lemuel Chester to be. I omit 
 altogether the question, evidently a most important one, whether those notes 
 of Rogers on which the claim depends, may not have been as much Tyndale's 
 as the translation which they accompanied. 
 
 ° Westcott has given a complete list of these Epistles. Anderson has, not very 
 honestly, suppressed all notice of the Apocrypha. 
 
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PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 369 
 
 to the familiar Church Service of the modern church-goer; 
 and seemed to point to the possibility of the same use in 
 public as well as in private religious worship. Tyndale's 
 hopes were beginning to rise after long years of toil and 
 danger, and the sky was brightening with the promise of the 
 coming day. For eight years it had been a crime in any 
 Englishman to sell, to purchase, or to read a copy of the 
 New Testament in his native tongue ; now, in God's provi- 
 dence, the persecution had died down ; men might even dare 
 to possess the English Bible and read it in private, and 
 Tyndale seems to have anticipated the possibility of its being 
 publicly read in church for the edification of the people. 
 
 This, too, was closer at hand than most men believed. 
 For in England events were moving with the speed of a 
 revolution. The papal supremacy was formally abolished by 
 Act of Parliament ; the laws against heretics were relaxed ; 
 More and Fisher were in the Tower; Anne Boleyn was 
 supreme in the king's affections, and had very recently used 
 her authority to intervene for the protection of an English 
 merchant who had been involved in trouble in Antwerp by 
 his zeal for the circulation of the New Testament. Anne's 
 theological convictions may not have been very profound or 
 very enlightened ; but there is no doubt of her favourable 
 inclination towards the Reformers ; and her letter to Crom- 
 well on this subject is worth preserving, as the first official 
 recognition extended by those in authority to men who had 
 been for years hunted as outlaws. 
 
 " Anne the Queen : Trusty and right well-beloved, we greet 
 you well ; and whereas we be credibly informed, that the 
 bearer hereof, Richard Herman, merchant and citizen of Ant- 
 werp, in Brabant, was in the time of the late lord cardinal 
 put and expelled from his freedom and fellowship of and 
 in the English House there, for nothing else, as he affirmeth, 
 but only for that he did, both with his goods and policy, 
 to his great hurt and hindrance in this world, help to the 
 settine: forth of the New Testafnent in English : we therefore 
 
 Bb 
 
370 , INTERVENTION OF ANNE BOLEYN. 
 
 desire and instantly pray you, that with all speed and favour 
 convenient, ye will cause this good and honest merchant, 
 being my Lord's true, faithful, and loving subject, to be re- 
 stored to his pristine freedom, liberty, and fellowship aforesaid, 
 and the sooner at this our request, and at your good leisure, 
 to hear him in such things as he hath to make further rela- 
 tion unto you in this behalf: Given, under our signet, at 
 my Lord's Manor of Greenwich, the 14th day of May." ^ 
 
 Time was bringing about its revenge ; the day had gone 
 past when a merchant might be seized, and his goods con- 
 fiscated, for no other crime than his contributing to print the 
 Word of God in English ; and the company of merchant 
 adventurers in Antwerp were doubtless remonstrated with by 
 Cromwell in such a manner as speedily to reinstate Herman 
 in all his privileges as a member of their House. That 
 Herman, who had risked his goods and endangered his life 
 by helping to set forth the English New Testament, was 
 acquainted with Tyndale, may be taken for granted ; and that 
 the whole story of Anne's gracious intervention, heightened 
 by the charm of her beauty and her winning manners, was 
 recounted to Tyndale by the grateful merchant — this also 
 may surely be accepted without proof. That the heart of 
 the exile, so long a stranger to kindness from men in au- 
 thority, would be cheered by this unexpected act of royal 
 patronage, and would begin to expand with the hope of the 
 ultimate success of that glorious cause for which he had 
 laboured in sorrow and disappointment, surely needs not to 
 be suggested to any one of ordinary understanding. 
 
 It is true that the kindness had come from one whose 
 elevation to the throne he had formerly condemned, as one of 
 the pernicious " practices " of the prelates of England acting 
 in the interest of the pope; and we have no reason for 
 believing that he had even yet entirely abandoned these 
 opinions; yet all the more on that very account would he 
 
 ' Cotton MSS., Cleopatra, E. v. The year is not given, but must have been 
 either 1534 or 1535, and in all probability it was the former. 
 
ANNE BOLEYN'S NEW TESTAMENT. 371 
 
 appreciate the generosity and magnanimity of the fair and 
 unfortunate queen. His gratitude, it is believed, was exhibited 
 in a characteristic manner. When his work of revision was 
 completed, he caused a copy of the amended New Testament 
 to be printed upon vellum, and decorated as a present meet 
 for a queen. The volume still exists, an honourable memorial 
 at once of Tyndale's gratitude, and of Anne's generous pro- 
 tection of a British subject who had been injured by his 
 efforts on behalf of the English Bible. It is beautifully 
 printed ; and is illuminated and otherwise ornamented with 
 great care and taste. The original binding has probably 
 perished ; at present it is bound in plain dark blue leather, 
 without any ornament beyond the coat of arms of the Rev. 
 Mr. Cracherode, who bequeathed it to the British Museum ; 
 and who, it may be conjectured, had rebound it. On the 
 edges, which are richly gilt and tooled, are inscribed in 
 large letters, which time and incautious handling have almost 
 effaced the words Anna, Anglic Regina.^ It is not un- 
 worthy of notice that the prefatory matter has been omitted, 
 and that the name of Tyndale nowhere occurs in it ; for 
 the book was simply the offering of a grateful heart, not the 
 gift of a fawning Churchman eager to propitiate the favour 
 of a royal patron. The Bible needs no adventitious aid of 
 dedications to " Most High and Mighty Princes ; " and it 
 would have been well if in this respect subsequent revisers 
 had imitated the noble independence of the first translator.'^ 
 
 From the description of the New Testament of 1534 which 
 has now been given, the reader will be able to understand with 
 
 ' Various romantic details liave been circulated concerning this interesting book, 
 as e.g., that passages in it have been underlined, presumably by Anne herself, for 
 devotional purposes. This has probably arisen from confounding it with another 
 copy of the Testament of 1534 in the Museum, which has passages underlined, 
 though not such as would naturally be used for devotional purposes. 
 
 ' It is not intended to be asserted that there is any complete documentary pronf 
 that this New Testament was actually a gift froni Tyndale to Queen Anne ; it is a 
 question not of direct but of circumstantial evidence ; but the circumstances are so 
 strongly in favour of the truth of the theory, that we may well insist upon tie old 
 logical axiom, neganti inciimUt probatio, 
 
 B b 2 
 
372 TYNDALE'S CONTROVERSY WITH JOYE. 
 
 what truth it has been asserted that it is Tyndale's noblest 
 contribution to the English Bible. He had added to the 
 obligations under which his first New Testament laid his 
 countrymen, by carefully revising every word of the text, 
 giving clearness to what was obscure, replacing weak by more 
 emphatic renderings, removing grammatical inaccuracies, im- 
 proving the rhythm of the language, and in general making 
 it more exactly than before a reproduction in English of 
 all the force, and beauty, and simplicity of the original. The 
 one excellence which has so often been wanting to the per- 
 fection of a literary work, Tyndale possessed in the highest 
 measure. He was master of what the poet calls "the last 
 and greatest art, the art to blot ; " he was the beau-idM 
 of a translator, uniting consummate felicity in the first draft 
 of his work with unwearied care in the subsequent revision 
 of it. 
 
 Such a work, with the accompanying prologues, glosses, 
 and translations from the Old Testament, must have fully 
 occupied all Tyndale's energies during the year 1534; and 
 it is not surprising, therefore, that he should have been ex- 
 tremely indignant at the proceedings of Joye in attempting to 
 deprive him of the fruit of his labours, by filling the market 
 with a cheaper and inferior translation, and so curtailing the 
 circulation of the new and improved version. His conduct 
 appeared to Tyndale so dishonourable, and his changes in 
 the New Testament so dangerous, that he ^dded to his revised 
 edition, a second preface, directed especially against Joye ; 
 and it was the publication of this preface which led to the 
 prolonged and bitter controversy to which we shall now briefly 
 advert. 
 
 " Thou shalt understand, most dear reader," so runs the 
 Address, " when I had taken in hand to look over the New 
 Iisstament again, and to compare it with the Greek, and to 
 mfead whatsoever I could find amiss, and had almost finished 
 the labour, George Joye secretly took in hand to correct it 
 also, by what occasion his conscience knoweth, and prevented 
 
TYNDALE'S CONTROVERSY WITH JOYE. 373 
 
 [anticipated] me, in so much that his correction was printed in 
 great number, ere mine began [to be printed]. When it was 
 spied and word brought me, though it seemed to divers others 
 that George Joye had not used the office of an honest man, 
 seeing he knew that I was in correcting it myself, neither 
 did walk after the rules of the love and softness which Christ 
 and His disciples teach us, how that we should do nothing 
 of strife to move debate, or of vain-glory, or of covetous- 
 ness ; yet I took the thing in worth as I have done divers 
 other in time past, as one that have more experience of 
 the nature and disposition of that man's complexion, and 
 supposed that a little spice of covetousness and vain-glory 
 (two blind guides) had been the only cause that moved him 
 so to do ; about which things I strive with no man, and so 
 followed after, and corrected forth, and caused this to be 
 printed without surmise or looking on his correction. But 
 when the printing of mine was almost finished, one brought 
 me a copy [of Joye's edition], and showed me so many places 
 in such wise altered that I was astonied, and wondered not 
 a little what fury had driven him to make such change, and to 
 call it a diligent correction." 
 
 The changes which thus excited Tyndale's indignation were 
 not, indeed, so numerous as he seems to have imagined ; but, 
 under the circumstances which have been already narrated, 
 they were extremely irritating and offensive. Joye had had 
 the assurance to reprint Tyndale's translation almost verbatim, 
 while at the same time announcing his work as a "diligent 
 correction ; " and not content with thus robbing the Translator 
 of the fruit of his toil, had the further assurance to change the 
 renderings in a few verses, so as to favour his own opinions on 
 the question which he had so often debated with Tyndale, 
 the condition of the soul after death. Against this double 
 injury Tyndale protests with great vehemence. With obvious 
 and unanswerable rhetoric he urged that Joye should have 
 put his own name to a translation which so materially misre- 
 presented the opinions of its actual author ; he claimed no 
 
374 TYND ALE'S CONTROVERSY WITH JOVE. 
 
 monopoly of the right to translate the" Scriptures into English, 
 but it was not lawful, he submitted, " nor yet expedient for the 
 edifying of the unity of the faith of Christ, that whosoever 
 will, shall by his own authority take another maris trans- 
 lation, and put out and in, and change at pleasure, and call it 
 a correction." 
 
 As to the character of the changes, he proceeds to remark 
 somewhat sarcastically, " George Joye hath had of a long time 
 marvellous imaginations about this word resurrection, that 
 it should be taken for the state of souls after their departing 
 from their bodies, and hath also, though he hath been reasoned 
 with thereof and desired to cease, yet sown his doctrine by secret 
 letters on that side the sea [in England], and caused great 
 division among the brethren, insomuch that John Fryth, being 
 in prison in the Tower of London, a little before his death, 
 wrote that we should warn him and desire him to cease, and 
 would have then written against him, had I not withstood 
 him. Thereto I have been since informed that no small 
 number through his curiosity [whimsical speculations] utterly 
 deny the resurrection of the flesh and body, affirming that 
 the soul, when she is departed, is the spiritual body of the 
 resurrection, and other resurrection shall there none be. And 
 I have talked with some of them myself, so doted in that 
 folly, that it were as good persuade a post, as to pluck that 
 madness out of their brains. And of this is all George Joye's 
 unquiet curiosity the whole occasion ; whether he be of the 
 said faction also, or not, to that let him answer himself." 
 
 His own opinions on the subject Tyndale sets forth at 
 length in the noble and earnest protestation which has been 
 repeatedly printed: — 
 
 "Concerning the resurrection, I protest before God and our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, and. before the universal congregation that believeth in Him, 
 that I believe, according to the open and manifest Scriptures and Catholic 
 faith, that Christ is risen again in the flesh which He received of His 
 mother the Blessed Virgin Mary, and body wherein He died : and that we 
 shall all, both good and bad, rise both flesh and body, and appear together 
 before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive every man according to his 
 
TYNDALE'S BELIEF ON THE RESURRECTION. 375 
 
 deeds : and that the bodies of all that believe and continue in the true 
 faith of Christ shall be endued with like immortality and glory as is the 
 body of Christ 
 
 " And I protest before God, and our Saviour Christ, and all that believe 
 in Him, that I hold of the souls that are departed as much as may be 
 proved by manifest and open Scripture, and think the souls departed in 
 the faith of Christ and love of the law of God, to be in no worse case than 
 the soul of Christ was from the time that He delivered His Spirit into the 
 hands of His Father until the resurrection of His body in glory and 
 immortality. Nevertheless I confess openly that I am not persuaded that 
 they be already in the full glory that Christ is in, or the elect angels of 
 God are in ; neither is it any article of my faith : for if it so were, I see 
 not but then the preaching of the resurrection of the flesh were a thing in 
 vain. Notwithstanding yet I am ready to believe it if it may be proved 
 with open Scripture : and I have desired George Joye to take open texts 
 that seem to make for that purpose, as this is, ' To-day thou shalt be with 
 Me in Paradise ; ' to make thereof what he could ; for I receive not in the 
 Scripture the private interpretation of any man's brain, without open 
 testimony of any Scripture agreeing thereto. 
 
 " Moreover, I take God (which alone seeth the heart) to record to my 
 conscience, beseeching Him that my part be not in the blood of Christ if 
 I wrote of all that I have written throughout all my book aught of an evil 
 purpose, of envy or malice to any man, or to stir up any false doctrine or 
 opinion in the Church of Christ, or to be author of any sect, or to 
 draw disciples after me, or that I would be esteemed or had in price 
 above the least child that is bom ; save only of pity and compassion I had 
 and yet have on the blindness of my brethren, and to bring them unto the 
 knowledge of Christ, and to make every one of them, if it were possible, 
 as perfect as an angel of heaven ; and to weed out all that is not planted 
 of our Heavenly Father, and to bring down all that lifteth up itself against 
 the knowledge of the salvation that is in the blood of Christ. Also my part 
 be not in Christ if mine heart be not to follow and live according as I teach ; 
 and also if mine heart weep not night and day for mine own sin and other 
 men's indifferently, beseeching God to convert us all, and to take His wrath 
 from us, and to be merciful as well to all other men as to mine own soul ; 
 caring for the wealth [welfare] of the realm I was bom in, for the King and 
 all that are thereof, as a tender-hearted mother would do for her only son. 
 
 "As concerning all I have translated or otherwise written, I beseech all 
 men to read it for that purpose I wrote it, even to bring them to the 
 knowledge of the Scripture ; and as far as the Scripture approveth it so 
 far to allow it ; and if in any place the Word of God disallow it, there to 
 refuse it, as I do before our Saviour Christ and His congregation. And 
 where they find faults let them show it me if they be nigh, or write to me 
 if they be far off; or write openly against it and improve [disprove] it ; 
 and I promise them, if I shall perceive that their reasons conclude [are 
 conclusive], I will confess mine ignorance openly." 
 
37<5 GEORGE JOYE'S APOLOGY. 
 
 If Tyndale's animadversions upon Joye were severe, it will 
 be admitted that the severity was not undeserved; the 
 conduct of Joye would have been base even in an enemy of 
 the Reformation, but in one who professed to be a friend, it 
 was altogether inexcusable. Tyndale's remarks, naturally 
 enough, stung him to the quick, and he prepared a defence of 
 himself, which he proposed to publish to the world as widely, 
 if possible, as the attack had been circulated. Mutual friends 
 intervened, and attempted to arrest a controversy which was 
 sure to be seized by the Romanists as a proof of the inevitable 
 discord which attended all secession from the pale of their 
 communion. It was agreed accordingly that Joye should not 
 publish his defence, and that Tyndale should, in subsequent 
 editions of his New Testament, modify the assertions of his 
 damnatory epistle. From some cause, of which we have only 
 Joye's partial account, this arrangement was not carried into 
 execution ; Joye's defence was printed ; and the minds of all 
 lovers of the Reformation were scandalised by this public 
 quarrel between two who for some years had been among the 
 recognised leaders of the Reformation. 
 
 Joye's work was entitled. An Apology, made by George 
 Joye, to satisfy, if it may be, William Tyndale: to purge 
 and defend himself against so many slanderous lies feigned 
 upon him in Tyndale's uncharitable and unsober epistle?- His 
 defence of his conduct in appropriating Tyndale's translation 
 without acknowledgment is extremely lame and unsatisfactory; 
 and his abuse of Tyndale would have been unjustifiable, even 
 if Tyndale's attack had been entirely unprovoked. But on 
 the speculative question debated between them Joye defended 
 himself with very considerable ability. Tyndale, in fact, had 
 not been consistent in his teaching on the subject, and Joye 
 argues with great force and pertinacity in favour of his own 
 
 ' It contained on the title-page the quotation from the Psalms, " Lord, deliver 
 me from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue;" and the declaration, "I 
 know and believe that the bodies of every dead man shall rise again at 
 Doomsday." 
 
TYNDALE'S CONTROVERSY WITH JOYE. 377 
 
 views. Tyndale, moreover, had somewhat misrepresented or 
 misunderstood Joye ; Joye did not deny the resurrection of 
 the body; he merely maintained that, according to Scripture, 
 the state of the soul between death and the resurrection of the 
 body was a state which was appropriately described as a life, 
 and that Tyndale had erroneously used the word resurrection 
 in his version in passages where the resurrection of the body 
 was not at all alluded to, but rather the continued life of the 
 soul after its separation from the body. 
 
 The question thus debated is speculative rather than prac- 
 tical ; one which Scripture has not clearly decided, and on 
 which, accordingly, a variety of opinions has always prevailed 
 in the Church of Christ; but on the whole Joye seems to 
 have the best of the argument, he certainly espouses that 
 view of the question which has found most favour among 
 Protestant theologians. In learning and in ability of every 
 kind, however, Joye's inferiority to Tyndale is conspicuous ; 
 he seems to have been alike ignorant of Greek and Hebrew, 
 and could only translate from the Vulgate ; and, in fact, it is 
 obvious that he was one of that class of shallow, troublesome, 
 narrow-minded men of one idea who in colloquial /a:r/(3;KC^ are 
 denominated bores ; so that we are at no loss to understand 
 Tyndale's impatient gestures and contemptuous treatment of 
 his interminable arguments as they "walked in the field 
 together." 
 
 One opinion, however, expressed by Joye, seems to have 
 made considerable impression upon Tyndale, and is so sensible 
 that it deserves to be remembered to his credit. It was the 
 first and plainest protest that had yet been uttered in favour 
 of the circulation of the pure simple text of Holy Scripture, 
 leaving the Word of God to convey its own message without 
 the aid of glosses and comments. 
 
 " In good faith," says he, " as for me, I had as lief put the 
 truth in the text as in the margent ; and except the gloss 
 expound the text, or where the text is plain enough, I had as 
 lief leave such frivole glosses clean out. / would the Scripture 
 
378 TYND ALE'S LAST NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 •were so purely and plainly translated that it needed neither 
 note, gloss, nor scholia, so that the reader might once swim 
 without a cork." This was certainly the true ideal at which 
 all translators were bound to aim, and it is not impossible 
 that the remark may have profoundly affected Tyndale in the 
 work in which he was now engaged. 
 
 For, once again, and for the last time, Tyndale had 
 addressed himself to the task of revising and improving his 
 New Testament. Joye's Apology was written at the close 
 of February, 1535, and he informs us that Tyndale was even 
 then preparing a new edition of his great work. Before, 
 however, it was passed through the press, the illustrious 
 Translator was arrested and imprisoned ; that fate which he 
 had so long apprehended overtaking him, most appropriately, 
 while he was still busied with that glorious task to which he 
 had consecrated so many years of labour, and for which he 
 was ready, if need were, to sacrifice his life. 
 
 This edition of 1535 furnishes abundant evidence of Tyndale's 
 continued care in revising and improving his work. For the 
 first time headings were prefixed to the chapters throughout 
 the Gospels and the Acts ; and in almost every page one can- 
 find proof of the assertion on the second title that it was " dili- 
 gently corrected and compared with the Greek." Errors of the 
 press, which, in spite of all care, had crept into the edition of 
 1534, are removed ; even the "Epistles from the Old Testa- 
 ment," which were subjoined as a species of Appendix, and 
 which would most naturally have been exempt from any but 
 a most conscientious revision, bear traces of the same careful 
 and elaborate superintendence; and throughout the text of 
 the New Testament numerous changes are introduced, tending 
 in general to communicate additional force and clearness to 
 the version, and to bring it into closer correspondence with 
 the original. And it is worthy of notice that this — Tyndale's 
 last New Testament — was issued without any marginal notes. 
 Whether he had felt the justice of Joye's suggestion, or 
 whether any other cause unknown had induced him to adopt 
 
TYNDALE'S LAST NEW TESTAMENT. 379 
 
 this plan, we cannot, of course, determine ; it was, however, 
 manifestly an improvement, and on the whole it is not 
 unworthy of notice that his very latest edition of his work 
 should have contained that "bare text of the Scripture," of which 
 he had so solemnly declared years before, that he would 
 " offer his body to suffer what pain or torture, yea what death 
 his Grace [Henry VIII.] would, so that this be obtained." 
 
 The chief peculiarity, however, of this edition of 1535 lies in 
 its strange and unwonted orthography, which has seriously 
 perplexed scholars, and has given rise to many curious 
 theories. Among the peculiar forms which occur are such as 
 f aether, moether, maester, stoene, moost, etc} 
 
 To some biographers this appears to be one of the finest 
 instances of the sublime that has ever occurred ; for it has been 
 assumed that this curious spelling was adopted in order to 
 facilitate the perusal of Holy Scripture by the ploughboys of 
 Gloucestershire, in accordance with Tyndale's original pro- 
 phetic declaration that, if God spared him in life, he would 
 make the boy " who followeth the plough " to know the Word 
 of God as well as any of the pope's doctors. If this theory 
 could be established it would certainly throw a romantic 
 interest around this last fruit of Tyndale's labours as a trans- 
 lator ; unfortunately, however, for the romance of this delightful 
 conjecture, there is not the slightest reason for believing that 
 this unusual spelling in any way represents the dialect of 
 Gloucestershire ; and, if it did, it is employed so intermittently 
 that it would have been but a slight aid to devout plough- 
 boys endeavouring to spell their way through Scripture. 
 
 On the other hand, some philologists, taking little account 
 of Tyndale's life and character, have imagined that this 
 singular spelling was in reality a profound system of phono- 
 logical reform ; that, in fact, after much investigation of the 
 defects of English orthography, Tyndale had devised an 
 elaborate method for bringing the spelling of the English 
 
 ' Some two hundred in all : a complete list has been printed by Mr. Fry for 
 private circulation among scholars. 
 
380 TYNDALE'S LAST NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 language into exact correspondence with the pronunciation. 
 To state such a theory is to refute it ; only a philologist mad 
 with enthusiasm for his special study could either imagine 
 such an explanation or by possibility believe it. The true 
 explanation, in all probability, is that which lies on the 
 surface; the work, begun in the commencement of i535) when 
 Tyndale was at liberty, was not printed till after his arrest, 
 was consequently issued without his personal supervision, and 
 was corrected by some Flemish compositor, who naturally 
 introduced, in many cases, Flemish equivalents for the English 
 vowel sounds.^ 
 
 While busied with his work, Tyndale was treacherously 
 arrested ; and his labours were brought to a premature 
 termination. He had been preserved in safety during years 
 when dangers threatened on every hand ; and now, when the 
 heat of the battle was over, when the horizon on all sides was 
 bright with prospects of coming prosperity and peace, he was 
 unexpectedly seized, and fell a victim to the persevering 
 vengeance of his enemies. He was overwhelmed by that 
 terrible death which at one time had seemed so imminent, but 
 which even he had perhaps begun to look upon as no longer 
 the probable conclusion of his career. Nobly and heroically 
 had he done his work, nothing was wanting to complete the 
 splendour of his life but the crown of martyrdom. Still the 
 words of the Epistle to the Hebrews were to find their mystic 
 accomplishment, and the " Testament was not to be dedicated 
 without blood." 
 
 ' The whole appearance of the peculiar orthography is such as, at the first glance, 
 to suggest its Flemish origin. Westcott (p. 65, note) has given the same explana- 
 tion as that in the text; and so has Mr. Ellis in his profound and exhaustive 
 treatise on Early English Pronunciation. I believe Westcott and Anderson are 
 both mistaken in supposing that Tyndale revised this edition while in prison ; Joye, 
 whose Apology was written in February, 1535, says expressly that Tyndale was then 
 engaged on the work. For place of printing see Addendum, p. 460. [Mr. Fry 
 some years ago discovered the text of the 1535 in a 1534 edition. Possibly there- 
 fore the 1535 may be only a pirated misspelt reprint of the 1534 edition.] 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ARREST OF TYNDALE : HIS IMPRISONMENT, TRIAL, 
 AND MARTYRDOM. 
 
 A.D. 1535—1536. 
 
 Ever since the middle of 1534, Tyndale had found a home 
 at Antwerp in the house of Thomas Poyntz, one of the Eng- 
 lish Merchant Adventurers established in that great mart 
 of commerce. Antwerp was then at the height of its pros- 
 perity, by far the most important commercial city in Europe : 
 and merchants from all parts of the civilised world were 
 welcomed to the great emporium of trade, and were generously 
 allowed to share in most of the privileges of the citizens. As 
 far back as the year 1474 the magistrates of the city, in order 
 to encourage the presence of English merchants, had granted 
 them the use of a spacious mansion which had been acquired 
 from a person of rank ; and it was under this roof, beyond a 
 doubt, that Tyndale had found, after so many wanderings, a 
 happy and congenial home. 
 
 Time has wrought many changes on the wealthy mistress 
 of the Scheldt ; and the bombardments by the Spanish and 
 by the French have destroyed much that the hand of Time 
 might have spared ; still, that quarter of the city in which the 
 English House was situated, retains even in our own day not 
 a little of the appearance which it must have presented in the 
 sixteenth century, and the traveller can still recognise the 
 house in which Tyndale resided up to the moment of his 
 arrest. In the labyrinth of streets that lie to the north of the 
 Grande Place and the Cathedral, the tourist njay easily 
 
382 TYNDALE'S HOME AT ANTWERP. 
 
 discover the Rue de la Vieille Bourse ; and it was in the block 
 bounded by this street on the one side, and Rue Zirck on the 
 other, that the house was situated where the English mer- 
 chants wer^ lodged from 1474 to 1558. The narrow street, 
 overshadowed with, lofty houses, which even yet bear traces of 
 their former grandeur, has been comparatively little altered 
 by the lapse of three centuries ; and favoured by the silence 
 which now generally prevails, in what used to be a haunt of 
 bustle, the imagination of the enthusiastic traveller may 
 without difficulty picture the illustrious Translator issuing 
 from the low gateway of the English factory, turning his eyes 
 upwards to contemplate with wonder the matchless grace of 
 the Cathedral tower which rises right in front, and which was 
 then fresh from the hands of Waghemakere, or stopping to 
 listen to the music which the silver chimes seemed to be 
 raining down from heaven.^ 
 
 His residence with Poyntz not only provided Tyndale with 
 the comforts and the companionship of a home ; it added 
 considerably to his personal safety. It was amongst the 
 privileges of the citizens of Antwerp that none could be 
 arrested merely on suspicion, or could be imprisoned for more 
 than three days without trial ; and the same privilege was 
 extended to the English merchants resident amongst them. 
 Here, therefore, provided he exercised ordinary caution, 
 Tyndale might have been considered safe from every danger 
 that could threaten. And, indeed, he may have begun to 
 hope that the termination of his exile was at hand, and that 
 he might soon be permitted or even invited to visit his native 
 land without any fear of personal danger. The rigour of the 
 laws against so-called heresy had been relaxed ; men were 
 still dying, it was true, for religion, but it was no longer the 
 Reformers who were led to the stake, it was those who had 
 
 ' For the identification of the English House I am indebted to the infonnation 
 of M. Genard, Archivist of Antwerp, who has pnblished an excellent Notice sur 
 les Architectes Herman et Dominique de Waghemakere. The statements in the 
 Memoirs of Sir Thomas Gresham are considerably in error on this point. 
 
BRIGHTER PROSPECTS IN ENGLAND. 383 
 
 hitherto been the most prominent defenders of the authority 
 of the Church that were martyred for refusing to aclcnowledge 
 the royal supremacy. Tyndale's great antagonist, Sir Thomas 
 More, was disgraced, and imprisoned, and in peril of his life ; 
 Fisher, another resolute antagonist, shared the same mis- 
 fortunes and the same dangers; the men who were highest 
 in royal favour, Cranmer and Cromwell, were every day 
 becoming more friendly to the principles of the Reformers ; 
 and that great work on which Tyndale had so long laboured, 
 instead of being regarded with bitter hostility, had come to be 
 considered as necessary and praiseworthy. 
 
 The Convocation which met at the close of 1534 petitioned 
 the king "that the sacred Scriptures should be translated 
 into the English tongue by certain honest and learned men 
 named for that purpose by his Majesty, and should be de- 
 livered to the people according to their learning ;" and for 
 some time Tyndale's former associate. Miles Coverdale, had 
 been busily preparing, unquestionably at the instigation of 
 Cromwell, a translation of the whole of Holy Scripture. 
 Everything, therefore, seemed auspicious; the cause against 
 which king and prelates had so long directed their fiercest 
 opposition was visibly triumphant : and it seemed not a 
 remote contingency that Tyndale might be invited to return 
 to his native land, and might even be promoted to some of 
 those ecclesiastical dignities of which no one was more worthy. 
 The sovereign who elevated the out-spoken Latimer to a 
 bishopric could scarcely have failed to appreciate the boldness 
 and honesty of Tyndale. 
 
 If Tyndale had begun to indulge in any pleasant dreams of 
 returning to labour in peace in his native country, those 
 cheering visions were rudely dispelled. In Antwerp under 
 the shelter of Poyntz' hospitable roof he was apparently safe; 
 but he. was surrounded by dangers, and treachery or careless- 
 ness might at any moment place him in the power of his 
 enemies. In some respects England was now a safer place of 
 refuge than the Low Countries. The Emperor Charles V., 
 
384 PENAL LAWS IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 
 
 compelled to bow to the force of circumstances in Germany, 
 and to tolerate the Protestants whom he was unable to 
 repress, compounded for this reluctant weakness by treating 
 the Protestants in his hereditary dominions with increased 
 severity. According to one of the best and most recent 
 historians of Belgium, it was Charles that inaugurated the 
 policy which was subsequently matured under the ferocious 
 rule of Philip and the Duke of Alba ; and the reign of the 
 great emperor is sullied by cruelties which almost rival the 
 merciless regime of his son.^ Penal ordinances of Draconian 
 rigour were enacted year after year, in order to check, if 
 possible, the progress of Lutheran opinions. In October 
 1529, it was publicly ordained that the " reading, purchasing, 
 or possessing any proscribed books, or any New Testaments 
 prohibited by the theologians of Louvain ; attendance at any 
 meeting of heretics, disputing about Holy Scripture, want of 
 due respect to the images of God and the Saints," were to be 
 treated as crimes for which " men were to be beheaded, 
 women buried alive, and the relapsed burnt." ^ 
 
 In spite of these terrible measures, Lutheranism continued 
 to make rapid progress in the Netherlands ; and the Emperor, 
 in revenge, issued fresh edicts more stringent than before. 
 Informers were encouraged by the promise of a liberal reward, 
 and a share in the confiscated goods of all convicted heretics ; 
 and, lest the government officials should be wanting in severity, 
 it was ordered that all who were remiss should be reported 
 and punished. The Inquisition, which had been established 
 some years before, was armed with plenary authority to seize 
 all suspected persons, to try, to torture, to confiscate, to 
 execute, without any right of appeal from their sentence ; 
 and these tyrannical powers they exercised with relentless 
 cruelty. Charles was not one whit less ferocious than his son, 
 though English historians have usually painted him in more 
 
 ' A. Henn4 Histoire du Rigne de CharUs-Quint. 
 
 ° Henne, ubi supra: the words of the ordinance are significantly brief: "Les 
 hommes par I'ep^e, les femmes par la fosse, les relaps par le feu." 
 
PERSECUTION IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 385 
 
 favourable colours ; and every fresh visit to the Low Countries 
 was signalised by additional edicts against the Reformers and 
 a renewed outbreak of persecution. 
 
 From these sanguinary proceedings Tyndale enjoyed, as we 
 have said, a considerable amount of protection by the privi- 
 leges which the city of Antwerp asserted for its own citizens, 
 and accorded to the merchants who had taken up their 
 residence there. In spite of the savage edict which declared 
 that any printer who presumed to print without a licence 
 should be branded with a cross so deeply that it could not be 
 effaced, and should also, at the discretion of the judge, lose 
 an eye or a hand, the printers of Antwerp had successfully 
 asserted their liberty to print the New Testament in any 
 language without asking the permission of any imperial 
 officer.^ And so long as he was within the shelter of the 
 English House, Tyndale was protected by the privilege 
 which exempted the citizens of Antwerp and strangers 
 resident there from being arrested in their houses except for 
 some great crime. Outside of the House, however, he walked 
 in perpetual danger: he enjoyed no special protection; he 
 had no house or hired chamber of his own, and might be 
 arrested on mere suspicion at any hour of day or night.^ 
 Hitherto he had led a charmed life, and he had in former 
 years wonderfully escaped the hostility of Henry and Wolsey; 
 but a more subtle plot was now devised against him by men 
 whose plans were so skilfully laid that it was scarcely possible 
 for them to fail of success. 
 
 ' The point is of sufficient importance to justify the following corroborative 
 quotation: "Rogo, utrum liceat sine anctoritate public! Novum Testamentum 
 imprimere. Respondit [Etienne Meerdmann, the Antwerp printer] licere quidem 
 
 omnino sacras literas imprimere sine uUius hominis concessu aut prohibitione 
 
 Addebat quoque nnllas nnquam Imperatoris leges editionem sacrarum literarum 
 prohibuisse [i.e., not in Antwerp]. Hanc sententiam confirmabat, et suis et 
 aliorran exemplis, qui in eSdem civitate [Antverpiae] Novum Testamentum, in 
 onmibus pene Europse Unguis, typis impressum evulgSssent." The questioner here 
 was Francisco d'Ensinas, who himself published the New Testament in Spanish at 
 Antwerp. Mimoires d'Ensinas, Vol. i. p. 177: published by the Historical 
 Society of Belgium. 
 
 ' See Guicciardini's DescHptio totius Belgii. 
 
 CC 
 
386 PLOT TO ARREST TYNDALE. 
 
 The secrets of the plot which led to the arrest and the 
 martyrdom of Tyndale have never been, perhaps never will 
 be, completely unravelled ; but there is no difficulty in under- 
 standing the rationale of the operations which were adopted 
 against him. It was not in Belgium, but in England, that 
 the plot was concocted. Some of those whom his writings 
 had most bitterly offended, hopeless of any opportunity of 
 wreaking their long-cherished vengeance, now that England 
 had thrown off the papal supremacy and was manifestly 
 gravitating towards Protestantism, determined to avail them- 
 selves of the bloody edicts of the emperor to accomplish 
 their purpose. It was well known that Tyndale was resident 
 in Antwerp, and it was probably not difficult to be introduced 
 to his acquaintance. Inside the English House, or even in 
 the company of his friend Poyntz, he was safe ; but it was 
 easy to watch an opportunity when he was alone ; it was 
 possible to decoy him away from his refuge ; and once seized, 
 and subjected to the operation of the sanguinary laws against 
 heresy, his escape was extremely improbable, his doom was 
 practically settled. It was assumed that Henry would not 
 actively interfere ; and if he did, it was hardly likely that the 
 emperor, irritated by Henry's recent proceedings, would pay 
 much heed to the representations of an " apostate and adul- 
 terous sovereign," who had been solemnly excommunicated 
 by the head of the Church. The plot was cunningly con- 
 trived, the work, evidently, of one who was no novice in 
 craft ; and agents were speedily found to put it in execution. 
 How they proceeded in their base and cruel treachery may 
 best be read in the pages of Foxe, who received the narrative 
 from the lips of Poyntz himself 
 
 "William Tyndale, being in the town of Antwerp, had 
 been lodged about one whole year in the house of Thomas 
 Poyntz, an Englishman, who kept there a house of English 
 merchants [i.e., lived in the English House]. About which 
 time came thither one out of England, whose name was 
 Henry Philips, his father being customer [i.e., employed in the 
 
ARREST OF TYNDALE. 387 
 
 Custom-house] of Poole, a comely fellow, like as he had been 
 a gentleman, having a servant [Gabriel Donne] with him; 
 but wherefore he came, or for what purpose he was sent 
 thither, no man could tell. Master Tyndale divers times was 
 desired forth to dinner and supper among merchants : by the 
 means whereof this Henry Philips became acquainted with 
 him ; so that within short space M. Tyndale had a great 
 confidence in him, and brought him to his lodging to the^ 
 house of Thomas Poyntz, and had him also once or twice 
 with him to dinner and supper, and further entered such 
 friendship with him that through his procurement he lay in 
 the same house of the said Poyntz : to whom he showed' 
 moreover his books and other secrets of his study ; so little 
 did Tyndale then mistrust this traitor. 
 
 " But Poyntz, having no great confidence in the fellow," 
 asked Master Tyndale how he came acquainted with this 
 Philips. Master Tyndale answered, that he was an honest 
 man, handsomely learned, and very conformable \i.e., favour- 
 able to Protestant views]. Then Poyntz, perceiving that he 
 bare such favour unto him, said no more ; thinking that he 
 was brought acquainted with him by some friend of his. The. 
 said Philips, being in the town three or four days, upon a' 
 time desired Poyntz to walk with him forth of the town to 
 show him the commodities thereof; and, in walking together 
 about the town, had communication of divers things, and some 
 of the king's affairs. By the which talk Poyntz as yef 
 suspected nothing ; but after, by the sequel of the matter, he 
 perceived more what he intended. In the mean time thiS' 
 he well perceived, that he bare no great favour either tO' 
 the setting forth of any good thing, either to the proceedings 
 of the King of England. But after, when the time was past,' 
 Poyntz perceived this to be his mind, — to feel if he could 
 perceive by him, whether he might break with him in the 
 matter, for lucre of money to help him to his purpose; for 
 he perceived before that he was moneyed \i.e., well provided, 
 with money], and would that Poyntz should think no less; 
 
 c c a 
 
388 ARREST OF TYNDALE. 
 
 but by whom \i.e., who had provided the money], it was 
 unknown. For he had desired Poyntz before to help him 
 to divers things; and such things as he named, he re- 
 quired might be of the best : ' For,' said he, ' I have money 
 enough.' But of this talk came nothing, but that men should 
 think he had some things to do ; for nothing else followed 
 of his talk. So it was to be suspected, that Philips was in 
 doubt to move this matter \i.e., of arresting Tyndale] to 
 any of the rulers or officers of the town of Antwerp, for 
 doubt it should come to the knowledge of some English- 
 men, and by the means thereof Tyndale should have had 
 warning. 
 
 "From Antwerp Philips went to the Court of Brussels, 
 which is from thence twenty-four English miles, the king 
 having there no ambassador;^ for at that time the King of 
 England and the emperor were at a controversy for the 
 question betwixt the King and Catherine, who was aunt to 
 the Emperor, and the discord grew so much that it was doubted 
 lest there should have been war ; so that Philips, as a traitor 
 both against God and the King, was there the better retained, 
 as also other traitors more besides him, who, after he had 
 betrayed Master Tyndale into their hands, showed himself 
 likewise against the king's own person, and there set forth 
 things against the king. To make short, the said Philips 
 did so much there, that he procured to bring from thence 
 with him, to Antwerp, that Procureur-General which is the 
 Emperor's attorney, with other certain officers as after 
 foUoweth : the which was not done with small charges and 
 expense, from whomsoever it came. 
 
 " Within a while after, Poyntz sitting at his door. Philips' 
 man \i.e., the pretended servant] came unto him, and asked 
 whether Master Tyndale was there ; and said, his master 
 would come to him; and so departed. But whether his 
 
 ' Anderson says this was a mistake, for that Vanghan was at Brussels ; Foxe is 
 right, however; Hackett, the ambassador at Brussels, was dead; and Vaughan 
 was in England. 
 
ARREST OF TYNDALE. 389 
 
 master. Philips, were in the town or not, it was not known ; but 
 at that time Poyntz heard no more, neither of the master nor 
 of the man. Within three or four days after, Poyntz went 
 forth to the town of Barrow [Bergen-op-Zoom], being eighteen 
 English miles from Antwerp, where he had business to do 
 for the space of a month or six weeks ; and in the time of 
 his absence, Henry Philips came again to Antwerp to the 
 house of Poyntz, and coming in, spake with his wife, asking 
 her for Master Tyndale, and whether he could dine there with 
 him ; saying, ' What good meat shall we have ? ' She answered, 
 ' Such as the market will give.' Then went he forth again (as 
 it is thought) to provide and set the officers, which he brought 
 with him from Brussels, in the street and about the door. 
 Then about noon he came again, and went to Master Tyndale, 
 and desired him to lend him forty shillings : ' For,' said he, 
 ' I lost my purse this morning, coming over at the passage 
 between this and Mechlin.' So Master Tyndale took him 
 forty shillings ; the which was easy to be had of him, if he 
 had it ; for in the wily subtilties of this world he was simple 
 and unexpert. 
 
 "Then said Philips, 'Master Tyndale, you shall be my 
 guest here this day.' 'No,' said Master Tyndale, 'I go 
 forth this day to dinner ; and you shall go with me, and be 
 my guest, where you shall be welcome.' So when it was 
 dinner-time. Master Tyndale went forth with Philips ; and 
 at the going out of Poyntz' house was a long narrow entry, 
 so that two could not go in a front. Master Tyndale would 
 have put Philips before him, but Philips would in no wise, 
 but put Master Tyndale afore ; for that he pretended to show 
 great humanity \i.e., politeness]. So Master Tyndale, being 
 a man of no great stature, went before ; and Philips, a tall 
 comely person, followed behind him, who had set officers 
 on either side of the door upon two seats (which, being 
 there, might see who came into the entry) ; and coming 
 through the same entry Philips pointed with his finger over 
 Master Tyndale's head down to him, that the officers, which 
 
390 TYNDALE IMPRISONED AT VILVORDE. 
 
 sat at the door, might see that it was he whom they should 
 take ; as the officers that took Master Tyndale afterward 
 told Poyntz ; and said to Poyntz, when they had laid him 
 in prison, that they pitied to see his simplicity when they 
 ■took him. Then they brought him to the emperor's attorney, 
 'where he dined. Then came the said attorney to the house of 
 Poyntz, and sent away all that was there of Master Tyndale's, 
 as well his books as other things: and from thence Tyndale 
 was had to the Castle of Vilford, eighteen English miles from 
 Antwerp ; and there he remained until he was put to death." 
 It seems scarcely possible to believe that a plan, so skil- 
 fully devised to meet the peculiar circumstances of the time, 
 and carried out moreover at very considerable expense, had 
 originated with this unknown customer of Poole, ^ or even with 
 his more crafty companion, Gabriel Donne, whom he declared 
 to be his sole confidant in the plot. Some other conspirators, 
 :more astute, more profoundly versed in wiles, and more 
 thoroughly acquainted with the secrets of courts, were doubtless 
 behind the scenes to control the movements of the subordinate 
 emissaries, and to supply the necessary funds : but so well has 
 their secret been kept, that lio researches amongst State 
 Papers at home or abroad have raised the veil which conceals 
 the prime movers from our view. It has been surmised that 
 Gardiner was the deviser of the well-laid train; and in 
 astuteness Gardiner was certainly without a rival in England ; 
 but it is, to say the least, premature to cast upon him the 
 odium of a suspicion for which not the smallest tittle of 
 evidence has ever yet been adduced, beyond the vague 
 assertion of Hall that " Tyndale was betrayed and taken, 
 as many said, not without the help and procurement of some 
 bishops of this realm." That Tyndale was a thorn in the 
 side of many of the English prelates, we do not need to be 
 told ; that they would gladly avail themselves of any means 
 
 1 A series of letters from this man Phyllypps, as he calls himself, written about 
 this time to various friends, asking them to intercede on his behalf with his 
 parents, whom his bad conduct had justly offended, are- given in the Publications 
 ' of the Record' Office, 27 Henry vill, Vol. IX. p. 389. 
 
HENRY NO PARTY TO THE PLOT. 391 
 
 of terminating his career may be assumed without any breach 
 of charity ; they would have burned him in England, and 
 they would have no scruples consequently about contributing 
 to seize and burn him in Brabant ; but if they were con^ 
 cerned in the plot, they have certainly shown wonderful skill 
 in obliterating all traces of their participation in it. 
 
 ■ It may possibly have occurred to the reader, who remembers 
 Henry's former efforts to get Tyndale into his power, to 
 suspect that this plot also may have been devised with the 
 privity of the English monarch. On this point, however, there 
 is fortunately no room for doubt. Philips was a member of 
 that reactionary party in England who hated Henry as a tyrant 
 and a sacrilegious apostate, and who were at that very time 
 plotting in every corner of his kingdom against his royal 
 authority. It is quite certain, therefore, that Henry was the 
 very last man in England to act in concert with those who 
 apprehended Tyndale ; and, indeed, the reader will presently 
 see that, so far from having lent his countenance to the con- 
 spiracy against the Reformer, he co-operated with Cromwell 
 in his efforts to procure the release of the illustrious captive. 
 
 Hitherto, the date of Tyndale's arrest has been merely 
 roughly calculated by conjecture ; we are now, however, able 
 to fix it precisely on the authority of official documents. 
 There is preserved among the Archives at Brussels the formal 
 entry of the payment to the Lieutenant of the Castle of 
 Vilvorde, Adolph Van Wesele, of the expenses incurred during 
 Tyndale's imprisonment of a year and a hundred and thirty- 
 five days; and as Tyndale was martyred, according to Foxe, 
 on the 6th of October, 1536, it is not difficult to calculate that 
 he must have been arrested on the 23rd or a4th of May, 
 
 The Castle of Vilvorde, to which Tyndale was now removed 
 to spend the last sixteen months of his life, was then the great 
 State prison of the Low Countries. A small town, equi- 
 distant from Brussels, Malines, and Louvain, Vilvorde has 
 • The document is printed in the Appendix. 
 
392 
 
 THE CASTLE OF VILVORDE. 
 
 never attained any great importance; yet it is one of the 
 most ancient places in Belgium. Its history is associated 
 with the conversion of the Franks to Christianity; it figures 
 in the annals of Charlemagne and Lothair j English sovereigns 
 have resided within its fortifications ; and it was here that 
 Edward HI. summoned what Froissart calls a parliament to 
 decide upon his claims to the throne of France. In 1374, or 
 the following year, Wenceslas, Duke of Brabant and Count of 
 
 THE CASTLE OF VILVORDE. 
 
 Louvain, anxious to provide himself with a place of security, 
 erected on the banks of the Senne, at Vilvorde, a fortress 
 constructed after the model of the Bastile, which had been 
 recently completed in Paris. It consisted of seven massive 
 towers, connected by lower erections; and the whole was 
 surrounded by a huge moat, spanned by three drawbridges. 
 Of this grim and, in those days, impregnable fortress, in which 
 Tyndale found a prison for so many months, and was at 
 length to find a grave, scarce a vestige now remains : it was 
 
THE CASTLE OF VILVORDE. 393 
 
 demolished at the end of last century, and its site is occupied 
 by the huge white-washed penitentiary, so well known to all 
 travellers between Antwerp and Brussels ; and only a few 
 traces of some of the original dungeons still exist among the 
 arches of the bridge which forms the sole approach to the 
 modem prison.^ 
 
 The arrest had been contrived so skilfully, and executed so 
 secretly^ and promptly, that any attempt at a rescue was 
 hopeless. Probably, before the arrest was known to the 
 English merchants in Antwerp, Tyndale was safely immured 
 behind the gloomy towers of the old fortress ; and it is 
 unlikely that even the household of Poyntz knew anything 
 of what had occurred, till the Procureur-General, the terrible 
 Pierre Dufief, returned to search Tyndale's chamber, and 
 carry off his books and papers and other effects. Some days 
 must have elapsed before Poyntz could be recalled from 
 Bergen-op-Zoom ; but on his return, the English merchants, 
 who considered themselves aggrieved both by the loss of a 
 friend whom they all esteemed, and by this encroachment 
 upon their rights and privileges, wrote to the Queen Regent, 
 Mary of Hungary, entreating her to release Tyndale. Their 
 remonstrance was of course unavailing ; the arrest of Tyndale, 
 however treacherous, had been legally effected; the charges 
 advanced against him were considered to be of a grave nature, 
 and required to be investigated according to law ; and it was 
 evident that the danger which threatened him, if he was to be 
 tried by a Flemish court on a charge of heresy, was of the 
 
 ' See an admirable description of it in the Histoire des Environs de Bruxelles, 
 par Alfhonse Wauters. There is an excellent water-colour sketch of the old 
 fortress by Witzthumb, preserved in the Royal Library at Brussels, which has 
 been lithographed as the frontispiece of M. Galesloot's little brochure, Madame 
 Desiiouliires, and from which the woodcut in the text has been taken. 
 
 " As an illustration of the secrecy it is noticeable that no entry occurs, either 
 amongst the accounts of the Amman of Brussels, or the Drossart of Antwerp, of 
 any sums expended in the arrest. Every possible source of information on 
 this point was placed at my disposal by M. Pinchart, and searched for me 
 by M. Cuijpers, but not a single entry occurs. The expenses had, perhaps, 
 been supplied from England, and were therefore not entered in any official 
 reckoning. 
 
394 APPEAL TO CROMWELL. 
 
 most serious character. The merchants of Antwerp felt that 
 their intervention was not likely to be of much assistance ; if 
 Tyndale was to be rescued from the fate which seemed to 
 menace him, it was necessary to invoke the aid of the great 
 authorities at home. The rigorous edicts of Charles V. held 
 out small prospect of escape, if the law was to have its due 
 course ; it was impossible to doubt that Tyndale had rendered 
 himself liable to the penalties of the bloody statutes on many 
 counts ; it was idle to ask mercy from the pitiless Dufief or 
 the inflexible emperor; there was no hope except in some 
 vigorous remonstrance from Henry or Cromwell. The intelli- 
 gence was accordingly conveyed to England ; and an attempt 
 seems to have been made to interest Cromwell and the 
 sovereign in the design of securing Tyndale 's deliverance by 
 exercising their influence upon the government of the emperor 
 in the Low Countries. 
 
 The time was certainly inauspicious. Henry and his 
 ministers were completely engrossed in their domestic affairs. 
 The great crisis, so long anticipated, had come ; the first great 
 irrevocable step in the grand religious and political movement 
 had been taken ; and Henry and Cromwell were watching 
 the results with intense anxiety. Royal authority had been 
 substituted for papal supremacy by Act of Parliament ; but it 
 remained to be seen how this measure would be received by 
 that large and influential part of the nation, which had been 
 accustomed to regard the supremacy of the pope as one of 
 the most solemn articles of their religion. It was felt by the 
 king and his advisers that everything depended upon the 
 result ; and they awaited with breathless eagerness the oper^ 
 ation of the mighty change. Violent opposition was antici- 
 pated ; and Henry was prepared to meet violence with 
 violence. Smithfield again blazed with the fires of martyrdom ; 
 and the headsman was again busy with his bloody work. 
 The laws against heretics, which for a time had been permitted 
 to slumber, were again awakened into fresh violence ; for 
 Henry, while rejecting the yoke of papal authority, was 
 
STATE OF AFFAIRS IN ENGLAND. 395 
 
 determined to exhibit, for the confusion of his enemies, 
 unmistakable evidence that he had no intention of deviating 
 into "heresy." Priests were executed for impugning the 
 royal supremacy; laymen were burned for denying the Real 
 Presence. At the very moment when the intelligence of 
 Tyndale's arrest was conveyed to England, Cromwell was 
 overwhelmed with the perplexity occasioned by the first great 
 difficulty which he had been called upon to confront. Minor 
 victims had been disposed of with little trouble ; but there 
 remained in prison two men whose disapprobation of Henry's 
 .proceedings was as notorious as that of those who had been 
 already sent to the stake, but whose high character and 
 prominent position might well "give pause" even to the most 
 reckless statesman. That Cromwell was grievously perplexed 
 how to act towards Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher, his 
 own private memoranda, preserved in the British Museum, 
 sufficiently show. To endure their conduct was impossible ; 
 to put the law in operation against them was to brave the 
 censure of Europe, and to excite the inextinguishable hatred 
 of their numerous friends and admirers in England. 
 
 Frorh a minister thus surrounded on all sides by danger and 
 perplexity, little active interest in Tyndale's misfortune was 
 to be anticipated. Most inopportunely, therefore, everything 
 seemed to conspire against him; a circumstance which had 
 clearly not been overlooked by the astute enemies who had 
 conspired to accomplish his arrest. Vaughan, who had shown 
 himself so friendly to the Reformer, was absent in England ; 
 and Hackett, the representative in Brussels, had recently died, 
 and was apparently not replaced by any successor. The head 
 of the Company of English Merchants in Antwerp was 
 indifferent. England was in bad odour with the emperor 
 and the regent. Cromwell was busied with his own affairs, 
 from which he scarcely dared to withdraw his attention. 
 Henry was bent upon vindicating his orthodoxy, and was not 
 likely, therefore, to intervene very heartily in behalf of one 
 who was charged with heresy. Several sybjects of the 
 
396 TEBOLD SENT TO MAKE INQUIRIES. 
 
 Emperor had just been burned in Smithfield for heretical 
 opinions ; and the Imperial Government might consequently 
 look upon the arrest and execution of Tyndale as a sort of 
 allowable reprisals. The prospects were as gloomy as could 
 be conceived ; and in no quarter could any ray of hope be 
 descried ; yet Tyndale's friends did not abandon their efforts 
 to save him. 
 
 Some directions on the subject seem to have been given to 
 the emissaries of Cromwell on the Continent ; and it is from 
 one of them that we have received what information we possess 
 of the proceedings at this period. Thomas Tebold, a godsoij 
 of Cromwell, and apparently on terms of cordial intimacy both 
 with his patron and with Cranmer, had been despatched to 
 the Continent, presumably in the month of June, and seems 
 to have been commissioned to make inquiries as to the 
 arrest of Tyndale. His letters form a most valuable supple- 
 ment to the narrative which has been already quoted from 
 Foxe. 
 
 On the last day of July he thus [writes to Cromwell from 
 Antwerp : — ^ 
 
 " News here, at this time, be none, but that here is most 
 earnest communication that the French Queen [Leonora, 
 sister of the Emperor, Charles v.] and her sister the Queen 
 of Hungary [the Regent of the Low Countries] shall meet 
 together at Cambray now afore Michaelmas. All these Low 
 Countries here be most earnest with the Bishop of Rome and 
 his traditions ; and therefore he hath now sweetly rewarded 
 them, sending them his deceitful blessing, with remission of 
 all their sins, so [on the condition that] they fast three days 
 together, and this is given gratis without any money. Here 
 is an evil market [a bad bargain for the pope], that whereas 
 he was wont to sell his pardons by great suit and money, 
 now he is glad to offer them for nothing. And yet a great 
 
 1 Galba, B. x. The letter is dated the last day of July, the day, we may 
 suppose, when it was finished and sent off; but the greater part seems to have 
 been written on July 15th. 
 
TEBOLlfS INTERVIEW WITH THE TRAITOR. 397 
 
 many make no haste to receive them where they be offered. 
 I do hear of certain that the Bishop of Rome is contented, 
 and doth desire to have a General Council, and that this 
 matter is earnestly entreated of divers. I am sure, if this 
 be truth, your lordship have heard of it or this time more 
 at large. 
 
 " He that did take Tyndale is abiding at Louvain, with whom 
 I did there speak ; which doth not only there rejoice of that act, 
 but goeth abotit to do many more Englishmen like displeasure ; 
 and did advance this, I being present, with most railing words 
 against our King, his Highness, calling him 'Tyrannum ac 
 expilatorem reipublicse' \tyrant and robber of the common- 
 wealtK\. He is appointed to go shortly from Louvain to 
 Paris in France, and there to tarry, because he feareth that 
 English merchants that be in Antwerp will hire some men 
 privily to do him some displeasure unawares." 
 
 The writer of the letter had been entrusted with some 
 commissions from Cranmer, and in his communication with 
 the archbishop he enters into greater detail concerning 
 Tyndale's apprehension. 
 
 " Pleaseth it your Grace that I have delivered your letters 
 unto Mr. Thomas Leigh [a merchant held in much esteem 
 by Cranmer and Vaughan], which, according to your writing, 
 hath delivered unto me twenty crowns of the [same], which 
 money, God willing, I will deliver where your Grace hath 
 assigned. Within these sixteen days I take my journey 
 from Antwerp about the last day of July [letter begun, there- 
 fore, July 15th]. And because at my first arrivance to 
 Antwerp I found company ready to go up withal to Cologne 
 [on his way to Nuremberg], I went to see my old acquain- 
 tance at Louvain; whereas [where] I found Doctor Boc- 
 kenham, sometime prior in the Black Friars in Cambridge, 
 and another of his brethren with him. I had no leisure to 
 commune long with them; but he showed me that at his 
 departing from England he went straight to Edinburgh in 
 Scotland, there continuing unto [Easter] last past [March 
 
398 THE TRAITOR PHILIPS AT LOUVAIN. 
 
 28] ; and then came over to Louvain,^ where he and his 
 companions doth continue in the house of the Black Friars 
 there; having little acquaintance [or] comfort but for their 
 money; for they pay for their [meat] and drink a certain 
 sum of money in the year. All succour that I can perceive 
 them to have is only by him which hath taken Tyndale, called 
 Harry Philips, with whom I had long and familiar communi- 
 cation, [for] I made him believe that I was minded to tarry 
 and study at Louvain. I could not perceive the contrary 
 by his communication, but that Tyndale shall die ; which he 
 doth follow, \i.e., urge on], and procureth with all diligent 
 endeavour, rejoicing much therein ; saying that he had a 
 commission out also for to have taken Doctor Barnes and 
 George Joye with other. Then I showed him that it was 
 conceived both in England and in Antwerp that George 
 Joye should be \i.e., had been] of counsel with him in taking, 
 of Tyndale ; and he answered that he never saw George Joye 
 to his knowledge, much less he should know him. This I 
 do write, because George Joye is greatly blamed and abused 
 among merchants, and many other that were his friends, 
 falsely and wrongfully. 
 
 " But this foresaid Harry Phillips showed me that there 
 
 ' I am able to give a more fiill account of Buckenham's moTements than had- 
 come to the ears of Tebold. Buckenham, it may be premised, was the friar who 
 attempted to reply to Latimer's famous Sermons on the Cards at Cambridge, and- 
 who was extinguished by the wit and raillery of his antagonist. (See Demaus' 
 Latimer, pp. 77, etc.) On his way from Scotland to Louvain he had resided for 
 some time in London ; and in the State Paper Office I have found the following 
 letter to Cromwell, complaining of Buckenham's seditious language : — "I William 
 Bull, friar, knowledging myself as one of his Majesty's faithful subjects, to the 
 uttermost of my power doth \_sic\ certify your goodness of one Doctor Buckenham, 
 which passed the reme \i.e., has gone out of the realm], fall undiscreetly to the 
 continuance of his mind, and aid of the abused Bishop of Rome. He hath, since- 
 the time of his departing, sent certain letters which were received of one Doctor 
 Ellis, sometime prior of the Black Friars at Cambridge," etc. ; the writer in fact 
 suggests that the letters might be as offensive as his conversation had been, and 
 hints that it was a matter which ought to be inquired into " for fear of a farther in-) 
 convenience." There is no date to the letter, which was written from the Black 
 Friars in London ; but its exact place m the narrative can be assigned with almost 
 perfect certainty. Chapter-house Papers, 
 
PHILIPS AT LOUVAIN. 399 
 
 was no man of his counsel but a monk of Stratford Abbey, 
 beside London [Stratford-le-Bow], called Gabriel Donne, 
 which at that time was student at Louvain, and in house 
 with this foresaid Harry Philips. But now within these five 
 or six weeks he is come to England, and, by the help of 
 Mr. Secretary, hath obtained an abbey of a thousand marks 
 by the year in the west country. 
 
 "This said Philips is greatly afraid (in so much as I can 
 perceive) that the English merchants that be in Antwerp 
 will lay watch to do him some displeasure privily. Where- 
 fore of truth he hath sold his books in Louvain, to the value 
 of twenty marks' worth sterling, intending to go hence 
 to Paris; and doth tarry here upon nothing but of the 
 return of his servant, which he has long since sent to England 
 with letters. And by cause of his long tarrying, he is mar- 
 vellously afraid lest he be taken and come into Master Secre- 
 tary's handling, with his letters. Either this Philips hath 
 great friends in England to maintain him here; or else, as 
 he showed me, he is well beneficed in the bishopric of Exeter. 
 He raileth at Louvain and in the Queen of Hungary's Court 
 most shamefully against our King his Grace and others 
 [Cranmer and Cromwell probably]. For, I being present, he 
 called our King his Highness, tyrannum, expilatorem reipubliccB, 
 with many other railing words, rejoicing that he trusteth to 
 see the emperor to scourge his Highness with his Council 
 and friends. Also he saith that Mr. Secretary hath privily 
 gone about matters here in Flanders and Brabant, which are 
 secretly come to the knowledge of the Queen of Hungary, 
 the Governess here, which she reckoneth, one day, at her 
 pleasure and time, to declare to his rebuke. What this 
 meaneth I cannot tell, neither I could hear no farther ; but if 
 I had tarried there any time I should have heard more," etc. 
 
 " Written at Antwerp the last day of July, by your bedeman 
 and servant, ever to my small power, — Thomas Tebold.^ " 
 
 » Cotton MSS., Galba, B. x. 
 
400 DONNE REWARDED IN ENGLAND. 
 
 In spite of the express assertion of Philips that "there 
 was no man of his counsel but Gabriel Donne," it is im- 
 possible to read Theobald's letter without an increasing sus- 
 picion that the whole plot had been concocted in England ; 
 why else should the servant, who had been accessory to the 
 arrest, be despatched so promptly with letters to England? 
 and why should Philips be so agitated by the fear that both 
 servant and letters had fallen into the hands of Cromwell ? It 
 is also equally evident that the plot had been devised entirely 
 without the privity either of Henry or of any of his advisers ; 
 that in fact it was the device of what may be termed the " op- 
 position party," and that it had been all along most carefully 
 concealed from Cromwell. It was certainly not a little 
 strange that Cromwell should in any way have been accessory 
 to the rewarding of the only person who had shared with 
 Philips in the treacherous design ; but it is quite evident from 
 the letters that it was in total ignorance of Donne's share,^ 
 real or alleged in the plot, that the Secretary had promoted 
 him to the "abbey in the west country." It was to the 
 Abbey of Buckfastleigh, in Devonshire, that this traitorous 
 friar was appointed ; Cromwell, doubtless, merely acceding 
 to the wish of Donne's friends; and the mere fact of such 
 a valuable preferment being bestowed seems to confirm the 
 suspicion that the whole plot had originated with men of 
 position and influence in England, who could substantially 
 reward the services of their emissaries. 
 
 Poyntz and the other friendly Antwerp merchants were, of 
 course, aware of Theobald's communications with Cromwell 
 and Cranmer, and hoped that this might lead to the effectual 
 intervention of the English sovereign in favour of the im- 
 portant captive. Indeed, it was reported in Antwerp that 
 Henry had actually written in Tyndale's favour to the 
 Government of the Low Countries; but in all probability 
 the "wish was father to the thought." Poyntz waited in 
 
 ' [In the Oxford Register, p. 1 2 1, this entry occurs ; ' ' Dunne, Gabriel, Cistercian, 
 supplicated for B.D., 26 October 1521." Editor.] 
 
POYNTZ ATTEMPTS TO SAVE TYNDALE. 401 
 
 hope till his patience was completely exhausted ; and then 
 on the 25th of August he wrote to his brother, John Poyntz, 
 of Ockenden, in Essex, who had been long in the royal 
 household, and was therefore likely to have access to the 
 King; and his letter contains an interesting testimony of 
 Tyndale's character from one who had unusual opportunities 
 of judging.^ 
 
 " Brother, the [cause] of my writing to you at this time 
 is, as seems to me, for a great matter concerning to the 
 King's Grace. For though I am herein [in Antwerp] abid- 
 ing, yet of very natural love to the country that I was born 
 in, so also for the oath and obedience the which every true 
 subject is bound by the law of God to have to his prince, 
 compels me to write that thing [which I] know or perceive 
 might be prejudicial or hurtful to his most noble Grace; 
 which may come through counsel of them that seek to bring 
 their own appointments to pass, under colour of pretending 
 the King's honour, and yet be as the thorns under a goodly 
 rose; I might say very traitors in their hearts, reckoning at 
 length to bring their purpose to pass, as they have always 
 done, through such means. Who they be, I name no man, 
 but it is good to perceive it must be the Papists, which have 
 always been the deceivers of the world, by their craft and jug- 
 gling. For whereas it was said here the King had granted his 
 gracious letters in the favour of one William Tyndale, for to 
 have been sent hither ; the which is in prison and like to suffer 
 death, except it be through his gracious help ; it is thought those 
 letters be stopped. This man was lodged with me three 
 quarters of a year, and was taken out of my house by a 
 sergeant-of-arms, otherwise called a dore-wardore, and the 
 Procureur-General of Brabant ; the which was done by procure- 
 ment out of England, and, as I suppose, unknown to the King's 
 Grace till it was done. For I know well, if it had pleased 
 his Grace to have sent him a commandment to come into 
 England, he would not have disobeyed it, to have put his 
 * Cotton MSS., Galba, B. x. : a few words are destroyed. 
 Dd 
 
40a POYNTZ ATTEMPTS TO SAVE TYNDALE. 
 
 life in jeopardy \i. e., even if obedience had exposed his life 
 to danger]. But now these privy lurkers, perceiving that 
 his Grace, of his entire will would have sent for him [so at 
 least Poyntz imagined], by the means whereof, it is to be 
 thought, they fear that if his Grace (as no doubt but his 
 abundant goodness is such, he would) charitably hear him, 
 then it might be the frowardest fate for their purpose they 
 went about. Wherefore it is presupposed that they have 
 solicited this to his Grace or to his Council ; that the putting 
 to death of this man here, in this country, might be to the 
 King's high honour, making greatly for his purpose in time 
 to come, when his matter \i. e., the divorce] shall be disputed, 
 if it come thereto.^ Wherefore, if it be their persuading, they 
 know themselves it can stand in none effect to [their] purpose, 
 but might be greatly against his Grace, in that and other things. 
 Whether this be their device, or be what other mischievous 
 mean \f\ I cannot tell ; but be whatsoever it be, if a poor man 
 might and durst boldly reason with them, I think if they 
 had either fear of God, their Prince, or shame of the world, 
 they should be [ashamed] ever they did go about to procure 
 such a thing. For they would that the King should highly 
 favour them, because they can prevent such things for his 
 Grace, and be the means whereof they may come to high 
 promotions and stand fast in them; and so as they may 
 bring that to pass they care not. . . . When these crafty 
 fellows meet they do jest and pout at him that they have 
 so cleanly deceived, and though afterward it be known, yet 
 they care not, for it shall be reckoned, among such as they be, 
 for great wisdom. Wherefore they be past shame, and the 
 party past his remedy. But a poor man that has no pro- 
 motion, nor looks for none, having no quality whereby he 
 might obtain honour, but of a very natural zeal, and fear of 
 God and his Prince had lever [rather] live a beggar all days 
 
 1 All this, it must again be repeated, is mere conjecture on Poyntz' part : he 
 was disappointed at what seemed the indifference of the English authorities, and 
 he frames this theory to explain it. 
 
POYNTZ ATTEMPTS TO SAVE TYNDALE. 403 
 
 of his life, and put himself in jeopardy to die, rather than 
 to live and see those lying [leering?] counsellors to have 
 their purpose; for some men perceive more than they can 
 express by words, the which sorrow it inwardly till they see 
 remedy. 
 
 " And by the means that this poor man, William Tyndale, 
 hath lain in my house three-quarters of a year, I know that 
 the King has never a truer-hearted subject to his Grace this 
 day living ; and for that he does know that he is bound by 
 the law of God to obey his Prince, I wot it well, he would not 
 do the contrary, to be made lord of the world, howsoever the 
 King's Grace be informed. But what care these papists for 
 that ? For their pomps and high authority has always been 
 holden up, by murder and shedding the blood of innocents, 
 causing princes, by one mean or other, to consent with them 
 to the same. 
 
 " Brother, about eighteen or twenty years agone, they at 
 Rome, to magnify the King's Grace in his style [his titles], 
 gave him the name 'Defender of the Faith.' The which 
 may be likened to the prophecy of Caiaphas when he said, 
 ' It is expedient for us that one man die for the people, that 
 all do not perish.' That prophecy was true, but yet contrary 
 to his meaning. So likewise, they thought by the mean 
 thereof \i.e., of the title], he should be a great maintainer of 
 their abominations. Howbeit, God, the which sees all things, 
 has entered his Grace with the right battle, according to that 
 style, as never prince has done so nobly since Christ died ; in 
 the which I beseech God give him victory: and that his Grace 
 be not persuaded to let be undone what might greatly prevail 
 thereto [to victory], by the death of this man, [which] should 
 be a great hindrance to the Gospel, and, to the enemies of it, 
 one of the highest pleasures. But and it would please the 
 King's Highness to send for this man, so that he might dis- 
 pute his articles with them at large, which they lay to him, it 
 might by the mean thereof, be so opened to the Court and 
 the Council of this country, that they would be at another 
 
 Dd 3 
 
404 POYNTZ ATTEMPTS TO SAVE TYNDALE. 
 
 point with the Bishop of Rome, within a short space. And I 
 think he \Tyndale\ shall he shortly at a point to be condemned ; 
 for there are two Englishmen at Louvain that do and have 
 applied it sore, taking great pains to translate out of English 
 into Latin those things that may make against him ; so that 
 the clergy here may understand it, and to condemn him, as 
 they have done all others, for keeping opinions contrary to 
 their business, the which they call ' the order of Holy 
 Church.' 
 
 " Brother, the knowledge that I have of this man causes 
 me to write as my conscience bids me : for the King's Grace 
 should have of him, at this day^ as high a treasure as of any 
 one man living that has been of no greater reputation. 
 Therefore I desire you that this matter may be solicited to 
 his Grace for this man, with as good effect as shall be in you, 
 or by your means to be done ; for, in my conscience, there be 
 not many [perfecter] men this day living, as knows God. 
 Brother, I think if that Walter Marsch, now being governor 
 [of the merchant adventurers in Antwerp], had' done his duty 
 effectually here at this time, there would have been a remedy 
 found for this man. There be many men care not for a 
 matter, so as they may do aught to make their own seem 
 fair, in avoiding themselves that they be not spied." 
 
 It is not impossible that it was this letter which at last 
 compelled the English authorities to move. Cromwell, how- 
 ever, must have known that the matter was by no means so 
 simple as it seemed to the sanguine judgment of Poyntz. 
 From the ordinary course of law nothing could be hoped; the 
 statutes were clear and inflexibly rigorous ; it was not doubt- 
 ful that Tyndale's writings contained many statements which 
 the theologians of the day would condemn as heretical ; it 
 was difficult to see on what grounds the English sovereign 
 could intervene ; and it was only from the special favour of 
 the authorities in the Low Countries that any possibility of 
 escape could be derived. This only hope Cromwell was 
 willing to try. 
 
CROMWELL'S INTERCESSION FOR TYNDALE. 405 
 
 Within a few days of the dispatch of Poyntz' letter, letters 
 were prepared for two of the most influential members of the 
 Imperial Government, Carondolet, Archbishop of Palermo, 
 the President of the Council, and the Marquis of Bergen-op- 
 Zoom. These letters before being dispatched were submitted 
 to the judgment of the man in England best acquainted with 
 the policy of the Low Countries, Stephen Vaughan, who, on 
 the 4th of September, acknowledges the receipt of Cromwell's 
 " two letters devised for Tyndale," which he promised to send 
 to Flanders with all speed ; adding, with a true appreciation 
 of the gravity of the case, " it were good the King had one 
 living in Flanders that were a man of reputation."^ Crom- 
 well's letters have not been preserved, or, at least, have not 
 been recovered, but it is not very difficult to conjecture what 
 must have been their tenor. The admirers of Tyndale have 
 inveighed against the coolness and indifference of Henry 
 and his ministers ; but, in truth, however much Henry 
 and Cromwell may have sympathised with the Reformer 
 in his misfortunes, they had positively no ground what- 
 ever on which to interfere in his behalf, and would only 
 have precipitated his fate by the active interference which 
 the Reformer's biographers have counselled. Nothing 
 could be demanded as a matter of right except that Tyn- 
 dale should have a legal trial : the only hope of escape lay 
 in propitiating the favour of the Marquis of Bergen and 
 the Archbishop of Palermo. With both personages Crom- 
 well had been associated in many friendly relations : a few 
 months before, the English Secretary and the Archbishop 
 had been named joint executors of the ambassador Hac- 
 kett;^ and from the friendship of two men of such influence 
 in the Low Countries some effectual intervention might be 
 hoped for. 
 
 The letters were sent to an English merchant in Antwerp, 
 Robert Flegge, who was occasionally a correspondent of 
 
 ' Publications of the Record Office, 27 Henry vili. p. 91. 
 
 " So it is stated in a letter of Thomas Leigh, Cotton MSS., Galba, B. x. 
 
4o6 RESULT OF CROMWELL'S INTERCESSION. 
 
 Cromwell,^ and from him we have the following account of the 
 manner in which they were forwarded to their destination : — 
 "Pleaseth it your Mastership to understand that, the tenth 
 day of this present month of September, was brought to me, 
 by one George Collins, two letters sent by your Mastership as 
 he reported, the one thereof directed to the Marquis of 
 Barough \i. e., Bergen-op-Zoom], and the other to the Bishop 
 [should be the Archbishop] of Palermo. And when I under- 
 stood that the said letters came from your Mastership, I did 
 my best diligence to make inquiry whether the said lords were 
 in the Court or. not. Then I was informed that the Marquis 
 of Barough was departed two days before, towards Dutchland 
 [Germany], as governor and ruler of the Princess of Denmark, 
 to conduct her to her husband the Palsgrave. And as I 
 understood that he was so departed, then I could do no less, 
 supposing that the said letters were of importance ; so have I 
 sent one of our merchants [Poyntz, as will appear] after him 
 with the said letters for the more surety to be delivered, and 
 to bring the answer thereof. Also I have written to the said 
 Lord Marquis a letter, desiring him that in case there were in 
 your said letters any matter of charge that your Mastership 
 required to be done by him, then I desired him right humbly 
 that he would vouchsafe to write to such of his friends in the 
 Court, the which should do for you as much in his absence as 
 [if] he were there present in person, in all such causes as your 
 Mastership should have to do before the Queen of Hungary 
 and the Council. 
 
 "Whereupon I have received a letter from the said Lord 
 
 ' On the 5th of September he had written to Cromwell an accotmt of a 
 "slanderous sermon" preached by a Black Friar in Antwerp, on the previous 
 Sunday, August 29th. The Sunday was the feast of the Decollation of John the 
 Baptist; and the preacher, in illustrating the Gospel for the day, had boldly 
 compared Henry and Anne Boleyn to Herod and Herodias' daughter. Flegge 
 remonstrated with the prior of the monastery, and by dint of determination and 
 perseverance, he compelled the friar to appear again in the same pulpit the 
 succeeding Sunday, and recant and apologise for the insults which he had offered 
 to the King and Queen of England. See Cotton MSS., Galba, B. x. Can 
 this have been another escapade of our old acquaintance, Doctor Buckenham ? 
 
RESULT OF CROMWELL'S INTERCESSION. 407 
 
 Marquis, wherein he writeth me that he is very sorry that it is 
 his chance to be absent from the Court at this time, so that 
 he cannot do for the King's Highness and for you such service 
 as his good mind and will is to do; and according to the tenor 
 of your said letter also, he wrote me in his said letter that, ac- 
 cording to my desire, he had written to his great friend the 
 Bishop of Palermo, concerning your causes, in everything that 
 he should for his sake in his absence do therein like as the 
 matter extended to his own person ; for he is the man that 
 may do most in this matter of any other resident in the Court 
 at this present time. And so is come from my Lord the man 
 that I sent the letters by, the bringer hereof, and brought with 
 him both your letters and the Lord Marquis's, and delivered 
 them to the said Lord of Palermo ; desiring him of \i. e., for] 
 his loving answer and expedition of the same. Whereupon 
 the Lord of Palermo spake with the Queen and the Council ; 
 and thereupon hath made you such answer by writing as this 
 bringer shall deliver you ; the which I pray God may be to 
 the King's pleasure and yours .... At Antwerp, the aand 
 day of September, Anno i535'" ^ 
 
 Circumstances, it will be perceived, still seemed to conspire 
 against Tyndale. Of Cromwell's friends only one was present 
 on the spot to be of any service, and he the one who from 
 education and profession was least likely to exercise his 
 influence in the Reformer's favour. Flegge's letter, it is clear, 
 was not written in any spirit of confidence ; there was nothing, 
 indeed, to encourage any sanguine anticipations of success ; 
 and the cautious merchant could venture no higher than a 
 hope that the letters which he transmitted to Cromwell might 
 be to " the King's pleasure and his," a plain indication, it may 
 be remarked in passing, that Cromwell had not moved in the 
 matter without Henry's consent. Poyntz, indefatigable in his 
 efforts to save the life of his friend, had been employed to 
 carry Cromwell's letters to the Marquis of Bergen, and his 
 
 * Cotton MSS., Galba, B. a. The letter has been printed in a very mutilated 
 form in Anderson's Annals, Vol. J. p. 429. 
 
4o8 POYNTZ' ATTEMPT TO SAVE TYNDALE. 
 
 account, preserved in Foxe, is even more despondent in its 
 tone than that of Flegge. It is needless to make any preten- 
 sions to originality where every detail must be borrowed 
 from the Martyrologist ; and the reader will doubtless prefer 
 to peruse the narrative in the simple phraseology in which " 
 Foxe has related it from the information of Poyntz himself : — 
 " Not long after [the dispatch of letters from the Antwerp 
 merchants soliciting the intervention of Henry], letters were 
 directed out of England to the Council at Brussels, [to two 
 chief members of the Council], and sent to the Merchants 
 Adventurers at Antwerp, commanding them to see that with 
 speed they should be delivered. Then such of the chiefest of 
 the merchants as were there at that time, being called to- 
 gether, required the said Poyntz to take in hand the delivery 
 of those letters, with letters^also from them in the favour of 
 Master Tyndale, to the Lord of Barrowe and others ; the 
 which Lord of Barrowe (as it was told Poyntz by the way) 
 at that time was departed from Brussels, as the chiefest 
 conductor of the eldest daughter of the King of Denmark to 
 be married to the Palsgrave, whose mother was sister to the 
 Emperor, she being chief Princess of Denmark ; who, after he 
 heard of his departure, did ride after, the next [nearest] way, 
 and overtook him at Akon,^ where he delivered to him his 
 letters ; the which when he had received and read, he made 
 no direct answer, but somewhat objecting said, 'There were 
 of their countrymen that were burned in England, not long 
 before [May 35] ;' as indeed there were Anabaptists burnt in 
 Smithfield ; and so Poyntz said to him, ' Howbeit,' said he, 
 •whatsoever the crime was, if his Lordship or any other 
 nobleman had written, requiring to have had them, he thought 
 they should not have been denied/ 'Well,' said he, '1 have 
 no leisure to write ; for the Princess is ready to ride.' Then 
 said Poyntz, ' If it shall please your Lordship, I will attend 
 upon you unto the next baiting-place;' which was at 
 Maestricht. 'If you so do,' said the Lord, 'I will advise 
 ' AkoD, that is, Aiken, about fifteen miles from Maestricht. 
 
POYNTZ' ATTEMPT TO SAVE TYNDALE. 409 
 
 myself by the way what to write.' So Poyntz followed him 
 from Akon [Aiken] to Maestricht, the which are fifteen 
 English miles asunder ; and there he received letters of him, 
 one to the Council there \i.e., in Brussels], another to the 
 Company of the Merchants Adventurers, and another also to 
 the Lord Cromwell. So Poyntz rode from thence to Brussels, 
 and then and there delivered to the Council the letters out 
 of England, with the Lord of Barrowe's letters also ; and 
 received eftsoons answer into England of the same by letters, 
 which he brought to Antwerp to the English merchants, who 
 required him to go with them into England ; and he, very 
 desirous to have Master Tyndale out of prison, let not for to 
 take pains, with loss of time in his own business and occupy- 
 ing ; but diligently followed with the said letters, which he 
 there delivered to the Council, and was commanded by them 
 to tarry until he had other letters, of the which he was not 
 dispatched thence in a month after, \i. e., not till the end of 
 October]. At length, the letters being delivered him, he 
 returned again, and delivered them to the Emperor's Council 
 at Brussels, and there tarried for answer of the same. 
 
 " When the said Poyntz had tarried three or four days, it 
 was told him, of one that belonged to the chancery, that 
 Master Tyndale should have been delivered to him according 
 to the tenor of the letters ; but Philips, being there, followed 
 the suit against Master Tyndale, and hearing that he should 
 be delivered to Poyntz, and doubting lest he should be put 
 from his purpose, he knew none other remedy but to accuse 
 Poyntz, saying that he was a dweller in the town of Antwerp, 
 and there had been a succourer of Tyndale, and was one of 
 the same opinion, and that all this was only his own labour 
 and suit, to have Master Tyndale at liberty, and no man's else. 
 
 "Thus, upon his information and accusation, Poyntz was 
 attached by the Procureur-General, and delivered to the 
 keeping of two serjeants-of-arms ; and the same evening was 
 sent to him one of the chancery with the Procureur-General, 
 who ministered unto him an oath, that he should truly make 
 
4TO POYNTZ HIMSELF IMPRISONED. 
 
 answer to all such things as should be inquired of him ; 
 thinking they would have had no other examinations of him, 
 biit of his message. The next day likewise they came again, 
 and had him in examination, and so five or six days, one after 
 another, upon not so few as an hundred articles, as well of the 
 King's affairs as of the message concerning Tyndale, of his 
 aiders and of his religion. Out of the which examinations the 
 Procureur-General drew twenty-three or twenty-four articles, 
 and declared the same against the said Poyntz ; the copy 
 whereof he delivered to him to make answer thereunto, and 
 permitted him to have an advocate and proctor. And order 
 was taken, that eight days after he should deliver unto them 
 his answer ; and from eight days to eight days to proceed, till 
 the process were ended ; also that he should send no mes- 
 senger to Antwerp, where his house was, nor to any other 
 place but by the post of the town of Brussels ; nor to send 
 any letters, nor any to be delivered to him, but written in 
 Dutch [Flemish] ; and the Procureur-General, who was party 
 against him, to read them, to peruse, and examine them 
 thoroughly, contrary to all right and equity, before they were 
 sent or delivered. Neither might any be suffered to speak or 
 talk with Poyntz in any other tongue or language, except 
 only in the Dutch tongue, so that his keepers, who were 
 Dutchmen, might understand what the contents of the letters 
 or talk should be ; saving that at one certain time the pro- 
 vincial of the White Friars came to dinner where Poyntz was 
 prisoner, and brought with him a young novice, being an 
 Englishman, whom the provincial, after dinner, of his own 
 accord did bid to talk with the said Poyntz, and so with him 
 he was licensed to talk. The purpose and great policy 
 therein was easy to be perceived. 
 
 " Between Poyntz and the novice was much pretty talk, as 
 of Sir Thomas More, and of the Bishop of Rochester, and of 
 their putting to death ; whose death he [the novice] seemed 
 greatly to lament, especially dying in such a quarrel, worthy, 
 as he said, to be accounted for martyrs ; with other noble 
 
POYNTZ IMPRISONED. 41 1 
 
 doctrine, and deep learning in divinity, meet to feed swine 
 withal [this is Foxe's remark, not Poyntz'] : such blindness 
 then in those days reigned amongst them. 
 
 "The eighth day, the commissioners that were appointed 
 came to the house where Poyntz was kept, to have had his 
 answer in writing. He, making no great haste in proceeding, 
 answereth them with a dilatory, saying, he was there a 
 prisoner, and might not go abroad, so as, although he have 
 appointed and named who to be a counsel with him, they 
 came not to him, nor he could not go to them ; ' nor none 
 may come to give counsel in this matter, but such as be 
 licensed and named by you.' Then they gave him a day to 
 make answer against the next eighth day. And Poyntz 
 drew his own mind [stated his own opinions], answering to 
 the whole declaration generally; the which, at the next 
 coming, he delivered them : but that answer they would not 
 take, saying he must answer to every article particularly: and 
 so they took order that he should make it ready against the 
 next coming, thus he trifled them off from Hallowtide 
 [November i] until Christmas-even, with dilatories from 
 eighth day to eighth day. And upon Christmas-even, in the 
 morning, they came to him to have had answer, the which 
 was not made, nor any counsel came to him in all that time ; 
 howbeit they would delay the time no longer, but said they, 
 ' Bring in your answer this day, or else ye shall be put from 
 it.' So he perceived that if it were not brought in that night 
 he should have been condemned without answer. So then, 
 with much ado, he got the advocate to help him in ordering 
 of his answer ; but it was long or [ere] he came, so that it was 
 past eight o'clock of Christmas-even before his answer were 
 delivered to the Procureur-General. And then after, as the 
 time served, at the days appointed, went forth with replication 
 duplic, [answers, and replies to answers] with other answers 
 each to other, in writing what they could in answering to the 
 Emperor's ordinances. And at such time as the commissioners 
 came to Poyntz, that traitor Philips accompanied them to the . 
 
413 TRIAL OF POYNTZ. 
 
 door in following the process against him, as he also did 
 against Master Tyndale, as they who had Poyntz in keeping 
 showed him. 
 
 "The process being ended, as the order is there, either 
 party delivered up to the commissioners a bag, with his 
 process in writing, and took an inventory of every parcel 
 [piece] of writing that was within the bag. So it rested in 
 their hands : but upon sentence, Poyntz required in the time 
 of process, that he might put in surety and to be at liberty : 
 the which they granted him at the first time ; but afterwards 
 they denied to take surety for his body. And then [/. e., at 
 the first time when they were willing to take security] he 
 sent a post from the town of Brussels [where he was confined] 
 to Antwerp to the English merchants, thinking they would 
 not let him have stick for lack of their help in putting in 
 sureties for him, considering the cause with the circumstance ; 
 and for that they put him thereto themselves \i. e., they had 
 themselves set him to that work], although they had [i.e., as 
 they declared] made him no promise for his charges and 
 pains taken, as Poyntz reporteth of them that they did indeed, 
 the which as yet he hath to make it appear \i. e., he can still 
 show written proof that they had promised to defray his 
 charges]. 
 
 " But, to pass over this and to make the matter short ; if 
 the foresaid merchants such as were of the town of Antwerp 
 had, at the time, been surety for him, then the matter had 
 been altered from crime to civil ; but when Poyntz had 
 delivered to them his answer, they demanded of him for his 
 charges [expenses of keeping him], money or sureties. The 
 charges was much to reckon for the two officers' meat and 
 drink and wages, besides his own charges ; so as it was about 
 five shillings every day. For all the while he was prisoner, 
 he was not in a common prison, but in the keeping of two 
 officers in one of their houses. So they demanded sureties to 
 be brought within eight days for the charges; but then they 
 denied him to take surety for his body \i.e., declined to 
 
POYNTZ DETERMINES TO ESCAPE FROM PRISON. 413 
 
 release him on bail] to make answer at liberty. Poyntz, 
 considering that they altered in their purposes, as well by 
 more \i. e., in other particulars] as in that ; and perceiving by 
 other things, as also it was told in secret, it would have cost 
 him his life if he had tarried ; yet Poyntz granted them to put 
 in sureties, requiring of them to have a messenger to send : 
 not for that he reckoned to have any, but to make dilatory, 
 or else they would have sent him to a stronger prison. But 
 Poyntz delayed them, thinking, if he could, to make a scape ; 
 yet he did make a good face, as though he reckoned to have 
 been in no danger, which if he had not so done, it was very 
 unlike he should have escaped with his life out of their hands. 
 And at the eighth day, the commissioners came again to 
 Poyntz, and there received both their bags, with the process, 
 one of the Procureur-General and one of Poyntz, delivering 
 either of them an inventory of such pieces of writing as were 
 delivered in the bags ; and demanded sureties of Poyntz, 
 according to the order they took when they were last with 
 him. Poyntz alleged that he had divers times required them 
 which had him in keeping to get him a messenger ; as he 
 also had done, but made no great haste to have any, for he 
 reckoned it should be a sufficient dilatory, whereby to have 
 another day. And with such alleging of the impossibility 
 for that he could get no messenger to send forth, at the last 
 they put him apart and agreed to give him a day eight days 
 after, and called him in again, and commanded the officer to 
 get him one ; as they did. And so Poyntz sent him with 
 letters to the English merchants, the which at that time were 
 at Barrow [at the fairs probably]. Howbeit he reckoned to 
 prove \i. e., to try] to get away before the return again of the 
 messenger, for he perceived his tarrying there should have 
 been his death ; and therefore, to put in a venture to get 
 away, and so he might save himself ; for if he had been taken 
 [in his attempt to escape], it would have been but death, for 
 he had been prisoner there in their hands at that time about 
 twelve or thirteen weeks. So he tarried not the coming again 
 
414 POYNTZ ESCAPES FROM PRISON. 
 
 of the messenger, but, in a night, by a mean, he conveyed 
 himself, and so by God's help, at the opening of the town gate 
 in the morning gat away. And when it was perceived that 
 he was gone, there was horse sent out after him, but by the 
 means that he knew well the country, he escaped and came 
 into England." ^ 
 
 Such was the abortive termination of Poyntz' determined 
 effort to save the life of Tyndale. To rescue his friend from 
 the danger that threatened him, he had spared no pains, and 
 he had shrunk from no peril. Disregarding his own mer- 
 cantile pursuits, he had been during the months of September 
 and October completely engrossed in furthering the efforts 
 of Cromwell to procure Tyndale's release. The whole labour 
 of communicating with the Marquis of Barrow and the Council 
 at Brussels had been devolved upon him, and he had cheerfully 
 undertaken it. We are disposed to believe that he was misled 
 by his own ardent wishes when he imagined that there was 
 any real prospect of Tyndale's release ; but it is clear that 
 he was the soul of all the attempts that were made to procure 
 the Reformer's liberty. No other was willing to undergo 
 labour or loss, or to incur personal dangers ; and when he 
 was imprisoned all active efforts to release Tyndale seem 
 to have been suspended if not abandoned. Everything, it 
 will be seen, still combined to make the prospects of Tyndale's 
 escape as gloomy as possible. The English sovereign, it 
 must be repeated, had no legitimate ground for interfering ; 
 and his conduct in executing several of the Emperor's sub- 
 jects for heresy was, of course, a fatal obstacle to the success 
 of his intervention in the present instance, however earnestly 
 he might plead for mercy. The Regent of the Low Countries 
 was evidently offended at Cromwell's foreign policy; the 
 Archbishop of Palermo and the Marquis of Barrow were 
 too skilful courtiers to sacrifice the goodwill of the Emperor 
 by extending their patronage to a " heretic ; " and the arrest 
 of Poyntz completed the overthrow of Tyndale's hopes by 
 ^ Foxe : first edition. 
 
FAILURE OF THE ATTEMPT TO SAVE TYNDALE. 415 
 
 removing from the scene the most active and energetic of 
 all his friends. 
 
 The narrative of Poyntz' proceedings has been given at full 
 length, notwithstanding the somewhat prohx and uninteresting 
 style in which Foxe has related it, partly as a fitting tribute 
 to the disinterested friend who so nobly adventured his own 
 life to save that of Tyndale, and partly because it contains 
 numerous and authentic details of the customary process in 
 trials for heresy, which are doubly interesting in the absence 
 of any contemporary account of the trial of the illustrious 
 translator. Poyntz seems to have been imprisoned for nearly 
 four months, from the middle of November ] 535, to the middle 
 of March 1536; and among the Archives of the Council of 
 Brabant there is still preserved one interesting souvenir of his 
 escape, in the shape of a fine of eighty pounds inflicted upon 
 his jailer, John Baers, for having, through " carelessness and 
 negligence," allowed him to break out and get away.^ On 
 his escape he returned to England, and doubtless watched 
 for any opportunity of again renewing his efforts for Tyndale's 
 release ; but all was vain. Cromwell had done what he could, 
 without effect ; and Henry was too busy in the pursuit of his 
 matrimonial adventures to listen to any proposals for inter- 
 esting himself once more in the Reformer's favour. In the 
 first year of the reign of Edward VI. Poyntz succeeded his 
 brother John in his Manor of North Ockenden, in Essex, and 
 here he resided till 1562 ; but he never forgot his association 
 with Tyndale, and his epitaph records the dangers to which 
 he had been exposed by his zeal for the cause of the Gospel, 
 and gratefully recognises the Divine Providence which saved 
 him from imminent death.^ 
 
 ' The original will be found with the other Flemish documents in the Appendix : 
 and I have to express my obligations for the discovery of this small but not 
 uninteresting fact, which so completely corroborates the narrative of Foxe, to the 
 kind courtesy of M. Plot of the Archives, Brussels. 
 
 ^ " Hie pro fidelissimo principis sui servitio, ac ardentissimS evangelicse veritatis 
 professione, vincula et incarcerationes in transmarinis regionibus passus est, adeo 
 nt csedi jam planfe destinatns esset, nisi DivinS fretus providentia occasione e carcere 
 
4i6 TRIAL OF TYNDALE. 
 
 To return to Tyndale, thus left helpless in Vilvorde, it is 
 evident that his trial had been considerably delayed by the 
 difficulty of procuring evidence against him. Doubtless Dufief 
 had seized among his books many of the prohibited works of 
 the German Reformers, the possession of which would expose 
 him to the penalties of the persecuting edicts of Charles V. ; 
 but it was further deemed necessary to procure evidence 
 of his heretical opinions from his own writings, and as these 
 were exclusively in English, they were inaccessible to the 
 theologians of the Low Countries. Some considerable time, 
 therefore, must have been spent in translating Tyndale's works 
 from English into Latin ; but, this once accomplished, the 
 Doctors of Louvain would not have much difficulty in selecting 
 passages that were inconsistent with the doctrines and prac- 
 tices of the Church of Rome. The Wicked Mammon, The 
 Obedience, The Practice of Prelates, The Answer to Sir 
 Thomas More, abounded with doctrinal statements which the 
 Church of Rome had frequently condemned as heresy, and 
 still more with sharp and sweeping denunciations of rites and 
 ordinances which the Church maintained to be laudable and 
 edifying. It was an easy task, therefore, to draw up articles 
 against him, such as would leave little doubt of the issue of a 
 trial conducted by Romanists, bound to judge by the recog- 
 nised standards of Romish teaching. 
 
 By the ordinances of the Emperor the trial of cases of 
 heresy was withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the ordinary 
 local magistrates, and was assigned to special commissioners 
 nominated hy the Emperor himself or his representative, and 
 generally consisting of some of the members of the Council 
 of Brabant, some local authorities, and a few theologians, to 
 aid the laymen by their special knowledge of the subjects 
 controverted.-' In the case of Tyndale, the commission was 
 
 mirifice sibi prospexisset." See the family history at greater length in Anderson's 
 Annals, Vol. i. pp. 524, etc. 
 
 ^ In May, 1534, exactly a year before Tyndale's arrest, the sheriffs of Mons had 
 addressed a remonstrance to the Emperor against what they considered the 
 
COMMISSION TO TRY TYNDALE. 417 
 
 nominated by the Regent, Mary of Hungary, and the names of 
 its chief members, hitherto unsuspected in England, we are 
 now fortunately able to give from official documents.^ 
 
 From the Council of Brabant, the customary number of 
 four members was selected, Godefroid de Meyere, Charles 
 T'Serraets, Theobald Cotereau, and Jacques Boonen ; some 
 local dignitaries, probably from Antwerp, were added ; and 
 four theologians completed the list. These last were taken 
 from the neighbouring University of Louvain, then, as now, the 
 great head-quarters and metropolis of the Catholicism of the 
 Low Countries ; and two of their number, the chief opponents 
 of Tyndale, were men of sufficient reputation to justify a short 
 sketch of their history and character. 
 
 Foremost among the accusers of Tyndale, and most unrelent- 
 ing in his opposition to him, was Ruwart Tapper, Doctor of 
 Theology, Chancellor of the University of Louvain, and Dean 
 of the chief church of the city, that noble Church of St. Peter 
 whose unfinished and half-ruinous tower forms such a pic- 
 turesque contrast to the exquisite beauty of the H6tel de 
 Ville which lies at its base. Born at Enkhuisen, in Holland, 
 about 1488, and therefore nearly of the same age as Tyndale, 
 he had distinguished himself at the University of Louvain by 
 his devotion to the study of theology, and speedily acquired a 
 great reputation for learning in this department. " His house," 
 says an admirer, " was the oracle of the whole of Belgium ; " and 
 when he was subsequently sent to assist in the deliberation of 
 the Council of Trent, he was, out of compliment to his learning, 
 
 extravagant assumptions of the special commissioners appointed to try lieretics, who- 
 claimed the right of judging without the intervention of the local magistrates. 
 Charles, however, would not accede to the prayer of their letter, but reiterated his 
 appointment that the commissioners should enjoy the powers which they claimed : 
 he at the same time seems so far to have modified his opinion as usually to join a 
 few of the local magistrates with the commissioners. Mimoires d'Eusinas: 
 Pilcis Justificatives, No. I. The ordinary form of an ordinance for nominating a 
 commission for the trial of heretics is given in the same volume, in the original 
 Flemish, with a translation, p. 290. 
 
 ' The document is among the Archives in theChambre des Comptesat Brussels; 
 and is given in the Appendix, in the original, with a translation. 
 
 E e 
 
41 8 CHARACTER OF TAPPER. 
 
 usually asked to deliver his opinions immediately after the pon- 
 tifical theologians. But above everything he was conspicuous 
 for his untiring and unsparing zeal in opposing and suppressing 
 the encroachments of Protestantism. This was the one great 
 purpose of his life. The only reformation that was needed, in 
 his opinion, was the strict and relentless enforcement of the 
 discipline which the ancient canons of the Church had enacted. 
 He hated all novelty ; and he spared none who presumed to 
 diverge, in doctrine or practice, from the narrow groove of the 
 Church's traditions. Even his panegyrists admit that he was 
 commonly charged with extreme severity; and he is said to 
 have openly avowed the maxim, " It is no great matter, 
 whether they that die on account of religion be guilty or 
 innocent, provided we terrify the people by such examples ; 
 which generally succeeds best when persons eminent for 
 learning, riches, nobility, or high station, are thus sacrificed." 
 It was in the spirit of this abominable maxim that he acted ; 
 and from such a man Tyndale had little mercy to expect. 
 His portrait, arrayed in his robes as Chancellor of the Univer- 
 sity, still hangs on the walls of the entrance-hall of the 
 Library at Louvain ; and the narrow intolerant face presents to 
 the eye, even of an unpractised physiognomist, indisputable 
 confirmation of the popular theory of his character. He looks 
 the beau-id^al of an inquisitor j and, indeed, within a few 
 months of Tyndale's death, and probably by way of reward 
 for his prominent share in that transaction, he was appointed 
 by the pope Chief Inquisitor in the Low Countries ; and the 
 annals of his achievements in this capacity were written in 
 terrible characters of blood and fire, which long secured for 
 his memory an unhappy notoriety.^ 
 
 ' I have thought it not tindesirable, for the purpose of the biography, to insert 
 this notice of the character of a man so intimately connected with Tyndale's trial 
 and death, and who, though well known in the literature of the Low Countries, 
 seems absolutely unknown in England. Materials for a life of him may be found 
 in Foppens, Mirsus, Lindanus, and others ; and a very readable, though of course 
 extravagantly panegyrical iloge, was inserted in the Anmiaire de P University 
 Catholique de Louvain for 1854. Tapper died of chagrin, it is said, at the 
 
TAPPER AND LATHOMUS. 419 
 
 With Ruwart Tapper was associated one even more cele- 
 brated for his skill in theological dialectics, Jacques Masson or 
 Lathomus. A native of Hainault, and some thirteen years 
 older than Tapper, he had at first prosecuted his studies at 
 the University of Paris. He subsequently, however, removed 
 to Louvain, where he took his degree of Doctor of Theology 
 in 1 51 9) with the greatest ^clat, the whole of the expense 
 being defrayed by the zeal of his scholars "A pigmy in 
 body, he was," says a modern enthusiastic student of Louvain, 
 "a giant in intellect." He was the very impersonation of 
 scholasticism ; a subtle, hard-headed Doctor of the schools, 
 whom no theological refinements could perplex, and no 
 antagonist could silence. His grim and austere portrait 
 impresses the beholder with the idea that he must have been 
 a merciless enemy, and such is the character given of him by 
 some of the contemporary Protestants of the Low Countries. 
 It is only justice, however, to Lathomus, to admit that in his 
 controversy with Tyndale he exhibits none of that bitterness 
 and ferocity then only too common in all theological debates. 
 Possibly this may have been owing to the favourable im- 
 pression which Tyndale's transparent simplicity and honesty 
 seem to have made on all who came into personal contact 
 with him ; indeed, if we may believe contemporary authorities, 
 Tyndale's words produced a deep and ineffaceable result on 
 the mind of Lathomus ; and in his last moments he was 
 overwhelmed with regret at the recollection of the part which 
 he had then undertaken to play.^ 
 
 cavalier treatment he received from Philip 11., and was buried in the choir of his 
 church at Louvain : his monument has long since disappeared, and his epitaph exists 
 only in the pages of Foppens. He bequeathed his library to the University, and I 
 at one time hoped to find some of Tyndale's missing papers among his collection ; 
 but all has long since been carried off. I must not omit to express my gratitude 
 for the courtesy of the Rev. Professor Ruesens, the librarian of the University. 
 
 ^ I repeat the anecdote without vouching for its truth. " Jacobus Lathomus, 
 omnium theologorum Lovaniensium, sine controversia, princeps, posteaquam 
 stulta et puerili concione quam Bruxellse habuit coram Imperatore, se toti aulse 
 ridendum exhibuisset, mox ubi Lovanium rediit, pemicioso quodam furore correptus, 
 coepit insanire, ac in ipsa etiam publica prslectione voces edere plenas despera- 
 
 E e 2 
 
4ao DUFIEF, THE PROCUREUR-GENERAL. 
 
 Pierre Dufief, the Procureur-General, was almost officially 
 bound to be rigorous and severe in the prosecution of heretics ; 
 he was certainly doubly interested in procuring a conviction, 
 for he thus at once secured the favour of the Emperor, and 
 obtained a share in the confiscated goods of the condemned. 
 Contemporaries who suffered, themselves or their friends, from 
 his rigour, have painted him in terrible colours ; Ensinas, who 
 had too good reason for knowing him, calls him " a bloody 
 beast," "a man whose cruelty was equal to his wickedness:" 
 and modern historians are inclined to believe that these 
 charges, though probably exaggerated, rest on a foundation of 
 fact.^ It was he that was entrusted with the prosecution of 
 Tyndale, as it was he that had, by an unworthy stratagem, 
 seized him at Antwerp ; and it was not likely that in such 
 hands the trial would be characterised by any excessive 
 clemency to the unfortunate prisoner. 
 
 The records of the inquisitions for heresy in the Low 
 Countries of that period have in general been preserved among 
 the Archives of Belgium. The Court proceeded with the 
 customary forms of law, and all its transactions were recorded 
 with the ordinary copiousness of legal documents. Beyond 
 any question, this practice was followed in the process against 
 Tyndale ; but hitherto the most careful research has failed to 
 discover this official contemporary account of his trial. It 
 does not exist among the records of the Council of Brabant 
 at Brussels;^ it may have been, for some special reasons, 
 
 tionis atque impietatis. Quod cum cseteri theologi animadvertissent, praecipue 
 Ruardus Enchusanus \i. e.. Tapper], homo miserabili balbutie, et crndelitate atque 
 impietate inaudita, apprehendenint furentem Lathomum, eumque domi clausum 
 tenuerunt. Ab eo tempore usque ad postremum spiritum nihil aliud clamavit 
 Lathomus qnam ' se condemnatum esse, se a Deo rejectum esse, nee ullam spem 
 salutis aut veniss sibi amplius esse reliquam, ut qui veritatem agnitam im- 
 pugnasset.' " This anecdote, which undoubtedly refers to Tyndale, is given by H. 
 Janssen, in Ws Jacobus Pmfositus, on the authority of Diaz. 
 
 * Memoires d'Ensinas, p. 95. M. Campan, the editor, admits that there are 
 good grounds for the accusation : and M. Galesloot believes that he was compelled 
 to resign his office for extortion and peculation ; La Dame de Grand-Bigard, 
 p. 22. 
 
 '' The Archives at Brassels have been carefully searched by M. Galesloot, whose 
 
PROCEDURE IN TRIALS FOR HERESY. 431 
 
 destroyed ; or it may have been removed and lost in the 
 confusion incident to a country which has had four changes of 
 masters since Tyndale's time ; but it does not seem absurd to 
 hope that it may yet be by some happy accident recovered. 
 Meantime, in the absence of this actual authentic record of 
 the trial, as it was, we are compelled to describe it as it may 
 have been. And for this purpose materials of unquestionable 
 authority fortunately exist in abundance. The narrative of 
 Poyntz, as given by Foxe, makes sufficiently clear the general 
 order that was observed ; records of similar trials have been 
 preserved ; and, what is of special value, we possess authentic 
 accounts by an eye-witness, of trials conducted by the same 
 prosecutor, aided by the same theologians, before some of the 
 same judges, for the same offence, only seven years after 
 Tyndale's martyrdom, and therefore so closely corresponding 
 in most of the essential circumstances, that they may be 
 employed with confidence to fill up the meagre outline which 
 alone has come down to us of the last scenes of the great 
 Reformer's life.^ 
 
 The following description, for example, of the trial of a 
 priest for heresy, may with scarce a single variation be received 
 as applicable to Tyndale. " To inspire terror into the people, 
 it was resolved to produce the accused in public. For this 
 purpose a large hall in the castle was prepared, in the midst 
 of which a platform of some elevation was erected, that the 
 people might the more easily witness what was to be trans- 
 acted. And as the judges were apprehensive of disturbance 
 from the bystanders, who were somewhat inclined to the 
 opinions of the Reformers, and were well aware that they were 
 
 article on Tyndale in the Revue Trimestrielk might well put to shame the 
 ignorant presumption of many of Tyndale's coimtrymen. 
 
 * I refer to the Memoirs of Ensinas, published by the Historical Society ot 
 Belgium, under the editorial care of M. Campan, and provided with an ample 
 appendix of illustrative documents of great interest and unquestionable authority. 
 I make no apology for referring so frequently to a work of so much value, especially 
 as it is of extreme rarity. The work of Pantaleon in which it appeared in 
 the sixteenth century is not to be found either in the British Museum or in the 
 Bodleian. 
 
422 ARTICLES AGAINST TYNDALE. 
 
 hated by the common people, they procured the assistance of 
 the magistrates to protect them with an armed guard. When 
 all preparations were finished, the unfortunate accused was led 
 on to the platform, accompanied by a crowd of armed men : 
 a man of diminutive stature, with a long beard, pale, thin, 
 almost exhausted by distress and insufficient food, more like 
 a dead body or a shadow than a living man.^ He was fol- 
 lowed by the Rectors of the University, and by Jacques 
 Lathomus and Ruwart Tapper. A crowd of spectators were 
 present at the scene. The distinguished doctors and other 
 judges took their seats on the platform ; the rest sat around 
 them ; and the accused was placed in the midst. Silence 
 was proclaimed ; and then the president stated the cause of 
 the Assembly, and recapitulated the offences with which the 
 accused was charged. He had been arrested for many great 
 heresies ; his chamber had been searched, and prohibited 
 books had been found in great numbers ; and he had himself 
 composed many treatises containing heretical opinions, which 
 had been widely circulated. The articles alleged against him 
 were then recited : — 
 
 " First, he had maintained, that faith alone justifies ; 
 
 " Second, he maintained that to believe in the forgiveness of 
 sins and to embrace the mercy offered in the Gospel, was 
 enough for salvation ; 
 
 " Third, he averred that human traditions cannot bind 
 the conscience, except where their neglect might occasion 
 scandal ; 
 
 " Fourth, he denied the freedom of the will ; 
 
 " Fifth, he denied that there is any purgatory ; 
 
 " Sixth, he affirmed that neither the Virgin nor the Saints 
 pray for us in their own person ; 
 
 1 It was Paul de Roovere, one of the chaplains of St. Peter's at Louvain, that 
 Ensinas saw ; but every word of the description applies literally to Tyndale : I 
 subjoin the original, "Homo, perpusillus, barba prominenti, exsanguis, macilentus, 
 dolore atque inedia pene consumptus, quern tabefactum cadaver aut umbram 
 hominis non hominem jure appellare potuisses.'' 
 
PJiOC£SS AGAINST TYNDALE. 423 
 
 " Seventh, he asserted that neither the Virgin nor the Saints 
 should be invoked by us." 
 
 That these and many more articles, judged heretical, could 
 be selected from the writings of Tyndale, no one who has read 
 this biography can be ignorant ; these formed a prominent 
 part of the religious teaching which his countrymen had for 
 some years been accustomed to associate with his name, and 
 must of necessity have formed as prominent a part of any 
 accusation of heresy brought against him. On this point, 
 however, we do not need to rely upon inferences even from 
 the best-informed contemporaries ; evidence of a more direct 
 kind will speedily be produced. 
 
 According to the customary process of justice then followed, 
 Tyndale was offered the services of an advocate and an 
 attorney, that he might avail himself of every possibility of 
 escape which legal ingenuity could discover during the course 
 of the trial. He declined, however, to employ their services ; 
 the hour had come which he had so long anticipated, and he 
 was prepared, with God's help, to act in accordance with the 
 counsel which, three years before, he had given to his " dearly 
 beloved son in the faith," John Fryth. He resolved, there- 
 fore, to defend himself; and as the whole process was con- 
 ducted in writing, some months were occupied in paper 
 warfare between him and the theologians of Louvain. " There 
 was much writing," says Foxe, " and great disputation to and 
 fro between him and them of the University of Louvain, in 
 such sort that they all had enough to do, and more than they 
 could well wield, to answer the authorities and testimonies of 
 the Scripture, whereupon he most pithily grounded his doc- 
 trine." Tyndale's part in this discussion has not been pre- 
 served, at least has not been recovered ; but the reply of his 
 chief antagonist, Lathomus, has been printed among his 
 collected writings, and from this treatise, with the help of a 
 little patience and ingenuity, we are able to give a brief 
 summary of the disputation which issued in Tyndale's con- 
 demnation and martyrdom. 
 
424 TYNDALE'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. 
 
 It was the old question of justification by faith which had 
 formed the chief theme of discussion, and this was apparently 
 the sole subject of the first treatise which Tyndale wrote in his 
 own defence. 
 
 Faith alone justifies before God {Fides sola justificat apud 
 Deum). Such was the motto of Tyndale's treatise f and he 
 treated this fundamental assertion as he had already done 
 in his Parable of the Wicked Mammon, maintaining that it 
 was the, cardinal axiom of the New Testament, and applying 
 it to the question of human merit with the most fearless 
 and rigorous logic. 
 
 " The key of the saving knowledge of Scripture," he asserts, 
 " is this : God gives us all things freely through Christ 
 without regard to our works ; or in other words, faith in the 
 mercy of God through Jesus Christ, by the grace and works 
 of Christ, and without any regard to any merit or goodness 
 of our works, alone justifies us in the sight of God." 
 
 This assertion he perpetually repeated in his treatise as the 
 foundation of all his religious system ; he defended it with 
 clear and cogent arguments ; and he pushed it to its logical 
 conclusions with a boldness from which many who hold the 
 doctrine of justification by faith would, now-a-days, be inclined 
 to shrink. He denied any distinction between works which 
 preceded justification and those which followed it, as regarded 
 their power to merit anything from God {vim et efficaciam 
 merendi) ; for works which followed justification did not 
 increase the inward goodness of a man, but only manifested it 
 openly. 
 
 " The fruit that grows on a tree," he said, " does not make 
 a tree good or bad, it only makes known whether the tree is a 
 -good or a bad tree ; ■ and works do not make a man good or 
 bad, they only make it plain to other men whether the man 
 who performs them is good or bad. There is an inward 
 justification of a man before God which is by faith alone; 
 works serve only to make his justification known before 
 men; " and it was this distinction, Tyndale maintained, which 
 
TYNDALE'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. 435 
 
 explained the apparent discrepancy between the teaching of 
 St. Paul and St. James ; for the one spoke of inward justi- 
 fication before God, the other of outward justification before 
 men. 
 
 As to Jmman merit, Tyndale asserted that it was not only 
 denied by Scripture, in express words, but that it was incon- 
 sistent with reason. " How could man merit anything from 
 God } " he asked. " God needs not our works ; they confer 
 no benefit upon Him; they are all His gifts, and it is we alone 
 who derive any advantage from them. What claim, there- 
 fore, can we have to be rewarded by God for them? The 
 patient who drinks a bitter draught deserves nothing from the 
 physician on that account ; he has conferred no benefit upon 
 the physician ; it is the patient, in fact, that reaps all the good, 
 how then can he establish any ground of merit with the 
 physician? And if we perform some difficult and disagreeable 
 duty which the Great Physician assigns to us, how can we 
 thereby merit any reward from Him ? He is not benefited 
 thereby ; it is He that has enabled us to perform the duty, 
 and the performance of it redounds not to His advantage but 
 to ours." 
 
 Such were the main topics of Tyndale's defence of his 
 opinions, as they can be gleaned from the refutation of his 
 opponent. Lathomus, the champion of Louvain, replied, in 
 a brief treatise, characterised by singular clearness and by a 
 tone of moderation towards his antagonist which was as 
 laudable as it was rare in those days of fierce debate. To a 
 large extent — much larger than would be quite agreeable to his 
 brother theologians at Louvain — he admitted that he agreed 
 with Tyndale on the subject debated ; but he joined issue with 
 him on the question of the merit of good works. Scripture, 
 he maintained, repeatedly spoke of human actions as meriting 
 reward ; our Lord had taught that the labourers in His vine- 
 yard would at last receive their hire, and had promised a 
 reward in heaven to those who were persecuted for Him on 
 earth ; St. Paul had declared that God would render to every 
 
426 REPLY OF LATHOMUS. 
 
 man according to his deeds, he had animated the Galatians 
 by the assurance that in due season they should reap if they 
 fainted not, and he had encouraged the Hebrews to bear their 
 trials with patience by having regard to the " great recom- 
 pense of reward^ He denied as strongly as Tyndale had done 
 that any amount of good works could in any sense merit 
 justification ; but he maintained that in the passages he had 
 quoted, Scripture was speaking of good works done after 
 justification ; and these, he asserted, merited the reward of 
 heaven.^ 
 
 His reply to Tyndale's illustration of the tree and its fruit 
 was unwontedly weak ; but his treatment of the other illus- 
 tration, the physician and his patient, is more creditable to 
 his skill as a theological disputant. " If," says he, " the phy- 
 sician in your illustration be a king, and if he has solemnly 
 promised that he will make any one who entrusts himself to 
 be healed by his only son, co-heir with that son, that he will 
 treat him as a friend, that he will admit him to his table and 
 will bestow other blessings upon him simply because it is his 
 good pleasure so to do ; in this case the sick man who obeys 
 this law deserves the inheritance, and demands it as of right; 
 not because, in submitting himself to be cured and in volun- 
 tarily taking the medicines to cure him, he does anything that 
 benefits the king, but because he has complied with the express 
 will of the king." "Moreover," he proceeded, " unless you admit 
 the truth of this reasoning you will be unable to defend the 
 merits of the man Christ Jesus, which you so properly preach 
 and magnify ; for He came into the world to fulfil the will of the 
 Father, not to confer upon the Father any benefit, for nothing 
 would have been wanting to the Father's happiness if Christ 
 had never become man, and He might have saved man in 
 other ways." It was also derogatory to the justice of God, 
 he objected, to assert that God renders nothing for good merits ; 
 for in this case God's justice at the great day would be mani- 
 
 ' He says, very concisely, opera pracedentia non merentur justificationem, opera 
 vera sequentia merentur beatitudinem. 
 
TYND ALE'S REJOINDER TO LATHOMUS. 427 
 
 fested only towards the bad, whom He would punish justly 
 according to their deserts, whereas the good would be re- 
 warded altogether without any regard to their works. 
 
 These are the main positions in Lathomus's reply to 
 Tyndale ; and they are enforced and illustrated chiefly by 
 quotations from Scripture, (interpreted, it is true, sometimes 
 in a somewhat peculiar manner) ; for it is not unworthy 
 of note that the Fathers are very rarely referred to or cited. 
 Lathomus had commenced his reply by enumerating in detail 
 the various points of the controversy on which he was perfectly 
 agreed with Tyndale ; and the reader is probably of opinion 
 that by the help of a little care in defining the terms employed, 
 even a still greater jamount of unanimity might have been 
 achieved. This, however, was but one of almost innumerable 
 points of difference, practical as well as doctrinal, which 
 separated Tyndale from the Church of Rome. 
 
 In replying to Lathomus, accordingly, which he did at con- 
 siderable length,^ Tyndale not only re-stated his arguments 
 on faith and good works with fresh illustrations ; but entered 
 into the general controversy, and expressed his mind freely on 
 all those great questions which for many years had occupied 
 his thoughts. On the former subject of debate he repeated, 
 in still more explicit terms than before, his fundamental pro- 
 position that God the Father gives us all things for Christ so 
 freely, that He gives nothing from regard to any work of ours^ 
 whether internal or external.^ 
 
 Instead of conceding anything to Lathomus, or indicating 
 any desire to draw nearer to him in his opinions, he repudiated 
 more forcibly than ever the idea that man, whether before or 
 after justification, could do anything that had merit before 
 God. Such an opinion seemed to him absolutely incom- 
 
 ' ProUxi, says Lathomus in his answer. 
 
 ^ Tyndale's words had been, " Deus Pater omnia dat ita gratis per Christum, ut 
 nullius operis respectu, sive propter nullum opus internum vel externum quicquam 
 det." I have not thought it necessary to print all that I have gleaned as Tyndale's 
 words from Lathomus, but I have in no case ascribed anything to Tyndale without 
 the fullest warrant. 
 
42 8 TYND ALE'S REJOINDER TO LATHOMUS. 
 
 patible with the relation of dependence subsisting between 
 man and God ; it seemed to imply that man could do some- 
 thing without the help of the grace of God, or could perform 
 something more than he was bound to perform towards God. 
 Putting his case in the strongest and boldest manner, he 
 declared that, if God had bestowed upon St. Paul immediately- 
 after his conversion all the perfection which his soul now enjoys 
 or will enjoy after the resurrection, and yet had determined 
 that he should still continue in the world and do what he 
 actually did in his career as a teacher, he would not by all 
 his works have merited anything in the sight of God, any more 
 than the angels in heaven merit anything by their ministering 
 to us in our salvation. " It is the grace of God," he again and 
 again repeated, " that does everything ; without Him we can 
 do nothing ; it is God that works ; we are but the instruments, 
 we deserve no reward for what God does by us, and can claim 
 no merit for it, any more than we should dream of ascribing 
 any merit to the sling and stone and sword with which David 
 slew Goliath." He had no wish, he protested, to wrangle 
 about words ; but when Scripture said so plainly that God 
 bestowed upon men eternal life of His free grace ; when it was 
 so obviously true that we owed to God everything that we 
 could do, and that He would be inflicting no injustice upon us 
 in refusing to give us eternal life ; how could it be with any 
 conscience pretended that man, even after he was justified, 
 could claim heaven as of right, or could suppose that anything 
 he did had any merit in God's sight } The word merit, as 
 used by his antagonist, was employed, he averred, in a cor- 
 rupted sense, different from that in which it was customarily 
 used among men, and therefore he called upon Lathomus to 
 define accurately what he meant by merit, that his language 
 might no longer deceive his hearers. 
 
 Finally, he concludes this branch of his argument with the 
 assertion, " Works are the very last things which the law 
 requires of us, and they do not fulfil the law of God ; in our 
 work we are always sinning, and our thoughts are impure; 
 
TYND ALE'S REJOINDER TO LATHOMVS. 429 
 
 that charity ^YiKh should fulfil the law is colder in us than 
 ice; it is only hy faith, therefore, that we live whilst we are in 
 the flesh ; it is by faith we overcome the world ; for this is the 
 victory that overcometh the world, even our faith in God 
 through Jesus Christ, that His love who overcame all the 
 temptations of the devil shall be imputed to us : the promise, 
 therefore, is of faith, that it may be sure to all believers, 
 for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified before 
 God." 
 
 The other subjects disputed between Tyndale and the 
 theologians are very briefly indicated by Lathomus ; the 
 reader, if he has not entirely forgotten The Obedience 
 and The Practice of Prelates, will scarcely need to be 
 told what they were, or how Tyndale had expressed him- 
 self upon them. The power of the keys had been debated ; 
 and Tyndale, it seems, had given off"ence by declaring that 
 those only who possessed charity and the graces of the 
 Christian life could have the power of the keys ; and he 
 had even maintained that a layman who showed to a sinner 
 the just sentence of condemnation, and thus made him flee to 
 the grace of God, possessed the power of opening and shutting 
 the kingdom of heaven as truly as any of the clergy. He 
 had maintained that a bishop who, instead of being blameless, 
 was a drunkard, or a striker, or unchaste, either ceased to be 
 a bishop, or at least ceased to have any claim upon the 
 obedience of the laity. The subject of vows had been dis- 
 cussedj and fasting, and invocation of the saints, and rever- 
 encing the relics of saints, and images, and purgatory, and 
 the supremacy of the pope ; and we do not need to be told 
 what opinions Tyndale entertained on such subjects as these ; 
 it is superfluous to say that on such topics Tyndale was irre- 
 concilably at variance with those who were now sitting in 
 judgment upon him, with full power of life and death. 
 
 The reply of Lathomus to this second defence was by 
 no means equal to his previous production. It is, perhaps, 
 slightly more bitter in its tone towards Tyndale, though 
 
430 DELAY IN TYND ALE'S TRIAL. 
 
 still most commendably free from the prevalent exasperation 
 of theological controversy ; but there is also an absence of 
 that closeness of argumentation by which his former work 
 had been distinguished. He does not grapple so closely as 
 before with the question of merit, feeling probably that 
 between him and Tyndale there was an irreconcilable differ- 
 ence on this point which argument could not hope to reach ; 
 and on the other vast branch of the controversy he contents 
 himself with repeating, in somewhat pompous but unimpres- 
 sive language, the tenets of the " Catholic, orthodox, Roman 
 Church." So long as the discussion was confined to doc- 
 trinal questions a skilful disputant was able to prolong it 
 indefinitely ; one text of Scripture could be quoted against 
 another ; one system of interpretation could be set in array 
 against another ; objections could be started, weak points 
 might be assaulted, difficulties could be evaded ; but against 
 such an antagonist as Tyndale it was hopeless to think of 
 defending the manifold practical abuses that had so long 
 deformed the face of religion. Sir Thomas More had not 
 ventured upon the task, and Lathomus was too wise to un- 
 dertake it. These abuses could not be defended except by 
 violence and force ; nothing could be said in their favour 
 except that the Church had sanctioned them, and that the 
 State threatened the severest penalties against any one who 
 presumed to call them in question. 
 
 These discussions must necessarily have occupied a con- 
 siderable time. The process had not begun for some months 
 after Tyndale's arrest, apparently not till after the seizure 
 of Poyntz ; and, making due allowance for the customary 
 slow progress of the Council in such proceedings, it seems 
 not improbable that this written discussion occupied the 
 greater part of the commencement of the year 1535. In 
 courts where everything was conducted in writing, the progress 
 was of necessity slow ; and no doubt Cromwell's intervention 
 had caused more deliberation than usual in Tyndale's case. 
 Still, all this delay, it must have been evident, could only 
 
THE END APPROACHING. 431 
 
 protract the sentence without in any way altering its character. 
 It was certain and indisputable from the first that, according 
 to their definition of heresy, Tyndale was a heretic ; they 
 could scarcely expect from his antecedent career that he 
 would retract his opinions ; and it must, therefore, have been 
 evident from the beginning that the trial could have no 
 other issue than that to which, after long discussion, it was 
 manifestly approaching. Even if his judges had wished to 
 save him there was no loophole of escape : acting as admin- 
 istrators of the law, the case was to them one of perfect 
 simplicity; the sovereign, as the fountain of justice and 
 mercyj might use his prerogative in Tyndale's favour, but 
 subordinate officers had no course open to them except to 
 pronounce that Tyndale had clearly broken the law, and 
 had, in consequence, exposed himself to all its penalties. 
 There was small probability that the Emperor would relent ; 
 every year he was waxing more fierce and sanguinary in his 
 treatment of all who differed from the Church : but, if we may 
 judge from the narrative of Foxe, there seems to have been 
 a reluctance on the part of some of those concerned in the 
 trial to proceed to extremities ; and but for the persistent 
 instigation of Philips, who, "with constant diligence to and 
 fro, and from Louvain to Brussels and to Vilvorde" kept 
 urging on the process, the prosecution might have been sus- 
 pended, and the prisoner after some delay might have been 
 released. 
 
 The reader will naturally inquire whether in the mean- 
 time England had entirely forgotten Tyndale, and whether 
 the authorities had during this long interval made no further 
 effort to obtain his release. And, we fear, it must be replied, 
 that those in England who alone could render him any 
 assistance were so much engrossed in their own affairs, that 
 they allowed matters in the Low Countries to take their 
 own course. Any intervention, except that of Henry or of 
 Cromwell, would have been hopelessly futile; and in those 
 long weary months of the spring of 1536, when Tyndale was 
 
432 CROMWELL'S ATTEMPT TO SELZE PHILIPS. 
 
 painfully debating with . the Louvain Doctors, Henry was 
 flirting with Jane Seymour, and organising schemes for de- 
 tecting and punishing the real or alleged guilt of Anne 
 Boleyn ; and Cromwell, whose master, Wolsey, had been 
 shipwrecked by Henry's former matrimonial difficulties, was 
 too painfully aware of the critical position in which he was 
 placed, to have either leisure or inclination to occupy himself 
 seriously with Tyndale's misfortunes. 
 
 One party in England might, indeed, have done some- 
 thing to deliver the Reformer from the unrelenting perse- 
 cution of Philips. The extreme Romish party, who had 
 doubtless set this bloodhound on the track, and who supplied 
 him with funds, might have withdrawn his resources, and. 
 so at once paralysed his efforts ; but from them, of course, 
 no such intervention was to be expected. Probably of all 
 the schemes for aiding Tyndale, this last was at once the 
 simplest and the most likely to succeed. It was the malice 
 of an individual that had set in motion the machinery of the 
 law against the Reformer, and if that individual could be cut 
 off from the necessary supply of money, the proceedings 
 might possibly enough have dropped. Cromwell's sagacity 
 had not overlooked this probability. After his communi- 
 cations with the Marquis of Bergen and the Archbishop of 
 Palermo had failed, he had in the close of 1535 dispatched 
 a Cambridge scholar to Louvain to act as a spy upon Philips, 
 and ascertain; if possible, from what sources he was supplied 
 with funds. By means of this agent, Robert Farryngton, it 
 was discovered that " Philips had two benefices and a prebend 
 when he went over the sea;" and the friends whom he left 
 behind doubtless took good care that the revenues of this 
 pluralist were duly transmitted to him on the Continent. It 
 was, therefore, the funds of the Church of England, those 
 funds which the piety of previous generations had consecrated 
 for the perpetual religious benefit of the community, which 
 were employed in doing to death the man who has bestowed 
 upon the people of England the greatest religious blessing 
 
ATTEMPT TO SEIZE PHILIPS. 433 
 
 that they enjoy. The same emissary offered to continue his 
 services, but it does not appear that any further use was 
 made of them. Another more effectual method of cutting 
 short the career of Philips was next to be tried, though this 
 also was of no avail to rescue Tyndale.^ 
 
 Philips, it will be remembered, belonged to the party who 
 hated Henry, and, according to Theobald, he had given vent 
 to his feelings both at Louvain and in the Court of the Queen- 
 Regent by denouncing his own sovereign in bitter and violent 
 language as " a tyrant and a plunderer of the country." Such 
 language was treasonable ; and by the old arrangement sub- 
 sisting between England and Germany since the days of 
 Maximilian, Henry might demand the arrest and extradition 
 of any traitor. Letters were, therefore, directed to the 
 magistrates of some of the chief cities in Germany, through 
 which he was likely to pass, describing him as "a most 
 perfidious man, guilty of the most heinous crime of treason," 
 and entreating them to apprehend him and his associates, 
 and send them to the King of England, who would repay all 
 expenses incurred, and liberally recompense them for their 
 trouble.^ Philips, however, had remained long enough at 
 Louvain to accomplish his treacherous mission ; and he con- 
 trived to elude the vigilance of the emissaries of his angry 
 sovereign. 
 
 ' I give the part of the letter which refers to the subject :— " Pleaseth it your 
 very good roastership that I might be ascertained by this bearer, my Cousin 
 Richmond, or else by some other at your pleasure, whether it may please you 
 to command me any more service in the matter that J did show your mastership 
 ■when I came from Louvain ; and I shall be glad with all my heart to give all 
 diligence to accomplish your pleasure therein, or else that it may please your 
 goodness that I might have licence to depart from Cambridge to my friends.'' He 
 adds a postscript, by far the most important part of his communication ; — " Pleaseth 
 it your mastership, as I am credibly informed. Philips had two benefices and a 
 prebend, when he went over the sea ; what order his friends have taken with them 
 since his departing, your mastership may have soon knowledge." The letter was 
 written from Cambridge, January 12 ; no year is given, but 1536 is clearly the 
 date : it is preserved in the Chapter-house Papers. The name of this agent has 
 been hitherto unknown : there is much still to be learned in the State Paper Office, 
 if only the documents were more easily accessible. 
 
 2 Cotton USiS.,' Vitellius, B. XXI. 
 
 Ff 
 
434 VAUGHAN'S LAST REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 Vaughan, also, Tyndale's former friend and admirer, was 
 again in Antwerp in the spring of 1536, and was anxious to 
 do what seemed possible to release the illustrious prisoner. 
 Writing to Cromwell from Antwerp, April 13, he says with 
 great urgency, "7/" now you send Me' but ymir letter to the 
 Privy Council \of Brabani\, I could deliver Tyndctle from the 
 fire: see it come by time, for else it will be too late.^'^ The 
 friendly envoy does not, however, state the grounds on which 
 he entertained such pleasing hopes ; and we are strongly 
 inclined to believe that he was deluded by his own kindly 
 feelings. 
 
 The truth is that a very considerable amount of misappre- 
 hension seems to prevail as to Tyndale's death, which it is 
 desirable, if possible, to dispel. To some writers the imprison- 
 ment and martyrdom of Tyndale seem to be a stupendous 
 and unprecedented crime, surrounded by inscrutable mystery ; 
 and they have inveighed against Henry, and Cromwell, and 
 Cranmer, and Englishmen in general, as guilty of an extreme 
 dereliction of duty which was almost equivalent to being 
 accessory to the great Translator's death. Nothing could be 
 farther from the truth than such a view of the transaction ; 
 and, indeed, to any one who will calmly attend to the various 
 features of the occurrence, nothing could stand in less need of 
 explanation than Tyndale's martyrdom. 
 
 The laws of the Emperor against heretics were as precise 
 as language could make them ; and it was perfectly certain 
 that Tyndale had broken these laws, arid was amenable to 
 the penalty that had been enacted as their sanction. Once 
 apprehended, therefore, and subjected to the ordinary course 
 of justice, it is difficult to see what hope of escape was left for 
 him. Henry could not demand that he should be delivered 
 up to the English authorities, for his offence had been com- 
 mitted against the laws of the emperor. Indeed, if Tyndale 
 had been sent to England to be tried, his fate would probably 
 have been the same ; for he was far in advance of the incipient 
 ' state Papers, Vol. vil. p. 665. 
 
TYND ALE'S PRISON-LIFE. 435 
 
 Protestantism of Henry and his advisers, and he would 
 probably have perished at Smithfield, as his former associate, 
 John Lambert, did two years later for maintaining the same 
 opinions. Cromwell and Cranmer may have felt some con- 
 siderable sympathy for one who had so successfully laboured 
 in that work of translating Scripture in which they were both 
 so deeply interested ; but they were far from sharing Tyndale's 
 views, and far from entertaining for him that high esteem 
 which we have learned to regard as due to his transcendent 
 merits. Our reverence for Tyndale, and our horror for the 
 sanguinary laws which consigned a man to death for his 
 religious opinions, invest his case with a profound interest, 
 which his contemporaries did not in general feel and could 
 not have understood ; to them it was simply the case of a 
 good and learned man who had dared to condemn and 
 oppose the teaching of the Church, and who, almost as a 
 matter of course, fell a victim to the familiar rigour of the 
 laws. 
 
 Of Tyndale's life during this long imprisonment, Foxe, our 
 sole authority hitherto, has simply recorded that " such was 
 the power of his doctrine and the sincerity of his life, that 
 during the time of his imprisonment, which endured a year 
 and a half [very nearly], it is said, he converted his keeper, 
 the keeper's daughter, and others of his household. Also the 
 rest that were with Tyndale conversant in the castle, reported 
 of him that if he were not a good Christian man, they could 
 not tell whom to trust." 
 
 To many writers the amount of liberty thus implied seems 
 so incredible, that they have rejected the story as intrinsically 
 improbable : curiously enough, however, we have the means of 
 establishing the probability of Foxe's statement by evidence 
 which no one will presume to dispute. Ensinas, who was im- 
 prisoned for heresy a few years later, makes the very singular 
 complaint that he was somewhat interrupted in his labour of 
 compiling prayers from the Book of Psalms, by the number 
 of visitors, who were permitted to see and talk with him. 
 
 F fa 
 
436 AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF TYNDALE. 
 
 From the town of Brussels alone he had upwards of eighty 
 visitors, who discussed with him matters of religion, and who, 
 as he quaintly remarks, were at more liberty to consider those 
 matters in that place, because it was a prison, and therefore 
 free from interruption.^ And the testimony of Ensinas as to 
 the liberty enjoyed in prison is confirmed by the evidence of 
 official papers preserved among the Archives of Belgium.^ 
 All prisons were probably not so laxly superintended as the 
 Vrunte, in Brussels, where Ensinas was confined ; but there 
 is, it is thus evident, nothing impossible in Foxe's story, and 
 we are at liberty to believe that the tedium of Tyndale's 
 imprisonment was relieved by kindly Christian intercourse 
 with those around him, on the matters most deeply interest- 
 ing to his heart. 
 
 To this meagre statement of the Martyrologist, however, 
 we are now able to add, for the first time in this country) 
 information of the highest interest from the pen of Tyndale 
 himself. The admirers of the great Translator have long 
 regretted that not a single letter or document of any kind 
 has been ascertained to be in existence, that was unquestion- 
 ably written with Tyndale's own hand. The industry of a 
 foreign investigator has at length been successful in discover- 
 ing an original letter which was written by Tyndale himself, 
 and which at once invests the whole narrative of his imprison- 
 ment with that " touch of nature " that appeals irresistibly to 
 human sympathies.^ It would be unfair to the reader to 
 withhold from him Tyndale's own original Latin; and we 
 
 ' Mimoires d^ Ensinas, Vol. II. pp. 81, 93, 121, etc. 
 
 2 The Rigime de la p-ison de la Vrunte is printed in the Appendix to the 
 Mimoires d' Ensinas, Piices Justificatives, Number 5 : and taken from the State 
 Papers in Brussels, Office Fiscal de Brabant. On the history of the Vrunte, the 
 reader is referred to the admirable Histoire de Bruxelles, by Messrs. Henne and 
 Wauters, a work which Englishmen may well envy. 
 
 3 The letter has been found in the Archives of the Council of Brabant, by the 
 learned and indefatigable M. Galesloot. With the kind permission of the ever- 
 courteous M. Gachard, the precious document has been photographed at the 
 expense of Mr. Fry, of Bristol, and a copy, an exact facsimile of the original, 
 which no Englishman but myself has seen, lies before me as I write. 
 
.4 
 
 h 
 
 
 >'l 
 
 -^1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
TYND ALE'S LETTER FROM HIS PRISON. 437 
 
 therefore place it here in the text with a literal rendering 
 subjoined. The letter, it may be premised, has neither 
 date nor superscription, but there is not the slightest doubt 
 that it was written at Vilvorde in the winter of 1535, and 
 that it was addressed to the Governor of the castle, who 
 was no other than that very Marquis of Bergen-op-Zoom 
 with whom Cromwell had already interceded in Tyndale's 
 favour.^ 
 
 "Credo non latere te, vir prae- 
 stantissime, quid de me statutum 
 sit. Quam ob rem, tuam domina- 
 tionem rogatum habeo, idque per 
 Dominum Jesum, ut si mihi per 
 hiemem hie manendum sit, solieites 
 apud dominum commissarium, si 
 fortd dignari velit, de rebus meis 
 quas habet, mittere calidiorem bi- 
 rettum ; frigus enim patior in capite 
 nimium, oppressus perpetuo catarro 
 qui sub testitudine nonnihil augetur. 
 Calidiorem quoque tunicam, nam, 
 haec quam habeo admodum tenuis 
 est. Item pannum ad caligas refi- 
 ciendas. Duplois \sic in original 
 by mistake for diplois\ detrita est ; 
 camiseae detritae sunt etiam. Cam- 
 iseam laneam habet, si mittere 
 velit. Habeo quoque apud eum 
 caligas ex crassiori panno ad su- 
 perius induendum; noctuma biretta 
 calidiora habet etiam : utque vesperi 
 lucemam habere liceat ; tediosum 
 quidem est per tenebras solitarie 
 sedere. Maximfe autem omnium 
 tuam clementiam rogo atque ob- 
 secro ut ex animo agere velit apud 
 dominum commissarium quatenus 
 dignari velit mihi concedere Bib- 
 liam Hebraicatn, Grammaticam 
 Hebraicam, et Vocaiularium He- 
 
 " I believe, right worshipful, that 
 you are not ignorant of what has 
 been determined concerning me 
 [by the Council of Brabant] ; there- 
 fore I entreat your lordship and 
 that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am 
 to remain here [in Vilvorde] during 
 the winter, you will request the 
 Procureur to be kind enough to 
 send me from my goods which he 
 has in his possession, a warmer 
 cap, for I suffer extremely from 
 cold in the head, being afflicted 
 with a perpetual catarrh, which is 
 considerably increased in this cell. 
 A warmer coat also, for that which 
 I have is very thin : also a piece of 
 cloth to patch my leggings : my 
 overcoat is worn out ; my shirts 
 are also worn out. He has a 
 woollen shirt of mine, if he will be 
 kind enough to send it. I have also 
 with him leggings of thicker cloth 
 for putting on above ; he also has 
 warmer caps for wearing at night. 
 I wish also his permission to have 
 a lamp in the evening, for it is 
 wearisome to sit alone in the dark. 
 Bui above all, I entreat and beseech 
 your clemency to be urgent with the 
 Procureur that he may kindly per- 
 mit me to have my Hebrew Bible, 
 
 • Antoine de Berghes, Marquis of Berg-op-Zoom, was appointed Governor 
 in 1530. Adolphe Van Wesele was Lieutenant of the castle. 
 
438 TYNDALE'S LETTER FROM HIS PRISON. 
 
 braicum, ut eo studio tempus con- Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew 
 teram. Sic tibi obtingat quod Dictionary, that I may spend my 
 maxim^ optas mode cum animas time with that study. And in 
 tuas salute fiat : Verum si aliud return, may you obtain your dearest 
 consilium de me ceptum \sic\ est, wish, provided always it be con- 
 ante hiemem perficiendum, patiens sistent with the salvation of your 
 ero, Dei expectans voluntatem, ad soul. But if, before the end of the 
 gloriam gratise Domini mei Jesu winter, a different decision be 
 Christi, Cujus Spiritus tuum semper reached concerning me, I shall be 
 regat pectus. Amen. W. Tinda- patient, abiding the will of God to 
 lus."' the glory of the grace of my Lord 
 
 Jesus Christ, whose Spirit, I pray, 
 may ever direct your heart. Amen. 
 — W. Tyndale." 
 
 The picture presented in this letter, of the illustrious 
 Martyr, sitting cold and dark and solitary in the damp cells 
 of Vilvorde during the long cheerless nights of winter, and 
 earnestly soliciting the favour of light, and warm clothing, and 
 above all, of books to solace him, must surely have reminded 
 the reader of the great Apostle of the Gentiles sending for his 
 "cloke and his books, but especially the parchments," to 
 defend him against the damp and the tedium of his gloomy 
 Mamertine dungeon ; and it appeals irresistibly to the sympa- 
 thies of every man who is not utterly destitute of human 
 feelings. 
 
 It adds not a little to the interest of this letter, that it 
 silences for ever the idle objection so often repeated by writers 
 who take no trouble to examine into facts, that Tyndale was 
 absolutely ignorant of Hebrew, and was incapable either of 
 reading or of rendering the Old Testament in its original 
 language. To scholars, indeed, that question had long ago 
 been set at rest by the examination of Tyndale's Version of 
 the Pentateuch ; and the testimony of Herman Buschius was 
 scarcely needed to assure them, that Tyndale was quite 
 
 ^ As this biography has not been produced for philological purposes, I have 
 given Tyndale's letter in the ordinary orthography : I may mention, however, that 
 the original presents scarce any deviation from that above, except in using the 
 single e instead of the diphthong a. 
 
TYND ALE'S PRISON-LIFE. 439 
 
 sufficiently versed in Hebrew for the work that he had under- 
 taken. Surely, however, after this pathetic request in the 
 Translator's own words, the groundless calumny will disappear 
 for ever from our literature. 
 
 We take for granted that the modest requests of Tyndale 
 were acceded to; this much, at least, the Marquis of Berg 
 could scarcely refuse to one for whom Cromwell had inter- 
 ceded ; and until the actual business of the trial commenced 
 and occupied all his energies, we may suppose that Tyndale 
 was engaged on what had been the labour of his life, the 
 translation of Holy Scripture into the English language. The 
 Venerable Bede, dictating his translation of St. John on his 
 death-bed, has been deemed a subject worthy of the highest 
 art, a theme for the highest flights of poetry ; will no genius 
 be fired to commemorate in verse or on canvas the only 
 worthy pendant which our literary annals present, Tyndale in 
 the gloomy vaults at Vilvorde, toiling bravely to finish his 
 great work? How much he was able to accomplish of his 
 task in the dreary confinement of his prison we have no means 
 of ascertaining with any very definite precision ; but there 
 seems no reason whatever for disbelieving the uniform tradition 
 which affirms, that before his death he had completed the 
 translation of the Old Testament to the end of the Books of 
 Chronicles. This part of his work, it is said, was transmitted 
 to his former associate in Antwerp, John Rogers, and was 
 printed by him along with the previous translations by 
 Tyndale of the Pentateuch and the New Testament, in what 
 is usually known as Matthews's Bible. ^ Of all this, direct 
 proof cannot be given; but the presumption in its favour, 
 from evidence both internal and external, is sufficiently strong 
 to warrant its implicit reception. 
 
 The trial of Tyndale was, we believe, not begun till the 
 commencement of 1536, and it had been unusually protracted. 
 The process of written attack and defence must of necessity 
 
 ' See Westcott on the subject ; I have not entered into the examination of any 
 of the alleged posthumous works of Tyndale. 
 
44° TRIAL OF TYNDALE. 
 
 have occupied a considerable time; and it may have been 
 midsummer before the trial was concluded. The verdict had 
 been foreseen by the judges from the commencement, and 
 was inevitable ; but before pronouncing it, we cannot doubt 
 that the question was once again submitted to the supreme 
 authorities ; that not only the Regent Mary of Hungary, but 
 the emperor also, were asked to decide whether in this 
 instance the statutes against heretics were to be enforced with 
 full rigour, or whether the prerogative of mercy was to be 
 exercised. Charles and Mary were not ignorant of the 
 interest which Henry and Cromwell felt in Tyndale ; and with 
 them it rested to decide whether the prisoner was to be set 
 free, or to die the death of a heretic. They weighed the case 
 doubtless with care, and took into consideration the compara- 
 tive advantages of the two courses of conduct that were open 
 to them. To pardon a convicted heretic would offend the 
 clergy, and would stultify the legislation of many years 
 against heresy : to give him up to death was to run the risk 
 of offending Henry, or at least of disobliging Henry's potent 
 minister. As a question of interest, the decision was only too 
 likely to be unfavourable to Tyndale, and the consciences of 
 the two supreme authorities would still further incline the 
 verdict against him. No words of mercy came from those 
 with whom the prerogative of mercy was lodged ; and nothing 
 remained for the Council of Brabant but to act as the law 
 required.^ 
 
 Sentence of death would, therefore, be pronounced against 
 Tyndale at Vilvorde by the Procureur-General in the usual 
 manner. The exact date of Tyndale's condemnation we have 
 been able to ascertain from the despatch of John Hutton, one 
 of Cromwell's envoys in the Low Countries. Writing from 
 Antwerp on the lath of August he informs the Secretary, 
 " So it is that on the tenth day of this present the Procureur- 
 
 ^ I have searched in vain for the correspondence which must have passed 
 between Mary and Charles, but it may yet be discovered and throw light upon this 
 most interesting subject. 
 
SENTENCE OF DEATH PRONOUNCED. 441 
 
 General, which is the Empefor's attorney for these parts, dined 
 with me here in the English House, who satisfied me that 
 William Tyndale is degraded and condemned into the hands 
 of the secular power, so that he is very like to suffer death 
 this next week. As to the Articles upon which he is con- 
 demned, I cannot as yet obtain [them], albeit I have a grant 
 [a promise], which, once obtained, shall be sent your Lordship 
 by the first." 1 
 
 According to Foxe, Tyndale had a respite of nearly two 
 months between his condemnation and his martyrdom ; and 
 one hopes that, after the solemn mummeries of degradation 
 were duly accomplished, the calm interval of preparation was 
 not interrupted by the officious ministrations of the priests 
 and confessors who were usually intruded upon condemned 
 heretics, to convince them, if possible, at the last moment, of 
 their errors, and to induce them to recant. Tyndale, it must 
 have been manifest, was not likely to be influenced by such 
 agents, and one would gladly believe, therefore, that he was 
 spared this annoyance, and that he was permitted to prepare 
 himself in peace for that dread ordeal of which he had before 
 said to Fryth, " Let not your body faint ; he that endureth to 
 the end shall be saved ; if the pain be above your strength, 
 remember, 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name I will 
 give it you,' and pray to your Father in that name, and He 
 shall ease your pain or shorten it." 
 
 The death which he had to face was not, however, quite so 
 terrible as that of Fryth ; by the laws of the Emperor Ana- 
 baptists alone were burned alive ; and though Tyndale's body 
 was to be consumed, it would not be till after he had been 
 reft of life by a mode of death much more speedy than the 
 painful one of burning. He was to be strangled, and his dead 
 body was then to be burned. Friday the 6th of October was 
 fixed as the day of his execution. The place was, doubtless, 
 some spot on that side of the castle next the town, where 
 it could easily be witnessed from the churchyard and from 
 
 ' State Papers, Vol. vil. p. 665. 
 
442 PREPARATIONS FOR MARTYRDOM. 
 
 the walls that ran in front of what is now the Rue des Moines 
 Blancs. 
 
 No record of the martyrdom has been given by any eye- 
 witness ; but the description given by Ensinas of an execution 
 precisely similar may be here quoted, as probably in almost all 
 its details applicable to the case of Tyndale. 
 
 " A space was enclosed with palisades, and all were excluded 
 except those who had to play a part in the martyrdom. In 
 the midst of the enclosure was erected a large piece of wood 
 in the shape of a cross as high as a man, and firmly fixed in 
 the ground to the same depth. On the top was an iron chain 
 fixed to the wood, and a hole in which a rope of hemp was 
 inserted : and near the foot was piled an immense heap of 
 brushwood. When all was ready the Procureur- General and 
 the rest of the judges were conducted to the place that was 
 prepared for them in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 fatal spot. Finally, the prisoner 'was led out, and was per- 
 mitted to engage for a few moments in prayer." 
 
 " He cried," says Foxe, in the sole detail he has given of 
 Tyndale's death, " at the stake with a fervent zeal and a loud 
 voice, ' Lord, open the King of England's eyes ! ' " 
 
 "This prayer finished, he was immediately led by the 
 executioner to the stake ; his feet were bound to the stake ; 
 the iron chain which hung from the top was fastened round his 
 neck, along with the hemp rope loosely tied in a noose. The 
 faggots were piled around with quantities of straw, and heaped 
 up till the victim almost seemed enclosed in a little hut. 
 Then, at a signal from the Procureur, the executioner stepped 
 behind and tightened the rope with great force, so as in a few 
 moments to strangle the victim. When life was extinct, 
 the Procureur seized a torch and kindled the pile, which 
 blazed forth with fury, and in a very short space completely 
 consumed the body." ^ 
 
 ^ Mimoires tPEnsinas, Vol. I. p. 94. It is of the martyrs of Louvain that 
 Ensinas is here speaking, and he adds (what I have omitted) the famous description 
 of Dufief s cruelty : " Videor mihi adhuc habere in conspectu distortum illud 
 
MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE. 443 
 
 Such was the end of William Tyridale. 
 
 '' If they shall burn me," he had said eight years before, 
 " they shall do none other thing than that I look for." " There 
 is none other way into the kingdom of life than through perse- 
 cution and suffering of pain, and of very death, after the 
 ensample of Christ."^ And now after a long interval the 
 death which he had so long before anticipated had overtaken 
 him ; the untiring malice of his enemies had at length suc- 
 ceeded in cutting short his life ; but his work was beyond their 
 power. The spot where his ashes rest is unknown ; but that 
 work for which he lived and died has, like the seed in the 
 parable, grown up into the mightiest of trees. There is 
 scarcely a corner of the habitable globe into which English 
 energy has not penetrated; and wherever the English lan- 
 guage is heard, there the words in which Tyndale gave the 
 Holy Scripture to his countrymen are repeated with heartfelt 
 reverence as the holiest and yet the most familiar of all words. 
 They are the first that the opening intellect of the child 
 receives with wondering faith from the lips of its mother; 
 they are the last that tremble on the tongue of the dying 
 as he commends his soul to God. Assuredly it will not tend 
 to diminish the reverence with which the universal English- 
 speaking people regard their Bible, if they read a little 
 more carefully the life of the heroic and simple-minded man 
 to whose labour the English Bible was chiefly owing, and 
 whose spirit still seems to reside in its grave, impressive 
 sentences. 
 
 No laboured peroration is needed to set forth the character 
 and virtues of Tyndale, This biography must have been 
 unsuccessful indeed, if it has not presented a portrait which 
 the reader has long ago recognised as that of a true Christian 
 
 crudelissimi hominis os, ex quo flammas spirabat, qu^m ipsa fax incensa, horri- 
 biliores ; faciem truculentam et pree furore ardentem, truces oculos, totum denique 
 corporis habitum, qui latentes animi furias omni gestu et sermone sic representabat, 
 ut vero credam, eo tempore a dis.bolo obsessum fujsse, cujus instinctu sine uUi 
 dubitatione agebatur." 
 1 Wicked Mammon and Obedience. 
 
444 CHARACTER OF TYNDALE. 
 
 hero. jHeroic is, in truth, the appropriate epithet for the 
 character of Tyndale ; and heroic in the noblest and highest 
 sense of that somewhat misused word. One feels instinctively 
 that he was no ordinary commonplace man, no mere scholar, 
 or active, energetic priest. He was no shrewd man of the 
 world, but was ignorant as a child of the ordinary arts by 
 which favour is propitiated and popularity so frequently won. 
 His simplicity, his earnestness, his noble unselfishness, his 
 love of truth, his independence, his clearness and force of 
 mind, his invincible energy and power, — these mark him out 
 as a true hero, one of those great men specially raised up and 
 qualified for a noble work, whose lives always constitute a 
 landmark in the annals of human history. 
 
 Of the excellence of his moral character, fortunately, no 
 defence has ever been required. The Procureur-General is 
 reported to have described him as " a learned, good, and godly 
 man ; " and friends and enemies, in his own time and in sub- 
 sequent ages, have with one unvarying consent repeated the 
 same encomium. No voice of scandal has ever been raised 
 against him ; and there are no black spots in his life which it 
 is the duty of a biographer to attempt to whitewash. 
 
 jThe extent of his influence upon the Reformation in England 
 was more fully and more justly recognised by his contem- 
 poraries than it has in general been by subsequent writers. 
 Sir Thomas More was too sagacious not to perceive that 
 Tyndale was the true pioneer in England of that movement 
 which he regarded with so much aversionT}, Others had, indeed, 
 anticipated Tyndale in condemning the doctrines and practices 
 of the Church as unscriptural and superstitious, but their voices 
 were feeble and ineffectual ; his was the first voice that was 
 raised in accents loud and clear enough to penetrate the ears 
 and touch the hearts of the nation. The violence with which 
 his works were condemned, and the zeal with which they were 
 sought after and burnt by the great ecclesiastical authorities, 
 sufficiently attest the estimate they had formed of the import- 
 ance of his writings. It would be difficult to name any more 
 
CHARACTER OF TYNDALE. 445 
 
 powerful attack upon all that was at the time most generally 
 practised in the Church of Rome than is contained in The 
 Obedience, The Practice of Prelates, and The Answer to 
 Sir Thomas More. Never had the corruptions in doctrine, 
 the abuses in wot-ship, the ignorance and worldliness of the 
 clergy, been exposed with such clearness of argument, such 
 force of language, such vehemence of moral indignation ; the 
 impression made was deep, the result was memorable. And, 
 as we have already noticed, his influence was not that of a- 
 mere hostile critic, holding up errors and abuses to reprobation 
 and public scorn ; a mere inarticulate protest against the sins 
 and vices of the Church would not, however strong, have 
 availed to produce a Reformation in religion. Tyndale not 
 only pointed out with terrible clearness what was wrong, he 
 indicated with equal plainness the only remedies that could 
 meet the emergency. The supremacy of Holy Scripture in 
 all matters of faith, the supremacy of the civil law in all 
 matters of discipline, such were the remedies which Tyndale 
 recommended to his countrymen as the only effectual means 
 of redressing the intolerable grievances under which they were 
 groaning ; and these are, in fact, the two pillars on which the 
 Reformation in England was subsequently established. 
 
 This, however, was after all but a subordinate part of 
 Tyndale's work ; that with which his name will be for ever 
 associated, and for which his memory will be for ever revered, 
 is his translation of Holy Scripture. Of the merits of the 
 English Bible and of its influence upon all English-speaking 
 people who is able adequately to treat? And this English 
 Bible, it must once more be repeated, is the work of Tyndale ; 
 is for the greater part exactly what he made it, and in every 
 part speaks in that style which he infused into it. That 
 exquisite felicity of language which has made it dear to the 
 hearts of all classesj which has constituted it a true national 
 treasure, it owes to Tyndale. His translation was no dead 
 piece of learned labour ; it was instinct with the life of the 
 man that produced it ; it was the Word of God transmitted 
 
44*5 CHARACTER OF TYNDALE. 
 
 through the agency of one to whom that Word was not an 
 outward letter, but the very life of his soul. It is on this 
 account that the individuality of Tyndale is inseparably 
 associated with the English Bible ; its tone and spirit have, 
 in a certain sense, come from him ; no revision has ever pre- 
 sumed to touch what Tyndale has stamped on it ; no progress 
 of scholarship is ever likely to efface from it that which makes 
 it truly Tyndale's work. 
 
 It has been reserved for some of his own countrymen to 
 impugn the scholarship of the great Translator. Perhaps, 
 their discovery that a translation whose pre-eminent merit it 
 is that it so closely represents the original, was made by a man 
 incompetent to render from the original, may be esteemed the 
 highest and most curious achievement of literary stupidity in 
 our times. But to state such a preposterous objection is to 
 refute it. Such calumnies can do no injury to the memory of 
 Tyndale : they prove nothing but the ignorance and the reck- 
 lessness of those who make them. Truth alone can stand the 
 test of time and of research ; and the more thoroughly that 
 the life of Tyndale is examined, the more has he hitherto 
 been found to be deserving of the love and veneration of his 
 countrymen. The more that his character and work are 
 investigated, the more conspicuous is his Christian heroism. 
 There is nothing to alloy the admiration with which we regard 
 him, no taint of weakness, no suspicion of selfishness, no 
 parade of pride. Humble and irreproachable in his life, 
 zealous and devoted in his work, beloved by his friends, 
 respected by his enemies, faithful unto death, where among 
 the army of martyrs shall we find a nobler than William 
 Tyndale .'' 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I. MR. ANDERSON'S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF TYNDALE'S NEW 
 
 TESTAMENT INTO ENGLAND. 
 
 Anderson's Annals of the English Bible contributed so substan- 
 tially to enlarge our knowledge of the early history of the Bible in 
 England, and displayed such a considerable amount of research into 
 materials that had not been previously explored, that the work has 
 justly acquired a very high reputation, and has been extensively used 
 as a sort of literary quarry, from which subsequent writers have 
 borrowed their information without deeming it necessary to subject 
 it to any further scrutiny. And it would betoken at once ingratitude 
 and ignorance to speak with disrespect of Anderson's work, or to 
 overlook the important service which it has rendered to all who, 
 since its publication, have undertaken to prosecute their researches 
 in the same field. At the same time it is useless to deny that the 
 Annals of the English Bible labours under several not unimportant 
 defects, which make it impossible to receive the writer's conclusions 
 with implicit faith, or even to feel assured that his quotations and 
 translations can be depended upon as accurate. Anderson was too 
 ready to arrive precipitately at a conclusion on insufficient evidence ; 
 and having once satisfied himself that some particular theory was 
 probable, he forthwith assumes that it is certain and indisputable; 
 and thus throughout his book confounds theories with facts, proba- 
 bilities with certainties, in a manner seriously to detract from the 
 value of his history. It is also evident to any one who follows in his 
 wake, and carefully examines the documents which he professes to 
 quote and to translate, that Anderson's scholarship was deficient, 
 and that he was somewhat careless in deciphering and transcribing 
 manuscripts and other authorities. He knew nothing of German, 
 a great misfortune where several questions of the utmost importance 
 
448 ANDERSON'S ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 could not possibly be determined without some acquaintance with 
 that language.^ His acquaintance with Latin was not such as to 
 enable him to read that language with facility, or to translate it with 
 accuracy ; '^ and he lacked the necessary patience without which old 
 and carelessly-written manuscripts can seldom be examined and deci- 
 phered to much purpose. 
 
 In inquiries such as those with which Anderson's Annals are 
 occupied, nothing is more important or more difficult, than the 
 ascertaining of any precise dates to govern the arrangement of events; 
 and it is in this most of all that his habit of hasty theorising has led 
 Mr. Anderson astray. Many minor faults of this kind are noticed in 
 the previous pages ; but there is one error which pervades his whole 
 narrative of the years 1524-1528, and which is of such great con- 
 sequence that it seems desirable to explain at length on what grounds 
 his arrangement is set aside and an entirely different one adopted in 
 this biography. 
 
 Anderson commences his history of the year 1526 in the following 
 language : " That interesting period when the Word of God printed 
 in our native tongue was first found in England, had now arrived. 
 It was in January 1526. . . . The earliest importations of these 
 precious volumes would furnish a very curious subject of inquiry. . . . 
 But the materials have never yet been examined and compared, with 
 that regard to accuracy as to names, and succession as to events, 
 which would have brought out some of the finest specimens of faith 
 and fortitude and persevering zeal." He then proceeds to " examine 
 and compare the materials," and it is by this examination that nearly 
 the whole of the dates in his history for several years have been 
 determined. 
 
 First of all he quotes from Foxe the articles alleged against Garret, 
 Curate to Dr. Forman, the Rector of All Hallows in Honey Lane, of 
 whom Foxe says, "About the year 1526, Master Garret came unto 
 Oxford, and brought with him sundry books in Latin, treating of the 
 Scripture . . . wA Tyndale' s first translation of the New Testament in 
 English, the which books he sold to divers scholars in Oxford." 
 " After he had been there a while, and despatched those books, news 
 
 * e.g., Wtetlier Tyndale knew German, and how far he was indebted to Luther's 
 translation, are questions really of prime consequence in the Annals of the English 
 Bible, to which Anderson was unable to return any intelligent answer. 
 
 ^ It is an unpleasant task to expose another's deficiencies, but any one who will 
 take the trouble to read what Mr. Anderson calls a translation of Rinck's letter to 
 Wolsey {Annals, I. pp. 203, etc.) will scarcely need any other evidence to convince 
 him of the serious defects of Anderson's scholarship. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF TYND ALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 449 
 
 came that he was searched for through all London to be apprehended 
 and taken as a heretic, and to be imprisoned for selling those 
 heretical books." All this must have happened very early in January 
 if not before ; for after the search in London had proved fruitless, he 
 was searched for in Oxford, where, according to Anderson's theory, 
 he visited one of the students on the 'jth of February, was taken 
 prisoner on the 9th, escaped again, and was recaptured, and all his 
 friends in the University, including Fryth, were immediately arrested. 
 All this it is assumed happened in 1526; and as it is distinctly 
 specified that he had been searched for in London before he was 
 sought for in Oxford, and moreover that the search in London did 
 not take place till a "while after" he had come to Oxford with 
 Tyndale's Testaments, Anderson is compelled to conclude that the 
 books had arrived in England in the very commencement of 1526; 
 and even the month of January is evidently too late to meet the 
 requirements of the case. 
 
 But if the printed Testament was in Oxford in the beginning of 
 January 1526, it must have left Worms at least a month before, in 
 those days of slow locomotion : and as it was scarcely possible that 
 the printing could have been finished in less than three or four 
 months, it follows that Tyndale must have arrived at Worms not later 
 than August 1525. This is, of course, totally inconsistent with the 
 narrative of Cochloeus, who expressly says that " Luther had written 
 to the King" before he had made the discovery that Tyndale and 
 Roye were engaged in printing the New Testament at Cologne, and 
 consequently before they fled to Worms; and Luther's letter was 
 dated ist September. But Anderson, compelled by his theory, hints 
 that this was a mistake of memory on the part of Cochloeus [Annals 
 p. 59, note 12); and gathering courage as he proceeds, he speaks of 
 English New Testaments as being imported in the end of 1525, 
 (p. 112); and still more boldly declares that Roye left Tyndale at 
 Worms "in the summer of 1525," by which time, of course, the New 
 Testament was finished (p. 138). It was a necessary result of the 
 same theory that all Tyndale's works are considerably antedated ; for 
 unfortunately the date of Roye's departure is the only point from 
 which we can calculate the time of their first issue; and Anderson 
 being compelled by his theory to suppose that Roye left Worms in 
 the summer of 1525 is equally compelled to believe in an imaginary 
 edition of The Wicked Mammon published in May 1527 (p. 138, 
 note 6). The date of Fryth's arrival on the Continent, also, and in 
 fact, almost every date between 1525 and 1528 is more or less 
 
45° ANDERS OlfS ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 affected by the theory which he has built upon Garret's apprehension 
 at Oxford. 
 
 Now it is peculiarly fortunate that all the materials necessary to 
 illustrate this part of the narrative have been preserved, and are indeed 
 all accessible in print', and nothing can be more certain than that it 
 was in 1528 not 1526 that Garret was apprehended. If space allowed, 
 the whole transaction might be printed from contemporary documents 
 of unquestionable authority, but we must content ourselves with a 
 brief outline of the main features of the occurrence, accompanied by 
 such notes "as to succession of events" as may suflBce to set the 
 question finally at rest. 
 
 As stated in the text {ante, p. 158) the clue to the secret distribution 
 •of the English New Testament seems to have been in Wolsey's 
 possession about the close of 1527 or the commencement of 1528; 
 and naturally enough it was from Wolsey that the first hint came to 
 arrest Garret. From this point the story may be told in the words 
 of the original actors, and a wonderfully interesting story it is. 
 
 Dr. London, Warden of New College, Oxford, writes thus from 
 Oxford, to Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, on the 24th of February: — 
 
 " It may please you to understand that Mr. Dean [Dr. Higdon, 
 Dean of Wolsey's College] at his coming home brought to the 
 Commissary [Dr. Cottisford] secret commandment from my Lord 
 Cardinal's Grace, to attach one Mr. Garret lurking at Oxford at one 
 Radley's house, which was greatly suspect of heresy. Upon Saturday 
 last past [February 22nd] the Commissary took him in the said house, 
 and kept him secret in his own chamber, willing next morning early 
 to send him unto my Lord's Grace by one of the proctors and Mr. 
 Standish. As Mr. Commissary was at even-song Mr. Garret picked 
 the lock of Mr. Commissary's door, went immediately to Gloster 
 College^, and vnthout delay there took a secular scholar's coat and 
 went away with all the speed he might." 
 
 This secular scholar was Anthony Dalaber, to whose narrative we 
 shall now turn. Dalaber had known Garret for some time, and in 
 spite of the secrecy observed, they were both aware of the intended 
 search, and had deliberated about the best method of shielding Garret 
 from danger. After some consultation, with other friends in the 
 University, they had agreed that Garret should change his name and 
 go into Dorsetshire, to act as Curate to Dalaber's brother until a 
 
 ^ In Foxe, with the valuable documents printed in Appendix to Vol. v. Religious 
 Tract Society's Edition, from the Chapter-house Papers. 
 ^ Now Worcester College. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF TYNDALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 451 
 
 suitable opportunity occurred for leaving England altogether. In 
 accordance with this resolution Garret had left Oxford in the morning 
 of the Wednesday before Shrovetide, i.e., February 19: but his 
 courage failing him he had returned again on the Friday and was 
 apprehended at Radley's house. Dalaber, ignorant of his friend's 
 return, had moved from St. Alban's Hall to Gloucester College, and 
 was sitting quietly reading one of the prohibited books, when he was 
 startled by a violent knocking at the door of his chamber. On 
 opening it " there was Master Garret as a mazed man, " accompanied 
 by a college-servant who had shown him the way to Dalaber's new 
 rooms. In the excitement of the moment Garret revealed the secret 
 of his apprehension and escape in the hearing of the servant, who, 
 of course, subsequently informed the authorities. Entering his friend's 
 chamber. Garret hurriedly told what had occurred, his flight, his 
 return, his apprehension, and how when the Commissary had gone to 
 even-song, "hearing nobody stirring in the College, he put back the 
 bar of the lock with his finger and so came off." It was impossible 
 for him to remain in Oxford, he had no hope but in immediate flight ; 
 ^'and so," writes Dalaber in his beautifiil narrative, "with deep sighs 
 and plenty of tears he prayed me to help to convey him away ; and 
 so he cast off his hood and his gown wherein he came unto me, and 
 desired me to give him a coat with sleeves, if I had any ; and told me 
 that he would go into Wales and thence convey himself to Germany if 
 he might. Then I put on him a sleeved coat of mine, of fine cloth 
 in grain, which my mother had given me. He would have another 
 manner of cap of me, but I had none but priest-like, such as his own 
 was. Then kneeled we both down together on our knees, lifting up 
 our hearts and hands to God our Heavenly Father, desiring Him with 
 plenty of tears so to conduct and prosper him in his journey, that he 
 might weU escape the danger of all his enemies, to the glory of 
 His Holy name, if His good pleasure and will so were. And then we 
 embraced and kissed one the other .... and so he departed from me 
 apparelled in my coat." After Garret had left, Dalaber sat down to 
 read that tenth chapter of St. Matthew, which contains our Lord's 
 instruction to His disciples and His forewarning of the treatment they 
 might expect from men; and having carefully concealed his books, 
 he sallied forth to see what was stirring in the University. " I went 
 straight to Frideswide [Wolsey's College] and even-song was begun, 
 and the Dean and other Canons were there in their grey amices : they 
 were almost at Magnificat before I came thither. I stood at the 
 quire-door and heard Master Taverner play .... as I thus stood, in 
 
 Gga 
 
452 ANDERSON'S ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Cometh Dr. Cottisford, the Commissary, as fast as ever he could 
 go, bareheaded, as pale as ashes (I knew his grief well enough) 
 and to the Dean he goeth into the choir, where he was sitting 
 in his stall, and talked with him very sorrowfully, what, I knew 
 not; but whereof, I might and did well and truly guess. I went 
 aside from the quire-door, to see and hear more. The Commissary 
 and Dean came out of the quire wonderfully troubled, as it seemed. 
 About the middle of the church met them Dr. London, puffing, 
 blustering, and blowing, like an hungry and greedy lion seeking 
 his prey." 
 
 To this "blustering" Dr. London's letter we now return. "The 
 Commissary' made as much search as he could, and at the last 
 learned where he escaped, and took the scholar whose coat he had ; 
 and [he being] examined, hath confessed his books of heresy written 
 with his own hand, and is in prison. This Monday, the Vigil of 
 St. Matthias ^, the Commissary showed me of this matter, and he and 
 Mr. Dean desired me to help what I could to try out more of this 
 thing. We have this Monday searched Radley's house, and some 
 books Mr. Garret had there left behind him: and some I had at a 
 bookbinder's; . . . and certain other books we had of the scholar 
 which did lend to Mr. Garret his coat," [and found, in fact, that 
 Garret had brought three hundred and fifty-four books with him as 
 per list annexed to the letter in the original]. " Mr. Garret came to 
 Oxford upon Christ's Nativity even, and hath been lurking there 
 ever since. In this little time he hath done much hurt. After this 
 Mr. Garret escaped, the Commissary being in extreme pensiveness, 
 knew no other remedy but this extraordinary, and caused a figure to 
 be made by one expert in astronomy, and his judgment doth continually 
 persist upon this that he fled in a tawny coat south-east-ward, and is 
 in the middle of London, and will shortly to the seaside. He was 
 curate unto the parson of Honey Lane. . . . Anthony Dalaber, the 
 scholar that hath helped to convey Mr. Garret, is marvellous obstinate, 
 and that [what] is gotten of him is with much difficulty ; he will not 
 confess of any lecture he had in Oxford but of Mr. Clarke, which, as 
 
 ' The Commissary, as Dalaber has just mentioned, was Dr. Cottisford, who 
 acted in this capacity from Dec. 7, 1527, to August 26, 1532 : hence these occur- 
 rences could not have taken place in 1526, as Anderson has supposed. 
 
 ^ This expression fixes the date of the letter : St. Matthias' Day is February 24th ; 
 in 1526 this fell on a Saturday, and the Vigil consequently would be Friday, not 
 Monday, as Dr. London says : in 1528, being Leap-year, St. Matthias' Day fell on 
 the 26th, which was a Tuesday, and the Vigil was Monday. This places the date 
 beyond dispute. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF TYNDALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 453 
 
 he saith, read Paul's epistles in his chamber to him and all such as 
 would come, upon a year past ^." 
 
 Two days later the same correspondent writes again with further 
 intelligence of Garret's doings in Oxford: — "This unhappy Mr. 
 Garret was in Oxford at Easter [April 21, 1527], and after that 
 a season : at his being there he sought out all such as were given to 
 Greek, Hebrew, and the polite Latin tongue, and pretended he would 
 learn Hebrew and Greek ; and brought books of new things to allure 
 them. After that he procured a great number of corrupt books, and 
 secretly did distribute them among his new acquaintance in sundry 
 colleges and halls. I fear Mr. Clarke was his caller unto Oxford ^ 
 for he was of his familiar acquaintance. . . . And it is evidently 
 proved that Mr. Clarke hath read in his chamber Paul's epistles to 
 j'oimg men and such as were of two, three, or four years' continuance 
 in the University. Would God my Lord's Grace had never been 
 motioned to call him nor any other Cambridge man unto his most 
 towardly College ' ! " 
 
 Bishop Longland next takes up the tale, and thus communicates 
 the sad intelligence of the spread of heresy in Oxford to Wolsey : — 
 
 " Pleaseth it your Grace to understand since I wrote last unto you 
 of the matters of Oxford, I have had divers knowledges from thence 
 to my heaviness, of such chance of the great corruption of youth 
 •there by Master Garret with such erroneous books as he brought 
 thither. . . . There are a marvellous sort of books found which 
 were hid under the earth and otherwise secretly conveyed from place 
 to place. The chief that were familiarly acquainted in this matter 
 with Master Garret was Master Clarke, Master Freer, Sir Fryth, 
 Sir Dyott, Anthony Dalaber*." 
 
 Fryth, therefore, was not at Marburg with Tyndale at this time, as 
 Anderson supposes, but stiU at Oxford, and for some months after this 
 he was not at liberty to leave England. Longland wrote from his 
 palace at Holborn on the 3rd of March, and was sore distressed at not 
 having heard any report of Garret's apprehension. Garret, however, 
 was already taken, as the next witness will show. John Hooke, 
 
 ' Chapter-house Papers : printed in Foxe, Vol. v. 
 
 == This affords another proof of the date ; Clarke was not incorporated at Oxford 
 till Nov. 5, 1525, and hence could not have called Garret to Oxford the Easter 
 before: all this, it is clear, occurred in 1528, not in 1526. 
 
 = The letter is dated Ash Wednesday, which thus fell after St. Matthias' Day in 
 the year of the arrest of Garret : now in 1526 Ash- Wednesday fell on the 14th of 
 February, i.e., before St. Matthias' Day: in 1528 it fell on February 26th, two 
 4ays after St. Matthias' Day. * Chapter-house Papers. 
 
454 ANDERSON'S ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 vicar of All Saints, Bristol, thus hastens to communicate the news of 
 Garret's apprehension to the Commissary, whose remissness had 
 given Garret the opportunity to escape : — 
 
 " Brisfollt rapiini prima die Martii, post vesper as" [At Bristol in 
 haste, the first day of March after even-song,] "Pleaseth it you to 
 understand that by the diligence and efFectuous means of Mr. Wilkins, 
 chapman of Bristol, father-in-law to Mr. Cole, one of your proctors, 
 Mr. Garret was taken in a little town called Bedminster, a mile from 
 Bristol, the last night before this writing \i. e. Feb. 29, as we reckon,] 
 upon suspicion of heresy. Whereupon the said Mr. Wilkins and I 
 resorted to him this day ; where we heard him examined before one 
 of the Justices of the Peace of Somersetshire, to whom he openly con- 
 fessed that his name is Thomas Garret, priest. Master of Arts and 
 Fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford, and that he brake out of your 
 chamber with everything as ye writ in your late letter to me directed*." 
 Poor Garret found himself so closely watched that he had no chance 
 of escape ; the authorities at all the outports had been warned, he 
 was dogged at every turn, and at length hunted down just outside 
 the city of Bristol, where the Mayor was on the look-out for him. 
 
 There is no link wanting, it will be seen, in the chain, and if 
 necessary the story might be continued stiU further by the testimony 
 of the same witnesses and of others of equal authority^ ; what has 
 been here for the first time presented in a connected form, proves 
 beyond possibility of further dispute, that the occurrences at Oxford 
 belong to the year 1528, not to 1526, as Anderson has erroneously 
 maintained. The sequel of Garret's story may best be given in the 
 picturesque language of Froude : — " The brethren at Oxford were 
 soon dispersed : some were sent home to their friends — others, 
 Anthony Dalaber among them, were placed on their trial, and, being 
 terrified at their position, recanted, and were sentenced to do penance. 
 Ferrars was brought to Oxford for the occasion, and we discern indis- 
 tinctly (for the mere fact is all which survives) a great fire at Carfax ;, 
 a crowd of spectators, and a procession of students marched up High- 
 Street with fagots on their shoulders, the solemn beadles leading 
 them with gowns and maces. They were taken three times round 
 the fire, throwing in each first their fagot, and then some one of the 
 offending books, in token that they repented and renounced their 
 errors. Thus was Oxford purged of heresy. The state of innocence, 
 
 ' Chafter-hottse Papers. 
 
 ^ e.g., Archbishop Warham, whose letter of March 8th is incorrectly assigned 
 by Anderson to 1526, and still more incorrectly by Sir Henry Ellis to 1521. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF TYND ALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 455 
 
 which Dr. London pathetically lamented, was restored, and the heads 
 of houses had peace till their rest was broken by a ruder storm \" 
 
 We assume, therefore, as certain and indisputable, that it was not 
 till 1528 that Garret was arrested at Oxford; and as the whole 
 theory of the arrival of the New Testament in January, 1526, or 
 even December, 1525, rests exclusively upon the case of Garret, it is 
 thus entirely demolished. If this were merely an instance of a 
 conflict of one modern theory with another, it might be objected 
 that too much time has been devoted to it ; but in truth the matter is 
 of much more serious consequence. The great fault of the Annals 
 of the English Bible is, that it has set up modern theories in opposi- 
 tion to ancient facts ; and everything is of consequence that tends to 
 confirm the veracity of the older authorities, and thus to establish 
 the truth of history. Mr. Anderson's theories about Tyndale's 
 residence in Hamburg, his ignorance of German, his never having 
 met Luther, etc., are theories adopted in the face of all ancient 
 testimony — they are little better than fancies; and when these are 
 received, as they have been by subsequent writers as probable or as 
 ascertained facts, a serious injury is inflicted on the credibility of 
 history, conjecture is elevated above testimony, and the inferences of 
 a modern theorist are valued above the evidence of a contemporary 
 witness. It is for this reason that the question has been investigated 
 in detail ; and as truth is always consistent and harmonious, we have 
 not only shown that there is no reason for believing that the New 
 Testament was in Oxford in January, 1526, but, what is of far more 
 importance, have shown that there is no reason for discrediting the 
 evidence of Cochloeus as to the time when Tyndale was compelled to 
 leave Cologne for Worms. We have shown in fact that there is no 
 necessity for doing violence to the words of those contemporaries 
 who have left a record of the proceedings of Tyndale's life, that, 
 on the contrary, what they have stated is in exact accordance with 
 all that has since been discovered. 
 
 One other argument of Anderson may also here be appropriately 
 answered, as it is introduced by him apparently to corroborate his 
 theory of the early circulation of the English Testament. Henry viii., 
 in the preface to the English edition of his answer to Luther's 
 letter of September ist, 1525, after alluding to the translation of the 
 New Testament into English, "as well with many corruptions of 
 that holy text, as certain prefaces and other pestilent glosses in the 
 margin" declared for the information of his "dearly beloved people" 
 
 ' Froude, Vol. 11. p. 70. 
 
456 ANDERSON'S ACCOUNT, ETC. 
 
 that, "with the deliberate advice" of Wolsey and others, he had 
 determined " the said untrue translation should be" burned." " Here 
 then," says Anderson, anxiously seeking for confirmation of his 
 theory, ''was evidently Tyndale's quarto New Testament, with 
 glosses, and denounced so early as the 20th of March, 1526." To 
 prove this curious theory he remarks' that while the Latin edition of 
 Henry's reply had no date, " so eager was the King, that it had been 
 translated into English, and by himself ... In the English edition 
 the King's answer begins thus : ' Your letters written the first Sep- 
 tember we have received the zoth day of March.' " Evidently, there- 
 fore, Anderson believes that, on the very day on which Henry 
 received Luther's letter, he wrote a reply to it in English, denouncing 
 the New Testament ; for only on this supposition could it be inferred 
 that the book had been denounced so early as the 20th of March. 
 That Henry should have replied to a Latin letter by issuing an 
 English answer, addressed to his subjects rather than to Luther, is, 
 on the face of it, suflBciently incredible ; but what is still more 
 extraordinary is, that on the very same page in Herbert's Ames, 
 on which Mr. Anderson found the extract from Henry's preface 
 which he has printed, he might have found an account of the matter 
 by Henry himself which totally contradicts all the theories advanced 
 in the Annals. Henry proceeds : " We had intended to leave 
 Luther to his lewdness, without any further writing; yet, for the 
 frustrating and avoiding [making void] of his malicious fraud, 
 whereby he intendeth to abuse the world into a false opinion of our 
 favour toward him, we letted not eftsoons to write him an answer of 
 his, more subtle than either true or wise writing. After which letter 
 written and sent him, sith we perceived and considered farther, that 
 he had by sundry false inventions laboured to sow some of his 
 venomous seeds among you our well-beloved people ... we there- 
 fore . . . have of our especial favour toward you translated for you, 
 and given out unto you as well his said letter written to us as our 
 answer also made unto the same^" So that, according to Henry's 
 own statement, his English translation was not made till his Latin 
 reply to Luther was written and sent ; and we know, from the " State 
 Papers," that it was not sent at the end of August, and indeed it seems 
 probable that it was not dispatched till the month of November '. So 
 
 ' Annals, Vol. I. p. 113, notes 25 and 26. 
 ^ Dibdin's Edition of Herbert's Ames, Vol. 11. p. 488. 
 
 ^ See State Papers, Vol. I. pp. 173-175 ; also in Cotton MSS., Vitellius, xxi, 
 Sir John Wallop to Wolsey, I find the following, date November 30, 1526 : " I have 
 
DOCUMENTS FROM THE BELGIAN ARCHIVES. 457 
 
 much for Mr. Anderson's inference, which is again a setting up of 
 modern theory against ancient fact. 
 
 I have said nothing of the occurrences at Cambridge in 1526, be- 
 cause there is no evidence to show that Tyndale's New Testament 
 ■was then at Cambridge : in truth the affair is already perfectly well 
 known, and had nothing whatever to do with the English Bible \ 
 
 II. FLEMISH DOCUMENTS. 
 I. The Escape of Poyntz. 
 Archives du Royaume de Belgique. Chambre des Compies, No. 2 1,7 19. 
 
 Rekenninge Loys Van Heylwygen radt ordinaris ons Heeren 
 des Keysers ende Ontfanger van den exploicten, penen ende amenden 
 verschenen in Zynder Majesteits Raidt van Brabant, van alle 't gene 
 dat hy ontfangen, ende unytgegeven heeft zyndert den iersten dach 
 van Octobri anno xv«xxxv., totten lesten dach van Septembri anno 
 xv^xxxvij. incluys : welcke rekenninge gemaect is in ponden, stuuvers, 
 ■ende deniers, Artois. 
 
 Folio xi. [Ontfanck] Van Janne Baers, die midts zeekeren mesuse 
 ende negligentien, by hem gecommitteert in 't dewaeren van eenen 
 gevangenen, die geacuseert was van Luterye, genompt Thomas 
 Poinciz, Ingelsman, unytgebrooken ende ontloopen, dyen hy hadde 
 ten bevele van den Procureur-Generael aenverdt te bewaerene, dairafif 
 Jiy hadde verworffven remissie belast mit amende civile, soe es dezelve 
 amende getaxeert by den Raide, xiiij. Julii, totter sommen van lxxx.£ 
 gr Ixxx. £. 
 
 Translation. 
 
 Accounts of Louis Van Heylwygen, Counsellor in ordinary of the 
 Emperor, and receiver of the escheats, fines, and amends pronounced 
 in His Majesty's Council of Brabant, of all that he has received and 
 -expended from the first day of October 1535, to the last day of 
 September 1536, inclusive; which account is made in pounds, 
 shillings and pence Artois. 
 
 delivered the King's Highness' letter to Sir Henuan Rinck, with the two packets of 
 Luther s matters^ the packets being addressed to the Duke of Saxony and the 
 Archbishop of Mayence; and in the same volume is a letter from Rinck to 
 Henry assuring him that he had sent the letters to the proper quarters by trusty 
 servants. 
 
 * See Demaus' Life of Latimer, p. 50, etc. 
 
458 DOCUMENTS FROM THE BELGIAN ARCHIVES. 
 
 Fol. xi. Received from John Baers for certain carelessness, abuse, 
 and negligence committed by him in keeping a prisoner who was 
 accused of Lutheranism, named Thomas Poyniz, an Englishman, 
 broken out and escaped, whom he had received to keep by the orders 
 of the Procureur-General, of which [negligence] he had received for- 
 giveness charged with amende civile, which amende has been taxed 
 by the Council, July 14, to the sum of eighty pounds, livres de gros. 
 £80^ 
 
 2. Bill of the Lieutenant of the Castle of Vilvorde for the 
 Maintenance of Tyndale during his Imprisonment. 
 
 Archives de Belgique : Chambre des Comptes, No. 19,622. 
 
 Rekenninge meester Lodewyck Van Heylwygen van de geconfis- 
 queerde goeden van den Luteranen ende quaden Secten, beghinnende 
 vanden jaere xvcxxxiii., ende eyndende anno xv^ 
 
 Fol. viii. Vuytgheven in vacatien ende andere costen van justicien 
 van Lutheranen. 
 
 Adolff van Wesele, ter saken van vacatien by hem gedaen soe in 't 
 bewaeren van zekeren gevangenen, genoempt Willem Tintalus, Lutriaen. 
 als van synen verleegde penningen, daerinne gedaen ende verleeght 
 ten versuecke van den Procureur-Generael van een jaer hondert 
 vyffendertich daigen te xl s. t'sdaichs blyckende byder taxatien, 
 assignatie, ende quitancie daertoe dienende, soe hier...cii. £ 
 
 Translation. 
 
 Account of Master Ludwig Van Heylwygen of the confiscated 
 goods of the Lutherans and heretical sects beginning from the year 
 1533, and ending in 15— 
 
 Fol. viii. Expenses in vacation and other expenses in affairs of 
 justice of the Lutherans. 
 
 Paid to Adolph Van Wesele on account of the business done by 
 him as well in keeping of a certain prisoner named William Tyndale, 
 a Lutheran, as for his money expended, done and expended therein at 
 the request of the Procureur-General, for a year and one hundred and 
 thirty-five days, at forty stivers the day, as appears by the taxation, 
 assignment and quittance pertaining thereto, the sum of £102 ^- 
 
 ^ I express my obligation for the translations to the kindness of my friend M. 
 Leopold Van HoUebeke of the State Paper Office, Brussels. 
 
 ' Forty stivers were equal to fire shillings of English money ; and it is worth 
 noticing that five shillings a day was the cost, according to Foxe, of Poyntz' 
 maintenance in prison. This included not merely the expense of providing the 
 prisoner with food, but also the expenses of the guards who were set to watch him. 
 
DOCUMENTS FROM THE BELGIAN ARCHIVES. 459 
 
 3. Expenses connected with the Trial and Execution of 
 Tyndale, and Distribution of Money to those who were engaged 
 therein. 
 
 Archives de Belgique : Chambre des Compies, No. 19,662. 
 Fol. viii. verso. Den Procureur-Generael van Brabant voer hem 
 selven cxxviii.l; viii.s : vi.d; als voer meesteren Ruwart Tapper, decken 
 van Sinte Peters tot Loevene, Jacques Lathomi, Jan Doye, canonicken 
 aldaer, alle docteurs inder Godtheyt, Willem van Caverschoen, 
 dragende voer hem lieden cxlix.l : Godevaert de Mayere liv.i : Chaerle 
 T'Serraets v.l; viii.B; Thibault Cotereau vi.i: vi.s; Meester Jacop 
 Boonen x.l; x.s; raiden in Brabant: Meester Hendrick Vander 
 Zypen iii.l; xii.^: Marcellis Van Immerseel iv.l : x.^: Peeter de Brier 
 vi.l; x.s; Cornelis Vander Bruggen ii.^: Hendrick Van Pel [len?] x.i: 
 x.s : Bertolomeus Vander Broecke, Nicolaes Borreman, Jan Vander 
 Biest ende Dierick Cappellemans vi.l: xv.^, executeurs ende boeden 
 [vanden] raide, die gevacheert hebben, ter ordonnantien vander Con- 
 inginnen, soe sy seggen, int vervolgende vander saken byden 
 voirscreven Procureur gehadt tegen heeren WiUemme Tindalus, 
 priestere, gevangen Lutriaen, ende merten vyer [a clerical error for 
 metten vyer*], tot Vilvorden geexecuteert, als qualicken gevuelen 
 inden heeligen Kersten geloeff, soe dat hy daer tot Vilvorden ende 
 elders hebben gevacheert op diversche daigen, nairder begrepen in 
 heur declaratie van vacatien blyckende, dragende alle de selve 
 vacatien ter sommen van ni." xii.l; ix.^ : vi.d, ende darenboven noch 
 totter sommen van xvi.l noch tot behoeff vander docteurs alliene, 
 blyckende 't selve byder declaratien, taxatie ende assignatie, quitancie 
 daer toe behoorende, 't samen iv." viH: ix.^: vi.d 
 
 Translation. 
 Paid to the Procureur-General of Brabant for himself £128 8s. 6d. ; 
 also for Mr. Ruwart Tapper, Dean of St. Peter's at Louvain, Jacques 
 Lathomus, Jan Doye, canons there, all Doctors in theology, WUliam 
 Van Caverschoen, amounting for them all to £149: to Godfrey de 
 Mayere £54 ; Charles T'Serraets £5 8s. ; Theobold Cotereau £6 6s. ; 
 Mr. Jacob Boonen £10 los.; Councillors in Brabant : to Mr. Henry 
 Vander Zypen £3 12s.; to Marcellis van Immersed £4 los.; Peter 
 
 > " Hereby hangs a tale." The present document having been somewhat hurriedly 
 transcribed some years ago, this passage was misunderstood as if it meant that along 
 with Tyndale another person called Martin Vyer had also been put to death. A 
 new victim was thus added to the martyrology of the Low Countries which, alas I 
 stands in little need of additions to its terrible calendar. The incident affords a 
 curious illustration of the simple manner in which grave mistakes may arise 
 
460 DOCUMENTS FROM THE BELGIAN ARCHIVES. 
 
 de Brier £6 los.; Cornelius Vander Bruggen £2 ; Henry Van Pellen 
 £10 I OS.; Bartholomew Vander Broecke, Nicolas Borreman, Jan 
 Vander Blest and Dierick Cappellemans £6 15s.: executioners and 
 messengers of the Council, who have been engaged, by the ordinance 
 of the Queen [Mary of Hungary] as they say, in prosecution of the 
 process directed by the said Procureur-General against William 
 Tyndale, a priest, a Lutheran prisoner, and executed by fire at Vil- 
 vorde for entertaining certain wicked opinions touching the Holy 
 Catholic faith; so that they have been occupied at Vilvorde and 
 elsewhere on different days, as appears from the contents of their 
 declaration of their engagements, amounting for the said engage- 
 ments to the sum of £312 9s. 6d., and over and above to the sum of 
 £16 for behoof of the Doctors only: this appearing from the declara- 
 tion, taxation and assignment and receipt thereto belonging in all to 
 £407 9s. 6d^ 
 
 III. ADDENDUM. 
 On the New Testament of 1535. 
 
 One point connected with this New Testament has been accidentally 
 omitted in the description given in the text, pp. 378-380. No copy of 
 that edition has yet been discovered with a title-page and imprint ; and 
 it is, therefore, uncertain where or by whom it was printed. I believe, 
 however, that it was printed by Vorstermann in Antwerp. A careful 
 comparison of the mutilated Testament of 153 g in the British Museum 
 with Vorstermann's Dutch Bible, printed the year before, shows that 
 most of the ornamental letters, the small capitals, and the headings 
 of the books used by Tyndale occur also in Vorstermann. The 
 handsome ten-line initial P which stands at the commencement of 
 St. Paul's Epistles in both works, would almost alone sufiSce to 
 determine this point. It is, moreover, to be remembered that, as 
 has been already shown, Tyndale had previously had dealings with 
 Vorstermann, from whom he purchased (see p. 217) the blocks 
 which were used for illustrating the Pentateuch, and I believe also 
 some of the type used for printing that work. On the whole, therefore, 
 the interesting New Testament of 1535 may, with little hesitation, be 
 assigned to the press of Vorstermann. 
 
 ' I do not pretend to understand the mysteries of Lndwig van Heylwygen's bills ; 
 but I have no doubt they were all correct or they never would have been paid. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Anderson's Annals of the English Bible 
 on identification of Tyndale, 19; Tyn- 
 dale's preaching at. Bristol, 53; a 
 certain doctor, 69 ; date of Tyndale's 
 arrival at Hambnrg, 97 ; Tyndale's 
 quartoNewTestament,ii8,i28; date 
 of arrival of New Testaments in Eng- 
 land, 119; Tyndale's ignorance of 
 German, 132 ; the separation of Roye 
 from Tyndale, 143 ; dateof Dr.Ridley's 
 letter, 145 ; mistakes as to date of 
 arrival in England of Tyndale's Testa- 
 ment, 147; correspondence of Christo- 
 pher of Endhoven, 157 ; date of The 
 Wicked Mammon, 173; The Expo- 
 sition of I Cor. vii., 211 ; The Penta- 
 teuch, 222 ; The Practice of Prelates, 
 245 ; More's Dialogue, 252 ; mis- 
 representations of Joye, 361 ; sup- 
 presses notice of "Tyndale's extracts 
 from the Apocrypha, 368 ; Tyndale's 
 revision of the 1535 New Testament, 
 380 ; mistake as to Vaughan being at 
 Brussels, 388 ; Flegge's letter, 407 ; 
 history ofPoyntzfamily,4i5; account 
 of introduction of Tyndale's New Tes- 
 tament into England given and criti- 
 cised at length, 447-457. 
 
 Answer to More, Tyndale's, description 
 of, 25.^-260 ; quotation from on the 
 'signification of ceremonies,' 260-263. 
 
 Antichrist, Tyndale's friend asserts the 
 pope is, 69; extract from Preface to 
 The Wicked Mammon proving pope 
 to be, 1 74 ; extracts from The OfeA'- 
 ««:« proving pope to be, 191, 192-197. 
 
 Antwerp, Tyndale's life at, 180; Tun- 
 stal's doings at, 212 ; Tyndale's man- 
 ner of life there, 349 ; the English 
 House at, 381 ; present appearance of 
 the English House, 381 ; Tyndale 
 arrested at, 388-390. 
 
 Apology, The, of Sir Thomas More, 266. 
 
 Apology, Joye's, 356, 376. 
 
 Arber, on the glosses of Tyndale's New 
 Testament, 131. 
 
 Ascham, Roger, on Landgrave of Hesse, 
 82. 
 
 Atkins' History of Gloucestershire, on 
 birth of Tyndale, 19. 
 
 Bacon, Lord, on the Schoolmen, 37. 
 Baers, John, fined for allowing Poyntz 
 
 to escape, 415. 
 Bainham, James, retractation of, 202 ; 
 
 martyrdom of, 330. 
 Barclay, supposed to be one of Tyndale's 
 
 associates, 163. 
 Barlowe (Jerome), joins Tyndale at 
 
 Worms, 144 ; pursued by Rinck, 162 ; 
 
 betrays Lambert, 294; identification 
 
 of, 294. 
 Barnes, sells Tyndale's Testaments, 
 
 156; meets Tyndale at Marburg, 168; 
 
 his book praised by Vaughan, 
 
 308; called 'a hot-tempered' Lu- 
 theran by Tyndale, 334 ; threatened 
 
 by Philips with arrest, 398. 
 Bayfield, introduces Tyndale's works 
 
 into England, 216; burnt for heresy, 
 
 295. 
 Bergen-op-Zoom, Marquis of, appeal 
 
 to, on Tyndale's behalf, 405. 
 Berkeley, tradition concerning fifth 
 
 Baron, that he was a pupil of Wycliffe, 
 
 26. 
 Berkeley Castle, chapel in, described, 
 
 27. 
 Berkeley rents, Edward Tyndale the 
 
 receiver of, 21. 
 Bible, the, general ignorance of, in Eng- 
 land in fifteenth century, 29. 
 Bilney at Cambridge with Tyndale, 45 ; 
 
 tried for heresy, 157 ; strengthened 
 
 by reading Tyndale's Obedience, 202; 
 
 burnt at Norwich, 294. 
 Boleyn, Anne, story about her copy of 
 
 The Obedience, 204; married to Henry 
 
 VIII, 333 ; letter of, 369 ; protects 
 
 Herman, 369 ; the story of her copy 
 
 ofthe New Testament, 371, 
 'Brethren,' the, persecution of, 158. 
 Bristol, LoUardry at, 55 ; Tyndale 
 
 preaches at, 66. 
 Buckenham, friar, movements of, 398. 
 Buckfastleigh, Donne made abbot of, 
 
 400 ; entry about him in Oxford 
 Register, 400. 
 Burke's History of the Commoners on 
 
 identity of Tyndale, 22. 
 Buschius, Herman, on number of Tyn- 
 
462 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 dale's First New Testament printed, 
 123; his high opinion of Tyndale's 
 learning, 130 ; corresponds with Tyn- 
 dale, 143; at Worms, 144; with Tyn- 
 dale at Marburg, 168. 
 
 Cambridge University, Erasmus at, 44 ; 
 Tyndale at, 44 ; Lutheranism at, 81. 
 
 Carondolet, Archbishop of Palermo, 
 appeal to, on Tyndale's behalf, 405. 
 
 Chapter House Papers on Edward Tyn- 
 dale, 21 ; on Tyndale and Vaughan, 
 289 ; on Elyot's letter to Cromwell, 
 321 ; on Buckenham's movements, 
 
 398- 
 
 Charity, Tyndale's views on, 179. 
 
 Charles V, his edicts against the Pro- 
 testants, 384. 
 
 Chester, on John Rogers at Antwerp, 
 363 ; on his Bible, 368. 
 
 Christopher of Endhoven reprints the 
 New Testament, 156. 
 
 Church, superstition in, 29; hypocrisy 
 in, 30. 
 
 Clark, imprisonment of, 158. 
 
 Clergy, the, ignorance of, 28, 68 ; 
 exemptions of, 190 ; Tyndale's 
 charges against, 189. 
 
 Cochloeus, sajrs Tyndale was at Wittem- 
 berg, 99 ; on Tyndale's knowledge of 
 German, 104 ; discovers the printing 
 of Tyndale's Testament, and stops it, 
 112 ; his account of the discovery, 
 1 1 3-1 16; Roye's satire on, 116; 
 testimony to Tyndale's learning, 129 ; 
 on the plague, 235 ; on translation of 
 the New Testament, 358. 
 
 Colet, John, his lectures at Oxford, 38 ; 
 Paternoster of, 42 ; accused of heresy, 
 43 ; his sermon before Convocation, 
 
 43- 
 Cologne, Tyndale's residence at, iii ; 
 
 begins to print New Testament at, 
 
 112 ; disturbances at in 1525, 113. 
 Confutation of More, 265. 
 Constantine, George, before More, 214, 
 
 295 ; escapes to Antwerp, 296 ; 
 
 Vaughan's defence against charges 
 
 by, 307- 
 
 Convocation, degradation of, 292 ; peti- 
 tions for translation of the Scriptures, 
 383. 
 
 Coverdale, said to have met Tyndale at 
 Hamburg, 220; translates the Bible, 
 
 383. 
 Cranmer at Cambridge, 46 ; becomes 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, 333 ; one 
 
 of Fryth's judges, 343 ; attempts to 
 
 save Fryth, 343. 
 Crome, abjuration of, 294. 
 Cromwell, energy of, 271 ; tries to 
 
 induce Tyndale to return to England, 
 
 275; letter of, condemning Tyndale's 
 books, 284; postscript of, seeking 
 Tyndale's conversion and return, 288 ; 
 appeal to, for Tyndale, 394 ; attempts 
 to save Tyndale, 396, 405, 432 ; 
 critical position of, 432. 
 Curwin, Dr., sermon of, 343. 
 
 Debellation, The, 266. 
 
 Decalogue, the, Tyndale's translation of, 
 225. 
 
 Denneye, Abbess of, obtains a, copy of 
 the Enchiridion, 87. 
 
 Dialogue, The, of More, description of, 
 251 ; date of, 254. 
 
 Dialogue, The, of Ockham, 275. 
 
 Divorce of Henry VIII, the, 236 ; Tyn- 
 dale's mistake as to, 243. 
 
 Donne, Gabriel, assists in seizing Tyn- 
 dale, 387 ; rewarded for it, 399, 400. 
 
 Dufief, Procureur-General, seizes Tyn- 
 dale, 390 ; his character, 420, 442 ; 
 pronounces sentence on Tyndale, 440. 
 
 Elyot, Sir Thomas, sent to apprehend 
 Tyndale, 307 ; letter of, from Ratisbon, 
 319 ; on the state of Worms, Spires, 
 Nuremberg, 320 ; on form of service 
 in Germany, 320; fails to find Tyn- 
 dale, 321 ; complains of his losses in 
 the attempt, 321. 
 
 Enchiridion of Erasmus, translated by 
 Tyndale, 58; description of, 58; early 
 edition of, 64. 
 
 Ensinas, Mimoires cT, on the liberty to 
 print New Testament, 385 ; on powers 
 of magistrates, 416 ; on cruelty of 
 Dufief, 420 ; value of, 421; on ap- 
 pearance of Roovere, 422 ; on prison 
 life, 436 ; on an execution, 442. 
 
 Erasmus, on theology, 36 ; studies at 
 Oxford, 39 ; influence of, 40 ; goes 
 to Cambridge, 44 ; recommends the 
 translation of Scripture into the vulgar 
 tongue, 45 ; his Enchiridion, 68, etc.; 
 his Greek Testament, 73, 104. 
 
 Farryngton, employed as a spy on 
 Philips, 432. 
 
 Fisher, in the Tower, 369 ; misfortunes 
 of, 383. 
 
 Fitzjames, Bishop, story of, 43 ; 
 death of, 75. 
 
 Flegge, Robert, his letter to CromweU, 
 406 ; reports a slanderous sermon to 
 Cromwell, 406. 
 
 Forman, Dr, purchases prohibited 
 books, 158. 
 
 Foxe, his account of Tyndale's youth, 1 8 ; 
 his narrative of Tyndale's life at Sod- 
 bury, 55-57; asserts Tyndale's con- 
 ference with Luther, 99 ; his account 
 of Tyndale's Translations, 108 ; of 
 
INDEX. 
 
 463 
 
 Tyndale's life at Antwerp, 180; of 
 Tyndale's shipwreck, 219 ; of Fryth's 
 martjrrdom, 346 ; liis account of 
 Tyndale's life in Antwerp, 351 ; of 
 Tyndale's arrest, 386 ; of Poyntz' 
 efforts to release Mm, 408 ; of 
 Tyndale's last words, 442. 
 
 Frankfort on the Maine, insurrection 
 in, 113. 
 
 Fronde's opinion of Tyndale's trans- 
 lation, 134. 
 
 Fry's facsimile of Worms Octavo New 
 Testament, 127 ; facsimile of Tyn- 
 dale's Jonah, 297. 
 
 Fryth, John, at Cambridge, 46 ; meets 
 Tyndale in London, 92 ; arrested at 
 Oxford, 158 ; arrives at Marburg, 
 171 ; visits England, 276 ; Vaughan 
 instructed to gain him over, 286, 289 ; 
 his second visit to England, 330 ; 
 arrested at Reading, 331 ; seized, 
 332 ; his treatise on the Sacrament, 
 332 ; his controversy with More, 
 338 ; his opinion of Tyndale, 338 ; 
 offered the opportunity to escape, 
 343 ; brought before Cranmer, 345 ; 
 martyred, 345. 
 
 Fuller, disparages Tyndale's scholar- 
 ship, 128. 
 
 Gardiner, at Cambridge, 46 ; tries and 
 condemns Fryth, 345 ; said to have 
 been the contriver of the plot to 
 seize Tyndale, 390. 
 
 Garret, Thomas, purchases prohibited 
 books, 158. 
 
 Gajmsford, Mrs., and The Obedience, 
 204. 
 
 Germany, spread of the Reformation in, 
 80. 
 
 Glosses of New Testament, Tyndale's, 
 131, 362 ; of the Pentateuch, 226. 
 
 Gloucestershire, superstition in, 30. 
 
 Goodall, John, distributer of prohibited 
 books, 158. 
 
 Greek Testament of Erasmus, the, 73, 
 104. 
 
 Greenfield's Pedigree of the Family of 
 Tyndale quoted, 22. 
 
 Grenville fragment, the, story of, 125. 
 
 Grocyn at Oxford, 38. 
 
 Guildford, Sir Harry, Tyndale recom- 
 mended to, 75 ; receives Tyndale, 
 81. 
 
 Hackett, envoy in the Low Countries, 
 
 conduct of, 159, 170. 
 Hall's account of Tunstal's doings in 
 
 Antwerp, 212. 
 Hallam, his strange description of 
 
 Tyndale's New Testament, 128. 
 Hamburg, state of m 1524, 96 ; Tyndale 
 
 at, 97, 220 ; without a printer, 98; 
 sweating sickness, at, 220. 
 
 Hamilton, Patrick, the Scottish martyr, 
 at Marburg, 169 ; eulogy on, 170. 
 
 Hebilthwayte, William, a friend of 
 Tyndale, 81. 
 
 Henry VIH, difficulties in 1523, 76 ; 
 writes against Luther, 80 ; orders the 
 New Testameutto he burnt, 149 ; reads 
 The Obedience, 206 ; his divorce, 236 ; 
 invites Tyndale to return to England, 
 271 ; offended by The Practice of 
 Prelates, 282 ; wishes to seize Tyn- 
 dale, 306 ; marries Anne Boleyn, 333 ; 
 not concerned in the successful plot 
 against Tyndale, 391 ; joins Cromwell 
 in seeking to release Tyndale, 400 ; 
 his flirtation with Jane Seymour, 432. 
 
 Herbert on early edition of the Enchi- 
 ridion, 64. 
 
 Heresy, description of a trial for, 420. 
 
 Herman, Richard, saved by Anne Boleyn, 
 
 369- 
 
 Hichyns, William, Tyndale called so by 
 Robert Ridley, 109, 153. 
 
 Hitton, William, 106. 
 
 Hook, Dean, disparages Tyndale's scho- 
 larship, 129; his strange account of 
 the Bible burning, 129. 
 
 House of Commons resist Wolsey's de- 
 mand for a subsidy, 77. 
 
 Hunt's Court, alleged birthplace of 
 Tyndale, 18. 
 
 Hutchins, Tyndale called so by More, 
 100 ; by Rinck, 160. 
 
 Hutton, John, on condemnation of Tyn- 
 dale, 440. 
 
 Inscription on Tyndale's portrait at 
 Oxford, 33. 
 
 Introduction to the Epistle to the Ro- 
 mans, 145 ; reprint of, 216. 
 
 Isocrates, Tyndale translates an oration 
 
 of, 75- 
 Ivy, Tyndale's Parable of the, 238. 
 
 Jerome of Greenwich, 48 ; at Worms, 
 144. 
 
 John, First Epistle of, Tyndale's Expo- 
 sition of, description of, 301 ; con- 
 demnation of, 302 ; extracts from, 
 302, 303. , ^ . , 
 
 John, Second and Third Epistles of, 
 Tyndale's Expositions of, 305. 
 
 Johnstone, John, his eulogy on Hamilton, 
 170. 
 
 Jonah, Tyndale's translation of, 296 ; 
 condemnation of, 296 ; copy of, dis- 
 covered, 297; typography of, 297; 
 Prologue of, 297. 
 
 Joye, George, date of his leaving Eng- 
 land, 106 ; his testimomy to Tyndale's 
 
464 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 learning, 130; on Dutch reprints of 
 the New Testament, 157 ; accuses 
 Tyndale of indolence, 208 ; his trans- 
 lation of Esay printed, 292 ; charges 
 Tyndale with copying Luther, 323 ; 
 prints two leaves of Genesis, 349 ; 
 his account of the editions of Tyn- 
 dale's New Testament, 355 ; his own 
 edition of the New Testament, 357 ; 
 his controversy with Tyndale, 360, 
 372 ; his Apology, 356, 376; accused 
 of conspiring against Tyndale, 398. 
 Jude, Exposition of, 306. 
 
 Lambert, John, betrayed by Barlowe, 
 
 294. 
 Lambert of Avignon, professor at Mar- 
 burg, 166 ; his intercourse with Tyn- 
 dale, 167 ; his death, 235. 
 
 Lambley nunnery, priest of, 47. 
 
 Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, the, 165. 
 
 Lathomus, his history and character, 
 419 ; anecdote of, 419 ; his answer to 
 Tyndale's treatise, 425 ; his second 
 reply, 429. 
 
 Latimer, Hugh, on conversion of Bilney, 
 46; made Bishop of Worcester, 
 54 ; on the alehouse charges against 
 himself, 66 ; describes Humphrey 
 Monmouth, 82 ; on the royal divorce, 
 236, 244; on the royal supremacy, 
 293 ; prosecution of, 294 ; submis- 
 sion of, 330 ; his Sermon on the 
 Cards, 398. 
 
 Latimer, William, at Oxford, 38 ; 
 perhaps the ' certain doctor,' 69. 
 
 Lee, Dr., warns Henry against Tyndale's 
 New Testament, 120. 
 
 Lempereur, a printer at Antwerp, 297 ; 
 prints Tyndale's revised New Testa- 
 ment, 363. 
 
 Leo X, Luther's appeal to, 63. 
 
 Leviticus, Preface to, quoted, 230. 
 
 Linacre at Oxford, 38. 
 
 Little Sodbury, manor house at, 51 ; 
 Tyndale at, 52. 
 
 LoUardry, spread of, 27 ; at Bristol, 55. 
 
 Lombard's Sentences, 59. 
 
 London, political condition of, in 1523, 
 76-80. 
 
 Longland, one of Fryth's judges, 345 . 
 
 Lord's Supper, the, Tyndale's Treatise 
 on, 297, 340. 
 
 Low Countries, persecution in, 350, 384; 
 Lutheranism in, 384. 
 
 Luft, printer at Marburg, productions 
 of, 166 ; prints The Wicked Mammon, 
 
 Luke, the Flemish name of Liege, 349. 
 
 Luther, his influence in England, 40 ; 
 opinions of, 63 ; his works in England, 
 80; Henry writes against him, 80; 
 
 his influence on Tyndale, 103, 146, 
 174, 323 ; style of, 226. 
 
 Magdalen College, Oxford, May-day 
 ceremony at, 25. 
 
 Magdalen Hall, description of, 32 ; 
 portrait of Tyndale at, 32. 
 
 Maitland, Dr., on printing in Hamburg, 
 98. 
 
 Mammon, Tyndale on the word, 182. 
 
 Marburg, tovra and university of, 165 ; 
 conference at, 218; Tyndale's return 
 to, 234. 
 
 Marsch, Walter, governor of the mer- 
 chant adventurers of Antwerp, 404. 
 
 Marsh, Bishop, on Tyndale's New 
 Testament, L29. 
 
 Martin, priest of Totingbeke, 88. 
 
 Masson, Jacques, see Lathomus. 
 
 Matthew and Mark, Gospels of, were 
 they separately issued by Tyndale? 
 107-U0. 
 
 Matthews's Bible, 439. 
 
 Melksham, Tyndales of, 20. 
 
 Monkery, Erasmus on, 64. 
 
 Monmouth, Humphrey, entertains Tyn- 
 dale, 64 ; his intercourse with him, 
 76 ; his character, 82, 89 ; hears Tyn- 
 dale preach, 82 ; his narrative of 
 Tyndale's life in London, 84, 87 ; his 
 benefactions to learned men, 90 ; 
 helps Tyndale to go abroad, 94; 
 sends Tyndale ten pounds, 97; 
 articles of accusation against, 98 ; 
 hears Tunstal denounce Tyndale's 
 New Testament, 152. 
 More, Sir Thomas, birth of, 24; at 
 Oxford , 34 ; charges Tyndale with 
 heresy, 67 ; his conduct as Speaker, 
 77 ; his opinion of Tunstal, 85 ; 
 his testimony to Tyndale's character, 
 88; declares that Tyndale went 
 to Luther, 99 ; admits Tyndale's 
 learning, 129 ; on the author of the 
 Satires, 159 ; his account of Tyndale's 
 change of opinion on the Sacrament, 
 169 ; censures The Wicked Mammon, 
 181 ; censures The Obedience, 201 ; 
 condemns The Matrimony, 210; visits 
 Antwerp, 212; ridicules Tunstal's 
 purchase of Testaments, 214; made 
 Chancellor, 214; Tyndale's charges 
 against, 244 ; condemns The Practice 
 of Prelates, 246; his controversy with 
 Tyndale, 248, etc. ; 'ias Dialogue, 251 ; 
 censures Tyndale's Testament, 258 ; 
 his Confutation, 265 ; his Apology, 
 266 ; his fury, 268 ; his cruelty, 269 ; 
 his defeat by Tyndale, 270 ; his 
 monument in Chelsea Church, 2 70 ; 
 
 his censure of Tyndale' Jonah, 296 ; 
 
 his censure of Tyndale's St. John, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 465 
 
 302 ; Tyndale charges him with 
 covetousness, 329; called Proctor 
 for Purgatory by Tyndale, 332 ; 
 retires mto private life, 333 ; his con- 
 troversy with Fryth, 338 ; his im- 
 prisonment, 360. 
 
 Necton, Robert, confession of, 109. 
 
 New Testament, translated by Tyndale 
 from the third edition of Erasmus, 
 104 ; printing begun at Cologne, 1 1 1 ; 
 removed to \Yorms, 118; numbers 
 printed, 119 ; arrival of, in England, 
 119; copies of, in existence, 124; 
 account of the first quarto, 124; 
 of the first octavo, 126; compared 
 with Luther's Testament, 131 ; glosses 
 of, 131 ; foundation of the present 
 version, 133, 137; extracts from, 134; 
 reprinted by Christopher of Endhoven, 
 Ij6; revision of, 354; surreptitious 
 editions of, 357; Joye's edition of, 
 357 ; Tyndale's revision of 1534, 362 ; 
 corrections in, 364 ; Prologues of, 366 ; 
 glosses of, 366; copy presented to 
 Anne Boleyn, 371 ; revision of 1535, 
 378. 
 
 Nibley Knoll, Tyndale's monument at, 
 18. 
 
 Nicolas's Historical Peerage of England 
 on Berkeley estates, 21. 
 
 North Nibley, etymology of, 18; the 
 residence of the Tyndales, 19. 
 
 Nuremberg, Elyot on the state of, 320. 
 
 Obedience of a Christian Man, The, date 
 of, 183; description of, 184; extracts 
 from, 185, 187, 198 ; censure of, 201 ; 
 its influence on Bilney, 202. 
 
 Ockham, The Dialogue of, 275. 
 
 Offor, George, his supposed discovery 
 of the date of Tyndale's ordination, 
 47 ; imagines that Tyndale was a 
 monk, 48 ; says that Tyndale's trans- 
 lation was begun in 1502, 72. 
 
 Old Testament, the, Tyndale fails to 
 complete translation of, 300. See 
 Pentateuch. 
 
 Ordination at St. Bartholomew's, Smith- 
 field, 47. 
 
 Orthography of New Testament of 
 153.S, strange, 379. 
 
 Oxford University, Tyndale at, 32 ; 
 teaching at, 35 ; revival of learning 
 at, 38 ; Colet's lectures at, 38. 
 
 Pacifier, The, 266. 
 
 Packington, doings of, at Antwerp, 
 
 212. 
 Papal supremacy abolished, 369. 
 Parker, Dr., bigotry of, 54 ; summons 
 
 Tyndale before him, 66. 
 
 H 
 
 Patraore, Thomas, arrest of, 276. 
 
 Pavada, Thomas, Bishop of, ordination 
 of, 47. 
 
 Pentateuch, the, date of printing, 221 ; 
 description of, 221 ; typography of, 
 221 ; quotations from, 224, 225 ; 
 glosses of, 226 ; Preface to, 229 ; 
 extract from Preface to Leviticus, 
 230 ; reissue of, 354. 
 
 Philip, Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, 
 165. 
 
 Philips, Henry, seizes Tyndale, 388 ; at 
 Louvain, 397 ; urges on the trial of 
 Tyndale, 398, 412, 431 ; procures the 
 arrest of Poyntz, 409 ; watched by 
 Cromwell's spies, 432 ; a reward 
 oflfered for his apprehension, 433. 
 
 Po3Titz, Tyndale's host at Antwerp, 
 381 ; his letter to his brother, 401 ; 
 attempts to save Tyndale, 40 1, 408 ; 
 arrested, 409 ; escapes from prison, 
 414 ; succeeds to manor of North 
 Ockendon, 415 ; his epitaph, 415. 
 
 Poyntz, Anne, wife of Sir J. Walsh, 53. 
 
 Practice of Prelates, The, description 
 of, 236 ; extract from, 238. 
 
 Purvey, John, preaching of, 28. 
 
 Pykas, John, examination of, 147. 
 
 Quentel, printer for Tyndale at Cologne, 
 III. 
 
 Receiver of Berkeley rents, the, 21. 
 
 Reformation in Germany, spread of, 80. 
 
 Resurrection, the, Tyndale's controversy 
 with Joye about, 360, 374. 
 
 Ridley, Robert, criticises "Tyndale's New 
 Testament, 109 ; on the Introduc- 
 tion to the Romans, 145 ; letter of, 
 
 153- 
 Rinck, Senator of Cologne, interrupts 
 
 Tyndale's work, 116; employed by 
 
 Wolsey to seize Tyndale, 160; letter 
 
 of, 160. 
 Riselles, the Flemish name of Lille, 
 
 349- 
 River lands, the, 20. 
 Roberts, Oade, alleged descendant of 
 
 Tyndale, 19. 
 Rogers, John, his edition of the Bible, 
 
 297 ; chaplain at Antwerp, 353 ; 
 
 obtains Tyndale's manuscripts, 353, 
 
 439- 
 Roovere, Paul de, appearance of, 422. 
 Rownt, use of the word, by Vaughan, 
 
 311- 
 Roye, Tyndale s amanuensis, 105 ; his 
 satire on Cochloeus, 116; dismissed 
 by Tyndale, 142 ; satirises Wolsey, 
 145 ; his account of the reception of 
 Tyndale's Testament by the bishops, 
 148 ; his rhymes quoted, 150. 
 
466 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Rudder's Gloucestershire, on identity of 
 Tyndale, 19, 22 ; as to legend of 
 origin of Tyndale, 23. 
 
 Sacrament, the, Tyndale's opinion as to 
 
 how it should be administered, 341. 
 St. Adeline, church of, 52. 
 St. Dunstan's in the West, Tyndale 
 
 preaches at, 82. 
 St. White, legend of, 31. 
 Saintgermau, Christopher, writings of, 
 
 266. 
 Salem and Byzance, 266. 
 Sayer's Memorials of Bristol on Purvey, 
 
 28 ; on Tyndale preaching at Bristol, 
 
 53- 
 Schoeffer, printer for Tyndale at Worms, 
 
 r, "^■ 
 
 Schott, John, printer at Strasburg, 1 60 ; 
 
 confession of, 162. 
 
 Scotland, the New Testament in, 170. 
 
 Scripture, Tyndale's views on, 198. 
 
 Seebohm's Oxford Reformers on Enchi- 
 ridion, 59. 
 
 Sentences, Lombard's, 59. 
 
 Sermon on the Mount, Tyndale's ex- 
 position of, 322 ; extracts from, 324, 
 
 325- 
 Shipwreck of Tyndale, 219. 
 Sir, the title for a priest, 84. 
 Slockhouse, Dr., 87. 
 Slymbridge, probable birthplace of 
 
 Tyndale, 20; description of, 24. 
 Smythe's MS. History of the Hundred 
 
 of Berkeley on Nibley, 19 ; on Tyn- 
 
 dales of Slymbridge, 20. 
 Sodbury manor house, 39. 
 Spires, Elyot on state of, 320. 
 Stafford, Master, 82. 
 Standish, Bishop, Roye's character of, 
 
 148. 
 Stokesley, Bishop, his letter concerning 
 
 Edward Tyndale, 20 ; one of Fryth's 
 
 judges, 345. 
 Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials on a 
 
 copy of The Obedience, 204. 
 Sylvester de Gigliis, bishop, 54. 
 
 Tapper, Ruwart, character of, 41 7 ; 
 
 death of, 418. 
 Theobald, or Teobald, his letter to 
 
 Cromwell, 396 ; to Cranmer, 397. 
 Theology, Erasmus on study of, 36. 
 Thorpe, William, story of, 108. 
 Tisen, John, a pupil of Tyndale, 50, 
 
 337- 
 
 Tracy of Toddington, known to Tyn- 
 dale, 69 ; his will, 293 ; declared to be 
 a heretic, 293. 
 
 Trevisa, Vicar of Berkeley, tradition of, 
 26. 
 
 Tuke, Bryan, a royal secretary, 275. 
 
 Tunstal, Bishop, character of, 75 ; his 
 interview with Tyndale, 85 ; preaches 
 against Tyndale's Testament, 150 ; 
 prohibits it, 151 ; confession of, as to 
 spread of New Testaments, 156 ; buys 
 Testaments in Antwerp, 212; burns 
 them, 213 ; prevails on More to attack 
 Tyndale, 250. 
 
 Twonson, Nicolas, of Nuremberg, printer 
 of The Lord's Supper, 340. 
 
 Tyndale, Alice, 19. 
 
 Tyndale, Edward, of the Pull, 20 ; ap- 
 pointed receiver, 2 1 ; heraldic pedi- 
 gree of, 22 ; will of, 22. 
 
 Tyndale, John, sympathy of, 30 ; arrest- 
 ed, 276. 
 
 Tyndale, Thomas, of Hunt's Court, 19. 
 
 Tyndale, Thomas, of Kingston, letter 
 of, 23. 
 
 Tyndale, William, of Hunt's Court, 19. 
 
 Tyndale, William, of Lambley, 47. 
 
 Tyndale, William, traditions as to his 
 birth, 18; his birthplace, 18; date 
 of his birth, 24 ; early education, 
 26 ; goes to Oxford, 3 2 ; portrait 
 of, there, 32; graduates, 34; his 
 account of studies there, 35, 36; re- 
 moves to Cambridge, 41 ; ordination, 
 47 ; was never a monk, 48 ; leaves 
 Cambridge, 49 ; goes to Little Sod- 
 hury, 63 ; translates the Enchiri- 
 dion of Erasmus, 58 ; preaches at 
 Bristol, 66 ; summoned before the 
 Chancellor of Worcester, 66 ; goes to 
 ' a certain doctor,' 69 ; resolves to 
 translate the New Testament, 70-72 ; 
 leaves Little Sodbury, 74; translates 
 an oration of Isocrates, 75 ! go^s to 
 London, 76 ; preaches at St. Dun- 
 stan's, 82 ; has an interview with 
 Tunstal, 85 ; lives with Humphrey 
 Monmouth, 87 ; his intercourse with 
 Fryth, 92 ; leaves London, 95 ; arrives 
 in Hamburg, 97 ; goes to Wittemberg, 
 98 ; his knowledge of German, 104 ; 
 commences to translate the New 
 Testament, 105 ; returns to Hamburg, 
 107 ; begins to print at Cologne, ill ; 
 has to flee to Worms, 112 ; prints his 
 Testament at Worms, 118 ; his life in 
 exile, 121 ; his qualifications for his 
 work, 128; his learning, 128; his 
 glosses of the New Testament, 131 ; 
 extracts from his first New Testament, 
 134 ; his address to the reader, 138 ; 
 his prologue, 139 ; separates from 
 Roye, 142 ; vmtes the Introduction 
 to the Romans, 145; influence of 
 Luther on, 146 ; pursued by Rinck, 
 160; goes to Marburg, 166; writes 
 The Wicked Mammon, 166 ; his inter- 
 view with Barnes, 168 ; his intercourse 
 
INDEX. 
 
 467 
 
 with Fryth, 171 ; his life at Antwerp, 
 180; writes The Obedience, 183; his 
 charges against the clergy, 189 ; his 
 views on Scripture, 198 ; industry of, 
 208; writes The Matrimony, 210; 
 revisits Antwerp, 212; purchases 
 wood blocks from Vorstermann, 
 217; his shipwreck, 219; prints the 
 Pentateuch, 221 ; his knowledge of 
 Hebrew, 223 ; his originality, 226 ; 
 his glosses of the Pentateuch, 226; 
 his prefaces, 229; his protest, 233; 
 returns to Marburg, 234 ; Ws, Practice 
 of Prelates, 236 ; his charges against 
 Wolsey, 241 ; his mistakes as to the 
 royal divorce, 243 ; hiscontroversy with 
 Sir Thomas More, 248 ; his Answer 
 to More, 255 ; invited to return to 
 England, 271 ; his interviews with 
 Vaughan, 279, 289, 291 ; his Jonah, 
 296 ; fails to complete his translation 
 of the Old Testament, 300 ; his Ex- 
 position of St. John's First Epistle, 
 301 ; of Second and Third Epistles, 
 305 ; leaves Antwerp, 306 ; danger- 
 ous position of, 3T8 ; supposed to 
 have visited Nuremberg, 321 ; writes 
 Exposition of the Sermon on the 
 Mount, 322 ; charges More with 
 covetousness, 329 ; his letters to Fryth 
 333,346; Fryth's opinion of Tyndale, 
 338; his treatise on the Lord's 
 Supper, 340 ; his life at Antwerp, 349; 
 revises the Pentateuch, 354; revises 
 the New Testament, 354 ; corrections 
 in, 362, 364; glosses in, 362; his 
 Epistle to the Reader quoted, 362 ; 
 his Epistles out of the Old Testament, 
 368 ; he presents Anne Boleyn with 
 a copy of the New Testament, 371; 
 his controversy with Joye, 372 ; his 
 last edition of the New Testament, 
 378 ; his residence with Poyntz, 381 ; 
 plot to arrest him, 386 ; seized, 390 ; 
 imprisoned at Vilvorde, 391 ; efforts 
 to release him, 393, 401 ; his judges, 
 417 ; process and articles against hiin, 
 422 ; his defence against the Louvain 
 Doctors, 424 ; his prison life, 435 ; his 
 letter from prison, 437 ; translates the 
 Old Testament as far as Chronicles, 
 439 ; sentenced and degraded, 440 ; 
 strangled and burnt, 441 ; his charac- 
 ter, 443. 
 Tyndales of Hunt's Court, 1 8 ; of Melks- 
 ham, 20 ; of Slymbridge, 20. 
 
 Van Emmerson, vfidow of, 221. 
 
 Vaughan, envoy at Antwerp, letters 
 from, 272, 275, 277, 278, 307, 309, 
 316 ; invites Tyndale to return to 
 England, 272 ; his interviews with 
 
 Tyndale, 279, 289, 291 ; unwilling to 
 arrest him, 306 ; his defence against 
 the charges of Constantine, 307 ; 
 praises Barnes' works, 308 ; protests 
 in favour of clemency, 309 ; intercedes 
 for Latimer, 330 ; hislastremonstrance 
 on behalf of Tyndale, 330 ; again in 
 Antwerp, 353 ; consulted on letters 
 asking for Tyndale's release, 405 ; his 
 last remonstrance on behalf of Tyn- 
 dale, 434. 
 
 Vilvorde Castle, Tyndale taken to, 
 390; description of, 391. 
 
 Vorstermann, Tyndale buys wood-blocks 
 from, 217. 
 
 Wallop, Sir John, discovers translator 
 of the New Testament, 152. 
 
 Walsh, Sir John, prosperity of, 53 ; 
 Tyndale in the family of, 53 ; dispute 
 of, with Tyndale, 57 ; recommends 
 him to Sir Harry Guildford, 75. 
 
 Walsh, Lady, disputes with Tyndale, 37. 
 
 Walter, Professor, on Exposition of St. 
 John's Epistles, 306 ; on the treatise 
 on the Lord's Supper, 367 ; his edi- 
 tion of Tyndale's Works, 368. 
 
 Warham, interdicts the New Testament, 
 151; buys them up, 157; censures 
 The Matrimony, 211 ; death of, 333. 
 
 Watson, Dr., 87. 
 
 Webb, Richard, probably Foxe's infor- 
 mant about Tyndale's early life, 56. 
 
 Wesele, Van, jailer of Vilvorde, pay- 
 ment to, 391. 
 
 Westcott on learnmg of Tyndale, 133, 
 146 ; on Tyndale's Glosses, 226 ; on 
 Joye's Testament, 360 ; on Tyndale's 
 Epistles from the Old Testament, 368 ; 
 on Flemish errors in text, 380. 
 
 Wicked Mammon, The, date of, 172; 
 description of, 173 ; editions of, 173; 
 quotations from, 174, 176; condem- 
 nation of, 181. 
 
 Wickliffe, influence of, 27. 
 
 WiUcins' Concilia on translations being 
 forbidden, 29. 
 
 Wittemberg, Tyndale's contemporaries 
 assert he went to, 98 ; objections to 
 Tyndale's being at, met, 100-103; 
 condition of, lol ; reforms in, 103. 
 
 Wolfsee, Tyndale's name for Wolsey, 
 241. 
 
 Wolsey, administers diocese of Worces- 
 ter, 54 ; demands a subsidy, 77 ; pride 
 of, 78 ; receives the cardinal's hat, 
 7^ ; orders the New Testament to be 
 burned, 149 ; roused by the railing 
 rhymes, 158; fall of, 236; called 
 Wolfsee by Tyndale, 241. 
 
 Worcester, neglected state of bishopric 
 
 of, 54- 
 
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