YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

THE

ANNALS OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.

" I can fearee think any pains miflpent that bring me in Iblid evidences of
that great truth, that the Scripture is the word of God, which is indeed
the Grand Fundamental." The Hon. Robert Boyle.

London :
Printed by Reed and Pardon^
Paternojler Roiv.

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THE ANNALS

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BY

CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON.

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EDITED BY HIS NEPHEW.

HUGH ANDERSON, ^~ 
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LONDON :
JACKSON, WALFORD, AND HODDER,
1 8, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD,
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VI PREFACE.
The Sacred Volume, indeed, carries internal evidence of its
divine origin, and that in abundance ; but still, with reference
to the Bible now being used daily, and read so long, through
out this kingdom, no questions can be more natural than these
— "When was this volume first translated from the original, and
put into print ? Who was the man that laboured night and
day to accomplish this ? Like his Divine Master, was he
betrayed unto death ? If so, who betrayed him ? What
became of his betrayers ? Or, was there any one man who
befriended him, in his last days, or final trial ? And since all
this, and much more, did take place abroad ; in the first trans
mission, in the secret and singular conveyance of the heavenly
treasure to our shores, what were the distinct tokens of a super
intending: Providence to be observed and adored ? What were
the notable circumstances connected with its earliest triumphs
over the prejudice and passion of our common nature ? Or, in
short, how has this Saored Volume, revised, and re-revised, after
three hundred years, come down into our hands ? And yet, up
to the present moment, should any individual throughout this
country apply to his Christian teacher, or any child to his
parent, and put these and other deeply interesting questions, no
definite answer can be returned ; nor is there a single publica
tion, which, if it lead not astray, will not leave the inquisitive
reader nearly as far from satisfaction as when he began. If a
Translator, in whose train all others have followed, must be
allowed to rank far above all mere Reformers, it is strange if, on
such a subject, historians generally should have slumbered or
slept ; yet the histories of Halle and Foxe, of Stowe and Strype,
of Burnet and Collier, of Turner and Lingard, or Soame, as well
as the history of Translations by Lewis, Herbert, or Dibdin,
with the Biblical literature of Townley, of Cotton, or of Home,
may all be read, and they must be, when such a period is
explored ; but from all these \ sources put together, still the
reader can form no conception of what actually took place, with
regard to the Scriptures. The\incidental circumstances men
tioned are not only few in number, but scarcely one of them
appears in its true light or appropriate connexion. Many, and
by far the most curious and productive incidents, have remained
in utter oblivion.

PREFACE. Vll
After reading, in succession, even all these works, no one can
possess any adequate or correct idea of that mighty phalanx of
talent, policy, and power, so firmly arrayed against the introduc
tion of divine truth in our native tongue into this Kingdom ;
and consequently no reader has ever had before him the most
powerful display, in comparatively modern times, of the irre
sistible energy of the Divine Word. This remark applies with
equal force to Scotland, of which nothing has hitherto been
known, as it does to England, of which there has been known
so little, and that so incorrectly narrated. This energy, too, in
both countries, having been exhibited at a period when the truth
was unbefriended by a single human being in office, nay, when
the judges and rulers of the land were up in arms, or raging
against it ; the detail, if justice could be done to it, must form
one of the most curious and impressive, if not the most valuable
chapters in British history. The times changed indeed, and
have often changed since, and yet, it is presumed, no reader will
find the story begin to droop in point of interest ; much less
forfeit its peculiar character, as an undertaking of Divine
Providence, down to the present hour.
Certain portentous signs, unexpectedly marking our own day,
and at which not a few have been startled, very powerfully
invite the general mind to the sacred text, in its all-sufficiency,
by itself alone, or to " the Bible without note and comment."
But without even glancing at these here, to the Sacred Volume,
in our native tongue, considered simply in the hght of a printed
book, there happily belong two peculiarities, more than sufficient
to fix the mind, with intense interest, on its origin and history.
These are the number of its copies, and the extent to which it is
now in perusal. Neither the one, nor the other, has yet been
rendered so palpable, as to engage the notice they deserve, and
which they will, at last, certainly secure.
After the commencement of the present century, when atten
tion was awakened to the obligation imposed on this country, of
giving the Sacred Volume to all nations, or of attempting to do
so ; with regard to the Scriptures in our own English, it was
even then asserted, that the number of copies already in existence
was greater than that in all other languages put together. The
number, at all events, had passed beyond human calculation,

Vlll PREFACE.
while every one agreed that other nations were comparatively
but ill supplied, and that many more were entirely destitute.
The moment, however, for combined exertion had come ; this
has continued ever since, even with growing energy ; and it is
now assuredly more than time for the contributors to observe
the result. Notwithstanding all that had been printed and sold
for more than two centuries and a half ; the number of Enghsh
Bibles and New Testaments separately, which have passed
through the press, within the perfect recollection of many now
living, has exceeded the number of souls in Britain ! It has
been more than double the population in 1801 !
Should we suppose the printing-press to have been employed
incessantly every lawful day, or three hundred and thirteen days
in the year, and for ten hours daily, throughout the four seasons
of all these years ; then has it been moving, on an average, at
the rate of more than three copies of the Sacred Volume, whether
of the Bible, or New Testament separately, every minute ; or five
hundred and sixty-three thousand four hundred annually ! But
the speed at first, or for several years, was slow, when compared
with that which followed. For some time past, it has nearly
doubled,- so that in the space of twelve months the press has
sent forth more than a million of copies ; or say above nineteen
thousand every week, above three thousand every day, three
hundred every hour, or five every minute of working time !
At this rate there has been producing equal to an entire volume,
and such a volume, in less than twelve seconds ! To the minds
of many in recent years, velocity or speed, in various forms, has
proved a subject of ardent study and delight, but here is one
form, which, when viewed in its ultimate moral consequences,
will not admit of any rival competitor. Yet compared with its
importance, it has been but httle regarded ; and never yet, as it
ought to have been, in connexion with the state of other nations.
Before thousands, or rather millions of our countrymen, the
process, from day to day, has
" Moved on unheeded, as the bird
That cleaves the yielding air unheard,
And yet must prove, when understood,
The harbinger of endless good."

To a certainty, however, it had never entered into the

lniagi-

PREFACE. IX
nation of a single individual, that more copies of the Scriptures
would be demanded in the English tongue alone, than in that of
all other nations put together ! And, more especially, as the
number of versions now called for, and as contemplated by
Britain, is above one hundred and fifty ! At the outset, had
any individual suggested the propriety of printing twenty millions
of English Bibles and Testaments, what would every other man
have thought or said ? The proposal would have been fatal to
the design. The general result which so many have concurred
in producing, was foreseen by no one. Thus it is, that, by the
agency of man, the intentions of Providence are wrought out, in
the guidance of a nation, or the government of the world. In
all our movements, or combinations, His hand and power appear
at last, conspicuously ; and if any seek for evidence, that, with
all our supposed shrewdness, we are still a governed race, he
may find it here. Like some of those great operations in nature
which proceed unnoticed, amidst all the turmoil of this ever-
shifting scene, this work has gone on, and arrived at a height,
which in the hght of an event, is sufficient to arrest the attention
of every intelligent mind, exciting, as it ought, to deeper inquiry
and reflection.
But if the Enghsh Bible be so distinguished for the number
of its copies, it is equally, or rather more so, by the extent to
which it is now being read. With the movement of the press,
we have another movement, not less worthy of notice, and one
which renders the subject doubly interesting, or rather momen
tous. It is about nineteen years ago, since it was remarked by
an acute Hving writer, Mr. Douglas — "The world has not
witnessed an emigration like that taking place, from this king
dom to America, so extensive in its range, so immeasurable in
its consequences, since the dispersion of mankind." He com
pared it to the principle of attraction in the material world —
" an influence which, like that of Nature, was universal, without
pause or relaxation • and hordes of emigrants were continually
swarming off, as ceaseless in their passage, and crowded, and un-
returning as the passengers to eternity." Since then, however,
and especially with every returning spring, has come as certainly
the season of migration ; and from many seaports, our country
men have been sailing far and wide as the winds and waves

PREFACE.

could carry them. In short, with the exception of the most
remarkable of all people, the Jews, the English-speaking popu
lation has become the most widely diffused of any branch of the
family of man ; and for years past this one kingdom has been
in the act of colonizing America, Africa, Asia, nay, and Austra
lia, or New Holland, New Zealand, and the bosom of the Pacific.
A vast improvement also has taken place, in the character of
this emigration, rising, as it now does, to the more reputable
classes, and the higher ranks in British society, including many
a benevolent, humane, and Christian mind. Safely may we
anticipate that, at no distant day, "the wilderness and the
solitary place will be glad for them ;" but so far as the Scrip
tures in our own Enghsh are concerned, we have not to wait for
an event which has already taken place.
Emigration from one's native land, in almost every aspect, is
a subject which, it is granted, must awaken sombre feeling,
whether in those who depart never to return, or in those who
remain behind ; yet in rising above our " native nook of earth,"
held so dear, there is one point of view, perhaps only one, which
can soothe the mind into perfect acquiescence. " Not one hour
of the twenty-four," it has been remarked, " not one round of
the minute band of the dial is allowed to pass, in which, on
some portion of the surface of the globe, the air is not filled with
accents that are ours. They are heard in the ordinary trans
actions of hfe ; or in the administration of law ; in the delibera
tions of the senate-house, or council-chamber ; in the offices of
private devotion, or in the public observance of the rites and
duties of a common faith."* Has such a reflection cheered on,
in his toilsome path, the patient lexicographer ? How much
more deeply ought every one, who speaks this far-spread lan
guage, to be moved, when, in our day, he casts his eye over the
Sacred Volume ! Adieus and farewells at last die away in the
contemplation of this great movement. The Divine hand be
comes apparent, not merely in guiding so many thousands safely
across the deep, and to the ends of the earth, but in the numbers
who carry with them the Sacred Volume, in a language com
mon to them all.

.Richardson's English Diet. Preface.

PREFACE. XI
To many, no doubt, it might seem too bold, were we at once
to affirm that the Enghsh Bible is at present in the act of being
perused from the rising to the setting sun. The assertion might
appear little else than a figure of speech, or an event to be anti
cipated ; and yet this is no more than the half of the truth.
The fact, the singular and unprecedented fact, demands deliberate
reflection from every British Christian, whether at home or
abroad. His Bible, at this moment, is the only version in
existence on which the sun never sets. We know full well that
it is actually in use on the banks of the Ottawa and St. Law
rence, as well as at Sidney, Port Philip, and Hobart Town ;
but before his evening rays have left the spires of Quebec or
Montreal, his morning beams have already shone for hours upon
the shores of Australia and New Zealand. And if it be reading
by so many of our language in Canada, while the sun is sinking
on Lake Ontario ; in the eastern world, where he has risen in
his glory on the banks of the Ganges, to the self-same Sacred
Volume, many, who are no less our countrymen, have already
turned. Vet are all these but as branches from one parent
stock, under whose shade this version, corrected and recorrected,
has been reading by myriads for three hundred years.
People talk of subhme spectacles, but what favour conferred
upon any other nation is once to be compared to this ? To an
enlightened English mind, no consideration as to this earth can
rise above it. Here, unquestionably, is the most elevated point
of view in which Britain can be viewed — the only true summit
of her greatness. How extraordinary that it has never been
distinctly, and with leisure, contemplated, nor with due regard
to its national importance ! Have we been so engrossed by the
local, or Hmited and inferior, distinctions among ourselves, as to
slight the grand one ? What, in ancient times, was the pre
eminence of the Jews ? Did it not consist in this, that to them
were entrusted the oracles of God ? But were these ever com
mitted to them as they have been to us ? Jehovah had not so
dealt with any nation ; but had he dealt with even that nation,
as he hath done with this ? If Divine Revelation be regarded,
in its proper Hght, as the voice of God, to what people in ex
istence has he ever spoken so long, so uninterruptedly, and now,
above all others, so extensively ? It was said of old, that " the

Xll PREFACE.
mighty God, even Jehovah, hath spoken, and called the earth,
from the rising of the sun, to his going down ;" and is it
nothing, that in our language, by way of eminence, this should
have been first so singularly and HteraUy verified ? Such, at all
events, is the present high and momentous position of Britain
and her sons.
If, from this moral elevation, we could once look down to the
valley below, and, guided only by impartial history, observe the
singular path by which the nation has been led up to such an
eminence, we should better understand what, and how much, is
involved in the history of Divine Revelation in our native
tongue ; to say nothing of many reflections which could never
before have occurred to any mind. The foUowing pages form
an attempt to furnish the reader with such a history, from the
first sheets thrown off at the press, down to the millions now
dispersed and in use, whether at home or abroad.
But, even here, and before we descend — before we begin,
where the Almighty, in a manner so peculiar, began with this
nation — if, from this summit, we now look round, is there any
paraUel case to be discerned? — any nation upon ground so high?
No, not one, nor by many degrees : not even Germany, with aU
her Bibles. Yet is there nothing on which the eye may and
should rest, in the way of comparative contrast ? Assuredly
there is, for there is one other European language upon which
the sun also never sets. It is the Spanish, and the contrast may
be soon expressed. The Bible in Spain ! The Bible in Britain !
Two languages on which the sun shines with no intermission,
yet, in point of supply, are they wide as the poles asunder!
What a contrast is presented here, whether we look to Spain
herself, or to her offspring in those colonies once aU her own !
In the history of Europe at this moment, no two facts of similar
magnitude can be placed in opposition before the human mind.
One is almost reminded of the sun, in comparison with a star of
the smaUest magnitude. Let the contrast, the indescribable
contrast, at once humble and inspirit a people whom God has so
distinguished. To all those, therefore, who regard the Scriptures, printed in
our native tongue, to be infinitely the highest boon ever bestowed
on Britain ; or to the English Christian, whether he be at home

PREFACE. Xlll
or abroad — in Britain, Ireland, or America — in India, China,
Australia, or New Zealand — the providential origin of that Sacred
Volume to which he daUy turns his eye, cannot be a subject
void of interest. Its progress to completion he will find to have
involved a struggle, with which there is no other to be com
pared — its history since, one that bears directly and with great
power on the present day ; and, once aware of circumstances,
when he himself sits down to the perusal of the sacred page,
whether in the temperate, the torrid, or the frigid zone, he will
be better able to regard the favour, as one of the innumerable
happy consequences of its original triumph over all the enmity
and rage displayed of old, and the barriers which were raised in
vain, against its reception into his native country or fatherland.
With respect to the commencement of the foUowing history,
the first half of the sixteenth century, embracing one of the
most eventful periods in the annals of Europe, is famUiarly
known to have produced, in this country, a number of conspi
cuous characters, and the lives of almost every one of them
have been given to the world again and again. One, however,
— and, in the proper sense of the term, as it regards his
influence on posterity, — by far the most eminent, has been
hitherto aU but overlooked. Often confounded or linked with
other men of very inferior consequence, there has been no reader
of Enghsh history who could possibly estimate the amount of
his obligations to the modest and immortal WiUiam Tyndale.
Independently of his abiHty as one of the most powerful writers
of the age, when his name is connected with the Sacred Volume,
which he first translated from the original text into Enghsh,
which he first put to press, and then sent into his native land,
we have no other man to he compared with him at the time ;
and when to this is added, his unspotted personal Christianity,
his uncompromising spirit, and genuine patriotism, it is
altogether unaccountable that every incident in his valuable
life has not been gleaned, and arranged into a distinct memoir,
long before the present day. Such a work, including his noble
convert and young companion, John Fryth, ought to have been
a household book for many generations back.
But in neglecting Tyndale personaUy, an object infinitely
above him has been neglected. In the course of her varied and

XIV PREFACE.

singular history, there is no favour, we must repeat, bestowed
upon Britain, that is ever to be compared with the Bible in her
vulgar or vernacular tongue ; to say nothing of this being now
her most distinguished and distinguishable feature. But for its
free and unfettered perusal, the eminence to which she has
attained among the European nations, or confessedly above
them, had never been reached. Her rise and progress, in all
that is worthy of possession, can never be separated from this
heavenly gift or deposit. Yet, if this be granted, and the best
of her sons with one voice wiU do so, then, in the introduction,
or first importation, of the Sacred Scriptures in type, at such a
period, and by such means, there must have been certain paths,
certain footsteps, in divine Providence, corresponding to the
greatness of the boon bestowed. In other words, though the
cause itself, in the morning of its origin, might seem only like
" smoking flax or a bruised reed," one might expect to witness
even national affairs, or the Crown itself, and the movements of
Government, treated, in many instances, as altogether sub
ordinate. As far, then, as men in power and place were con
cerned, the reader must now be left to judge whether he does
not observe the cause, emphaticaUy in its commencement, and
upon aU necessary occasions ever after, Hke the star in Joseph's
dream, to which " the sun and the moon and the eleven stars
made obeisance." These, and other singular occurrences, it is
true, ought to have been marked and recorded long before three
centuries had passed away ; but though they have required to
be sought out in the pages of original manuscript, and of rare
books, and to be traced with scrupulous caution, they are not
the less worthy of observation now, and more especiaUy in the
existing state of our country. Perhaps some unknown benefit
may be involved in so many important incidents having been
left for disclosure to the present hour.
The Scriptures in Enghsh manuscript, the revival of Letters,
as well as the Invention of Printing, preceded, by many years,
any apphcation of that noble art to our EngHsh version. But
the entire period may be, or rather ought to be, regarded as
containing a series of events, preliminary to that memorable
occurrence, and, therefore, though but shghtly sketched, they
require to be noticed in the hght of a deliberate, yet appropriate

PREFACE. XV
introduction. This, accordingly, has been attempted, as due to
the history foUowing.
It is, however, the Enghsh Scriptures in print, and their first
introduction, especiaUy into England and Scotland, with their
subsequent introduction to North America, which are about to
claim particular attention; and as the path has never been
trodden before, some explanation becomes necessary, with regard
to the sources whence materials have been derived. Having
looked into the histories already named, as weU as other kindred
works, and observing not only the paucity of facts, but various
discrepancies among aU these authors, the writer's first resort
was to that unrivalled store of original manuscript in the
British Museum. It was impossible to entertain any previous
theory. Various details were expected, though not the shghtest
hope was then indulged that any very connected series of events
could ever be drawn out. On discovering, however, to what
extent these manuscript pages had been permitted to remain in
obHvion, he persevered. Important original documents, both in
the Chapter House of Westminster, and in the State Paper
Office, have also been consulted ; and, of course, the State
Papers, or Correspondence, in five volumes quarto, relating to
England, Scotland, and Ireland, printed since 1830, by the
Government Commission. After having gone over the entire
surface of Tyndale's age, the writer was highly obliged by the
perusal and use of various extracts of correspondence, coUected
by the indefatigable industry of the Rev. Thomas RusseU, A.M.,
the editor of the works of Tyndale and Fryth. It was no
trifling corroboration when the author found himself not only
unmoved from a single position he had taken, but confirmed in
his statements by'several incidental circumstances, some of which
might have escaped notice.
With reference to rare printed works, as weU as scarce
editions of the Scriptures, besides the British Museum; the
Bodleian at Oxford ; the University Library, that of St. John's
CoUege, and others, at Cambridge; the Baptist Museum of
Bristol; the Althorp Library of Earl Spencer; that of his
Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, while yet entire, with
those of Lambeth and St. Paul's, have been consulted in succes
sion ; but to no other coUection of Bibles and Testaments has

XVI PREFACE.
the author been so much indebted as to that of his friend Lea
Wilson, Esq., of Norwood Hill. In early days an English
merchant of Antwerp wUl be found to occupy a conspicuous
and honourable place at the commencement of this history ; and
it is in perfect keeping with the entire narrative, that a coUec-
tion so rich, and in such a perfect state, should now be in the
possession of a London merchant. Without his assistance as to
various minute particulars, the Hst at the close of this work
could not have been so complete. It wiU be found to contain
many authentic editions, which, altogether unknown, have
never been inserted in any account previously published. To
the polite kindness of the Right Honourable Thomas GrenviUe,
the author has been indebted, not only for access to that dis
tinguished Hbrary, but for the perusal of the first edition of
Fox's Acts and Monuments, a foho of which it has been said the
inspection " non cuivis homini contingit." For the very accu
rate sketches of Little Sodbury Manor House, under whose roof
the resolution of Tyndale was formed, and which may therefore
be regarded as the starting point in this vast enterprise,
the writer has been obliged to his friend George Joseph
Bompas, M.D., of Fishponds, Bristol ; and certain particulars
relating to the unique fragment of Tyndale's first New Testa
ment, have been kindly furnished by Mr. Thomas Rodd, of Great
Newport Street, London. The portrait of Tyndale is an exact
copy from a rare volume, namely, "HoUand's Herooologia
Anglica." No. 39. This is considered to be the best likeness.
With regard to Scotland, living in Edinburgh, it need scarcely
be added, that satisfaction on certain points could not have been
obtained, without access to the invaluable Library of the Faculty
of Advocates, so freely granted ; and as to books, among others,
my special thanks are due to David Laing, Esq., for the use of
several rare pieces, unknown to the English reader, by an
illustrious Scotsman, who has been aU along better known in
Germany than in his own country, Alexander Ales or Aless
(Alesius) of Edinburgh. Other acknowledgments wUl occur
throughout these volumes, where every authority, whether in
manuscript or in print, has been distinctly noted.1

While these sheets were passing through the press, the author has enjoyed

PREFACE. XVII

The following pages, it is presumed, will be found to possess
one recommendation to many readers. They are removed, as
far as it is possible to be, from what have been styled polemics.
Jaded as the human mind has often been for the last three

the advantage of a second journey on the Continent. Taking occasion to visit
the principal places about to be mentioned, not only Antwerp and Mechlin,
Vilvorde and Brussels, but other cities on both banks of the Rhine, from
Cologne to Strasburg, as well as Basil, Berne, Zurich, and Geneva, he has only
been more confirmed in the general correctness of the history now given.
Some discrepancies may be detected in a work now first taken from the writer's
manuscript, in which there are so many references to authority ; but the general
stream of the narrative, it is presumed, can never be disturbed.
The well-known collection of Bibles and Testaments in the possession of the
King of Wirtemberg, time did not admit of his examining. But though it be
the only eminent collection which has not been explored, it is believed that
there is no English edition at Stuttgard which is not to be found in the libraries
of our native land. The Royal Library at Paris is not at all remarkable for
editions of the English Scriptures.
Into the once imperial city of Worms, where our first English New Testa
ments appear to have been finished, and where a printing-press was first set up,
three hundred and thirty years ago, any man may now enter, and either reflect
on the marriage of Charlemagne, or look on the few remaining fragments of the
ancient imperial palace ; he may visit the Cathedral or Dom Kirche, standing as
it did ; look into the little Jewish Synagogue, above eight hundred years old ;
or within a church at the market-place, the site of the venerable Rathhaus,
stand upon the ground which Luther trode when he appeared before the
Emperor ; but in reference to the printing-office to which, only four years after,
Tyndale had repaired, it was in vain to inquire for the street or the corner
where Peter Schoeffer, or any other brother of the trade, had once been so busy.
Not one solitary printer was to be found at work throughout the city !
Cologne, on the contrary, where Tyndale had commenced his New Testa
ment at the press, exhibited a different aspect. Lately declared to be a free
port, and now also to be reached by railway, it promises to rise to greater
importance than ever before. It was indeed equally in vain to inquire for the
quarter were Ulric Zell, Henry and Peter QuenteL or any other ancient printer,
once plied their occupation, but their works were to be found there. In one
repository was a catalogue of Bibles and Testaments (1843) such as is scarcely
ever to be found with any bookseller in this country. Besides Polyglots, there
were Bibles, or parts of the Scriptures, in twenty-seven different languages, —
in Hebrew, Greek, Latin (in 240 articles), Ethiopic, Arabic, Syriac, Persic,
Armenian, and even Tamulian or Malabar. And of European languages, in
Gothic, Finnish, Danish, Russ, Slavonic, Turkish, Polish, German (in 236
articles), Wendish, Hungarian, Bohemian, Swiss, Italian, French, Spanish,
Portuguese, Belgian, and English. These, however, in general, were ancient,
not modern, editions, but amounting to more than 800 articles of sale, in the
Bibliotheca of J. M. Heberle. Here, also, the very rare tracts of Alexander
Ales had been recently sold for a trifle, which altogether in this couutry have
fetched above four guineas. b

XVU1 TltEFACE.

hundred years, and especially in Britain, with controversial
divinity, it may be grateful to not a few, if they can find another
walk, in past times down to the present, of such a character as
lies at the root of all that has ever existed under the name of
Christianity within the kingdom ; and so important as in vital
connexion with its progress throughout the earth. If with the
changing scenes through which the history wiU be found to pass,
it had ever forfeited its original cast or character, there it might
have terminated, and there it ought. But, on the contrary, as
the continuation so singularly corresponds with the commence
ment, there was to be found no halting-place before the present
day. In point of time, the history of our Enghsh Scriptures, from
the date of their first appearing in print, will be found to take
precedence of all the Institutions, Estabhshments, or local in
terests, within our shores. The noble contest, so singularly
commenced and conducted, was nearly decided before their
origin; at least, the first brunt of the battle was over, and
Divine truth had been so effectually sown and rooted in our
native soU, that, from that early period, aU the power of the
enemy has been in vain. This, of itself, gives the story a pre
ference, or a prior claim to consideration, before any other nar
rative in the form, or under the name, of rehgious history. Nor
is this its only peculiarity. Ever since, the continuation wiU be
found maintaining a higher place, describing a larger, and
therefore a loftier circle, than that of any mere class or deno
mination whatever ; embracing, without any interruption, the
Christian community of Britain in its widest sense. It will con
tinue throughout as independent of all local interests, as it was
before they had existence. That the history of the English
Bible has never before been viewed in this light, is freely
granted ; nor had the author himself the slightest idea of this,
its marked or distinguishing peculiarity, before he began. It is
now the more worthy of notice, and may prove of some service,
in different ways, beside that of promoting modesty of state
ment by any single community in Britain. No section of
Christians, it will be seen, of whatever name, can possess any
title to rank itself as having been essential, either to the progress
or to the general prevalence of the English Scriptures, much less

PREFACE. XIX

to their original introduction. This is an undertaking which
has been uniformly conducted above their sphere of judgment.
Should this general prevalence turn out to have been almost
equally independent of the civil power, from Henry the Eighth
down to Charles the Second, or rather to the present hour, it
wiU form altogether by far the most singular fact, as such, in
the annals of the kingdom. It is a feature in the history of our
Bible, claiming supreme attention from the existing age.
Upon the whole, the present forms a department in past his
tory, with which every Minister of the truth, in English, ought
to have been familiar long ago, nay, and every Parent through
out the kingdom. As it regards instruction, as weU as ground
for new reflections, it wiU be found to occupy a course or channel
peculiar to itself. Perhaps the fifth book in our New Testament
Scriptures, may in part explain its character. Men, indeed,
have entitled that book " The Acts of the Apostles ;" but it is in
reahty a history of the way and manner in which "the Word of
the Lord grew and multiplied," — the Apostles themselves,
whether as individuals or as a body, being treated in perfect
subordination to the grand or leading design. In some faint
resemblance to this manner, so ought the history of the Divine
Word, in our native tongue, to have been attempted long since ;
leaving men and things, whether great characters or national
events, in the subordinate places which have actually belonged
to them. At the same time, such men and such events, viewed
as they have now been, sometimes in contrast, and at other times
in connexion with the progress of Divine Revelation itself, lend
a peculiar zest or life to the entire narrative. Upon the cha
racters of Henry VIII. and Wolsey, of Warham, Tunstal, or
Sir Thomas More, of Cranmer and Lord Crumwell, with many
other men well known under all the subsequent reigns, certainly
no such additional light could have been thrown, till they were
brought into immediate contact or contrast with the printing or
circulation of the Scriptures in our native tongue.
Even from the commencement, and down to our own times,
some such history has become positively essential to a just estimate
:of our present peculiar condition as a Nation, now by far the
'most responsible under heaven. It may, and it will furnish
¦ motives to action, such as can be drawn from no other retrospect.
b 2

XX PREFACE.

It forms a key, if not the only one, to our highest imperative
obligations ; and it may well be pondered, as the path by which
Jehovah led our forefathers, in a way of His own devising, with
more than "the pillar of a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by
night." In this view, the history, though never written before,
and therefore not understood, can never be out of date. It in
volves the commencement and continuance of a Cause, which is
but pursuing its course in our own day, not only to a wider
extent, but with greater energy than ever before, and yet to be
pursued with greater still.
In conclusion, the Author, it wiU be evident, is far from
placing any reliance on the mere dispersion of Bibles, even by
the miUion ; but although no man can measure the consequences
of the immutable standard of Divine truth having been exhibited
to the eye of this nation, the spirit of the age loudly demands,
that the history of that exhibition should now be more accu
rately known. Once understood, it must be left to the judgment
of every discerning reader, whether, at the present crisis, in
such unparalleled possession of the Sacred Volume, British
Christians can close their eyes with impunity on the existing
state of other nations — the condition of a world.

Edinburgh,
l&A February, 1845.

PREFACE TO THIS EDITION.

The Edition of the Annals of the English Bible now offered
to the pubhc, differs from those issued by the late Author, simply
in the omission of those sketches of the civil history of the period,
which added greatly to the size and price of the book, but were
not necessarily connected with its object, while they often inter
fered with the narrative instead of illustrating it.
The Author himself, anticipating the desire of many of his
readers to peruse only the story of that conflict which ended in
the Bible being given to Britain, had printed the sketches in a
smaller type to be passed over at pleasure, and thus indicated
the only way in which he would have the work abridged, with
out prejudice to its object, to meet the wishes of those who
had less time to devote to the larger volumes.
The late venerable Jay of Bath expressed to the Editor his
opinion, that while on the whole he had not read a more
interesting book than the "Annals" for many years, its value
would not be at all diminished by the omission ofthe civil history,
which he felt to be rather a hindrance than a help in foUowing
the narrative, so deeply engrossing, of Tyndale's Hfe and
labours, and the fruits of these to his native country.
AU the Ulustrations contained in the former issues wiU be
found in the present edition, together with the valuable List of
early editions of the English Bible which cost the Author so
much time and labour to complete.
Beatton,
2nd December, 1861.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.
Brief survey of the ages which preceded any printing of the Scriptures in
the English tongue — Including the revival and triumph of classical
learning and the arts, contrasted with the times of Wickliffe, with his
version of the entire Sacred Volume, and its effects — The invention of
printing, its rapid progress to perfection, and the point to which the
European nations, but more especially England and Scotland, had been
brought, before ever this invaluable art was applied to any version of
the Sacred Scriptures in the language spoken by the people

THE ANNALS OR
HISTOET OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.
BOOK I.— ENGLAND.

ffifje ftujfit of pttttrj) the ffiigfjtft.

MDIX. — MDXXIII.

From the birth of Tyndale, the original translator, to his embarkation for
the Continent, in pursuit of his design ......

mbxxi v. — MDXXV.

The New Testament in English preparing by Tyndale, for circulation in
his native land ; and in two editions from the press by the close of 1525 24

Memorable introduction of the New Testament into England — The first
two editions — The first alarm in London, Oxford, Cambridge — The first
burning of books — New Testament denounced by the King and
Wolsey — Then by Tunstal and Warham — The Third Edition — Violent
contention respecting it— Burning the Sacred Volume, abroad and at
home  49

XXIV CONTENTS.

The Translator's progress — His earliest compositions — Persecution in Eng
land — Opposition to the New Testament — Warham and the Bishops
buying it up— Fresh importations — The Fourth Edition — Scriptures
singularly introduced once more ........ 82

MDXXVIII.

Tyndale and Fryth — Present persecution in England — Arrested by pre
vailing disease — Persecution in Antwerp — Nobly withstood, and the
Enghsh Envoy defeated — Wolsey's pursuit after Tyndale and others —
AH in vain ............ 94

Tyndale's progress in the Old Testament — Persecution in England —
Thwarted once more"— Tunstal at Antwerp — Tyndale's influence in the
Palace — More, the Bishops, and the King, in league against the Scrip
tures — Coverdale sent to Hamburg — Another or fifth edition of the
New Testament  117

Tyndale's progress in the Old Testament — Practice of prelates — Persecu
tion goes on — King and prelates denounce the Scriptures — Latimer's
bold remonstrance — New Testaments burnt by Tunstal — Another, the
sixth edition — Vigorous importation — Death of S. Fyshe . . .136

Formidable opposition — Pursuit after Tyndale by the King and Crumwell
— Still in vain — Tyndale's answer to Sir T. More — Epistle of John ex
pounded — Jonah, with a prologue — Renewed persecution — Brother of
Tyndale — Bilney — Bayfield — Many books importing — Constantyne
caught — Escapes — Persecution abroad — Powerful remonstrance from
Antwerp with Crumwell, including the King and the Lord Chaucellor
More  148

Tyndale's progress— Exposition in Matthew — His sentiments under per
secution—The King not appeased— Renewed pursuit of Tyndale— Now
by Sir Thomas Elyot — Still in vain — Persecution goes on — Bainham —
Latimer — More against Tyndale— Fryth arrives in England — In peril
—In the Tower— Writing there in defence of the truth, and addressing
the Christians in England  172
MDXXX1II.
One distinguishing feature of Tyndale's course and character as compared

CONTENTS. XXV

with all his contemporaries — His answer to Sir T. More — His letter to
Fryth in prison — Fryth's voice from the Tower— Fryth's examination
before the Bishops assembled — His triumph in argument — Martyrdom
— One effect of Fryth's death— Sir T. More writing still— One powerful
opponent at home — More, considered as a controversialist — His pro
digious exertions — Other qualities — Finally overcome .... 192

Tyndale all alone after Fryth's death — Genesis, second edition — Fresh
issue of the Pentateuch — Surreptitious edition of the New Testament
by Joye — The improved edition by Tyndale — Joye's interference ex
plained — Divine truth in progress — Richard Harman in London — Re
stored to favour by the Queen— Glance at the past and present — The
New Testament importing in several editions, in contrast with the
dreams of the Convocation  215
MDXXXV.
Tyndale's apprehension at Antwerp — Imprisonment in the Castle of Vil-
vorde — Distinct information conveyed to Crumwell and Cranmer — The
strenuous exertions of Thomas Poyntz — Tyndale's progress in prison —
The Bishops applied to for a translation of the New Testament — A
fruitless attempt — Fresh editions of Tyndale's translation, printed and
importing this year .......... 230

Last year of Tyndale — Anne Boleyn — The new or unprecedented Convo
cation — Latimer preaching before it — State of parties there — Old and
new learning — Proceedings in Convocation — The first articles — Crum-
well's first injunctions — No Bible mentioned — Tyndale's latter days —
Phillips once more — Indifference of England — The Court of Brussels —
Home and abroad now deeply implicated — The martyrdom of Tyndale
— Poyntz, the friend of Tyndale — Future history of the miserable be
trayers — Nine or ten editions of Tyndale's Testament . . . 245
MDXXXVII.
Memorable introduction of the entire Sacred Volume — Myles Coverdale
— Wis circumstanceseompared with Tyndale's — Coverdale's temporary
success — The remarkably sudden change — Tyndale's Bible — Its arrival
— Its reception — Bought and read — The King agrees — Grafton the pro
prietor — All parties most memorably overruled — Conclusion of the first
year of triumph  280
MDXXXVIII.
The second year of triumph — Persecution resumed — The English Bible
printing in Paris — Press interrupted — Inquisition overmatched — The
Bible finished in London — First injunctions for Tyndale's Bible — New
Testaments, fresh editions — Coverdale's Testaments — The destitute
state of England — Joy over the Scriptures — Retrospect . . . 306

XXVI CONTENTS.

Eventful year — State of parties— Parliament and Convocation — Royal
message — New articles — Bills of attainder — The six articles applied —
Frustrated — Cranmer safe — Latimer imprisoned — Alexander Ales
escapes — Constantyne in danger — The Scriptures printing in various
editions — Crumwell's remarkable energy in this department — The King
swayed once more — The cause in progress — Cranmer busy in prospect
of his first edition, next spring — It is distinctly sanctioned by Henry —
Singular proclamation — Henry now commanding all his subjects to use
the Scriptures in Enghsh  326
MDXL.
Crumwell — His death and character — Retrospect — Common mistake as to
the Crown — The large folio Bibles, in six editions — The first of Cran-
mer's — A different edition — The second of Cranmer's — The third pre
paring, to be issued next year, but with a different title — One in five
volumes, small size — Quarto New Testament  3 52

The third large Bible, with Tunstal's name, by command — The fourth,
in May, with Cranmer's name — Expense of these large undertakings —
The memorable proprietor, Anthony Marler — Bonner's feigned zeal —
Earnest reading and listening — The fifth great Bible, with Tunstal's
name — The sixth, with Cranmer's name — Gardiner returned, to witness
the progress now made during his absence ...... 364

Convocation met — The Bible introduced there for discussion at last — Sin
gular display — Gardiner's grand effort in opposition — Cranmer informs
the King — They are all discomfited, though yet sittmg — Progress of the
truth iu England  371

Parliament opened — The Convocation baffled, acknowledge their inability
to stay the progress of Divine truth by applying now to Parliament —
Parliament disgraces itself by vain opposition — Bonner sent abroad . 377
JIDXIXV.
Gardiner — Cranmer — Henry's confession of impotence in all his injunc
tions to his bishops — His inconsistency — New Testament of Tyndale's,
a foreigu print ... ....... 381

Undermining Cranmer — His enemies covered with shame — Henry ad
dressing his Privy Council — His deliberate opinion of its character 
Addressing his Parliament for the last time . . . 335

CONTENTS. XXVli

Persecution revived -Anne Askew— Her martyrdom, along with three
other individuals— Latimer still in prison— Enmity to English books—
The supplication of the poor Commons— Wriothesly, Gardiner, and
Norfolk in trouble— Death of Henry VIII. —Retrospect ... 391

BOOK IL— ENGLAND.

Jrorn GEotoato EU. to the ffiammtmtealtft.

MDXLVII. — MDLin.
REIGN OF EDWARD.

-A reign, however brief, distinguished in British history, with regard to
the printing and publication of the Sacred Scriptures in the language
of the people ... . .... 409

MDLin. — MDLV1II.
REIGN OF QUEEN MARY.

A reign, however painful in its details, which so far from retarding the
progress of Divine truth, only deepened the impression of its value ; and
afforded the opportunity for the Sacred Scriptures being given afresh to
England, carefully revised — the exiles from the kingdom proving, once
more, its greatest benefactors .  418
MDLVin. — MDCIII.
REIGN OF ELIZABETH.
A reign, however powerful in every other department, having no actual
control over the choice or preference of the people of England, with
regard to the Sacred Scriptures in their native tongue, and thus pre
senting the only exception to unlimited sway ..... 452
MDCni.  MDCL.
JAMES I. TO THE COMMONWEALTH.
Accession of James — His strange progress through the country — His
heedless profusion— Conference at Hampton Court explained — Revision
of the Scriptures — The revisors — Instructions given — Progress made —
Revision of the whole— Money paid, but not by his Majesty, nor by
any Bishop, after the King's application, but by the patentee — The pre
sent version published — No proclamation, no order of Privy Council, or

xxviii CONTENTS*

any act of the Legislature upon record, on the subject- -Did not become
the version generally received throughout England, Scotland, and Ire
land, till about forty years afterwards— The last attempt to interfere
with the Enghsh Bible by a Committee of Parliament, representing
England, Ireland, and Scotland, in vain  474

SCOTLAND.
Enttotactton.

Brief notice of Scotland during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries —
The opening of the sixteenth before the Sacred Scriptures in print were
first imported  489

BOOK III.— SCOTLAND.

¦from 3amrs the ififtlj to the erommnnroraltfj.

MDXXVT,
REIGN OF JAMES V.
State of Scotland — The first introduction of the New Testament in the
Enghsh language — Earliest arrivals at Edinburgh and St. Andrews —
Singular condition of the country, and especially of its Primate, at the
moment ............ 493
MB XXVII. — MDXXVLU.
Consternation of the authorities in Scotland — The New Testament soon
followed by one living voice, that of Patrick Hamilton — His martyr
dom — Alexander Seton, the next witness, persecuted — He escapes to
England — The New Testament goes on to be imported . . .501
mdxxix. — MDXXXIV.
All-important period, hitherto unnoticed — Alexander Ales or Aless —
Cruelly persecuted by Hepburu, the Prior of St. Andrews — At last
escapes by sea, from Dundee, first to France, and then to Germany —
His epistle addressed to James V. ; or the commencement of the first
regular controversy in Britain respecting the Scriptures printed in the
vulgar tongue — The abusive publication of Cochheus in reply — The
representations of Ales confirmed by the state of the country, and the
second martyrdom— Answer of Ales to the calumnies of Cochla>us— Ales
pleads for the New Testament to be read — But especially in families 
Cochkvus addresses James V.— And is rewarded— The persecutions and
martyrdoms of 1534 again confirm the statements of Ales— Who is now
standing by himself alone, in defence of the truth . . 512

CONTENTS. XXIX

MDXXXV. — MDXXXVII. PAGE
State of Scotland — Provincial council of the prelates — Agitation — Read
ing of the New Testament forbidden by proclamation — Progress of the
cause  535

MDXXXVIII. — MDXLH.
State of the country — Beaton a Cardinal, and persecution revived — The
martyrdoms of 153S — Dean Forret — The cause of all the tumult in
opposition traced to the New Testament in the native tongue — Another
martyrdom — Men escaping —The cruel progress of Cardinal Beaton —
Death of the King James V. — Gloomy state of the country as to its
Government at this moment ........ 541
mdxliit. — MDCL.
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, JAMES VI. TO THE COMMON
WEALTH.
The year 1543, a memorable one — Critical state of the Government —
Remarkably sudden change — The Primate of St. Andrews in prison —
Parhament assembles, and by a bill and proclamation throughout Scot
land, sanctions the general perusal of those Scriptures, which had been
reading in secret for sixteen years — Contrast with England at this
moment — Extent to which the Scriptures had been perused in Scotland
— The Earl of Arran, the Governor, abjures, and falls under the power
of Beaton, now enlarged — More martyrdoms by hanging, drowning,
and the flames — The death of Beaton — Singular history of the Scrip
tures in Scotland, during this entire period — Not supplied from its own
native press, but by importation, for more than a hundred years — The
present version of the Bible become the only one in use, over the
entire kingdom  553

BOOK IV.— GREAT BRITAIN.

JFrom the Commoniaealth to ©ueen Eietovta.

MDCL. — 1IDCCLXXX.
THE COMMONWEALTH TO GEORGE III.
Brief survey — Downward progress of the Stuart dynasty — The Revolu
tion of 1688-9 — Preceding opposition to the Scriptures by James II. ,
an adherent of the old learning — Consequences of the Revolution —
State of the Bible press in England — Canne's Bible — Guy's Bibles —
- Baskerville's — Blayney's Bible — State of the Bible press iu Scotland —
James II. equally busy in opposition there — The number of Bibles is
now past all human computation — The results .... 577

XXX CONTENTS.
NORTH AMERICA.
MDCXX. — MDCCLXXX.
THE REIGN OF JAMES I. TO GEORGE III. PAGE
New movement in reference to the Enghsh Scriptures— The Bible first
beheld by the natives in America, an Enghsh one— Copies carried away
to New England by the refugees and following settlers— Sent across the
Atlantic Ocean for above a hundred and sixty years !— The extra
ordinary results during this long period— The restrictive and unnatural
policy of Britain— In justification of its continued independence of all
human authority, the English Bible is at last printed in America— No
consultation of the mother country— The first edition only in 1782—
The first Bibles in octavo, quarto, and folio, printed there in 1791—
The second in duodecimo not till 1797  °86
III.— OR FINAL SECTION.
MDCCLXXX. — HDCCCXLIV.
REIGN OF GEORGE III. TO QUEEN VICTORIA.
The last sixty-four years.
The commencement of a greater movement than ever before — The Revo
lutionary times in France — Neither Britain nor her colonies remain
unscathed — Action is called for — But the obstacles to united action
appear to be insuperable — The first feeble movement taking its name
from the Bible — The second — Its entire failure no ground for discourage
ment — The efforts of Carey and his associates in India impress a few
powerful minds at home — The Bible without either note or comment
draws more attention — The destitution of it in Wales — The British and
Foreign Bible Society with its auxiliaries — Their exertions up to the
present day — After a distribution and sale of so many millions of the
English Scriptures, there occurs an extraordinary and unprecedented
fall in the price of the Sacred Volume — Britain at the height of her
responsibility— The present history indicates a course of action, if not
the only one, which involves her future welfare and stability — A path
of duty which cannot, with impunity, be evaded .... 593
Conclusions drawn from the preceding history . ... 622
Chronological Index-List of Bibles and Testaments  654
Historical Index ....... 663

INTRODUCTION.

BRIEF SURVEY OF THE AGES WHICH PRECEDED ANY PRINTING OE THE SCRIP
TURES IN THE ENGLISH TONGUE — INCLUDING THE REVIVAL AND TRIUMPH
OF CLASSICAL LEARNING AND THE ARTS, CONTRASTED WITH THE TIMES OF
WICKLIFFE, WITH HIS VERSION OF THE ENTIRE SACRED VOLUME, AND ITS
EFFECTS — THE INVENTION OF PRINTING, ITS RAPID PROGRESS TO PERFECTION,
AND THE POINT TO WHICH THE EUROPEAN NATIONS, BUT MORE ESPECIALLY
ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND,- HAD BEEN BROUGHT, BEFORE EVER THIS INVALU
ABLE ART WAS APPLIED TO ANY VERSION OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES IN
THE LANGUAGE SPOKEN BY THE PEOPLE.
The darkest hour in the night of Europe, is an era respecting
which historians are not even yet agreed. It has been regarded by
many as being in the tenth century. One or two other writers
consider the seventh or eighth century to be the lowest in point of
depression, or the nadir of the human mind ; and they suppose that
its movement in advance began with Charlemagne, while England
can never forget her own Alfred the Great. A few moderns, too
fastidious, or by no means so affected by the gloom and barbarity of
the middle ages, profess to be tender of allowance as to the extent
of this darkness, and would fondly persuade us to adopt a more
cheerful retrospect. But speaking, generally, with reference to the
people at large, the entire period, from the fifth or sixth to the
fourteenth century, presents at the best, but a tedious and dreary
interval in the history of the human mind. Individual scholars,
indeed, like stars which shed their light on the surrounding gloom,
there ever were ; and wherever there existed any marked regard for
Sacred writ, in the vernacular tongue, there the life-spark of Chris
tianity was preserved. The Albigenses, the Waldenses, and other
parties, might be adduced in proof ; the persecution and dispersion
of whom, had considerable influence in diffusing the light which its
enemies laboured to extinguish.

XXX11 INTRODUCTION.
It was not, however, till after a long and profound sleep through
out the dreams and visions of the middle ages, that the human mind
was at last effectually roused to action ; and in none of the countries
throughout Europe more decidedly than in Italy and England. "But
still, for some great moral purpose, worthy of infinite wisdom, and
to be afterwards disclosed, that mind, throughout all these western
kingdoms, was first to be permitted to discover what was the utmost
vigour of its native strength.
It is not to be wondered at that Italian writers should claim for
their country the precedence of all others in the revival of learning
which marked the close of the fourteenth century. " The Italians,"
says Sismondi, " discovered, as it were, anew the ancient world ; they
felt an affinity of thoughts, hopes, and tastes with the best Latin
writers which inspired them with the highest admiration. Petrarch,
and particularly Boccaccio, passed from this study to that of Grecian
antiquity. A passion for erudition spread from one end of Italy to
the other, with an ardour proportionable to the dark ignorance of
the preceding centuries. It was imagined that all knowledge con
sisted in knowing and imitating the ancient masters. The highest
glory was attached to classical learning ; and Petrarch and Boccaccio
attained a degree of celebrity, credit and power, unequalled by any
other men in the middle ages — not by reason of those merits which
we feel at the present day, but as the pontiffs and interpreters of
antiquity." " AVe owe to the learned of the fourteenth century, and to their
school, a deep sentiment of gratitude. They discovered and rendered
intelligible to us all the chefs d'ceuvre of antiquity. Fragments only
of classic works remained, scattered throughout Europe, and on the
point of being lost. These learned men of Italy collected, collated,
and explained them ; without their antiquarian zeal, all the expe
rience of past ages, all the models of taste, all the great works of
genius, would never have reached us, and probably, without such
guides, we should never have attained the point on which we now
stand." In thus writing, the author, of course, had in his eye, not only the
close of the fourteenth, but the greater part of the fifteenth century,
when Italy, in truth, became the garden of literature and the arts,
the wonder and delightful resort of the learned throughout Europe.
As a fact, it is of importance, not only to concede, but observe this,
and let the precedence be fully understood as holding a place in the
course of events abouC to transpire. The learning and refinement
of Italy, about to assume that position in history which the wisdom
of Greece had done in the days of old, must enjoy her long reign of
a hundred and fifty years without any superior. Now that the

ITALY AND ENGLAND. XXX111
human mind is waking up, let the Italian " imagine that all know
ledge consisted in knowing and imitating the ancient masters," and
let "the highest glory be attached to classical learning;" let the
"chief works of antiquity be rendered intelligible," and the men of
Italy " collect, collate, and explain them." In short, as Greece is
coming to the assistance of Rome, and "the great masters" must
first rise to show the extent of their powers ; since the former, at
the commencemeut of the Christian era, had stood in a peculiar
relation to the surrounding nations — so, let Italy now stand in the
same relation to Europe. Distinguished for classical learning, and
first in the arts, if not the sciences, she claims to be the well-spring
of all the less civilized nations in the west. Minute criticism may
here be dispensed with, nor does any admirer of the Sacred Volume
need to object to the fullest concession. Let Dante and Petrarch
for the moment, and Boccaccio and Poggio Bracciolini, lead the
way. In all this, however, it must now be granted in return, there was
literally nothing of Divine light, properly so called — no reverent,
distinct approach to the Sacred Volume ; and this becomes the more
observable, as the only country in Europe to which we can look for
this, was that which, of all others, was held in greatest contempt by
Italy ; to say nothing of its being at once the most distant from Rome,
if not also the most oppressed by that power. This was no other
than our native land. Bracciolini, the last of these Italian scholars,
had actually visited it, and viewed this country with chagrin, if not
disdain, when compared with the enthusiastic love of classical litera
ture which polished and adorned his country.
Tes, so far as the revival of learning was concerned, it is worthy
of particular notice that, in England, it was associated, even from
this early period, with a special leaning towards the Oracles of God,
and that on the part of several eminent men, all alike well known,
not only at home, but as distant as Italy. Of these, in proof, we
notice three — Robert Grossteste, Richard Fitzralph, and, above all,
our own, Wicklieee.
The first of these, indeed, Gbossteste, died as early as the year
1253, and, three years before that event, made no scruple, when
preaching at Lyon before Innocent IV., to arraign his clergy, in the
boldest terms, for their ignorance, and arrogance, and flagitious
conduct. Now this was above a hundred years before the erection
of Boccaccio's chair for Greek in Florence ; and yet certainly
Grossteste was not unacquainted with either Greek or Hebrew.
He had translated Dionysius the Areopagite and Damascenus into
Latin — had facilitated the knowledge of Greek by a translation of

XXXIV INTRODUCTION.
Suidas's Lexicon — had promoted John of Basingstoke because he
was a Greek scholar, and possessed of Greek manuscripts, which he
is said to have brought from Athens. Nicholas, surnamed Grsecus,
resided with Grossteste, to help him in translating from the Greek;
nor should it be forgotten that, however humble might be the claims
of this eminent man to the character of a Grecian, all this happened
above a century before that Boccaccio himself had positively asserted
of the Italian scholars, that they did not know so much as the Greek
alphabet. Nor was Grossteste unacquainted with Hebrew, though
we cannot assert, with Wharton, that he was profoundly skilled ia
it. At this early period, however, the chief eminence of Grossteste
arose from his being a decided friend to vernacular translations of the
Scriptures. " It is the will of God," said he, " that the Holy Scrip
tures should be translated by many translators, and that there
should be different translations in the Church, so that what is ob
scurely expressed by one, may be more perspicuously rendered by
another." Was there any other country in Europe where as much
had been expressed by any man, before the middle of the fourteenth
century ? If not, then let Grossteste or Greathead be allowed to
have sounded, if not the first, one of the earliest feeble notes of
preparation ; though more than a hundred years must pass away
before the subject be taken up in good earnest, and though England,
confessedly, will first sink into greater barbarism.
Uichaed Fitzealph, an Irishman, and the energetic precursor of
Wickliffe, in opposition to the Friars, was born, it has been said, at
Dundalk, and, at all events, certainly there interred, though he had
died at Avignon. Then Primate of Ireland, after preaching inde-
fatigably in that country and in London, he had gone to face
Innocent VI. himself, on the subject of those exactions and abuses
which had become past all endurance. Still farther to the west than
even the "Thule" of the Ancients, at the utmost verge ofthe
Pontiff's authority, even in Ireland itself, there was then a thirst
after knowledge which could not be satisfied. Fitzralph complained
aloud, and told Innocent that " no book could stir, whether in
divinity, law, or physic, but these Friars were able and ready to buy
it up," — "that he himself had sent four of his secular chaplains
from Armagh to Oxford, who sent him word again that they could
neither find the Bible, nor any other good profitable book in divinity,
meet for their study, and therefore were minded to return home to
their own country."
As for the Primate himself, by his own account, " the Lord had
taught him, and brought him out of the profound vanities of
Aristotle's philosophy, to the Scriptures of God." "To thee be

PREDECESSORS OF WICKLIFFE. XXXV
praise," says he, at tho commencement of his Life, written by him
self, once in the possession of Foxe, and which he meant to have
printed, — " To thee be praise, to thee be glory, to thee be thanks
giving, 0 Jesus most holy, Jesus most powerful, Jesus most amiable
— who hast said, ' I am the way, the truth, and the life,' — a way
without deviation, truth without a cloud, and life without end.
For thou the way hast shown me, thou the truth hast taught me, and
thou the life hast promised me. A way thou wast to me, in exile,
the truth thou wast to me, in counsel, and life thou wilt be to me, in
reward." Could the assertion which has been often repeated, only be con
firmed, that Fitzralph translated the New Testament into the Irish
language, or that such a translation existed in his time, it would
form one of the most curious facts in the history of modern litera
ture ; pointing out Ireland as that country in Europe which had
been the first pitied, as it has been the last. But, at all events, in
the very same year, or 1360, in which Fitzralph expired at Avignon,
John Wickliffe, at the age of thirty-six, was allured from his hitherto
retired life ; and when he came to write his " Trialogue," he speaks of
Fitzralph as having preceded him, in terms of high commendation.
We have now, however, arrived at a point in history fraught with
the deepest interest, and bearing so directly on the subject of the
following pages, that it becomes necessary to pause a few moments,
and look round. Let Grecian literature, by all means, revive in
Italy, for this will be drawn upon, as soon as the proper time arrives ;
but, in the meanwhile, something else must be accomplished and very
far to the west. The event which took place was not only a marked
and powerful one, in relation to England, but it formed the first of
a series in Europe, although more than an entire century passed
away before the precedent was followed by other countries. We
refer to the translation of the entire Sacred Volume into the lan
guage spoken by the people. Fragments there had been in several
languages, but the present work being complete from Genesis to
Bevelation, intelligible to the common people of that day, and in
tended for their express perusal, may be regarded as the first positive
instance of its kind in modern Europe, no continental nation having
anything similar to produce.
John Wicklieee, a native of Yorkshire, was born in the year
1324, and, in 1360, at the age of thirty-six, first came into public
view, where he conspicuously remained to the day of his death, or
the 31st of December, 1384. For his life and opinions we refer to
other sources, and must here confine our attention to that work
which will ever give the chief distinction to his name. o 2

XXXVI INTRODUCTION.
Before the commencement of such a design, the position of
Wickliffe should be contemplated. To say nothing of the Maho
metan and Pagan worlds, two other communities had extended their
influence over the nations. Alike opposed to the right of private
judgment, and the rising freedom of the human mind, and now
equally sunk into a state of unutterable depravity, both had fixed a
malignant eye on that very book which Wickliffe had determined to
give to his country. These two, it is well known, were the Eastern
and Western, or the Greek and Latin Churches. Both had not
only, and long since, utterly neglected and contemned the Sacred
Writings, but both bad interdicted their translation into any ver
nacular tongue. That it was not only unlawful, but injurious, for
the people at large to read the Scriptures, had, indeed, for ages, been
regarded as an axiom, by all these nations. Nor was this idea left
to pass current merely as a received opinion. Not to mention other
proofs, more than a hundred and fifty years before Wickliffe had
finished his determined purpose, or in the year 1229, at the Council
of Toulouse, when forty-five canons were passed and issued for the
extinction of heresy and the re -establishment oi peace, what were
two of those canons ? One involved the first court of inquisition,
and another the first canon, which forbade the Scriptures to the
laity, or the translation of any portion of them into the vulgar
tongue. The latter was expressed in very pointed terms.
" We also forbid the laity to possess any of the books of the Old
or New Testament, except, perhaps, the Psalter or Breviary for the
Divine Offices, or the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, whieh some, out
of devotion, wish to have ; but having any of these books translated
into the vulgar tongue, we strictly forbid."1
In the face of all this, and far more than can now be explained,'
must Wickliffe commence his heartfelt task ; and so he did, with his
eyes open to the prejudices of a world. His translation, which
was finished in the year 1380, is supposed to have occupied him,
amidst various interruptions, for many years. Some have imagined
that this great work employed the translator for ten years only, but
Mr. Baber, with far greater probability, has said, — " From an early
period of his life, he had devoted his various learning, and all the
powerful energies of his mind, to effect this, and, at length, by
1 "Prohibemus etiam, ne libros Veteris Testamenti," &c. Labbei Sacro-
Sancta Concilia ii. , p. 1. , p. 430. The profane mixture of human composition
with the Divine "Word is sufficiently characteristic ; and it is of importance to
observe that the prohibition expressly referred to the Latin Bible itself. It
seems to have been a step taken to prevent translation.

THE TIMES OF WICKLIFFE. XXXV11
intense application on his own part, and with some assistance from
a few of the most learned of his followers, he had the glory to com
plete a book, which, alone, would have been sufficient (or at least
ought) to have procured him the veneration of his own age, and the
commendations of posterity."
In accounting for such a movement as this, it lias been but too
common to inquire after something similar which had happened in
the earth, and loosely supposing some connexion between them, as
cause and effect, thus leave the extraordinary event, without the
slightest reference to the finger of God. Any influential connexion,
however, between the Waldenses or Vaudois and Wickliffe has
never been clearly proved, and probably never will. At all events,
before he could be stimulated by their example, he seems to have
taken his ground, as it is only in his latest compositions that a few
slight references to them are to be found, as to a people with whose
sufferings he sympathised. He was on the Continent, at Bruges, it
is true, from 1374 to 1376, but he had commenced, and must have
been far advanced in his undertaking, long before then. In short,
as far as the term can be applied to any human being, the claims of
Wickliffe to originality have now come to be better understood, and
every Christian will recognise the " secret mover ;" while, in refer
ence to the times following, when tracing the history or influence of
Divine Truth throughout Europe, the habit of ascending no higher
than Germany is past, or passing away.
Down to the period of about two years before Wickliffe had com
pleted his translation, the only ideas or incidents which had any
powerful influence upon mankind generally, were such as stood con
nected with the Pontiff, and his peculiar system of rule or govern
ment ; but, in reference to this subject, by the year 1378, among the
European nations, there had sprung up a marked difference of
opinion. One question engrossed them all, and it was nothing less
than this — Who was Pontiff? In the year 1305, through the in
fluence of France, the Court of Kome had been translated into that
Kingdom, and there it remained for seventy-four years, to the great
damage of Eome as a city, but without any rent or division in the
system. Edward the Third had expired on the 21st of June, 1377,
after a reign of above half a century, and about that very moment
Gregory XL had ordered Wickliffe to be seized and imprisoned, till
farther orders. Early in the following year, although our translator
of the Scriptures had not only stood high in favour with the late
King, but still did so with many in Parliament, and was powerfully
protected by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, he was summoned
by the Bishops to answer for himself at St. Paul's. Thus did this

XXXV111 INTRODUCTION.
body of men first come out, appearing as a distinct interest in the
kingdom, and thus they will remain for above five generations to
come ; proving ever and anon, upon all occasions of alarm, that they
were the determined opponents of Divine Truth. As a body, they
will oppose its being conveyed to the people, and at every successive
step of progress. Their malice at this time, however, was over
ruled, as it will so often and conspicuously be, a century and a half
later ; but, in the meanwhile, nothing must prevent Wickliffe from
finishing his translation.3
The year 1378 was in truth an important one as it regarded our
translator's design. On the 27th of March the reigning Pontiff
had died ; an event which not only put an end to the bulls against
Wickliffe, but gave rise to what was called " the great schism;" so
that soon after there were two Pontiffs — one beyond the mountains,
as the Italians said, and one at Kome — consigning each other to
perdition. Of this state of things Wickliffe did not fail to avail
himself. " He saw the head of the body cloven in twain, and the
two parts made to fight with each other ;" and he immediately sent
forth two tracts, one upon " the schism " itself, and the other upon
" the truth of Scripture." Every city and state became agitated,
and as the question soon divided the nations throughout, it so hap
pened that JEngland and Scotland were of opposite opinions : the
former holding fast by Urban VI. of Rome, who had been first
chosen ; the latter followed Clement VII. of Avignon. England
and France indeed became the most ardent supporters of the oppo
site parties, while such was the extent to which the controversy had
gone, that some men of the University of Paris had begun to think
of a plurality of Pontiffs, and the appointment of one to every
kingdom. The idea of one power exercising authority over all nations
had seemed to them untenable, if not injurious.
Soon after this, in the year 1379, Wickliffe, as divinity professor,
had gone to fulfil his accustomed annual duty at Oxford, but there
he was seized with an alarming illness. The friars, imagining that
his course was now near an end, contrived to visit him. Four of
their ablest men had been selected, or a friar from each of the men
dicant orders, and they were admitted to a patient hearing. After
reminding him of the great injury he had done to their order — for
Wickliffe was a determined enemy to all 'idleness and all extortion—

2 The Assembly at St. Paul's having broken up iu riot and confusion, there
was a second attempt to execute their purpose in a Synod at Lambeth in June,
but the Bishops were deterred from coming to any definite sentence by a
message from the Queen-Mother by Sir Lewis Clifford.

WICKLIFFE S TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. XXxix
they exhorted him, as one near to death, that he would now, as a
true penitent, bewail and revoke in their presence, whatever he had
said to their disparagement. As soon as they had done, Wickliffe
calling for his servant, desired to be raised up on his pillow ; when
collecting all his strength, with a severe and expressive countenance,
and in a tone of voice not to be misunderstood, he exclaimed, " i"
shall not die, but live, to declare the evil deeds of the friars." Con
fused, if not confounded, little expecting such a reply, they imme
diately left him ; and Wickliffe recovered, to finish in the year fol
lowing his translation of the entire Bible.
Extraordinary, however, as the character of Wickliffe was, — a
man confessedly far above all his contemporaries, — it may still be
inquired, whether he was qualified for the task of translating the
Sacred Volume ? The Scriptures had been originally given in
Hebrew and Greek ; but so far from the nations of the West fur
nishing men sufficiently acquainted with either, England at least had
sunk into greater ignorance even since the days of Grossteste ;
nay, a hundred and fifty years later, when Tyndale had translated
from the original tongues, some of the priests of the day were trying
to persuade the people that Greek and Hebrew were languages
newly invented. Here, it is true, was Wickliffe, an able and acute,
a zealous and determined man, and withal an excellent Latin scholar,
but of Greek or Hebrew he knew nothing. Nor was it at all
necessary that he should possess such erudition, since a translation
from either Geeek oe Hebrew would not have harmonized with
the first, or the present, intention of Divine Providence. A reason
there was, and one worthy of infinite wisdom, why not only the
English translation, but most of the first European versions must
be made from the Latin. These nations, including our own, had
nothing in common with the Greek community, but for ages they
had been overrun with the Latin. This language, long since dead,
even in Italy, had been the refuge and stronghold of their oppressor,
from generation to generation ; and upon looking back, no spectacle
presented to the eye is so remarkable, as that of so many different
nations, equally spell-bound by the same expedient. There was a
Latin service, and there was a Latin Bible, professedly received,
but the possession of even this had been forbidden to the people at
large ; very much in the same spirit as the Shasters of India are
forbidden by the Brahmins to be looked upon, or even heard, by the
people. It was the Latin Bible, therefore, long buried in cloisters,
or covered with the dust of ages, which must now be brought forth
to view. Confessedly imperfect, it was of importance first to prove
that it had all along contained enough for mortal man to know, in

xl INTRODUCTION.
order to his eternal salvation ; and once translated into any native
tongue, not only will the language touch the heart, but the people
at last know what that mysterious book was, from which they had been
debarred, so wickedly and so long. Although, therefore, the nation
was yet a hundred and fifty years distant from the English Bible,
properly so called, the present should be regarded as the first pre
liminary step. An all-disposing foresight, far above that of any
human agent, is now distinctly visible in drawing first upon that
very language which had been employed for ages as the instrument
of mental bondage. It shall now be made to contribute to the
emancipation of the human mind. Latin, it is true, had been the
conventional language of the priests and students of different
countries ; but still, so long as this language remained untouched
by a translation of the Scriptures into any vernacular tongue, it is a
historical canon that no nation was ever greatly moved. This holds
true of our own country, in the age of manuscript, but it will become
far more emphatically so, even seventy years after the invention of
printing, when the Scriptures, once translated from the original
tongues, come to be printed in the language then spoken, and spoken
still. At such a period as this the translation of Wickliffe could only be
diffused, of course, by the laborious process of transcription ; but
transcribed it was diligently, both entire and in parts, and as eagerly
read. There were those who, at every hazard, sought wisdom from
the Book of God, and their number could not be few. A contempo
rary writer has affirmed that " a man could not meet two people on
the road, but one of them was a disciple of Wickliffe." This was the
testimony of an enemy, and not improbably the language of hatred
and fear combined, uttered with a wish to damage the cause ; it was
the testimony of an ecclesiastic, a Canon of Leicester, in reference
to an era hailed by the people ; and although the Word of Truth had
not "free course," there can be no question that it was glorified in
the reception given to it by many. " The soldiers," he says, " with
the dukes and earls, were the chief adherents of this sect— they were
their most strenuous promoters and boldest combatants— their most
powerful defenders and their invincible protectors." A very remark
able admission, as it accounts for the great progress made, in spite
of opposition. All this and much more is uttered in the tone of
lamentation ; and what was the occasion, as expressed by the Canon
himself? " This Master John Wickliffe," says he, " hath translated
the Gospel out of Latin into English, which Christ had entrusted
with the clergy and doctors of the Church, that they might minister
it to the laity and weaker sort, according to the state of the times

WICKLIFFE'S VERSION AND ITS EFFECTS. xii
and the wants of men. So that by this means the Gospel is made
vulgar, and laid more open to the laity, and even to women who can
read, than it used to be to the most learned of the clergy and those of
the best understanding ! And what was before the chief gift of
the clergy and doctors of the Church, is made for ever common to
the laity!"3 — ;
It was in the same spirit that another contemporary writer urged
that " the prelates ought not to suffer that every one at his pleasure
should read the Scripture, translated even into Latin ; because, as is
plain from experience, this has been many ways the occasion of fall
ing into heresies and errors. It is not, therefore, politic that any
one, wheresoever and whensoever he will, should give himself to the
frequent study of the Scriptures."*
These men specially referred to a period whieh lasted for about
twenty years, or from 1380 to 1400, and it was one, though but too
short, which distinguished this country from every other in Europe.
However transient, or but like a handful of corn for all England,
in any sketch of the times it should never pass unnoticed.
While the nations generally were discussing the respective claims
of two rival Pontiffs, amidst all the confusion of the times, and
although there were many adversaries, for the last twenty years of
the fourteenth century, in England, no authoritative stop must be
put to the perusal of the Divine record. The Bishops, it is true,
with the Primate of Canterbury at their head, may rage and re
monstrate, may write to Eome and receive replies, but in vain. The
entire Sacred Volume had been translated, the people were tran
scribing and reading, and the translator had frequently expressed
himself in the boldest terms. " The authority of the Holy Scrip
tures," said he, "infinitely surpasses any writing, how authentic
soever it may appear, because the aiithority of Jesus Christ is in
finitely above that of all mankind." — " The authority of the Scrip
tures is independent of any other authority, and is preferable to
every other writing, but especially to the books of the Church of
Eome."—" I am certain, indeed, from the Scriptures, that neither
Antichrist, nor all his disciples, nay, nor all fiends, may really impugn
any part of that volume as it regards the excellence of its doctrine.
But in all these things it appears to me that the believing man
should use this rule — If he soundly understands the Sacred Scrip
ture, let him bless God ; if he be deficient in such perception, let
him labour for soundness of mind. Let him also dwell as a gram

3 Henry de Knyghton, "De eventis Angliai."
4 William Butler, a Franciscan friar.

xlil INTRODUCTION.
marian upon the letter, but be fully aware of imposing a sense upon
Scripture which he doubts the Holy Spirit does not demand." 5
Many other passages, in terms as strong, might be quoted from
his writings ; and " among his latest acts," says Vaughan, " was a
defence in Parliament of the translation of the Scriptures into
English. These he declared to be the property of the people, and
one which no party should be allowed to wrest from them."
Now that the cause of such a man, as well as that he himself,
should have been so befriended, was one of the distinguishing features
of the present period. The Duke of Lancaster continued to be
his shield for years ; and although, when Wickliffe, in addition to
grievances felt, went on to Christian doctrines, the Duke faltered in
his support, yet nearly six years after the translator was in his grave,
the same voice was heard in favour of the translation. In the
thirteenth of Eichard II. , or 1390, a bill was proposed to be brought
into the House of Lords for suppressing it, when Lancaster, in
boldly opposing this, told them, "That he would maintain our having
this law in our own tongue, whoever they should be that brought in
the bill ;" and once introduced, it was immediately thrown out.
But Lancaster was not the only friend : to his brother, the Duke of
Gloucester, Wickliffe dedicated at least one of his pieces ; and on
one important occasion, when the former gave way, the Queen-
Mother, or widow of the Black Prince, put a stop to persecution.
Lord Percy, Earl-Marshal, was also friendly ; but perhaps, above all,
much was owing to the reigning Queen, and that for ten years after
Wickliffe's death. Ann of Luxemburg, the sister of the Emperor
Wenceslaus, and of the King of Bohemia, as consort of Eichard II.
had arrived in this country in December 1381 ; an event of great
importance in connexion with Wickliffe's exertions. If he had so
far enlightened England, his writings were also to electrify Bohemia,
so that Ann had " come to the kingdom for such a time as this."
This lady, already acquainted with three languages, Bohemian,
German, and Latin, soon acquired that of this country, and for years
was distinguished for her diligent perusal of the Scriptures in Eng
lish. This much was testified of her by a very notable witness —
the Lord Chancellor Arundel, then Archbishop of York, when he
came to preach at her interment. " Although she was a stranger,"
he said, "yet she constantly studied the four Gospels in English;
and in the study of these, and reading of godly books, she was more
diligent than the prelates, though their office and business require

5 Trialogus, Hb. iii.

WICKLIFFE'S VERSION AND ITS EFFECTS. xliii
this of them." The Gospels in English, he added, the Queen had
sent to himself to peruse, and he had replied that they were "good
and true?' Queen Ann's course of reading was even well known
to Wickliffe, before he expired in 1384, so that she must have served
as a powerful example to others, for at least ten years. The trans
lator had thus early inquired, whether " to hereticate" her on ac
count of her practice, " would not be Luciferian folly."
The Queen, says Eapin, was a great favourer of Wickliffe's doc
trine, and had she lived longer would have saved his followers ; but
the illustrious foreigner once interred, and thus so remarkably eulo
gized, a different scene immediately opened to view.
After his Queen's death, Eichard II. , the grandchild of Edward
III., had gone to Ireland, there to prolong the misgovernment of
that country ; and only four months had elapsed, when this very
man, Arundel, who afterwards was the main instrument in dethron
ing the King, and one of the bitterest enemies of Divine Truth in
the next century, was in great alarm. In deep hypocrisy, at West
minster, he might choose to twit the prelates with their ignorance
of Scripture, in comparison with a Queen who had to acquire the
language, and thus please the ear of his Majesty, as well as seem
to lament his loss ; but he had no intention that the people should
take the hint, or advance, and show him, as well as his brethren,
the way. The remarkable though transient period, however, to
which we now refer, was' as distinguished for boldness of sentiment,
as for the protection providentially afforded to those who were
searching the Scriptures for themselves.
On the 29th of January, 1395, a Parliament was held at West
minster, and the time had come to speak out. The sentiments were
not those of a feeble band, whispered in secret. They were ex
pressed in the shape of a remonstrance, and presented to the House
of Commons. They were posted at St. Paul's, and also at West
minster. This, let it be observed, was above a hundred and twenty
years before Luther's voice was heard ; and, taken all in all, the
argument throughout may be compared to an arrow, shot from a
bow as strong as the intrepid German afterwards ever bent.
Eichard, still in Ireland, was preparing to take the field again,
when Arundel, our preacher at Westminster in August last, had
reached him in May, and accompanied by Braybrook, the Bishop
of London. Six or seven years before this the disciples of Wick
liffe had been congregating in different places, and actually appoint
ing ministers among themselves to perform Divine service, after
their own sentiments: while his "poor priests," as they were
styled, had been travelling and preaching, barefooted, through the

xliv

INTRODUCTION.

country; but this pointed and posted remonstrance had filled
Arundel, Braybrook, and their brethren with dread. They entreated
the King, in name of the clergy, to return, intimating that the
least delay might occasion irreparable damage. The followers of
Wickliffe, they said, had made instance to set on foot a reformation
— they had many friends in the kingdom, nay, in the Parliament
itself, and the clergy were afraid they would proceed to action.
Eichard listened, immediately left the management of his war to
the Earl of March, and returned. He took certain measures, it is
true, to cheek the rising tide of sentiment, but still the Scriptures
were not suppressed, nor was there one drop of blood shed for what
" they called heresy," till the commencement of the next century,
under Henry the Fourth.
At the conclusion, therefore, of the fourteenth century, we con
cede to Petrarch, or Boccaccio and his fellows, all that is demanded
as to the revival of learning in Italy ; nor has England any occasion
to be ashamed of the contrast or distinction between the two
countries. The pursuits of both were but in their infancy. In the
former, "imagining that all knowledge was to be found in the
ancient Masters," they were beginning to seek after Mount Par
nassus and their old Eomans ; but in the latter they were in search
of Mount Zion and the fishermen of Galilee. The Italian had
become eager after the wisdom of Greece, and the nervous oratory
of his forefathers ; the Englishman, after the wisdom of God, and
the course pursued by the first planters of Christianity. If any of
our countrymen were looking to Greeee at all, it might be only to
Buch as had proved to " be the first-fruits of Achaia unto God ; " and
if to Eome, it was only to those in the imperial city, once so beloved,
" whose faith was spoken of throughout the whole world."
The manuscripts of Wickliffe's version complete, are numerous
still ; and perhaps not much less so than those of the New Testa
ment separately, not to mention different pieces, or entire books of
the translation. In examining some of these, whether in the Bod
leian Library at Oxford, in the British Museum, or in private collec
tions, we have been struck with their legibility and beauty. They
have all, indiscriminately, been called Wickliffe's version, but varia
tions of expression are to be found in a few ; and it is not so
generally known that we possess two distinct versions, one under
Wickliffe's own eye, and another a recension of the entire sacred
text. It is certainly a singular circumstance that this translation of
Wickliffe has never been printed ! The New Testament, it is true,
was published by Mr. Lewis, in the year 1731, or three hundred

ITALY AND ENGLAND IN CONTRAST. xiv
and fifty years afttr it was finished, and once more by Mr. Baber, in
1810 ; but the Bible entire, now four hundred and sixty-four years
old, has never yet been published. By the time that Tyndale was
born, indeed, it would not have been intelligible to the people at
large; moreover, it was from the Latin Vulgate, and the period
had arrived when the translation must be drawn from the original
tongues. But still, even as a most interesting literary production, one
could never have imagined that above twenty sovereigns would have
sat on the throne of England since the invention of printing, before
such a work had issued from the press. By Fabricius, a foreigner,
as well as others, this has been often referred to as a national dis
grace ; but happily, the reproach, at last, is wiped away. Both
these versions to which we have alluded are now published, printed
in parallel columns, at the Oxford University press, and under the
eye of Sir Frederick Madden and the Eev. J. Forshall, of the British
Museum.6 Thus then, whatever darkness reigned, or enmity was shown in
this country, throughout the whole of the next century, these pre
cious volumes were preserved, and the surviving copies remain,
like so many veritable torch-bearers for the time being. They may,
and indeed must have shone often in secret, or at the midnight hour,
and certainly not without effects, to be disclosed another day : but
at all events, here is one palpable existing distinction between this
country, and every other, at the moment. It is one which stands in
the finest keeping with all that took place in the days of Tyndale.
The favour of God, even at this early period, had already begun to
place this Island in that conspicuous position which it was afterwards
to occupy among the nations of Europe, with regard to the possession
and the diffusion of His blessed Word.
Let this ever be regarded as the grand distinction of Britain.
And while the Italian historian, down to the present hour, continues
to rejoice in the triumph of literature and the arts upon his native
soil, nearly five hundred years ago ; let not the British Christian fall
behind him iu joy and gratitude over that contemporaneous triumph
which at last led his country to a better hope and a brighter day.
Let him rather compare the two countries now, and observe the too
much neglected, but all-sufficient reason, for the prodigious distinction
between the two.
No storm, however, arose in Italy, nor any cloud, to obscure the
6 The first, or earliest text, is from a manuscript of the late Francis
Douce, Esq. , now belonging to the Bodleian, at Oxford ; the second is from
MS. Reg. i., c. viii., in the British Museum.

xlvi INTRODUCTION.
rising sun of her classical literature. On the contrary, though Eome
itself may still be troubled, that sun is only about to burst upon the
country in all its splendour, and the men of Italy are to be allowed
ample scope still, for above a hundred years, to do their utmost.
Very different was the reception given by our forefathers, as a nation
or as a government, to the voice of God. Here at home, in some
resemblance to the visit paid by the Almighty to Elijah, there must,
it seems, be first the wind, and then the earthquake, and then the
fire, before ever the " still small voice" is heard with effect. Nay,
and when once it comes through Tyndale's version, and is heard by
the people, we shall find, however strange, that no official man in
England will be able to divine from whence it came, or by what
mysterious conveyance it had reached their ears !
We have conceded to Italy the precedence which she claims, as
the revivalist of classical learning ; and truly the first buds of pro
mise in the fourteenth, were as nothing to the full-blown garden of
the fifteenth century. In the first years of its commencement, indi
vidual natives of Greece were finding their way into that country,
nay, from about the year 1395, their language was taught in Flo
rence and Venice, in Milan and Genoa, by Emanuel Chrysoloras.
The Pontiff chosen in 1409, Alexander V., was a Grecian by birth.
The whole lives of Italian scholars, we are told, were now devoted to
the recovery of ancient works, and the revival of philology ; while
the discovery of an unknown manuscript was regarded, says Tira-
boschi, " almost as the conquest of a kingdom." But " that ardour
which animated Italy in the first part of the fifteenth century, was
by no means common to the rest of Europe. Neither England, nor
France, nor Germany, seemed aware of the approaching change."
So says Mr. Hallam, in perfect harmony with Sismondi. Learning,
indeed, such as it was, had even begun to decline at Oxford, but the
Eastern empire was now hastening to its end, and in 1453 came the
fall of Constantinople. Long, therefore, before the close of the cen
tury, the roads to Italy will be crowded with many a traveller, and
among the number we shall find that Englishmen, though the most
distant, were not the last to hasten after classical attainments.
Native Italians, we are perfectly aware, have been jealous of our
ascribing too much to the event just hinted, but there can be no
question that, in its consequences, it proved the first powerful sum
mons to Europe to awake. On the sacking of Constantinople, we
know of five vessels at least, that were loaded with the learned men
of Greece, who escaped into Italy. Of course they brought their
most valued treasure, or their books, with them ; and thus by one
and another, as well as the eager Italian himself, a stock of manu-

THE INVENTION OF PRINTING. xlvii
script was accumulated on Italian ground, which was just about to
be honoured with a reception, very different, indeed, from that of
being slowly increased by the pen of the copyist ! Italy thus became
the point of attraction to all Europe. But how singular that the
scholars of the West, as with common consent, should hasten to this
one country for that learning, over the effects of which, the chief
authority there, though so pleased at first, was afterwards to bewail,
nay, to mourn for ages, or to the present hour !
While, however, Italian scholars were thus busy, and leaving the
Pontiff to fight his own battles, they were but little aware of what
was preparing for them elsewhere. They were in fact more igno
rant of this, than the Western scholar had been of their thirst for
learning ; and was there no indication here, of but one guiding, one
all-gracious power ? The Invention of Printing.
An obscure German had been revolving in his mind, the first
principles of an art, applicable to any language on the face of the
earth, which was to prove the most important discovery in the annals
of mankind. At the moment when they were storming Constanti
nople in the East, he was thus busy ; spending all his substance, in
plying his new art with vigour upon a book, and upon such a book '¦
Neither Kings, nor Pontiffs, nor Councils had been, or were to be,
consulted here ; nor was he encouraged to proceed by one smile from
his own Emperor, or from any princely patron.
No mechanical invention having proved so powerful in its effects
as that of printing, it is not wonderful that so much research has
been bestowed on the history of its origin and progress. The precise
order in which some particular cities first enjoyed its advantages,
still continues to afford room for minute criticism, but the progress
of inquiry has reduced the field of controversy to a very narrow com
pass. A better history of the art, indeed, and more especially of its
curious and rapid progress throughout Europe, may, and should still,
be written ; but the general results already ascertained, have now
approached to such accuracy, as to suggest and justify several impor
tant and striking reflections. These results demand our notice at
the close of the century, as they will be found to involve one impor
tant bearing on the subsequent history of the Sacred Volume, when
it came to be first printed in the vernacular tongue.
Mentz, in the Duchy of Hesse (Mayence or Mainz), on the left-
bank of the Ehine, and four hundred miles from Vienna, may be
regarded as the mother city of printing ; and although three indi
viduals shared the honour of perfecting the art on the same spot, if

xlviii INTRODUCTION.
not under the same roof, the invention itself is due to only one man.
Henne Gsensfleisch, commonly called John Gutenberg, (Anglice,
Goodhill,) the individual referred to, was born in Mentz, not Stras
burg, as sometimes stated, about the year 1400 ; but, in 1424, he had
taken up his abode in the latter city as a merchant. About ten
years after this, or in 1435, we have positive evidence that his inven
tion, then a profound secret, engrossed his thoughts ; and here, in
conjunction with one Andrew Dritzehen and two other citizens, all
bound to secrecy, Gutenberg had made some experiments in printing
with metal types before the year 1439. By this time Dritzehen was
dead ; and in six or seven years more, the money embarked being
exhausted, not one fragment survives in proof of what they had
attempted. Gutenberg, returning to his native city in 1445-6,
found it absolutely necessary to disclose his progress. More money
was demanded, if ever he was to succeed ; and liaving once opened
his mind fully to a citizen, a goldsmith of Mentz, John Fust, he
engaged to co-operate by affording the needful advances. At last,
therefore, between the years 1450 and 1455, for it has no date, their
first great work was finished. This was no other than the Bible
itself! — the Latin Bible. Altogether unknown to the rest of the
world, this was what had been doing at Mentz, in the West, when
Constantinople, in the East, was storming, and the Itahan " brief
men," or copyists, were so very busy with their pens. This Latin
Bible, of 641 leaves, formed the first important specimen of printing
with metal types. The very first homage was to be paid to that Sacked
Volume, which had been sacrilegiously buried, nay, interdicted so
long ; as if it had been, with pointing finger, to mark at once the
greatest honour ever to be bestowed on the art, and infinitely the
highest purpose to which it was ever to be applied. Nor was this
all. Had it been a single page, or even an entire sheet which was
then produced, there might have been less occasion to have noticed
it ; but there was something in the whole character of the affair
which, if not unprecedented, rendered it singular in the usual cur
rent of human events. This Bible formed two volumes in folio,
whicli have been "justly praised for the strength and beauty ofthe
paper, the exactness of the register, the lustre of the ink." It was a
work of 1282 pages, finally executed— a most laborious process, in
volving not only a considerable period of time, but no small amount
of mental, manual, and mechanical labour ; and yet, now that it had
been finished, and now offered for sale, not a single human being,
save the artists themselves, knew how it had been accomplished!
The profound secret remained with themselves, while the entire
process was probably still confined to the bosom of only two or three !

LATIN BIBLE, THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED. xllX
Of this splendid work, in two volumes, at least 18 copies are known
to exist, four on vellum, and fourteen on paper. Of the former, two
are in this country, one of which is in the Grenville collection ; the
other two are in the Eoyal Libraries of Paris and Berlin. Of the
fourteen paper copies there are ten in Britain: three in public
libraries at Oxford, London, and Edinburgh, and seven in the private
collections of different noblemen and gentlemen. The vellum copy
has been sold as low as £260, though in 1827, as high as £504
sterling. Even the paper Sussex copy lately brought £190. Thus,
as if it had been to mark the noblest purpose to which the art would
ever be applied, the eiest Book printed with moveable metal types,
and so beautifully, was the Bible.
Like almost all original inventors, Gutenberg made nothing by the
discovery, at which he had laboured for at least twenty years, from
1435 to 1455. The expenses had been very great ; and, in the course
of business, after the Bible was finished, the inventor was in debt to
the goldsmith, who, though opulent, now exhibited a character cer
tainly not to be admired. He insisted on Gutenberg paying up his
debt ; and, having him in his power, actually instituted a suit against
him, when, in the course of law, the whole printing apparatus fell
into Fust's possession, on the 6th of November, 1455. According to
Trithemius, one of the best authorities, poor Gutenberg had spent
his whole estate in this difficult discovery ; but still, not discouraged,
he contrived to print till 1465, though on a humbler scale. Having
been appointed by Adolphus the Elector of Mentz one of his gentle
men, (inter aulicos,) with an annual pension, he was less dependent
on an art which to him had been a source of trouble, if not of vexa
tion. He died in the city of his birth in February 1468.
Fust had, from 1456, pursued his advantage, and with great vigour,
having adopted as his acting partner Peter Schoeffer, (Anglice,
Shepherd,) a young man of genius, already trained to the business,
to whom he afterwards gave his daughter in marriage. The types
employed hitherto had been made of brass, cut by the hand. An
advance to the present mode of producing types by letter-founding
was still wanted, and the art of cutting steel punches and casting
matrices has been ascribed to Schoeffer.
The first publication of Fust and Schoeffer was a beautiful edition
of the Psalms, still in Latin, finished on the 14th of August, 1457,
and there was a second in 1459 ; but the year 1462 arrived, and this
was a marked and decisive era in the history of this extraordinary
invention ; not merely for a second edition of the Latin Bible, in
two volumes folio, dated 1462, and now executed according to the

1 INTRODUCTION.
improved state of the art ; but on account of what took place in
Mentz at the same moment.
A change had arrived, far from being anticipated by these the
inventors of printing, and one which they, no doubt, regarded as the
greatest calamity which could have befallen them. Gutenberg had
been the father of printing, and Schoeffer the main improver of it,
while Fust, not only by his ingenuity, but his wealth, had assisted
both ; but all these men were bent upon keeping the art secret; and,
left to themselves, unquestionably they would have confined the
printing-press to Mentz as long as they lived. Fust and Schoeffer,
however, especially eager to acquire wealth, had resolved to proceed
in a very unhallowed course, by palming off their productions as
manuscripts, that so they might obtain a larger price for each copy.
The glory of promoting or extending the art must now, therefore,
be immediately and suddenly taken from them. Invention, of what
ever character, like Nature itself, is but a name for an effect, whose
cause is God. The ingenuity He gives to whomsoever He will, but
He still reigns over the invention, and directs its future progress.
At this crisis, therefore, just as if to make the reference to Himself
more striking, and upon our part more imperative, we have only to
observe what then took place, and the consequences which imme
diately followed.
Fust and Schoeffer had completed their first dated Bible, of 1462,
but this very year the city of Mentz must be invaded. Like Con
stantinople, it was taken by storm, and by a member too of that
body, who in future times so lamented over the effects of printing.
This was the Archbishop, or Adolphus, already mentioned. The
consequences were immediate, and afford an impressive illustration
of that ease with which Providence accomplishes its mightiest
operations. The mind of Europe was to be roused to action, and
materials sufficient to engage all its activity must not be wanting.
But this demanded nothing more than the capture of two cities, and
these two, far distant from each other ! If when Constantinople
fell in the East, the Greeks, with their manuscripts and learning,
rushed into Italy, to join the already awakened Italian scholars:
Mentz also is taken, and the art of printing spreads over Europe,
with a rapidity which still excites astonishment.
This city, once deprived, by the sword of the conqueror, of those
laws and privileges which belonged to it as a member ofthe Ehenish
Commercial Confederation ; all previous ties or obligations between
master and servant were loosened, and oaths of secrecy imposed
under a former regime, were at an end. Amidst the confusion that

PRINTING IN ROME. H
ensued, the operative printers felt free to accept of invitations from
any quarter. But whither will they bend their steps, or in what
direction will the art proceed ? Where will it meet with its warmest
welcome, and in which capital of Europe will it be first established ?
The reader may anticipate that the welcome came from Italy, but it
is still more observable, that the first capital was Rome ! Tes, after
the capture of Mentz, Eome and its vicinity, the city of the future
Index Expurgatorius, gave most cordial welcome. The art, while in
its cradle in Italy, must be nursed under the inquisitive and much
amused eye of the Pontiff himself !
One might very naturally have presumed, that the enemies of light
and learniug, or of all innovation, would have been up in arms ; and
it is certainly not the least extraordinary fact connected with the
memorable invention of printing, that no alarm was expressed, —
neither at its discovery, nor its first application, even though the very
first book was the Bible. The brief-men or copyists, it is true, were
angry in prospect of losing their means of subsistence ; and in Paris
they had talked of necromancy, or the black art, being the origin of
all this ; but there was not a whisper of the kind in Italy. Indeed,
as to an existing establishment of any kind, anywhere, no dangerous
consequences were apprehended, by a single human being as far as
we know ; but most certainly none by the reigning Pontiff himself,
or even by the conclave with all its wonted foresight. On the con
trary, the invention was hailed with joy, and its first effects were
received with enthusiasm. Not one man appears to have perceived
its bearing, or once dreamt of its ultimate results. No, the German
invention was to be carried to its perfection on Italian ground.
Eesidents and official persons in Eome itself, are to be its first pro
moters, and that under the immediate eye of Paul IL, a man by no
means friendly, either to learning, or to learned men.
This curious incident is rendered much more so, by one or two
i others in immediate connexion with it. Even while the art was yet
: a secret in Germany, the very first individual of whom we read as
(having longed for its being brought to Eome, was a Cardinal,
i Nicholas de Cusa ; the first ardent promoter of the press in that
: city was a Bishop, John Andreas, the Bishop of Aleria and Secretary
to the Vatican Library. He furnished the manuscripts for the press,
prepared the editions, and added the epistles dedicatory. It had
ibeen on the summit of a hill, twenty-eight miles east of Eome, near
sSubiaco, and close by the villa once occupied by the Emperor Nero,
rthat the first printing-press was set up. In the monastery there, by
i Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz from Germany, an edition

Hi INTRODUCTION.
of Lactantius' Institutions was finished in the year 1465 ; but next
year, they removed, by invitation, into the mansion house of two
knights in Eome itself. They were two brothers, Peter and Francis
de Maximis. Here it was that, aided by the purse of Andreas, the
first fount of types in the Roman character, so called ever since, was
prepared ; and all other materials being ready, they commenced with
such spirit and vigour, that the Secretary of the Vatican " scarcely
allowed himself time to sleep." Let him speak once for himself, in
one of his dedications prefixed to Jerome's Epistles.
" It was,'' says he to the Pontiff, "in your days, that among other Divine
favours this blessing was bestowed on the Christian world, that every poor
scholar can purchase for himself a library for a small sum — that those volumes
which heretofore could scarce be bought for a hundred crowns may now be
procured for less than twenty, very well printed, and free from those faults with
which manuscripts used to abound — for such is the art of our printers and
letter makers, that no ancient or modern discovery is comparable to it. Surely
the German nation deserves our highest esteem for the invention of the most
useful of arts. The wish of the noble and divine Cardinal Cusa is now, in your
time, accomplished, who earnestly desired that this sacred art, which then
seemed rising in Germany, might be brought to Rome. It is my chief aim in
this epistle to let posterity know that the art of printing and type-making was
brought to Rome under Paul II. Receive, then, the first volume of St. Jerome
graciously, — and take the excellent masters of the art, Conrad Sweynheim and
Arnold Pannartz, Germans, under your protection. "
This Pontiff, named Peter Barbo, and a Venetian by birth, had no
sooner come into office, in 1464, than he immediately suppressed the
College of abbreviators and turned out all the clerks of the breves,
regardless of the sums they had paid for their places. And although
this body was composed of the most distinguished men of learning
and genius in Eome, he chose to say they were of no use, or
unlearned ! Yet now, scarcely two years after, the same man was
sauntering into the printing office, nay, it is affirmed that he visited
it " frequently and examined with admiration every branch of this
new art ! " Would he have done this had he foreseen the conse
quences ? And what must future Pontiffs have sometimes thought
or said as to his idle simplicity, or his lack of foresight ?
Meanwhile, so zealous were these men, that in five years only, or
from 1467 to 1472, they had printed not fewer than twelve thousand
four hundred and seventy-five volumes, in twenty-eight editions, some
of them of large size, and all beautifully executed. Among these we
find the Latin Bible of 1471. It was the second edition with a date,
the first printed m Eome, and however beautiful in execution, well
known to be by no means distinguished for its accuracy; a circum-

PRINTING IN ROME, VENICE, AND ELSEWHERE. liii
stance which ought, in common modesty, to have infused a forbearing
or lenient temper with regard to all future first attempts. It by no
means followed, however, although Eome had taken the lead, that it
was also to furnish a ready market for the sale of books. On the con
trary, the printers now laboured under such a load of printed folio
volumes, that unless relieved, they must have sunk altogether, as no
doubt they suffered. Yet still, by the year 1476, twelve other works
had issued from the press. Among these were the "Postils," or
Notes of Nicholas de Lyra, the first printed Commentary on the
Scriptures. But the Commentary brought them down ! They had
better have never touched it, as it was by this huge work, in five folio
volumes, they were nearly, if not entirely, ruined in business. Such,
however, was the fruit of only one printing office, and in less than
ten years. Ulric Han, or Gallus, had commenced printing soon after
these, the first two, and at least thirteen other printers followed ; so
that, before the close of the fifteenth century, the different works
published in the Imperial city alone, had amounted to nearly one
thousand !
We have been thus particular as to the capital of Italy, not for
getful of the place it then occupied in the world, and especially
afterwards, in the sixteenth century. The facts now mentioned
place that power in a point of view not unworthy of observation ever
since. Before long, no invention was to occasion such perplexity to
Eome and her conclave as that of printing, and yet the art enters
Italy, and the Pontiff himself, as it were, cordially sanctions the
insertion of a wedge which all Italy will drive ; or, in other words,
he breaks the ground, and gives the first onset in a direction which
his successors have toiled in vain to arrest. Little did Petee Barbo,
the Venetian Pontiff, know what he was about, when wandering into
the printing office for his amusement. When examining, with a
mixture of wonder and delight, the different movements of the print
ing machine, had he only suspected the mighty and irresistible con
sequences, how soon would he have reduced the whole concern to
ashes, and discharged the thunders of the Vatican in every direction !
But no, and in Eome itself, the printers, compositors, and pressmen,
shall go on issuing folio after folio, and of works which still exist and
enrich the libraries of Europe.
Independently, however, of all this, what signified Eome, when
compared with the extent to which the art had now reached ? Had
a single city or town waited for the concurrence or sanction of the
Pontiff? So far from it, Bamberg in Franconia, and Cologne, had
preceded Eome, and in ten years only after the capture of Mentz; the

liv INTRODUCTION.
art had reached to upwards of thirty cities and towns, including
Venice, and Strasburg, Paris, and Antwerp ; in only ten years more
ninety other places had followed the example, including Basil and
Brussels, Westminster, Oxford, and London, Geneva, Leipsic, and
Vienna. With regard to Germany, the mother country of this
invention, Koberger of Nuremberg was supposed to be the most
extensive printer of the fifteenth century. Having twenty-four
presses, and one hundred men, constantly at work, besides employing
the presses of Switzerland and France, he printed at least twelve
editions of the Latin Bible. And when we turn to the native capital
of the reigning Pontiff, Venice, where printing had commenced only
two years after Eome, what had ensued in the next thirty, or before
1500? Panzer has reckoned up not fewer than one hundred and
ninety-eight printers in Venice alone, more than sixty of whom had
commenced business before the year 1480, and altogether, by the
close of the century, they had put forth at least two thousand nine
hundred and eighty distinct publications, among which are to be
found more than twenty editions of the Latin Bible. As the roman
letter was first used in Eome, so the italic was in Venice, where
Aldus had offered a piece of gold for every typographical error which
could be detected in any of his printed pages.
In short, before the close of this century, a space of only thirty-
eight years from the capture of Mentz, the press was busy, in at
least two hundred and twenty different places, throughout Europe,
and the number of printing-presses was far above a thousand ! This
rapidity, rendered so much the more astonishing from the art having
risen to its perfection all at once, producing works so beautiful
that they have never been excelled, has been often remarked,
though it has never yet been fully described. To mark its swift
and singular career throughout Europe with accuracy and effect,
would require a volume, and, to certain readers, it would prove one of
the deepest interest.
Such an extraordinary revival of the arts and of literature could
not fail to affect and greatly improve the external appearance of our
Island. Witness those beautiful specimens of architecture in Britain
peculiar to this age, and still regarded by so many as its appropriate
glory. Or, what is more to our purpose, witness the encouragement
given to literature by such men as Humphrey Duke of Gloucester,
John Earl of Worcester, and Earl Eivers, and the deep interest
taken in William Caxton, the father of printing in our native land.
With the exception, indeed, of the Sclavonian or Northern nations,
all others in Europe had contributed to the interests of science • but

THE FINAL AMOUNT OF ALL THIS EXERTION. lv
in Italy, by way of eminence, the human mind had been permitted to
exhaust its power. The utmost that human ingenuity and patient
perseverance could effect had been accomplished. Works begun in
one age, had been carried on and finished by the next. Man had
been allowed to expend all his energy. The models left for his pos
terity to admire, can only be feebly and imperfectly copied, for as
yet they have never been excelled.
But what then, we are now bound to inquire, what had all this
goodly array accomplished for the heartfelt refinement, the best or
true enlargement of the human mind ? To see such intellectual
relish, such sensibility and taste spring up amidst general ignorance
and barbarity, was the wonder of the age ; but what had all this
painting, and statuary, and architecture, nay, this learning and print
ing, effected, and more especially for the masses, or the people as
such? What had they done for the emancipation of the soul from bondage,
or its clear escape from tyrannizing lust ? What, for its way of
access unto God, or the only way of acceptance with Him ? Abso
lutely nothing ; nay, to speak correctly, if the uses to which all
things had been converted be observed, far worse than nothing.
Those venerated and confessedly beautiful piles throughout Europe,
with all that they contained, and in many instances now contain,
assume a very grave and sombre aspect, whenever it is remembered
that in them we behold but the ingenious and laborious efforts of the
blind, mistaking their way to " a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens." They stand before us as the professed and united
homage of thousands, in their lifetime and by their dying testaments
to that Being, before whom all external display, all outward adorn
ing, the magnificence of building or the melody of sounds — nay the
extended hands, the bended knee and the uplifted eye, are as nothing
without the intelligent exercise of the inward faculties.
Now, not to speak of other nations, what in Britain had yet been
done with regard to these ? Were the inward faculties cultivated,
or even allowed to be so ? Was there any attention yet paid to a
vernacular literature which could interest or enlarge the general
mind? So far from it, for any one man to read a fragment of
Scripture in his native tongue, though yet merely in manuscript, was
sure to expose to oppression; and for the first half of this very
century, whether in England or Scotland, the barbarity of burning to
ashes, and of severe persecution for opinions held, had been practised
by all the authorities. Nor were they, in England, diverted from
such cruelty till engrossed by war with France. Then came those

lvi INTRODUCTION.
intestine divisions and heartburnings — the wars of the White and
Eed Eose — those deadly feuds between the Houses of York and
Lancaster, when, as Fuller has expressed it, in reference to any who
thought for themselves, " the storm was their shelter." These wars,
however, so far from affecting the hold which the Pontiff had of this
country, were only so many too evident proofs of the secret but pro
digious influence of his votaries, in murdering one man and setting
up another. At the close of the long conflict, therefore, by the
downfall of Eichard III. — after thirteen pitched battles — at the
expense of more than a hundred thousand men — Henry the Seventh,
or the first prince of the House of Tudor, most dutifully allied him
self with the paramount power of Eome ; and began to educate his
second son as an ecclesiastic, afterwards to be known as Henry the
Eighth. The father had, indeed, humbled the Barons of England
while he himself remained the devoted vassal of the Pontiff; and, at
the end of the fifteenth century, the capital of Italy was still, in its
own ancient sense, the capital of the world.
At the close, then, of this brief sketch, however imperfect, it must
now be evident that to have overlooked, what have been styled by
way of courtesy, the immortal trophies of painting, music, and song,
of sculpture and architecture, nay, and of printing, for the first
seventy years of its existence, would have been doing great injustice
to what was about to follow, in the sixteenth century. Of all these
sources of attraction, that singular power which held court and
council at Eome, had been permitted to take the fullest advantage ;
nor was she slow to perceive the power they possessed, to charm both
the eye and the ear. Printing, however, was the most intellectual of
all the arts, and yet it will now be manifest, that Infinite Wisdom
was by no means in any haste to employ it. The orators of Greece
and Eome had been allowed to try their skill once more in improving
mankind. The classics were permitted to enjoy their second, and
more splendid triumph, and appear before the world in a richer dress
than they had ever done ; and since the colloquial dialect, the tongue
spoken by the people, was not the language of what was called the
Church, in any nation of Europe, and Latin alone was her language
everywhere, then let that tongue, through the press, also enjoy
unprecedented scope. Let no Pontiff, ever after, have any reason to
complain that ample justice was not first done to his system. Let
Mm first have his fill of letters, even to overflowing. Let him richly
enjoy the first fruits, or the highest place, nay, the monopoly of all
the arts, and even the printing-press to boot ; and before the close
ofthe fifteenth century, let there be issued from the press, above a

THE FINAL AMOUNT OF ALL THIS EXERTION. lvii
hundred editions of the Latin Bible, — for such was the fact : and
throughout Europe, let there be hourly spoken still, more than " ten
thousand words in an unknown tongue."
After all this, and with an especial reference to our native land, we
now ask, — could there have been a more marked approach towards
the importation of Divine Truth into our Island, in the language
then spoken by the people, and spoken still ? A more impressive
series of events, as introductory to the printing of the Scriptures in
our vernacular tongue ? The sacred boon was about to be conferred,
and, at last, by millions of copies. To the inhabitants of Britain, by
way of eminence, and for three hundred years, were about to be com
mitted the oracles of God ; at least the translator to be employed,
was now growing up. But before Divine Eevelation is permitted to
assume the shape of sprinted volume, are we not now bound to look
back, and do justice to the manner of its introduction ? If there be
certain points in the history of every country at which the inhabit
ants would do well to pause ; to us, at least, and as living apart
from the Continent in the adjoining sea, this was, or rather still is,
one of the first importance, as the commencement of a new and
unprecedented epoch.
The mighty movement of the sixteenth century was at hand. The
outward forms of society had undergone a great change, and this, it
is freely granted, had produced a class of less fearful thinkers. But
the tide of human activity having been first permitted to rise so high,
and accomplish so little, ought never to have been overlooked. The
distinction was about to be drawn, between mere intellectual culture
and mental vigour, or, in other words, between all that man had been
able to effect, and what the Saviour of the world was about to do, by
means so simple, and an agency soon to be so deprecated by human
authority ; or rather by only one selected individual then so generally
despised, and since so unaccountably forgotten !
Thus are we imperatively bound to distinguish between the oratory
of Greece and Eome, or the feeble language of literature, and the
voice of Jehovah in His word, when it once reached the ear or the eye
of our forefathers, in their native tongue ; to distinguish as carefully,
between the power of ihe press, and the power of what issued from it ;
between printing, however splendid to the eye, and what is printed,
when addressed by the Almighty to the heart; between all the
wisdom of this world, and that which cometh down from above ;
between printed books without exception, and "the oracles of
God." Twenty-five years of the sixteenth century have indeed still to

Iviii INTRODUCTION.
pass away, before the New Testament in English, as translated and
committed to the press by Tyndale, will be given to England and
Scotland, but these years will only render the event more striking, —
an event which, even in our own day, and at such a singularly
momentous period as the present, will be found to deserve and
reward far more thoughtful consideration, not in itself merely, but
especially in its consequences, than it has ever yet, for three hundred
years, at any previous point of time, received.

The accuracy of the Author in charging the Greek Church with interdicting
the use of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue, having been called in ques
tion by a highly respected correspondent, Mr. Anderson made the following
reply :—
' ' I am obliged by your directing me to the expression in page xxxvi. of the
Introduction. I at once perceived its ambiguity, nay, strictly speaking, its
incorrectness. I have said, 'But both had interdicted its translation,' &c.
More accurately I should have said, ' But the Eastern for more than a century
had, to all intents and purposes, identified herself with the Western Church,
which had now interdicted,' &c. The Greek Church cannot be exonerated at
that period as to the Sacred Scriptures. This was what was meant, and had it
been so put, would have still more enhanced the boldness of Wickliffe, who did
not quail before this dominant Mystery of Iniquity.
" I am perfectly aware that there is a distinction to be observed between the
Greek Church in its earlier stages, and the Roman ; and that, nominally, the
Canon of Scripture held by the former is nearly, if not precisely, the same with
our own, though they plead for the Divine authority of the Septuagint. At the
same time, it must ever be borne in mind that, long as the Eastern Church
fought for an independent existence, the Greeks were bent upon the traditions,
as well as the authority, of their Church, no less than the Romans on theirs ;
the former esteeming the acts of the Seven Greek Synods of equal authority
with the sacred volume ! But more to the point.
" The Greek Church, you are aware, never recovered the blow it received from
the Latins in 1204, when Constantinople was taken. I have, in passing, speci
fied the Council of Tholouse ; but fourteen years before, the Eastern Church
had identified herself with whatever Rome determined. Many of her members
might dissent, but this by no means has any — the slightest place in history.
Hence, in the Twelfth General, or Fourth Lateran Council, 1215, Innocent III.
crowned all former invasions of the Eastern Churches by claiming servile
obedience from all by name, and in this order : 1. Constantinople ; 2. Alex
andria; 3. Antioch; 4. Jerusalem.
"Then came the Council of Tholouse in 1229 ; and in sixteen years after,
under Innocent IV. , at Lyon, in the Thirteenth General Council he carried
triumphantly every point. The Greek Emperor himself, nay, and the Patriarch
of Constantinople, were present, while the Pope was deposing the Emperor of
the West, and releasing his subjects from their allegiance. Constantinople and
Antioch were at this period merely fiefs of the Roman Pontiff. Moreover, it
was here also, for the first time, that the red hat was proposed and established,
the appointed token that the Cardinals were to shed their blood in the defence
and for the dominance of the Roman Catholic faith.
" Thirty years after that, in 1274, the Eastern Emperor is swearing to the
Roman Catholic faith, recognising the supremacy of the Pope ; and the Prelates
of Greece swore allegiance by their legates. All appeals from the Greeks were
to be made to Rome. Before the Moguls on the one hand, and the Latins on
the other, Constantinople was nodding to her fall in 1453. Even after the
invention of printing, the Greek liturgies for centuries have been printed at
Venice, under Papal influence. Under the same influence, successive Greek
Synods have been convoked, e. g., at Constantinople in 1642, and at Jerusalem
in 1672. Among the acts of this last is prohibited the general reading of the
Scriptures."

EXPLANATION OF THE FAC-SIMILES.
No. I. — Fax-Simile of Ms Prologue.
If there be a peculiar charm in contemplating the veritable origin of a great
undertaking, by many readers the following page in black letter cannot fail to
be valued. It is the more worthy of inspection as being a pleasure denied to
most of our ancestors, the edition to which it is the prologue or preface having
fallen into utter oblivion for more than three hundred years. We need only
refer to its history, pp. 46, &c, in proof that this was the page immediately fol
lowing the title, with which Tyndale commenced his Testament, in quarto, at
the press of Peter Quentell in Cologne, anno 1525.
No. II. — Fac-Simile ofthe New Testament in quarto.
Cochlseus having artfully interrupted Tyndale at Cologne in 1525, and got
into the same printing office ; in the large wood-cut of the Evangelist Matthew,
the reader has now one curious proof before him. Cochlasus having left
Cologne early in 1526, one of the first works he engaged Quentell to print was
"Ruperti in Matthaeum," &c, a folio volume of 325 pages. At the end of this
we find him addressing Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, as early as 20th April and
the work was finished at press on 12th June, 1526. But at the very commence
ment of this folio, on p. 2, we find this identical wood-cut which Quentell had
formerly used for Tyndale's Testament; only there, it will be observed, the
block has been pared down, two-eighths at the bottom and left side, so as
to deprive it of the white ground below, and at the side to encroach upon the
angel's wing. This was to fit it for his folio page ; and it being a work on
Matthew, and this a favourite device, he inserted it again on the title-page. Con
sequently, the cut, as it is now to be seen, entire, must have been the prior
publication, or in 1525. Again the same block, as thus cut down, was used by
Quentell in printing the Latin Bible of Rudelius in 1527, at the beginning of
Matthew ; and in the beginning of John we have his letter Y, with which this
prologue commences, which letter in fact first led to the discovery of what this
fragment is, and where it was printed. See pp. 29, 37 ; 69, 72.
No. III. — Fac-Simile ofthe smaller New Testament,
The first two pages of the New Testament commenced and finished at Worms,
in the same year, is here exhibited. The only perfect copy in existence, now at
Bristol, it will be observed, has manuscript notes, neatly written on the margin
by a former possessor. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the word ' ' married"
in the second page, Tyndale altered to "betrothed," the term which was
adopted by Beck, by Whittingham, in 1557 ; the Genevan translators, in 1560 ;
and Parker in 1568. Coverdale, who had used the first term, never altered it,
at least it is in his Bible of 1550, 1553, and Cranmer had foUowed Coverdale.
Taverner adopted espoused from Wicklifi'e, the term preferred by our last
revisors, though in point of perspicuity Tyndale's corrected term has been con
sidered the best. See the History, pp. 40, 46 ; 69, 72.

ZhtstiptM&.mthnu.
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THE ANNALS OF
THE ENGLISH BIBLE.

BOOK I.
3&etQtt of f^enrn. tfje lEtghtfj.

MD.  MDXXIII.
PROM THE BIRTH OF TFNDALE, THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATOR, TO HIS
EMBARKATION FOR THE CONTINENT, IN PURSUIT OF HIS DESIGN.
he opening of the sixteenth century, a period so big
with interest to all Europe, has been presented in very
different lights, both by British and Continental authors.
Some have very carefully brought into one focus a
number of concurrent events, and then rested in this
conclusion ; that if there had never existed such men
as those with whose names we have been long familiar,
all that occurred must have taken place. These are believers
in what has been styled, the " force of circumstances," and
though there be a power which governs the world independently
of man, they rise no higher ; our men of circumstances can see
nothing great in individual character. Other writers, from too
fond partiality for their native land, and scarcely looking be
yond it, have assigned exclusive renown to their own great men.
An Italian, on behalf of his own Italy, assumes the undivided
glory of the revival of literature, philosophy, and the fine- arts ;
and then all the refinement or enlargement of the human mind

2 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY [book i.
which ensued, he traces to this one source. While a German
author, in regard to the revival of Christianity, insists that Lis
country led the van, and by that path in which others only fol
lowed. He will perhaps admit Wickliffe, rising in England a
century and a half before, to be the morning star ; but, after
this, Luther is his sun, or great planet, and other countries have
been regarded as stars, revolving in wider or narrower circles
around it, like satellites drawn after it by its movement. The
figure may be considered beautiful, and please the fancy, but it
has the disadvantage of being incorrect. It not only violates
the order, but obscures the peculiar character or glory of what
actually took place.
"If we regard dates, we must then confess that neither to
Switzerland nor to Germany belongs the honour of having been
first in the work, although, hitherto, only those countries have
contended for it. That honour belongs to France. This is
a fact that we are the more careful to establish, because it
has possibly, till now, been overlooked." 1 And at this crisis, or
the opening of the sixteenth century, as far as these countries
are concerned, he has proved his assertion. But, on the other
hand, if Britain be included, we must be allowed to hold fast
by the fourteenth century ; the age of Wickliffe, or the transla
tion of the Sacred Volume, entire, into the language of the
people. From that period, to say nothing of the New Testa
ment separately, or of various beautiful fragments ; possessing,
as we do still, about thirty copies- of that Bible entire, seven
teen of which are perfect, we trace the effects, from that early
age down to the days of Tyndale. The reading of the Scrip
tures in manuscript, however obnoxious to the authorities, will,
in the following history, link itself most distinctly with the
more eager perusal of those first imported in print. Opposition
to the latter, will bring out evidence as to both.
All questions, however, as to priority or dates, become of in
ferior moment when compared with another ascertained fact.
If we look at the first quarter of the sixteenth century, Lefevre
in France, and Zuinglius in Switzerland, Luther in Germany,
and Tyndale in England, appear before the world, and to the

1 Merle D'Aubigne.

1500.] IN ITS COMMENCEMENT. 3
eye of man in this order ; they were contemporaries, living in
their respective countries ; Lefevre being by far the oldest of
the four, and Zuinglius the youngest. But then it is no less
evident, that the first impressions of these four men were altor
gether independent of each other. They were individually in
fluenced by a power, though unseen, equally near to them all.
From that moment they were already destined to the work
assigned them, but not one of them had exchanged a single
thought with another. " Germany," says the same author,
" did not communicate the light of truth to Switzerland, nor
Switzerland to France, nor France to England : all these lands
received it from God, just as no one region transmits the light
to another, but the same orb dispenses it direct to the earth."
We now speak of the origin, or the one great though secret
cause of all.
But the secret and universal Mover being once acknowledged,
upon advancing only a single step farther, we instantly discover
that a marked distinction has been drawn, between our own
separate Island, and all other countries on the adjoining Con
tinent. In France, but more especially in Switzerland and
Germany, there was the living voice, throughout life, of the
man raised up, calling upon his countrymen to hear and obey
the truth ; and so God had ordered it in England, a century
and a half before, in the case of Wickliffe. But, now, his
procedure is altogether different, and out of the usual course
pursued in other lands. Tyndale had lifted up his voice, it is
true, boldly^ and with some effect, but he is withdrawn from his
native land, and never to return. The island is left behind by
him, and left for good. In other countries the man lives and
dies at home. Lefevre, when above a hundred years old, weeps,
because he had not felt and displayed the courage of a martyr ;
Zuinglius dies in battle for his country ; and Luther, after all
his noble intrepidity, expires in his sick chamber : but Tyndale
is strangled and burnt to ashes, and in a foreign land. English
men, and Scotsmen, and Germans, are gathered together
against him ; yes, against the man who enjoyed the honour of
having never had a Prince for his patron or protector all his
days ; men of three nations at least concur to confer upon him
the crown of martyrdom, so that, among all his contemporaries,
b 2

4 POSITION OF ENGLAND. [book i,
in several points of view, but especially as a translator of the
Scriptures, he stands alone.
Whether, therefore, in England or in Scotland, the conse
quence has been, that, at this early period, we have no great
or powerful character to present, as warring upon his native
soil, with the darkness, whether of ignorance or error, and lead
ing on to victory. Our man is abroad, and is pursued, but
cannot be taken, till his work is done ; while the Almighty
himself appears as so much the more in immediate contact
with this country. The work is, by way of eminence, Eis
own. Divine truth, it is granted, is but an instrument, yet
as an instrument, it was now shown to be perfect for its pur
pose ; and the design goes on, till men of authority, and power,
and wrath, are baffled, overcome, and overruled. Moreover,
there has been ever since a providential superintendence of
this work, an uninterrupted care, lest it should be confounded
with any thing else in this Kingdom, all which we are the
more bound both to mark ourselves, and point out to other
nations. That the eyes of his countrymen have never been turned
towards Tyndale, as they ought to have been long ago, but more
especially to that work which God did by him in the midst of
our land, is one of those n^steries, which, at this moment, we
do not even attempt to explain ; but it will be the object of the
following pages, to trace the footsteps of our Translator, from
his origin to his end ; and especially the history of that Version
which he first gave to his country.
Let any one direct attention to the first quarter of the six
teenth century ; let but the state of our native land be surveyed;!
and so far from there being any, even the slightest token of the"
Divine Word being about to be laid open to the common people]!?
the political state of England, and the literary, such as it was,
but, above all, her intimate and complicated connexion with
Italy, decidedly forbade the idea of such a thing. Where, then,
throughout all England, was any individual to be expected,
sufficiently bold to cherish the noble desi<m ?
Now, it was such a time as this ; it was in the midst of
hostile circumstances, in the very diocese of Worcester, which
from 1484 to 1534 was held by four Italians in succession, that

1500-23. J BIRTH OF Tl'NDAI.E. 5
a man according to God's own heart had already been found !
It was in the centre of this diocese that he was born ! From
about the year 1484, this district, above all others, had fallen
under the power of Italy, or, like a ripe fig, into the mouth of
the eater; but it may now be added, "about which time William
Tyndale was born."
Great characters have not unfrequently been raised from an
obscurity which has baffled all research. So it has happened
emphatically in the present instance. Not only are the state
ments hitherto advanced altogether erroneous ; but even after
the utmost diligence, whether in searching the Parish Registers
themselves, the Visitations in the Herald's Office, or the manu
script stores of our British Museum, still there hangs, at least,
some degree of obscurity over the precise year of Tyndale's
birth, as well as his immediate parentage. Without, therefore,
encumbering the page, we now confine attention to what appears
to be morally certain.
Among the picturesque beauties of Gloucestershire, there is
one from the top of Stinchcomb Hill, fifteen miles south-west
of the city, which commands the Severn, from Gloucester to
Bristol ; having the Vale of Berkeley,, with its venerable castle,
on the left bank of that river, and the Forest of Dean, Chep
stow, and the Welsh mountains, on the right. From this point
more than seven counties are visible, and about thirty parish
churches ; but to every admirer of England's best hope, her
Sacred Volume, the spot acquires by far its deepest interest, from
his having immediately below his eye, the birth-place of its
original Translator. There can be no question that Tyndale
was born within the hundred of Berkeley, whether at the
village of Stinchcomb itself, or more probably at North Nibley,
two miles to the left, now also full in view. His family, how
ever, stands long in connexion with both villages.
Before the birth of our Translator, his progenitors, for two,
if not three descents, had lived under the western brow of
Stinchcomb Hill, where, for a limited period, they had passed
under the name of Hitching. The removal of the family into
Gloucestershire, as well as the temporary assumption of this
name, have been ascribed to the wars between the houses of York
and Lancaster, and such may have been the occasion ; but the

6 FAMILY OF TYNDALE. [book I.
temporary adoption of the name of Hitchins, may just as pro*
bably have arisen from a deadly local family feud which long
agitated the very spot where they now dwelt. The violence of
the civil wars had loosened the authority of government, and
this part of the country afforded one of the most striking proofs;
for though, in the contentions of York and Lancaster, the
neighbouring castle of Berkeley had no share, yet it had suffered
greatly from the disputed title to its possession, between the
heir of the Barony, and Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.
Perhaps there never existed, in the history of England, a here-
ditary family contention equal to this ; as it continued to
smoulder on for nearly two hundred years, from 1417, and in
its earlier stages burst out with great violence. Mutual repri
sals had been made again and again, till a final period was put
to such a mode of settlement, by the fierce contest on Nibley
Green in March 1470. This is indeed the only event by which
the village itself has hitherto been distinguished. Now, the
Tyndales were then living at Stinchcomb ; and as the number,
on both sides, amounted to 1000 men, most of whom were
gathered, in one night, from the lands of Berkeley hundred,
they must have taken part in the fray. While, therefore, the
quarrel was at once local and personal between William, the
seventh Lord Berkeley, and Thomas, Lord Lisle, then living at
Wotton-under-Edge, it must be observed that the former was on
the Lancastrian side of politics, and, as tenants at least, so were
the Tyndales. The consequence was, that although Berkeley
was victorious, the encounter being fatal to Lord Lisle himself
and 150 more ; and although Government was prevented from
taking cognizance of the result at the time, owing to the far
greater affairs of the civil war, still afterwards Lord Berkeley
had to humbly sue for forgiveness from Edward the Fourth, the
royal head of the house of York. At all events, from whatever
cause, the name of Hitchin had been assumed by this branch of
the Tyndale family, for years, as will appear presently.
The family of our Translator is to be traced to an ancient
Barony, by tenure, which, however, in his name, became extinct
so early as the beginning of the thirteenth century. From the
second son of Adam, the last Baron de Tyndale and Langeley,
in Northumberland, or Robert Tyndale, who removed southward

1500-23. J FAMILY OF TYNDALE. 7
in the reign of Edward I., who settled at Tansover, or Tansor,
near Oundle in Northamptonshire, and was living in 1288, there
gradually sprung different families ; so that, by the beginning
of the sixteenth century, respectable proprietors of the name of
Tyndale were living at Tansover and Deane, in Northampton
shire ; at Hockwold, in Norfolk ; at Pull Court, in Worcester
shire ; and at Stinchcomb and North Nibley, in the county of
Gloucester ; as there were soon afterwards at Eastwood, in the
same county ; at Bathford and Bristol, in Somerset ; at Mapple-
stead, in Essex, and, still later, at Bobbing Court, in Kent. All
these families claim descent from Robert of Tansover ; and even
that of our William Tyndale has been supposed, by no inferior
genealogist, to have sprung from him,2 This it certainly had
done, though in a very remote degree, as we shall, presently meet
with ground to believe that there was some affinity between it,
and that of Tyndale of Pull Court, a branch of the house of
Tansover. Of the family resident at Stinchcomb and North Nibley, we
have two distinct genealogies. The first, under the head of
Huntfs Court, Nibley, is to be found in the account of the hun
dred of Berkeley, drawn up by Mr. Smythe, the factor of Lord
Berkeley, resident in the old manor house of Nibley. The
second genealogy is founded upon a deed under the reign of
Henry VIII., the best of all evidence ;3 while, so far as the latter
goes, and the authority quoting it, there is a perfect agreement
with the former as to the descents, viz. : — ¦
I. Hugh Tyndale, father of John, f. of Thomas, f. of Richard, f. of Richard,
f. of Thomas. II. Thomas, f. of Richard, f. of Richard,
f. of Thomas.
The first individual mentioned by Mr. Smythe, is said to be
Hugh Tyndale, alias Huchens, the name which, for a season, the
family had adopted. This is confirmed by Tyndale himself,
who, in his first publication, gave both names — " William
Tyndale, otherwise called Hitchins,"— though ever after, he
used only the former. Whether John Tyndale ever resumed
the name without the alias, we have no evidence; but to a
- Mr. Jekyll's genealogies, quoted in the Biog. Brit.
5 Rudder's Gloucester, under Stinchcomb, p. 6.95.

8 FAMILY OF TYNDALE. [book I.
certainty Thomas did, and, after his example, so did our Trans.;
lator. " Some of his ancestors," says Bigland, " having taken
an active part in the Lancastrian cause, migrated to Stinch-
combe, in this county ; and, as it appears from the Register of
North Nibley, bore, for concealment, the name of Hutchins or
Hitchins, but resumed their own in the reign of Henry the
Seventh."" But why should the neighbouring parish of North Nibley be
introduced ? This brings us to the deed already mentioned,
or the second genealogy, and the following fact. "Thomas
Tyndale," the first man of that name, " died sometime before
the 33rd Henry VIII., or 1541-2, as appears by a deed of that
date, to which Edward Tyndale, of Pull Court in Worcester,
was a witness." And, still using the deed, the writer pro
ceeds, — " By Alicia his wife, daughter and sole heir of Thomas
Hunt, (of Hunt's Court,) he had five sons, Richard, William,
Henry, Thomas, and John, and one daughter, Elizabeth." Was
this Thomas Tyndale the brother or the father of the Martyr ?
Now there is no positive evidence to show that this Thomas had
a brother named William ; while, on the other hand, this family
of Thomas happens to be at once the first and only one through
out this genealogy where all the children are named. How
ever, here is the family to which the Martyr belonged, and
from it' we are able to come down, without any obscurity, nearly
to the present day. The male line was not extinct in 1791.
As for the female line, from the great- grand-daughter of the
above Thomas Tyndale, a descendant is now living in the City
of London — John Roberts, Esq., Temple.
The year of our Translator's birth, could it be positively
ascertained, might help us to fix his parentage ; but as nearly
as it can be, it seems to harmonise with the idea of Thomas
being his father. Tyndale himself, unrelentingly persecuted,
was cautious of ever saying one word respecting his relatives.
Even his younger brother John became involved, in conse
quence of receiving letters from him, and not delivering them
up! But the future martyr would have borne the pelting of
the pitiless storm all alone, sooner than involve his family in

4 Bigland's Glos., p. 293.

1500-23. J YEAR OF HIS BIRTH. 9
distress ; and more especially that father, to whom he had been
indebted for the expenses of his education. His keen and
voluminous opponent, however, Sir Thomas More, provoked his
triumphant answer ; and if we knew the year of the Lord
Chancellor's birth, Tyndale himself will help us to fix, very
nearly, that of his own. In the course of his writings there
may be some other references; but we shall quote only one
passage in the defence of his translation, quite to the point.
It is now generally understood, that Sir Thomas More was
born in 1480, and most probably in the spring of that year, as
this harmonises with the statement of Erasmus, who says 1479,
their year running on to the 25th of March. In 1497 More
was sent to Canterbury Hall, Christ Church, Oxford, where he
studied Greek, as well as Latin, under Linacre and Grocyn, for
two years. Now, what says Tyndale, when defending his
translation of the New Testament from the Greek ? " He
(Sir Thomas) rageth because I turn xaPl? into favour and not
grace; and that I use this word knowledge (in the sense of
acknowledge) and not confession, and this word repentance and
not penance. In all which he cannot prove that I give not the
right English unto the Greek word. These things to be even
so, M. More knoweth well enough ; for he understandeth the
Greek, and he knew them long ere I." Since then Tyndale was
brought up to learning from his youth, and at Oxford after
wards, there can be no question, that this is the language of a
junior scholar, at least by four or five years, and that conse
quently the birth of Tyndale must have been correspondingly
later. Now, without having observed this, it is rather a curious
coincidence, that the first gentleman, well qualified, in our own
.day, and most solicitous to ascertain the point, has fixed upon
the year 1484. " Probably," he says, " Tyndale was born
about 1484." He also maintains, not merely from Bale,
Atkyns, and other authorities, but from domestic tradition in
Gloucestershire, where he himself resided, that our Translator
was born at North Nibley ; then, if we are to believe the deed
already quoted, and so attested, we seem to have the entire
family of Thomas Tyndale once more brought in view.5 A very
6 We quote from the letters of Mr. 0. Roberts, in the British Museum.

1 0 NURTURED UPON CROWN LANDS. [book i,
strong probability, therefore, is now presented, that our first
and eminent Translator, was the son of Thomas Tyndale, by
Alicia Hunt of North Nibley ; that his brother John was the
youngest son by the same mother, and that Tyndale himself
was born in the year 1484, 5, or 6. This would make him
about the age of fifty at his death ; and this exactly corresponds
with the full persuasion of old John Foxe in 1573, who calls
him middle-aged.
But if the obscurity of our Translator's parentage must still
remain, there is one curious fact, of which there is now no
doubt. As the Marquis of Berkeley had conveyed his castle
and estates to Henry VII., descending as they did to Henry
VIII., Tyndale was nurtured upon ground held immediately by
the Crown, which was afterwards farmed for Italian bishops, by
Cardinal Wolsey ! And before he is driven from his native
county, we shall find him brought, by persecution at least, into
remote contact with the most conspicuous characters, who were
about to figure in the great drama of European politics.
Tj^ndale was brought up, from his earliest years, at Oxford,
and as a scholar, where, after a lengthened residence, he pro
ceeded in "degrees of the schools;" or, as Foxe has said — "By
long continuance,, he grew up and increased as well in the
knowledge of tongues, and other liberal arts, as especially in the
knowledge of the Scriptures ; insomuch, that he read privily to
eertain students and fellows in Magdalen College some parcel of
divinity, instructing them in the knowledge and truth of the
Scriptures." His education " in grammar, logic, and philosophy,
he received," says Wood, "for the most part, in St. Mary Mag
dalen's Hall," immediately adjoining the College of that name.
At this Hall, first called Grammar Hall, from the attention paid.
to classical learning, and where Grocyn, as well as W. Latimer
and Linacre, had lectured, the members stood, as they do now,
on the same footing with those of the other Colleges; their
course of study, tuition, length of residence, examination, and
degrees, being precisely the same as the rest of the University.
In those early days, however, these Halls, having no exhibitions
nor endowments for scholarships, many of the students lived at
their own charge ; and since no man has ever once been men
tioned as patronising Tyndale, throughout his whole life, the

1500-23. J EDUCATION OF TYNDALE. 11
presumption is, that his expenses while at College must have
been defrayed by his parents. Tyndale's zeal, however, had at
last exceeded the endurance of his contemporaries, and exposed
him to some danger. There is no ground for supposing that he
was expelled ; " but," says Foxe, " spying his time, he removed
from Oxford to the University of Cambridge, where he likewise
made his abode a certain space," and, it has been vaguely con
jectured, took a degree. At all events, his residence in that
city had terminated by the year 1519.
Possessed of such an education as he must have then acquired,
as well as of such an ardour to improve, we cannot here disturb
the narrative by any discussion as to its merits or extent. Suf
ficient evidence of both will occur in the following pages. We
only remark here, that the incontrovertible proof of Tyndale's
erudition, whether as a Greek or Hebrew scholar, is to be found
in the present version of our Bible, as read by millions. " The
circumstance of its being a revision five times derived, is an
advantage altogether peculiar to itself, and doubly valuable
from that circumstance."6 While, notwithstanding this five
fold recension of the Greek and Hebrew original, large portions
remained untouched, or verbally as the Translator first gave
them to his country. It is, indeed, extraordinary that so many
of Tyndale's correct and happy renderings should have been
left to adorn our version, while the terms substituted, in other
instances, still leave to him the palm of scholarship. When
the incorrect, not to say injurious, sense, in which certain terms
had been long employed, is duly considered, the substitution of
charity for love, as Tyndale translated, of grace for favour, and
church for congregation, certainly cannot be adduced as proofs
of superior attainment in the original Greek.
In a historical point of view, however, and independently of
his merits as a translator, it would be of some importance if we
could ascertain what had been the sta,te of his mind, even before
leaving the University, in reference to that great system of
impiety and oppression, which, single handed, he was after
wards to assail with such decisive effect. Had he already seen
through its character ? Was he even already engaged in
6 Whitaker.

12 EARLY SENTIMENTS. [:

book r.

marking it, as he never after ceased to do ? If he was, this
would go a great way in proving him to have been an instru
ment raised up by God, as independently of Luther, as were
Lefevre and Zuinglius. His lectures at Oxford, which must
have been about 1517, if not earlier, and his being obliged to
desist, certainly say as much as that he was in advance of the
age, but how far, from this source, we have no intimation. If
Tyndale himself would afterwards give us but one hint, we could
not desire better evidence. By those, however, who are fami
liar with his writings, it must have been observed that he very
seldom has introduced his own personal feelings, with any pre
cision as to dates, not caring to establish himself, in point of
priority, to any man : and yet there is one passage, with which
he casually concludes his Exposition of the Epistle of John,
which seems to glance as far back as the year 1518, if not to
some time before it. He had been exposing the policy of the
hierarchy, in raising the cry of sedition or insurrection, in the
days of Wickliffe, — " And so," he adds, " the hypocrites say
now likewise, that God's Word causeth insurrection ; but ye
shall see shortly that these hypocrites themselves, after their old
wont and ensamples, in quenching the truth that uttereth their
juggling, shall cause all realms Christian to rise one against
another, and some against themselves. Ye shall see, then, run
out, before the year come about, that which they have been in
brewing, as I have marked, above this dozen years. This much
have I said, because of them that deceive }tou, to give you an
occasion to judge the spirits."
Now, this language was published in September 1531 ; but
" above a dozen of years," brings us back to 1518, if not to an
earlier period. We leave the reader to form his own conclu
sion ; but, at all events, such a state of mind was in perfect con
sonance with the course which Tyndale so immediately pursued,
with all his characteristic vigour.
Returning to his native county, Tyndale was soon actively
engaged, and so continued to be, from Stinchcomb Hill down to
Bristol, to the close of 1522. As the place where he lived, only
eight miles south from that of his birth, is well known ; nay,
and the house under whose roof he spent his best and zealous
exertions, in discussing and defending the Word of God, is

1500-23. J

RETURNS TO GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

13

happily still in existence, — to all such as may take an interest in
the following history, there is not a more heart-stirring spot in
all England. The Halls of our Colleges, wherever they stand,
have never given birth to a design, so vitally important in its
origin, so fraught with untold benefit to millions, and now so
extensive in its range, as that which ripened into a fixed and
invincible purpose, in the Dining Hall of Little Sodbury
Manor House.

LITTLE SODBUBY MANOR HOUSE IS 1839.

It was in this house that Tyndale resided for about two years,
as a tutor ; and adjoining to it behind, there still stands, with
its two ancient yew trees before the door, the little Church of
St. Adeline, where of course the family and tenants attended.
Foxe has said of Tyndale, while at Antwerp, that when he
" read the Scriptures, he proceeded so fruitfully, sweetly, and
gently, much like unto the writing of John the Evangelist,
that it was a heavenly comfort to the audience to hear him ; "
and so it may have been, under some of his earliest efforts,
within the walls of this diminutive and unpretending place of
worship. At all events, let it be observed, when his voice was
first heard, Luther had not yet been denounced even by Leo X.
at Rome, much less by Cardinal Wolsey in England.
" About a.d. 1520," we are informed, that " William Tyndale
used often to preach in Bristol." This he did on the great

14 THE FAMILY TUTOR IN [book I.
Green, sometimes called the Sanctuary, or St. Austin's Green.
" He was at that time resident with Sir John Walsh at Little
Sodbury, as tutor to his children, and on Sundays he preached
at the towns and parishes in the neighbourhood, and frequently
he had debates with the Abbots and other clergy who frequented
the house."7
This small parish, with its manor house and inmates, thus
become objects of no little interest; and for the sake not of Tyn
dale only, but especially of the design there formed, as well as of
the circumstances that led to it, we must not refrain from giving
some farther particulars.
In this part of Gloucestershire there are three contiguous
parishes of the same name — Old Sodbury, Chipping, i.e.
Market Sodbury, and the third, named Little Sodbury, by way
of distinction. This last, consisting of about 900 acres, chiefly
in pasture, lies on the side of Sodbury hill, and extends to its
summit. On the edge of this hill is a strong Roman camp of an
oblong square, where first Queen Margaret, and then Edward
IV. in pursuit, had rested before the battle of Tewkesbury.
Immediately below this camp, on the side of the hill fronting
south-westward, stands the Manor House, an ancient building,
from which there is a beautiful and extensive prospect over the
vale, as far as the Bristol Channel. Four clumps of large trees
growing above, objects very observable, are taken notice of
through a large extent of country on that side of the hills. In
the sketch already given, one of these clumps may be seen on
the left, but a nearer view will give a better idea of the house
itself. Inhabited by different families from the thirteenth century,
it was now in possession of Sir John Walsh, Knight, as in
herited from his father. Happening to have been Champion to
Henry VIII. on certain occasions, and to please his royal mas
ter, the heir of Little Sodbury had been knighted, and received
from him in addition, the Manor House of Old Sodbury, then
in the gift of the Crown. Intimate as Walsh had been, both
with the young king and the court, and now given to hospi
tality, his table was the resort, not only of the neighbouring

-• Memoirs of Bristol, from old authorities, by Seyer, vol. ii. p. 215.

1500-23.]

LITTLE SODBURY MANOR.

15

gentry, but of the Abbots and other dignified ecclesiastics,
swarming around him. Thus it was, that, whether in com-

LESS DISTANT VIEW.

pany, or alone with the family, where he was treated as a
friend, Tyndale enjoyed one of the best opportunities for be
coming intimately acquainted with the existing state of things,
whether civil, or ecclesiastical so called. Sir John had married
Anne Poyntz, (the daughter of Sir Robert Poyntz, of Iron
Acton, by Margaret, daughter of Antony, Earl Rivers, after
whom her brother was named,) a lady who took as warm an
interest as her husband in the discussions at their table.
" This gentleman," says Foxe, " as he kept a good ordinary
commonly at his table, there resorted to him many times,
sundry Abbots, Deans, Archdeacons, with divers other doctors
and great beneficed men ; who there, together with Master
Tyndale sitting at the same table, did use, many times, to
enter into communication. Then Tyndale, as he was learned
and well practised in God's matters", so he spared not to show
unto them simply and plainly his judgment ; and when they
at any time did vary from his opinions, he would show them
in the book, and lay before them the manifest places of the
Scriptures, to confute their errors, and confirm his sayings."
It was not long, however, before Sir John and his lady had

16 MEMORABLE DISCUSSIONS THERE. [

BOOK I,

been invited to a banquet given by these great Doctors. There
they talked at will and pleasure, uttering their blindness and
ignorance without any resistance or gainsaying. On returning
home, both Sir John and his lady began to reason with Tyndale
respecting those subjects of which the priests had talked at their
banquet ; one decided proof, that some considerable impression
had been made. Tyndale firmly maintained the truth, and ex
posed their false opinions. " Well," said Lady Walsh, " there
was such a doctor there as may dispend a hundred pounds,
and another two hundred, and another three hundred pounds :
and what ! were it reason, think you, that we should believe
you before them ?" 8 To this, Tyndale at the moment gave no
reply, and, for some time after, said but little on such subjects.
He was at that moment busy with a translation from Eras
mus of his "Enchiridion Militis Christiani," or Christian
Soldier's Manual, the second edition of which, with a long and
pungent preface, had appeared at Basil, in August 1518. Once
finished, Tyndale presented the book to Sir John and his lady.
" After they had read," says Foxe, " and well perused the same,
the doctorly prelates were no more so often invited to the house,
neither had they the cheer and countenance when they came,
which before they had." This they marked, and supposing the
change to have arisen from Tyndale's influence, they refrained,
and at last utterly withdrew. They had grown weary of our
Translator's doctrine, and now bore a secret grudge in their
hearts against him.
A crisis was evidently approaching. The priests of the
country, clustering together, began to storm at ale-houses and
other places ; and all with one consent, against one man. For
tunately the tutor has left on record his own reflections as to
this period of his life.
"A thousand books," says he, "had they lever (rather) to be put forth
against their abominable doings and doctrine, than that the Script-are 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 wrest-

s The money referred to by Dame Walsh, was equal to from £1500 to £4500
of our present money.

1S00-23.J TYNDALE BEFORE THE CHANCELLOR. 17
ing the Scriptures 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 amaze them, expoundmg 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 subtile riddles.
" Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament. Because I had
perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay people
in any truth, except tlie Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their
mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text :
for else, whatsoever truth is taught them, these enemies of all truth quench it
again. "
Accordingly, "not long after this," says John Foxe, "there
was a sitting of the (Italian) Bishop's Chancellor appointed,
and warning was given to the Priests to appear, amongst whom
Master Tyndale was also warned to be there. Whether he had
any misdoubt by their threatenings, or knowledge given him
that they would lay some things to his charge, is uncertain ;
but certain this is, as he himself declared, that he doubted their
privy accusations ; so that he, by the way, in going thitherward,
cried in his mind heartily to God, to give him strength to stand
fast in the truth of his word." But let us hear Tyndale's own
expressions. " When I was so turmoiled in the country where I was, that I could no
longer dwell there, the process whereof were too long here to rehearse, I this
wise thought in myself, — this I suffer, because the priests of the country be
unlearned, as God knoweth, there are a full ignorant sort, which have seen no
more Latin than that they read in their Portesses and Missals, which yet many
of them can scarcely read. And therefore, because they are thus unlearned,
thought I, when they come together to the ale-house, which is their preaching
place, they affirm that my sayings are heresy. Besides they add to, of their
own heads, that which I never spake, as the manner is, and accused me secretly
to the Chancellor, and other ihe Bishop's Officers. 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 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 there the same day."
Tyndale's future footsteps will frequently discover him to
! have been a man, who, in the history of his country, stood
literally alone ; and here, it should seem, this peculiar feature
had already begun to discover itself. As standing before the
Chancellor of any diocese, we read of no second individual, in
whose appearance there were so many curious coincidences. The
reader will now recollect the thoroughly Italianised character of

18

REVILED AMD THREATENED.

D

BOOK I.

the district, and the questions very naturally present themselves
— Who was this Chancellor? Who the Cardinal that had
recently appointed him ? Who was the non-resident Italian
Bishop ? nay, and who the reigning Pontiff himself, the
fountain of all this oppressive authority? The Pontiff was
Adrian VI., who, to appease Wolsey, had recently made him
"Legate a latere" for life ; the Bishop was Julio di Medici, the
future Clement VII., and who, without even visiting England,
had been made Bishop of Worcester by Leo X. The man who
had lately appointed the Chancellor to the diocese was Wolsey
himself, who farmed the whole district for his Italian brother ;
and the Chancellor, who had raised himself to this unenviable
notoriety by so treating the man destined by Divine Providence
to overcome all above him, as far as Rome itself was concerned,
was a creature of the English Cardinal, a Dr. Thomas Parker,
who lived to know more of Tyndale's power and talents, than he
then could comprehend. Had such men only known who was
then within the Chancellor's grasp, with what eager joy would
they have put an end to all his noble intentions !
Escaping, however, out of Parker's hands, the Tutor departed
homeward, and once more entered the hospitable abode of Little
Sodbury, but more than ever firmly resolved.

UnilAlUli TO LllTLl; SUDBURY MANOR UOUSE, FJJOM IHE EAST.
It is some alleviation to find that every man in the country

1500-23.] TYJJDALE's NOBLE RESOLUTION. 19
was not of the same opinion with the reigning Chancellor.
" Not far off," continues Foxe, " there dwelt a certain doctor,
that had been an old chancellor before to a bishop, who had
been of old familiar acquaintance with Master Tyndale, and
also favoured him well. To him Tyndale went and opened his
mind on divers questions of the Scripture, for to him he durst
be bold to disclose his heart. To whom the doctor said — ' Do
you not know that the Pope is very Antichrist, whom 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 ;' adding, ' I have been an officer of his ; but I have given
it up, and defy him and all his works.' " 9
It was not long after this that Tyndale, happening to be in
the company of a reputed learned divine, and in conversation
having brought him to a point, from which there was no escape,
he broke out with this exclamation, "We were better to be
without God's laws, than the Pope's !" This was an ebullition
in perfect harmony with the state of the country at the moment,
but it was more than the piety of Tyndale could bear. " I defy
the Pope," said he, in reply, " and all his laws ; and if God
spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the
plough, to know more of the Scripture Uian you do ! " It was one
of those significant bursts of zeal, which will sometimes escape
from a great and determined mind, and meant even more than
met the ear.
After this, as might have been anticipated, the murmuring of
the priests increased more and more. Such language must have
flown over the country, as on the wings of the wind. Tyndale,
they insisted, was " a heretic in sophistry, a heretic in logic,
and now also a heretic in divinity." To this they added that
" he bare himself bold of the gentlemen there in that country, but
that, notwithstanding, he should be otherwise spoken to."
It was now evident that Tyndale could no longer remain,
with safety, in the county of Gloucester, or within the Italian
diocese of Worcester. He has therefore been represented, by

9 Who could this "old familiar" be, if not William Latimer the Greek
Scholar? He retired to Saintberry and Weston-sub-Edge as rector, and these
were both in Gloucester County. c 2

20 PROCEEDS TO LONDON. [book i.
Foxe, as thus addressing his Master : — " Sir, I perceive that I
shall not be suffered to tarry long here in this country, neither
shall you be able, though you ivould, to keep me out of the hands
of the spirituality ; and also what displeasure might grow
thereby to you by keeping me, God knoweth ; for the which I
should be right sorry." Searching about, therefore, not so
much for an avenue to escape, as for some convenient place to
accomplish the determined purpose of his heart, by translating
the Scriptures, he now actually first thought of Tunstal, Bishop
of London, one of the future burners of his New Testament !
From Sir John Walsh's intimate knowledge of the Court, there
was no difficulty in procuring the best access to him ; and so
Tyndale must bid farewell for ever to his interesting abode on
Sodbury Hill. It was his first and last, or only attempt
throughout life to procure a Patron, and, he will, himself, now
describe his own movements.

" The Bishop of London came to my remembrance, whom Erasmus j
exceedingly, among other, in his Annotations on the New Testament, for his
great learning. Then, thought I, if I might come to this man's service I were
happy. And so I gat me to London, and through the acquaintance of my
master came to Sir Harry Gilford, the King's Grace's Comptroller, and brought
him an Oration of Isocrates, which I had translated out of Greek into English,
to speak unto my Lord of London for me. This he also did, as he showed me,
and willed me to write an epistle to my lord, and to go to him myself, which I
also did, and delivered my epistle to a servant of his own, one WilUam Hebil-
thwayte, a man of mine old acquaintance. But God saw that I was beguiled,
and that that counsel was not the next way to my purpose. And therefore He
gat me no favour in my lord's sight. Whereupon my lord answered me — ' his
house was full, he had more than he could well find, and advised me to seek in
London, where, he said, I could -not lark a sendee.' "
This memorable interview between these two individuals,
happened about three or four months after Tunstal's consecra
tion as Bishop of London; and there was a singular propriety
in Tyndale having first called upon this man, above all others,
previous to his going abroad. All parties agree as to Tunstal's
attainments in learning — the specimen presented to him was a
translation from the Greek of Isocrates into English ; and, after
receiving it, the Bishop replied,—" Seek in London, where you
cannot lack a service." If there was any meaning in the words
employed, it was this,—" You are a competent translator from
Greek into English." Tyndale, it is true, was now evidently

1500-23. J HIS ABODE THERE. 21
led, like a blind man, by a way that he knew not ; but it cer
tainly was something, to have received such an answer or attes
tation to his scholarship from such a man, before he proceeded
farther with his intended work. It was equal to the Bishop
having said, Go forward — though, if Tunstal had only divined
what was the main object in view, no such answer had been re
turned ; nay, an authoritative stop would have been put to all
farther progress.
Meanwhile, and on the contrary, by the advice, and therefore
the authority, of the Bishop of London himself, Tyndale was
now authorised to seek for some situation throughout the me
tropolis. No ecclesiastic, however, afforded him any permanent
abode ; but, in a little time, and for fully the last six months of
this year, namely, 1523, he was most kindly entertained under
the roof of Mr. Humphrie Munmouth, a wealthy citizen, and
future Alderman of London, when he used to preach at St.
Dunstan's in the West, Fleet Street. Although he sought in
vain for a situation, " almost a year," yet the residence itself
was not without its value in future life. It had a similar effect
upon him, which a visit to Rome had upon some others, and
tended not only to ground him more firmly in his views of
Divine truth, but to inflame his zeal for translating the Scrip
tures. He had opportunity for more closely observing many
things which he had never seen before ; and, in reference to the
scene around him, witness his own language, in 1530 : —
"And so in London I abode almost a year, and marked the course of the
world, and heard our preachers, and beheld the pomp of our Prelates, and how
busy they were, as they yet are, to set peace and unity in the world ; though it
be not possible for them that walk in darkness to continue long in peace ; and
saw things whereof I defer to speak at this time ; and understood, at the last,
not only that there was no room 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, as
experience doth now openly declare. " 10
But before that Tyndale embarked for the Continent, was
there no other step already suggested, which might operate in
direct hostility to such a design as that which he contemplated ?
Yes, there was, and in this very year, one of the most powerful
and magnificent character. It may be regarded as the climax
10 Preface to the Pentateuch, 1530.

22 STATE OF ENGLAND. [book I.
in the triumph of literature, or as a phalanx in opposition.
The attempt too is the more worthy of notice, since it has often
been loosely regarded as the only redeeming trait in Wolsey 's
character. We refer to the establishment of Cardinal College,
Oxford. " He patronised letters," it has been said, " and may
be classed among the benefactors of the human mind." But
even in the cultivation of letters, we must observe the end in
view ; and in order effectually to secure us against all unfair or
even harsh conclusions, we shall take the explanation from the
best of all authorities ; or from the devoted friend of Wolsey,
the Confessor of Henry VIII. and his Almoner, John Longland,
the Bishop of Lincoln. Immediately after explaining Wolsey's
whole intentions to the King, he wrote to the Cardinal on the
5th of January, 1523, to say how he sped ; and this letter, yet
extant, divulges the secret purpose of the proposed institution,
which was no other than a systematic attempt, under the guise
of learning, to retain the human mind in bondage ; to prevent,
if possible, the entrance of Divine truth into England, and thus
far retard its progress in Europe. There was first to be a
sermon preached before the King against Luther and Lutheran
books, and their introduction into the kingdom ; then there
was to be a "secret search in divers places, and that at one time;"
then a proclamation was to be made, giving notice to all having
heretical books to bring them in under pain of the greater ex
communication, and should any " contumaciously persist in their
contumacy, then to pursue them by the law (ad ignem) to the
fire." All this was called the "quarrel of God;" and the
necessity of maintaining it urged on the King, " as the World
is marvellously bent against us, which only His Grace and the
Cardinal can remedy." Then followed, as part of the scheme,
the new College, and " the notable Lectures which should be
there, and the exercitations of learning, and that the Students
should be limited by the Readers to the same; likewise in the
exposition of the Bible."
All these purposes were literally fulfilled, the secret search,
the sermon, the books found and burnt ; but then, it is a most
remarkable fact, that all these we shall see deferred— nay, de
ferred for exactly three years, or till immediately after Tyndale's
New Testaments had arrived in the country! Wolsey, it is

1500-23. J MUST LEAVE HIS COUNTRY. 23
true, will have quite enough to divert him all the time, but it
was just as if Providence had intended that the writings of no
human being should have the precedence, but that His own
Word, being so treated, should thus enjoy the distinction of
exciting the general commotion of 1526. The burning of the
New Testament was to be the head and front of their offending.
We have now done with Tyndale upon English ground ; and,
disappointed of employment, he also was done with " marking
the pomp of our Prelates," or hearing the whole fraternity
" boast of their high authority." But certainly when he was to
be seen walking up Fleet Street, from the hospitable abode of
Mr. Humphrie Munmouth, to preach at St. Dunstan's in the
West, nothing in this world could have been more improbable,
than that in a short time he was so to agitate the whole hier
archy of England, and the city which he was now about to leave
for ever !
Here then, and before he embarks, let us pause for a moment.
The copies of the Sacred Scriptures in the English tongue, now
far exceed in number, not only that of every other nation, but
they have been supposed to surpass the number in all other
languages when put together ! With us they are familiarly
enumerated by millions, and myriads of our countrymen have
lived in peace, and died in joy, full of the genuine consolation
thus imparted ! As far, therefore, as human agency was em
ployed, it becomes a sacred duty to traee this, the highest favour
of Heaven, up to its source ; and certainly it is not a little
singular, at the distance of nearly three hundred and twenty
years, that we should be able to contemplate the origin of the
whole, within the bosom of one disappointed and neglected, if
not despised individual ! There was, indeed, one young man,
his own convert, with whom he may have communed on the
subject, John Fryth, whether in London, which is, moat pro
bable, or at Cambridge, but he was not to accompany him ; no,
nor even an amanuensis. Solitary and alone he went out, like
the patriarch of old, " not knowing whither he went." By faith,
it may be truly said, he left his native country, not unmindful
of it, but, on the contrary, loaded with a sense of genuine pity
for its inhabitants, from the king downward.

24 TYNDALE LEAVES ENGLAND [book i,
MDXXIV., MDXXV.
TIIE NEW TESTAMENT IN ENGLISH PREPARING BY TYNDALE, POR CIRCULATION
IN HIS NATIVE LAND ; AND IN TWO EDITIONS FROM THE PRESS BY THE
CLOSE OP 1525.
e are now entering upon a war of opinion, and one of
j) paramount importance to this kingdom, which, as far
as our first translator of the Sacred Volume was con
cerned, lasted, without one moment's interruption, for
twelve years. It must appear singular, that no detail
of such a contest, ending as it did, has ever been
written. Such, however, being the fact, and such the
variety of character, as well as the strange incidents involved
in the struggle, without keeping rigidly to our narrative, year
by year, as the subject never has been, so it never can be under
stood. Tyndale, though strongly attached to his native country,
having now fully resolved on going abroad, Munmouth " helped
him over the sea." We know that he sailed direct for Ham
burg, and the question is, whether he did not there remain for
more than a year. At all events, a period of about fifteen
months, or rather two years, has to be accounted for, from
January 1524 ; but so much obscurity has rested upon it,
owing to the mere affirmations, both of friends and foes, that
it becomes necessary to call for proof, and to proceed no farther
than it will carry us.
Two general assertions have been hazarded, and too long
received. One is, that, upon leaving his native land, Tyndale
went directly to Luther, and completed his translation in con
federacy with him. The other is, that he dwelt at Wittenberg
while thus engaged.
This idea of Tyndale's immediate and intimate confederacy
with Luther, and his dependence upon him, originally imported
from abroad, through men who were, at the moment, under the
torture of examination in England, has been repeated from Sir
Thomas More and John Cochlrcus, two determined enemies, not
to say John Foxe, a decided friend, down to Herbert Marsh in
our own day ; but it is more than time that it should be ex
ploded. Considering that these are nothing more than asser-

1524. J FOR HAMBURG. 25
tions, it is strange that they should have prevailed with any,
after Tyndale's own language to Sir Thomas More, who had as
serted that our Translator was with Luther in Wittenberg, where
he wrote his marginal glosses ; and again that " the confederacy
between Luther and him is a thing well known." To this,
Tyndale, in his "Answer," replies with emphasis, "When he
saith, Tyndale was confederate with Luther, that is not truth ; "
but, as a man traduced, gives his adversary no farther positive
information. But even independently of this pointed denial, was he even
resident in Wittenberg, nay, in any part of Saxony, during this
period ? If not, then both assertions fall to the ground.
That he saw and conversed with Luther at some period, may
be supposed, though we have not a shadow of proof; but that
he had done either, or even set his foot in Saxony, before the
publication of his New Testament, will very soon appear to have
been impossible, in the nature of things. On the contrary, if
we are to depend on the distinctly recorded testimony of the
generous man with whom he resided in London ; delivered, too,
in very peculiar, because responsible, circumstances, and in
volving pecuniary transactions with Tyndale himself, which
account for his support, a different plaee of residence must
be assigned to him.
On the 14th of May, 1528, Munmouth being sent for by Sir
T. More, was the same day committed to the Tower. His peti
tion for release, on the 19 th, is addressed to Wolsey and the
King's Council. Now, in this we have the following evidence,
that Munmouth heard Tyndale preach four years and a half
and more before at St. Dunstan's, London ; that on Tunstal's
refusal to employ him, he took him into his house for half a
year ; that " when he made his exchange to Hamburg," he paid
him ten pounds ; that within a year after he sent from Hamburg
for other ten pounds which he had left in his hands, and that
thither he had sent it to him. From this, and what follows, it is
evident, he remained in Hamburg throughout 1524, and that he
had means of support for even a longer period.
We presume it will now be admitted, that the residence of
Tyndale at Wittenberg has been nothing more than an assump
tion, serving powerfully, at the moment, the purpose of Sir

26 ABIDES IN HAMBURG. [book I,
Thomas More, his calumniator. The evidence, as yet, is dis
tinctly in favour of Hamburg, and as for "confederacy with
Luther," that has been pointedly denied. More had affirmed
that Tyndale " was with Luther in Wittenberg ;" and Tyndale
replies, " that is not truth." Indeed, these words are his
emphatic answer to all that his opponent had either of malicious
purpose, or by mistake, asserted in both of his sentences, already
quoted. We, however, now know the movements of Luther better than
did Sir Thomas More ; and it may be worth while to enquire
how he was engaged at the moment, and throughout the greater
part of this year. Most unfortunately he had just fallen out
violently with Carlostadt, and taken that step which has so often
been lamented since, as a memorable instance of human imbe
cility. It only requires to be observed, that the time of Tyn
dale's sailing from London, and that of Carlostadt leaving Wit
tenberg, were simultaneous, or the beginning of 1524. The
vexatious controversy respecting the Lord's Supper had already
commenced. Luther was posting after Carlostadt, and, by the
month of August, at Jena, they were pledged antagonists, after
which the latter had to seek refuge in Strasburg. The approach
of any man to Luther, at this period, who was not of his opinion,
would have been fatal to any advice or confederacy with him.
Now, as Tyndale was not at present, nor indeed ever was, a
Lutheran, and since, as a scholar, he needed neither assistance
nor advice, from a man with whom he could have conversed
only through the medium of Latin ; to send him into Saxony
for such purposes, and at such a time, was equally absurd. On
the contrary, if there were strong reasons for seeking no such
intercourse at this moment ; there were stronger still, gathered
by Tyndale himself from the state of England, as already de
scribed, whether in Gloucestershire or in London, for his imme
diately sitting down to his work ; and, instead of hastening
away from Hamburg into Saxony, if we at once assume that
Tyndale remained in this city throughout 1524, as Munmouth.
has told us, and then, in 1525, was first at Cologne, and then at
Worms ; we shall leave the reader to judge, as he proceeds,
whether a day was left for visiting other places, except such as

1524.J ABIDES IN HAMBURG. 27
lay in his way, and more especially one so far distant as the
usual abode of Martin Luther.
To return, therefore, to our history. Tyndale had now entered,
with great vigour, on tico of the most important years of his
existence ; and if, when his productions are once discovered in
England, it shall come out in evidence, that, in that time, he had
translated and printed first an edition of the gospel of Matthew,
then another of the gospel of Mark, with two editions of the
New Testament ; this will demonstrate, that neither his resi
dence, nor his labours, have ever yet been understood.
At the moment of Tyndale's arrival in Hamburg, it is not
unworthy of remark, that he had found the city in a state of
great excitement, but, at the same time, one by no means un
favourable to the commencement of his design. Nor was this
excitement of recent origin. In 1523, the burghers had already
agreed, in a body, to oppose the usurpations, the taxes, and the
excommunications of the Chapter, while they were divided in
their opinions respecting points of belief and ceremonies. One
party, and that supported by the Senate, were for reforming
both. A Franciscan friar, named Kempe, newly come from
Rostoc, had been requested to preach the gospel in its purity,
and was now so engaged ; with better success than Henry
Zuphten, who had been burnt alive at Mehldorf, by a decree of
the official at Hamburg.
But if Tyndale, in 1524, abode in this city, had he the benefit
of any assistance, or did he meet with an amanuensis there ?
With regard to the first enquiry, he himself informs us, that he
" had no man to counterfeit (i. e. imitate), neither was holpen
with English of any that had interpreted the same, or such like
thing in the Scripture before time." As for an amanuensis,
and one who was also able to compare the text with him when
translated ; he seems to have had first one, and then another,
who remained in his service for a considerable time. The first
of these, we cannot name, though he was highly esteemed by
our translator ; the second was William Roye, a friar observant
of the Franciscan order at Greenwich, "a man," says Tyndale,
in his " Parable of the Wicked Mammon," " somewhat crafty,
when he cometh unto new acquaintance, and before he be

28 MATTHEW AND MARK PRINTED. [book I.
thorough known. 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 de
parted, he went to Argentine (Strasburg). A year after that
came one Jerome, a brother of Greenwich also, through Worms
to Argentine — which Jerome, I warned of Boye'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 ensample, which thing he also promised me."
With regard to the progress actually made during this year,
or how much Tyndale may, if not must, have accomplished
in Hamburg, there has never been any distinct information.
This, however, may be accounted for from the fact never having
been before known, that previously to the publication of his New
Testament ; whether in quarto, with glosses, or in octavo, with
out them ; Tyndale had printed an edition of Matthew, as well
as of Mark, by themselves, although not a single copy has ever
yet been identified. In the eager search for the Scriptures,
with a view to their being destroyed, they may have been some
times given up, to save a Testament ; but there can be no
question that we have here before us Tyndale's earliest effort for
the benefit of his country.
After John Foxe had printed his loose statement in his Acts
and Monuments, when he came to publish Tyndale's works, in
1573, he glances at this fact, though no attention has ever been
paid to his words. In his life of Fryth, talking no more of
Saxony, he has said—" William Tyndale first placed himself in
Germany, and there did first translate the Gospel of St. Matthew
into English, and after, the whole New Testament," &c. His
mention of Matthew, by itself, certainly appears to imply some
distinction ; but the real state of the case was this— that Tyndale
not only "first translated Matthew," but printed it, and the
Gospel of Mark also. Both of these we shall find to be most
bitterly denounced in the beginning of 1527, after having been
read ; and as a publication, not only separate from the New
Testament with its prologue, but as printed previously.
It is worthy of notice, that Munmouth, in his memorial to

1524.] CALLED "THE FIRST PRINT," 29
Wolsey and the Council, who had been in possession of the
earliest New Testament, distinctly confesses that he had "re
ceived a little treatise," which Tyndale had sent to him, " when
he sent for his money," in 1524. This, at least, shows that he
had been busily engaged in the city where he had first landed.
But if this was not the well-known tract, which was ere long
to produce such effect, entitled, the " Supplication of Beggars,"
by Mr. Fish, it may have been these gospels, or one of them.
We do not, however, farther anticipate. The fact of both
gospels having been printed, and styled emphatically, " the first
print," is certain ; and we simply add, that the place where they
were printed, we have been led to believe, must have been
Hamburg. Of this there will be farther evidence.

Were it now possible to relate, in full detail, the history of
the printing of the two first editions of our New Testament in
the English language, it would unquestionably form one of the
most striking illustrations of the superintending providence of
God over his own Word ; and only exceeded by its introduction
into England and Scotland, immediately after being printed.
The account, however, even as far as it may be traced, cannot
fail to interest all those who desire to mark the hand of the
Supreme Being, in by far the greatest gift which He has ever
bestowed on Britain.
It has been usual to represent the first edition of Tyndale's
New Testament as printed at Antwerp in the year 1526, and so
dismiss the subject. We shall have occasion to show that,
though not printed under his eye, this was the third edition ;
and that the history of the two first editions, printed in 1525,
by Tyndale himself, elsewhere, has never yet been properly
understood. Indeed, so defective have the statements hitherto
been, that although two editions were distinctly denounced, both
by the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury, in
1526 ; no one had thought, till very lately, of either enquiring
after the missing book, or even allowing the quarto edition with
glosses, to have then existed. Every particular circumstance,
therefore, which can be properly authenticated, respecting these
two first productions of Tyndale's own hand, the source of so
many subsequent editions both abroad and at home, ought to be

30 PROCEEDS TO COLOGNE. [

BOOK I,

recorded ; and more especially, since so diligent was the " secret
search" after them, and so frequent the flames which consumed
them, that, of the octavo impression, only one copy of the sacred
text remains complete, one other imperfect, and of the quarto,
nothing more than a venerable fragment. This last, however,
happily includes his original prologue entire, or the very first
sheets thrown off at the Cologne press.
We proceed, therefore, to give a general statement of the
movements of Tyndale, explaining it more fully, and confirming
it afterwards. Having left the place of his abode, which we
have assumed to be Hamburg, he arrived at Cologne on the
Rhine, in the end of April or beginning of May 1525, perhaps
earlier, accompanied by his amanuensis William Roye. He
commenced his labours by committing to the press his New
Testament, in the form of a quarto volume. Not only was the
entire sacred text then translated, but his prologue, extending
to fourteen pages, was composed before he began to print.
This appears to be evident, not merely from the language of the
prologue itself, but from its commencing with sign A ij, and the
letters running on regularly through the sacred text.
The printers, however, had only proceeded as far as the tenth
sheet, or letter K, when an alarm was raised, the authorities of
the place informed, and the work interdicted. Tyndale and
Roye contrived to secure the sheets printed off, and sailing up
the Rhine to Worms, where much greater liberty could at this
time be enjoyed, they proceeded with their undertaking. This
interruption, though felt to be most grievous at the moment, as
Tyndale afterwards obscurely hinted ; far from damping, only
inflamed his zeal, and the remarkable result was, that two
editions were accomplished by him, in the same period in which
very probably he had contemplated only one. These state
ments, however, admit of ample confirmation, and, on account of
the confusion which has hitherto prevailed, they demand it.
In the illustration of historical truth, except attention be paid
to all that the chief opponents have written, we must occa
sionally be unable to recount the facts as they occurred. In
valuable information may be drawn from an enemy, and if his
statements can be authenticated, they often fill up a chasm, and
explain matters which otherwise must have remained in oblivion.

15.25. J FIRST NEW TESTAMENT. 31
Besides, in aU instances where an opponent could have no
motive to falsify, his narration of facts should be the more
respected. We have a striking ulustration of these remarks
now before us.
Perhaps the most virulent enemy to the Word of God being
translated into any vernacular tongue, who ever breathed, was
John Cochlseus. He at least rose above aU his contemporaries
of the sixteenth century, and with an unwearied perseverance,
worthy of a better cause, he not only strove to prevent the
diffusion of the Scriptures, and longed to strangle every attempt
at their translation in the very birth, but even gloried in his
enmity to aU such proceedings. We are indebted to this
opponent for statements, curious and minute, of the accuracy of
which there wiH be no reason to doubt, before we come to the
close of this narrative.
Certainly, at the moment, nothing must have been more
lamented, than that the most inveterate living opponent on the
Continent should come, nay, be driven into Cologne, soon after
Tyndale had commenced at press ! How much more so, when
it turned out that Cochlseus was shut up to the necessity of
remaining there throughout the rest of the year 1525 ! Such,
however, was the fact ; but what was the result ? Why that,
whether we ascribe it to his opposition or not, there were, as
already stated, two editions of the New Testament printed,
instead of one.
According" to Cochlseus, the " two EngHsh apostates," as he
styles Tyndale and Roye, first contemplated an edition of six
thousand copies, but for prudential reasons, they began with
three thousand. He tells us, that Pomeranus had already sent
forward his letter to the saints in England, and that Luther
himself had written his concttiatory letter to Henry VIII.
Now this letter, we know, was dated the 1st of September, 1525.
He then adds, that it had been anticipated, this English New
Testament in quarto would soon follow ; but that the Lutherans,
overjoyed, broke the secret before the time ; or in other words,
he himself ferreted out the secret, as wiU be seen by his own
confession. We have only, therefore, to verify the residence
and occupation of this opponent during 1525 and 1526, in order
to ascertain the precise period to which his account refers.

32 INTERRUPTED BY COCHLJEUS. [book I-,
During the year 1525, Cochlseus was actuaUy resident in
Cologne, but not in 1526. While there, he was as usual, busily
occupied in writing against Melancthon, Velenus, and Luther,
as well as in searching after the writings of Rupert, an Abbot,
formerly in the Monastery of Deutz, immediately opposite to
Cologne. This Abbot, who flourished four hundred years before,
had written certain commentaries on the Scriptures, besides
several other pieces ; and as some of his sentiments were thought
to be favourable to the cause of Divine truth, its friends were
eager to procure any of his works, and publish such of them,
with notes, as might at once serve their cause, and prove that
their doctrines were not so new as their opponents represented,
One of his little pieces, " Of the Victory of the Word of God,"
had been already printed, with annotations by Osiander of
Nuremberg, and the Lutherans were actuaUy in treaty with the
then Abbot of Deutz, expecting from him other works of Rupert,
intending to convey them for examination to Nuremberg.
Cochlseus interposed, alarmed the Abbot, and, lest the notes and
prologues of his opponents should make Rupert appear in favour
of their doctrine, contrived himself to gain possession of the
whole. He had then to engage parties willing to publish, and
though he found considerable difficulty, at last he prevailed on
Peter Quentel, and Arnold Byrckman, weH known printers of
the place.
Now it was while thus engaged at Cologne, in 1525, that
Cochlasus discovered this first impression of the 'English New
Testament, proceeding briskly, as he says, or swiftly at the
press ; yet, with such caution had both Tyndale and Roye con
ducted themselves, that, although Cochlseus succeeded in stop
ping the press, he was never able to meet either the one or the
other ; a striking proof, by the way, of their intimate ac
quaintance with his character.
On making the discovery, Cochlseus says that he was agitated
by fear as well as wonder and surprise ; but why so ? Let it
be observed, that, in connexion with his proposed publication of
Rupert's works, his situation was a very critical one. Before
his arrival, Tyndale was going on at the press ; and if it shall
turn out that Byrckman, as well as his brother, and Quentel
were at all concerned in his progress, though merely in the way

152").J INTERRUPTED BY COCHL.'EUS. 33
of business, what is Cochlseus to do ; or how is he to proceed ?
As for Francis Byrckman, we know, that, as a bookseller, he
had connexions with Quentel, and also with England. Indeed,
for such an early period, he had an extensive business, having a
warehouse not only in Paris but in London ; his shop was then,
and for ten years before this, " in cemiterio Sancti Pauli," in
St. Paul's Church Yard. But, besides, we shall present the
strongest presumptive, if not positive evidence, that Quentel was
the printer. If, therefore, Cochlseus now aimed at the inter
ruption or suppression of a work in the English tongue, to the
printer a foreign one, and already so far advanced at press ;
Cochlseus being not even a citizen of Cologne, but only an exile,
and but recently arrived, his circumstances were embarrassing,
and most probably, he had a very difficult game to play.
Be this, however, as it may, Cochlseus succeeded dexterously.
From himself we learn that having become familiar with the
Cologne printers,
"He heard that there were two Englishmen lurking there, learned, skilful in
languages, and fluent, whom, however, he never could see or converse with.
Calling, therefore, certain printers into his lodging, after they were heated with
wine, one of them, in more private discourse, discovered to him the secret
by which England was to be drawn over to the side of Luther — namely, that
3000 copies of the Lutheran New Testament, translated into the English lan
guage, were in the press, and already were advanced as far as the letter K, in
ordine qiiaiernionem. That the expenses were fully supplied* by English mer
chants, who were secretly to convey the work when printed, and to disperse it
widely through all England, before the King or the Cardinal could discover or
prohibit it. " He farther states that, casting in his mind by what means ' ' he
might expeditiously obstruct these very wicked attempts, he went secretly to
Herman Rinck, a patrician of Cologne, familiar both with the Emperor and the
King of England, and a Counsellor, and disclosed to him the whole affair, as,
by means of the wine, he had received it. He, that he might ascertain all
things more certainly, sent another person into the house where the work was
printing, according to the discovery of Cochlseus ; and when he had understood
from him that the matter was even so, and that there was great abundance of
paper there, he went to the Senate, and so brought it about that the printer was
interdicted from proceeding further in that work. The two English apostates,
snatching away with them the quarto sheets printed, fled by ship, going up the
Rhine to Worms, that there, by another printer, they might complete the work
begun. Einck and CoehUeus, however, immediately advised by their letters,
the King, the Cardinal, and the Bishop of Rochester, that they might take care
lest that pernicious article of merchandise should be conveyed into all the ports
of England." '

1 Cochkeus, Com. de actis et scriptis Martini Lutheri — Moguntium, 1549.
Or Colonia, 1568, pp. 153—156.

34 COCHLJEUS SOUNDS THE ALARM [book i.
Although this arch-enemy had never written another word,
there can be no question as to the period of this vexatious inter
ruption. He has fixed it himself, by teUing us, he was then an
exile at Cologne. In 1523, Cochlseus was at Rome, in 1524 he
was at Frankfort and Mentz, and, driven from both, he fled for
refuge to Cologne in 1525. There he remained stationary till1
the beginning of 1526, when, recaUed to Mentz, he went in
June to the Diet of Spire, and remained tUl August. Returning
to Mentz, he paid a transient visit to Cologne in 1527, but not
as an exfle. " In 1525," says Dupin, " Cochkeus, who had been
obliged to quit first Frankfort and then Mentz, because of the
popular seditions of the cities, was at Cologne, where Eckius
going into England, had an interview with him." 2 Yes, and
Eckius not only went, but would no doubt enforce aU that both
Rincke and Cochlseus had written.
Now, we have here a very distinct testimony as to the secrecy
and prudence with which Tyndale had conducted himself, and,
moreover, a frank confession from Cochlseus. He was bent on
crushing the work, and then all methods were fair. He intoxi
cates the workmen, and gains his purpose ; a method in perfect,
keeping with bis character, and in 1549, or twenty-four years
afterwards, he was not ashamed to make the avowal !
We find, however, also from himself, that throughout the
whole of this business it was not blind zeal only by which he
was actuated. He had not only notoriety, but gain in view, and
we shaU see him sadly mortified in obtaining neither. Mean
while, no means are left untried to procure distinction, and, if
possible, some money from England ; as weU as to secure friends
at Cologne, after what he had done. He therefore immediately
employs Quentel himself, but in very different work.3 In 1526;
though not at Cologne, he is writing to Rincke, and foUowing]
up his letters to England by a present to the same parties to
whom he had formerly written, and through the same medium*;
—"The said Sir Herman Rynge showed me a letter that he had
received from one Doctor Johannes Cocleus, containing only the
overthrow, without any mention of the King, and those of Vienna

2 See the Nnuvelh- Bibl. of Dupin, 170.'!, vol. xiv. p. 1S5.
3 J. Cochkeus adversum Lutherum. Colonia' Petr. Quentel 1525.

152-5. J TO ALL ENGLAND. 35
in Austria be greatly afraid. Also he showed me to have re
ceived three Books from the said Doctor, the one for the King's
Highness, the other for your Grace, and the third for my Lord
of Rochester." 4 In 1527, Cochlseus was publishing Luther's
letter to Henry VIII., with the King's Reply, and his own
virulent comments, intended as a compliment to the Enghsh
Monarch, and then, also, he must flatter both Birckman and
Rincke. But aU was in vain. Henry VIII. communicated
only with Rincke, and never even answered Cochlseus, or sent
him any reward ; a mortification which he felt the more, as he
ever afterwards regarded his interruption of Tyndale, to be one
of his most notable and praiseworthy exploits. Again and
again did he refer to it in future life, for which we are the more
obliged to him, as every fresh allusion only corroborates or
explains the movements of our Translator of the Scriptures.
Whether he be writing to Scotland, England, or even Poland,
Cochlseus cannot omit mention of the subject.
Thus, in writing to Scotland on the 8th of June, 1533, it is
his boast, that he had eight years ago thus interrupted the print
ing of the Scriptures, which had been commenced by an impres
sion of three thousand copies, after the war of the peasants. By
this expression he intends to mark either the beginning of May
1525, when the great battle with Muncer was fought, or it may
be a Httle earner, when the commotion at Cologne in particular
had been suppressed.
The aUusion, however, to his interruption of Tyndale, which
must have been most mortifying to the pride of Cochlseus, was
that to which he was provoked by severe chastisement, in 1538.
Cochlseus before then had, of course, changed his opinion of
Henry VIII., and more especiaUy since he had neglected him.
Sir Richard Morysin, one of our ambassadors, having in his
" Apomaxis," posted Cochlseus in his title-page, as " a petty
professor of arts, bold in sarcasm, who had attempted to attack
the reputation of Henry the Eighth," Cochlseus then published
his "Broom of Cochlmus versus the cobwebs of Morysin;" in
which he charges the King with ingratitude.

* MS. Cotton, Vitell. B. xxi. 10, b. Sir Jo. Wallop to Wolsey, 30th Sept.
1526.
D 2

36 FIRST NEW TESTAMENT [book I,
"For," says he, "in 1525, when I vias poor, and by the seditions of the
people and tumult of the rustics settled an exile of Cologne, did I discover to
him, by a private epistle, the secret wicked machinations of two Englishmen
against his kingdom, by whom the New Testament (of Luther) translated into
the English language, was printed at Cologne, that it might be transmitted
secretly, in many thousands, into England. But, notwithstanding, he still
remained silent, and took no notice of me, altogether unmindful of my poverty
and exile, although at that time he was a most determined enemy and opposer
of the Lutheran sect."
The evidence thus presented by Cochlseus, at successive
periods, has never before been submitted to the English reader.
That statements, so graphically minute, as to carry evidence of
their correctness ; so pointed as to the year and place of print
ing, and in perfect harmony with each other ; should have been
disregarded for three centuries, only shows how little attention
has been paid to the subject : but this becomes the more
observable, when the first denunciations of " the New Testa
ment in our English tongue," by the official authorities next
year, had expressly affirmed, " of which translation there are
many books printed, some with glosses, and some without."
Instead of inquiring after these Testaments with glosses, or at
least admitting their existence, all parties have been satisfied
with having it erroneously stated, that there had been but one
edition, and that said to be printed at Antwerp in 1526, or the
same year in which it was denounced !
To some persons, no doubt, this long detail must have
appeared to be altogether unnecessary, and to others tedious ;
though should it now be inquired what has given birth to it,
every reader will be pleased to learn, that it is not merely the
confusion that has prevailed hitherto ; but nothing less than the
recovery from oblivion of Tyndale's first pages at the Cologne;!
press, after the lapse of three hundred and ten years— a, fragment1
of the very book which was thus interrupted in its progress, by
Cochlseus, and the only remnant known to be in ^existence
of the three thousand copies of the first and quarto New
Testament, commenced at Cologne ;5 but when once the reader
comes to witness the powerful and unceasing exertions of the

« This fragment was found attached by the binding to a 4to tract of (Eoo-a
lampadms by Mr. Eodd of Loudon, who, comparing it with other works printed
at Cologne by Peter Quentel, found, from tho type, the initials and the cuts^
that it must have come from his press.

1D2S.J BUT LATELY DISCOVERED. 37
pubHc authorities to seize these books and burn them ; as well as
the rage excited against this prologue and these glosses ; the
wonder wUl be that a single leaf escaped. This precious relic
having been stitched up at the end of another book, might more
easily pass unheeded, or it may have remained abroad till long
after the fires had ceased to rage in England. Bound up in blue
morocco, with as many leaves as the, book originaUy composed,
it adorned the library of the late Right Honourable Thomas
GrenvUle, now in the British Museum ; but before leaving the
place where it was printed, we give the coUation of all that has
yet been found.
Title A i wanting, as it is in the octavo. The prologge commences with A ij,
and occupying seven leaves, ends on the reverse of B iiij. The first page of the
next sheet, or letter C, contains the table of all the books of the New Testa
ment, on the reverse of which is the woodcut of Matthew, as exhibited in our
fac-simile. On the following leaf, therefore, is folio C iij, continuing correctly
to fol xxiiii, where the fragment terminates in the 22nd chapter of Matthew.
The type is a German Gothic. Size of the frame- work, including head-line,
5| inches ; breadth, 5 inches ; but the breadth of the prologue only 3J ; includ
ing the head-line, 38 lines in a page ; no paper mark. N. B. — Tyndale being on
the point of placing sheet letter L in the press, he must have been pretty far
advanced in the gospel of Luke, and consequently this fragment is not to be
confounded with the gospel of Matthew printed previously, which, at the same
time, could have had no such prologue, nor any such list of all the books in the
New Testament.
Cologne, therefore, and Cochlseus also, we gladly leave for the
present ; and, with increasing interest, now follow our Trans
lator to his next place of abode.
Tyndale having taken up his residence in Worms, remained
there tiU the year 1527, — a far more favourable place for the
prosecution of his design. The commotions of the people, which
at Frankfort and Mentz had ended in triumph over the old
opinions, at Cologne, on the contrary, had been subdued, and
hence it was that Cochlseus had made that city his refuge ; for at
Worms he could not then have effected what he had done at
Cologne. Worms, on the contrary, Cochlseus has told us, was
"under the fuU rage of Lutheranism," or, in the more sober
style of Seckendorff, " was already whoUy Lutheran." So much
the better for our Translator, though not a Lutheran ; for his
enemy wiU turn out to have been only promoting, uninten
tionally, the very undertaking which he meant to crush.

38 TYNDALE AT WORMS. [book t.
We have, however, now come to a period in the labours of
Tyndale, which demands some notice, of all previous accounts.
The author is perfectly aware that it may, and wUl be said, by
those who have ever attended to the subject, or been conversant
with the octavo edition of Tyndale's New Testament, "How are
we to receive all this account, when we find Tyndale himself, in
his address ' To the Reader,' at the end of the octavo volume,
' beseeching them that are learned christianly, that the rudeness
of the work now at the first time offend them not ?' ' Nay, and
we may strengthen the objector's language, by adding — How
are we to reconcile the previous statements, with the first words
of Tyndale in his preface to the Pentateuch ? " When I had
translated the New Testament, I added an Epistle unto the latter
end." For more than a hundred years has it not been under
stood, that the first New Testament in EngUsh was printed most
probably at Antwerp ? Have not Ames, Herbert, Panzer, and
others, aU assigned it to this city ? Has not Mr. Russel, more
recently, in the notes to his edition of Tyndale's works, even
specified the printer there, as being Christopher Endhoven.?
Nay, did not Dr. Gifford, the former proprietor of the only
perfect copy of the octavo, now in Bristol, consider the words
"now at the first time," as sufficient evidence that nothing had
been printed before ? And, finaUy, have not almost all parties
agreed as to the year of printing having been 1526 ?
All this is granted, and yet when we come to the edition
actually printed at Antwerp, in 1526, and by C. Endhoven ; the
peculiarly interesting account of which has never yet been sub
mitted to an English reader ; it wiU be distinctly proved to
have been the next, or, as we now affirm, the third edition.
Nor will any advocate for the octavo, printed at Worms, under
Tyndale's own eye, have much ground for hesitation, if he finds
that it was printed in 1525 ; since it was being read in England
as early as January and February 1526. The only mystery to
be solved is, that of the octavo "being " now at the first time"
perhaps sent out, though not the first begun. For although the
quarto turns out to be, as it certainly was, the commencement of
Tyndale's labours, and his long prologue at the beginning of it,
the very first language addressed by him to the Christians of
England ; nay, and finished at press, before ever his epistlei

1525.] SECOND NEW TESTAMENT. 39
" To the Reader," at the end of the octavo, was written or even
contemplated; there did exist an all-powerful reason for our
translator's mode of procedure, as well as for his afterwards
referring to the one edition, in preference to the other. Mean-
whUe, whatever of mystery there be in the matter, it has yet to
be curiously contrasted with both editions being upon English
ground, nearly, if not positively at the same period. Yet though
such be the fact, and to be abundantly proved, Tyndale's pecu-
Har circumstances this year, may, even now, furnish us with
some explanation.
Upon his arrival at Worms, we are not left to inquire,
whether he lost a day, as, by the event, we know full well that
every hour had been improved. Nor is it difficult to perceive
his sagacity in his mode of procedure. His quarto Testament
had been not merely interrupted, but exposed by a mahgnant
enemy, whose very eye he had evaded ; the book had been
described, and even to the highest authorities in England, as
weU as marked out for seizure, if possible. Now, in the face of
aU this, would it have been prudent to have proceeded with this
book alone ? Changing, therefore, the size, leaving out the pro
logue and the glosses, which, by the way, was a great improve
ment, an octavo edition must have been immediately commenced
at press, though certainly the quarto was not consigned to obli
vion. No, for the fact is, that the reader wiU, before long, find
it difficult, if not impossible, to say, which was actually the first
that had reached the shores of Britain, whether of England or
Scotland. Suffice it now only to state, that copies of these
precious books, it wiU appear, were being read in England early
in 1526 ; nay, and we shaU find the quarto had been purchased,
and " read thoroughly," in the spring of that year ; eight months
before the formal denunciation of Tunstal, or nine months before
that of Warham; when both were denounced, and said to
abound, not only in the diocese of London, but throughout the
province of Canterbury. The reader wUl be stiU more surprised
to find that copies of one edition, if not both, had also reached
Scotland in the same year !
Tyndale, at aU events, with his amanuensis, had now found
refuge within the noted city of Worms. It was but little more
than four years since Martin Luther, attired in his friar's frock

40 SECOND NEW TESTAMENT. [book I,
and cowl, and seated in his vehicle, preceded by the Emperor's
herald on horseback, had entered the same place ; where the
Saxon nobles meeting him and forming in procession, two thou
sand persons accompanied him through the streets to his inn.
It was a larger assemblage than that which had graced the
Emperor's own approach to the Diet. Then too, and there,
Cochkeus, who had occasioned our English Translator's flight
from Cologne, could hold up his head, and even force himself
into Luther's presence ; now, he dared not enter the place.
With this memorable scene and its consequences, Tyndale must
have been intimately acquainted; but when discussing the
subject on Sodbury Hill, how strange must it have seemed to
him, had any one added: — "And you too must, before long,
enter Worms ; not to leave it in haste as Luther had to do, but
to fulfil the desire of your heart, which you wUl never be able
to accomplish in all England ! " Yet what a contrast have we
between Luther's entrance, surrounded by his Electors and
Princes, and the humble approach of Tyndale, with his bale of
printed sheets ! This becomes stiU more striking, if we recol
lect, that four years ago, it was from this very city that Luther,
hardly escaping, was carried off to his Patmos, or his castle on
the heights of the Wartburg, there, in quiet repose and solitude,
to translate his New Testament. Tyndale now entered to print
his; to finish also in Worms, what he had commenced in
Cologne ; and to pursue his design, even after the Testaments
were off to their destination.
Of the small octavo New Testament here printed, the fruitful
parent of so many editions, only one perfect copy of the text
remains, and no place of safe deposit in aU England could be
more appropriate than Bristol, the city where Tyndale himself
used to preach. The unique fragment of the quarto was dis
covered only, as it were, the other day ; but the history of this
precious small octavo volume we can trace for more than a hun
dred years — and it will be found somewhat curious. Above a cen
tury ago it formed one of the volumes in the Harleian Library of
Lord Oxford, though how long it had been there is not known. 1
Mr. John Murray, one of his lordship's collectors, had picked it
up somewhere. The Earl gave ten guineas for the book, says :
Mr. Ames; twenty, says Dr. Gifford ; but both agree that he

1525.] SECOND NEW TESTAMENT. 41
also settled £20 a-year for life on Murray, who had procured it.
The Earl of Oxford died in 1741 , without male issue, and his
Library of printed books was sold to Mr. Thomas Osborne for
£13,000. This book, therefore, in the Harleian Catalogue,
prefaced by Dr. Samuel Johnson, is thus described :—
"No. 420. The New Testament, black letter, ruled with red lines, and all
the initial letters at the beginning of each book, representing the subject, finely
coloured, as likewise all the capital letters to each chapter throughout the book
adorned with different colours, aud raised with gold, neatly bound in red
morocco. "
After such a description, Mr. Osborne, much to his own cost,
had not been aware of the rarity and value of his book, for after
thus describing it, he adds : — " In this book no date is left, but
it appears to be Tyndale's version, and is probably one of the
editions printed in HoUand, before his revisal" in 1534. Ac
cordingly, he marked the price at no more than fifteen shillings !
At this price Mr. Ames bought it, when he not only congratu
lated himself on purchasing what he styled the Phoenix of the
entire Library; but writes, on the 30th of June, 1743, in a
letter to a friend, that the annuity of twenty pounds was yet
paid to Mr. Murray, he being still alive. One hundred pounds
more, however, was stiU forthcoming, for the annuity was
honourably paid, until Murray's decease in 1748 ! On the
13th of May, 1760, Mr. Ames' books came to be sold by Mr.
Langford, and the Testament was bought for fourteen guineas
and a half, by Mr. John Whyte the bookseller. He possessed it
sixteen years to a day, having sold it on the 13th of May, 1776.
On the book itself, therefore, there is the following note in
manuscript. " N.B. — This choice book was purchased at Mr.
Langford's sale, 13th May, 1760, by me, John Whyte ; and on
the 13th day of May, 1776, I sold it to the Rev. Dr. Gifford
for 20 guineas, the price first paid for it by the late Lord
Oxford." Before proceeding farther, we now give the coUation of this
beautiful and unique volume.
The book commences, Hke the quarto, on sign A ij. The Gospel of Matthew
to the end of Revelation occupies cccliii folios ; not 33.3 leaves only, as it has
been lately, but erroneously stated. On the reverse of the last is the epistle
"To the Reader," occupying three pages, and then "errours committed in the

42 FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS COMPARED. [book i,
printyng." A full page contains thirty-three lines. N.B. — There is only one
other copy in existence, in the Library of St. Paul's, but that is very imperfect^
defective at both the beginning and end, and wanting twenty-five leaves in vari
ous places, or forty-eight in all. When first discovered by Dr. Cotton, it was
entitled on the back, " Lani's Testament," for what reason has never been di
vined. There was one Richard Lant, chaplain to Queen Anne Boleyn, but this
does not resolve the mystery. It had been recommended, that the deficient
leaves should be made up in manuscript, and the book elegantly bound ; instead
of which, and as it was, it has been miserably botched in the binding !
Here, then, are two separate editions of the New Testament,
both finished at Worms by the close of the year 1525 ; and
printed, we believe, by Peter Schoeffer, son of the associate of
Guttemberg and Fust. But on comparing one with the other
we are furnished with several important remarks, as corrobora
tive of all that has been already advanced.
The parties in opposition, let it be first observed, generally
mark out the quarto with glosses ; whUe the only distinct re
ference of Tyndale himself, is to the octavo, without them, in
his preface to the Pentateuch. The explanation is of no little
importance. The prologue and glosses, as we shall see pre
sently, excited great fear in the breast of the enemy. Thus,
when Sir Thomas More refers to the period of Tyndale's first
efforts in translating, he wiU have it, that " at that time he set
certain glosses in the margin ;" an undoubted fact, though not
done^ as he affirms, " at Wittenberg." In these glosses, as well
as the text itself, there was ample room for denunciation, if
typographical errors were to be set down as so many heresies.
" There is not so much," said Tyndale, " as one * therein, if it
lack a tittle over his head, but they have noted it, and number it
unto the ignorant people for an heresy." Tunstal, after his re
turn from Spain, or late in 1526, had busied himself in marking
these, till he had got up to the number of 2000 ; although more
than ten times that number have been found in one of our
Testaments, printed above a hundred years later. Now, in this
view, the precious relic lately discovered, when compared with
the octavo in Bristol, affords striking proof that the quarto
sheets must have been first printed. The spelling, indeed, even
of the octavo, is irregular, as might be expected at that early
period, but still the two editions admit of pointed comparison.,
Witness the foUowing words : 

25 J

FIRST

AND SECOND

EDITIONS COMPARED.

43

1. Quarto.

2. Octavo.

1. Quarto.

2. Octavo.

prophettes

prophets.

moore

more.

moththes

mothes.

pierles

pearles.

synners

sinners.
yooke
yoke.
mooste
most.
burthen
burden.
streached
stretched.
sekynge.
seking.
In every other case, this would be at once admitted as decisive
evidence, that the octavo folloioed and did not precede the quarto.
That Tyndale should improve, as in the octavo, was natural ;
but, although it has actually been done, to suppose that he would
-speU as in the quarto, afterwards, is absurd. That it was this
quarto on which Tunstal so fooUshly expatiated, next year, at
St. Paul's, after having issued his inhibition, there can be Httle
or no doubt. For, although Le Long merely mistakes one year,
he expressly states, that " his lordship made this reflection of no
fewer than 2000 texts, on an English translation of the New
Testament, printed at Cologne and Worms, 1526, 4to." Lewis,
after quoting this, adds as the only reason for his scepticism,
" but no such edition appears." Now, however, a sufficient por
tion of it has appeared, nearly a century after Lewis, or above
three hundred years after it was printed. This, too, is the
identical book to which Roye aUudes, when treating the hyper-
criticism of Tunstal with ridicule ; it is from this prologue
that he quotes, and it is the burning of this book entire,
which Roye so graphicaUy describes in his Satyre. " It is re
ported," said Cochlseus at the close of his statement, " that Lord
Cuthbert Tunstal, a most eloquent man, then Bishop of London,
now of Durham, when he had obtained one of these copies, pub
licly affirmed, in a most ample oration to the people of London,
that he had detected above 2000 depravations and perversions
in this one work." Tunstal, after all, was not the first who took
alarm. Far from it — he was not in England ; and though we
must not anticipate, there is coming a higher denunciator of
this very book, eight months before the Bishop, when he was as
far distant as Madrid.
Tyndale, on the contrary, alludes to the octavo edition without
notes, and it was by this that he abode. This allusion, however,
let it be observed, was made in the year 1530. Now, the truth
is, -and it should never have passed without special observation
by posterity, that it was upon this ground, that Tyndale and his
44 TYNDALE'S MEMORABLE ALTERNATIVE. [book I,
devoted friend Fryth had then long entrenched themselves, — the ',
Scripture without note and comment. " I assure you," said
Tyndale, the very next year to his Majesty's ambassador, then
hunting for him on the Continent, — "I assure you, if it would-
stand with the King's most gracious pleasure, to grant only a
bare text of the Scriptures to be put forth among his people, I shall
immediately make faithful promise never to write more." And
so afterwards, in 1533, said Fryth, upon English ground, to the
Lord ChanceUor More : — " Grant that the Word of God, I
mean the text of Scripture, may go abroad in our Enghsh tongue ;
and my brother, WiUiam Tyndale, and I have done, and will pro
mise you to tvrite no more."
The burning zeal of no two men born in Britain, ever had
less of self and private interest in it, than theirs had. It was
not for glosses, or comments, that they stood and fought so nobly,
aU alone. To form any mere sect, they never longed, and they
died without any such consequence foUowing ; an event deeply
instructive, and one, which might be of infinite importance at
the present hour, were it properly understood. It is a singular
fact, that, throughout these manuscripts, the term Tyndalian
occurs only once, in the letter of an enemy, but it never took;
and Tyndale left the world without leaving any circle of mere
partizans to hand down his name to posterity.
Here, then, let it be observed, were our two first witnesses ;
the two men, not only first engaged in translating, but who led
the van in pleading for the Scriptures " going abroad" without
note or comment. And is there now no tribute imperatively due
to their memory and character, for having so done ? Let the
mere sectarian, of whatever name, throughout this kingdom,
make of this fact what he may ; we must not, even thus early,
withhold another, which is never to be separated from it. To
their bold and first appeal, therefore, we simply add, as an his
torical axiom, of the deepest import, and one which, for three
hundred years, we shall have occasion to observe— that th
Sacred text, without note and comment, has proved not only the
best mode of procedure for meeting the enemy ; but that which
time and Providence have distinctly sanctioned, down to our own
day ; when it has prospered to an extent, far, very far beyond
the anticipations of the most sanguine. Events themselves,,

1525.] TYNDALE'S FIRST ADDRESS. 45
during that long period, will often speak, and say, or seem to
say, — "He that hath my word, let him speak," and disperse
" my word faithfully."
If, therefore, there had been even unbroken silence on
Tyndale's part, with respect to the quarto Testament, the cir
cumstances we have already explained, would sufficiently account
for this. But there is a reference, we think, though in mea
sured language, to the vexatious interruption of the quarto book
by Cochlseus. It is to be found in this very Epistle, " To the
Reader," at the close of the octavo Testament. Having craved
the candour of the reader, that " the rudeness of the work offend
him not," he adds,
" Moreover, even very necessity and combraunce (God is record) above
strength, which / will not rehearse, lest we should seem to boast ourselves,
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."
Now, what could this perplexity or embarrassment, this vexa
tious toU, possibly be, this combraunce above strength, of which
God was witness, if not that which we have detailed ? And
what this fall shape, if not the quarto before commenced, and
then nearly finished ? And what this boasting, if not the ex
ultation felt, when he cherished the hope of baffling his oppo
nents, by sending out the octavo first, it not being the book
reported, and held up to scorn ?
There is now only one concluding remark forcibly suggested
by comparison of the Epistle to the Reader in the octavo, with
the Prologue prefixed to the quarto. The former, brief in itself,
and abrupt in its commencement, has all the appearance of eager
despatch ; on the contrary, the opening of the quarto Prologue
wears all the formality and precision usually adopted, when
introducing to the reader a first attempt. Witness the com
mencement of the Epistle, —
"Give diligence, Reader, (I exhort thee,) that thou come with a pure mind,
and, as the Scripture saith, with a single eye, unto the words of health, and of
eternal life : by the which, if we repent and believe them, we are born anew,
created afresh, and enjoy the fruits of the blood of Christ. "
Contrast this with the deliberate and formal language of the
Prologue, so worthy of special notice now. It has never before

46 THE OPENING ADDRESS [book I.
been presented entire, and as it stands, since the day on which
the sheet was thrown off at Cologne. They are not a few who,
wiU admire the modesty, the diffidence, not to say the simple
beauty of the following sentences : —
TYNDALE'S FIRST LANGUAGE IN PKINT TO THE PEOPLE OE GOD IN ENGLAND.
" 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 ofthe Scripture, and mean
ing of ihe Spirit, than I, to consider and ponder my labour, and that with the
spirit of meekness. And if they perceive in any places that 1 have not attained the
very sense of the tongue, or meaning of the Scripture, or have not given the right
English word, tliat they put to tlieir hands to amend it, remembering that so is their
duty to do. For we have not received the gifts of God for ourselves only, or for to
hide them : but for to bestow them unto the honouring of God and Clirisl, and
edifying of the congregation, which is the body of Christ.
" The causes that moved me to translate, I thought better iliat others should
imagine, ihan that I should rehearse them. Moreover, I supposed it superfluous ;
for who is so blind to aslc, why light should be showed lo them that walk in dark
ness, where they cannot but stumble, and where to stumble, is ihe danger of eternal
damnation ; either so despiteful that he would envy any man (I speak not his
brother) so necessary a thing ; or so bedlam mad as to affirm that good is the
natural cause of evil, and darkness to proceed out of light, and that lying should.
be grounded in truth and verity ; and not rattier clean contrary, that light destroy-
eih darkness, and verity reproveth all manner (of) lying.
"After it had pleased God to put in my mind, and also to give me grace to
translate this forerehearsed (before mentioned) New Testament into our English
tongue, howsoever we have done it, I supposed it very necessary to put you in
remembrance of certain points."
The reader, we presume, cannot but be gratified, by a fac
simile of these words, in their original orthography. He will
observe the letter Y, then generally used for I ; which first led
to the discovery of what the fragment is ; and here he may
contemplate not merely the first page of text, in the first sheet
of a work thrown off at press, in the year 1525, at Cologne ; but
the veritable origin of aU those miUions of English Scriptures
now reading in so many different and distant parts of the
globe— parts, utterly unknown to our immortal Translator, when
he sent the sheet to the press— parts, then untrodden by any
Englishman — parts, then undiscovered !
The last sentence of our extract, however, or that with which4
the next page of the prologue begins, is full of meaning. It
shows that Tyndale, with aU gravity, recognised no instigator

1525.] TO HIS COUNTRY. 47
under God, and ascribed to his grace alone, the entire glory of
his work. Such had been his language in print, before ever
Cochlseus had set his foot in Cologne. But now, that he had
been so defamed by this enemy, hear his emphatic disclaimer
from Worms. " Beseeching the learned to consider that he had
no man to foUow as an example, neither was holpen with English
of any that had interpreted the same, or such like thing in the
Scripture before time." Sir Thomas More had read this, though
he did not choose, as it was not convenient, to believe it. But
surely, if any individual of that age may be regarded as an
agent, walking independently of his feUows, it wiU turn out
to have been our English exile, — a man, whose character and
powerful talents have been so grievously misrepresented, and
so misunderstood, up to the present hour.
We are now just upon the eve of returning into England,
after spending two years abroad, in company with our Trans
lator ; but before we do return — before the uproar and the
consternation begin — before the wrath of 1526 burst out —
while these precious volumes are only coming over that sea,
which Tyndale had passed over to send ; and before either the
quarto or octavo had arrived in our native land ; there is one
additional event which must not be omitted even here, though
it has to be explained more distinctly three months hence, at
the moment of its occurrence.
If there was any advantage anticipated by Tyndale, from
sending over the octavo without notes " now at the first time" —
if it was .indeed so sent — there must have ensued a second
momentary disappointment. If there was any device or con
trivance adopted, then it certainly failed, completely failed !
This quarto, with glosses, had been the first-born of his
imagination, and we have seen that his whole heart was set
upon giving the sacred text, what was strangely styled " its full
shape." But the Divine Author will as distinctly say nay in
London, as he had already done at Cologne ! For, after aU, we
shaU find next year, that this quarto book was first held up in
warning to the people. The book " with glosses and prefaces"
was first condemned, — condemned, too, by no less authority
than that of Henry VIII. himself, with Wolsey's full con
currence, if not his advice, — and condemned eight months before

48 QUARTO TESTAMENT THE FIRST CONDEMNED. [book i,
either Tunstal or Warhani held up also the octavo, without
notes, for destruction.
Tyndale certainly intended that the book with glosses should
follow "in time to come," however short. Providence caused it
to precede, and, at the same time, over-ruled it as a decoy for
several months ! All that time, therefore, the precious little
volume must have been fulfilling its commission, and passing
into its hiding-place in unknown directions !
Nor is the curious fact of the New Testament " with glosses
and prefaces" being first condemned, and then passing into
oblivion through all history, for above three hundred years, an
event carrying no instruction or monition. Quite the reverse.
All who venerate Divine Revelation in its purity, will remember
that this was the commencement of a new era for Britain, more
important than she had ever witnessed, or in truth has wit
nessed since. Comments, therefore, or glosses, additions of
man's devising, professedly to make the sacred language more
intelligible than that of its Divine Author, or turn it to a
certain meaning, were not to be treated as of small account.
As matter of history they were not, and have not been so treated.
These glosses sunk the book into the shades ; just as those notes,
sometimes styled contemptuously the Geneva spectacles, after
wards operated on that otherwise valuable translation.
Never, then, let it pass unobserved, how soon, and how
clearly, Tyndale and Fryth saw through this ; how soon our
Translator put the King of England upon the alternative of
receiving, or not receiving, the sacred text alone j or how
decidedly, and upon English ground, Fryth repeated the bold
appeal to the Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More. The warfare \
was at once reduced to a single point. Receive, or not receive,
the Sacred Volume, ivithout note or comment ; so that we have
now to witness the man who, by way of eminence, fought on one
side, and the men who, by way of eminence, or we might say the
nation, who fought against him. This important fact not only
affords us a notable commencement to our history, but it will
connect itself, very powerfully, with the close of this work, or
the larger movements of the present day.

1520.] FIRST ARRIVALS. 49

MDXXVI.
MEMORABLE INTRODUCTION OP THE NEW TESTAMENT INTO ENGLAND — THE TWO
FIRST EDITIONS — THE FIRST ALARM IN LONDON, OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE — THE
FIRST BURNING OP BOOKS — NEW TESTAMENT DENOUNCED BY THE KING AND
WOLSEY — THEN BY TUNSTAL AND WARHAM — THE THIRD EDITION — VIOLENT
CONTENTION RESPECTING IT — BURNING IT ABROAD AND AT nOME — BUT IN
VAIN. )HAT 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. On the banks
of the Rhine, Tyndale had finished his New Testa
ments at the press, but how was it possible for them
ever to be conveyed into our country ? Had not
Rincke and Cochlseus warned the Cardinal himself, the
King, and the Bishop of Rochester, that they might " with the
greatest diligence take care" lest one of them should come into
any port in aU England ? They certainly had, and in good
time, so that it is no fault of theirs, if all opposing parties were
not now on the alert. Yet here are the dreaded books, and
upon English ground, and not only in the metropolis, but in
both universities, to say nothing of the country at large !
It is natural, however, first to inquire whether there were any
circumstances, at the moment, favourable to their introduction..
Of aU other men, the two most able and most likely to have
prevented their arrival, or immediately suppressed them, were
Wolsey and Tunstal, the Bishop of London. But the former was
now completely engrossed by affairs of state policy, both abroad
and at home — abroad he was urging, nay, rousing the French
Cabinet to renewed war with the Emperor ; at home, he was
concluding peace with Scotland, and also busily engaged in
reforming his master's household, or framing what were called
" the Statutes of Eltham." The Bishop of London was not in
the country, having been happily removed out of the way eight
months before ; he was still ambassador in Spain, and not to
return till August or September ; so that his name never should
have been associated, as it has generally been, with the first
reception of Tyndale's New Testament. More than this, the
winter was peculiarly unhealthy, and such was the alarm

50 FIRST ARRIVALS. [book i.
created by great mortaUty, that the courts had been adjourned—
the authorities were out of the way — the King was keeping his
Christmas at Eltham, in private, with a few friends, " for in the
King's house," says Halle, " this was caUed the still Christmas"
— and Wolsey, after carousing at Richmond for a few days, had
to attend His Majesty on business at Eltham, from the 8th to
the 22nd of January.
Such a conjunction of circumstances but seldom occurred, and,
without straining a point, they may surely be regarded as provi
dential ; for they afforded certain opportunities, which, we shall
find, had been most busUy improved. So easily can the Divine
Being " scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts,"
when He is about to " exalt them of low degree." The country
had been first long harassed by oppressive and vexatious exac
tions, to carry on expensive foreign wars, and now it is assailed
by disease and death ! Such was the period chosen by Infinite
Wisdom to introduce the Word of Life, that "sovereign balm
for every wound !" England's surest hope, the true secret of all
her future stabUity, and the only security for it stiU.
The earliest importations of these precious volumes would
furnish a very curious subject of inquiry. The various methods
adopted for several years in order to secure their entrance into
this country, can never now, indeed, be fuUy detaUed ; but the
conveyance of Tyndale's New Testaments into England and
Scotland, with other books Ulustrative of the Sacred Volume,
could only the half be told, would form one of the most graphic
stories in English history. No siege, by sapping and mining,
which Britain has ever since achieved, could furnish the tenth
part of the incident, or evince half the courage, by which she
was herself assailed. 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.
From what particular port on the Continent the first copies
were sent, and to what port in England they came, may remain
for ever a secret. The probability is, that some came from
Antwerp, while others were sent from Worms down the Rhine
through Holland, and so from different places. Be this as it

b

1526!] FIRST ALARM. 51
may, we know for certam of two gentlemen, who engaged in
very early, if not the first, active measures as to the importation
itself ; namely, Simon Fysh, of Gray's Inn, London, and George
Herman, a citizen of Antwerp, and merchant in the English
house there ; while, during this month of January 1526, we
shall find that not a few of the most learned young men in
England were eagerly perusing Tyndale's first productions.
Nothing then, however, could have been more unlikely, than
that London and both the Universities should be in a ferment
the very first week after that month had expired.
It was on the 2nd of February, that an insignificant incident
gave birth to the first great alarm. It weU deserves, therefore,
to be noticed. Simon Fysh, already mentioned, a native of
Kent, after receiving his education at Oxford, had taken up his
residence as a lawyer in Gray's Inn, London. A play, or tragedy,
as Foxe calls it, composed by a Mr. Roo or Row, of the same
Inn, in one part of which Wolsey thought himseH deeply im
pugned, was about to be acted in private ; and this part, after
others through fear had declined, Fysh undertook to perform.
He did so once, but never could a second time, for " the same
night that this tragedy was played," Fysh was compeUed to
leave his own house, and finaUy escape to the Continent. How
often did the Cardinal, with aU his sagacity, put forth his hand
to his own downfaU ? Though, confessedly, a deep politician,
he was far from understanding the poUcy of non-interference.
This attempt at apprehension must have occurred before the end
of 1523, if it be correct, as Foxe affirms, that " the next year
foUowing " he composed the tract entitled " the Supplication of
Beggars."1 Mr. Fysh is stated to have been with Tyndale
abroad, and if so, " the Uttle treatise" which Munmouth depones
that Tyndale " sent to him from Hamburg in 1524, when he
sent for his money," may have been this publication, if it was
not the gospel of Matthew. But, whether the one or the other,
the " Supplication" must have been in existence in 1525, from
what we know of its history.

i

' Scripsit," says Tanner, " ad regem Henr. VIII. A. mdxxiv." " Com-
pyled by Symon Fyshe, anno mcccccxxiv.," is printed on the title of the
' Supplication of the poor Commons, 1546."— Herbert's Ames, iii. p. 1537.
F, 2

52 FIRST ALARM [book i.
In the shape of a " Supplication" addressed "to the King-our
Sovereign Lord," it conveyed the most wholesome and astound
ing advice to Henry VIII., and the parties interested were so
very fortunate as to reach his ear through one of his confiden
tial servants or footmen, whom Foxe calls Edmund Moddis.
This man had read the book himself, and told his Majesty, that
"if he would pardon him, and such men as he would bring to
his grace, he should see such a book as was marvel to hear of."
The King fixed a time, and thus two merchants, George Eliot
and George Robinson, were favoured with a private audience.
His Majesty, whose curiosity had been excited by the repre
sentation of his confidential servant, patiently listened to every
line, as it was read to him by Eliot.
This powerful tract, for it was nothing more, written in a
popular style, contained an unmeasured attack on the whole fra
ternity of " Monks andFriars, Pardoners and Sumners," into whose
hands an immense proportion of the nation's wealth had already
passed. Their growing power, already impairing and threaten
ing to destroy that of the Crown itself, was denounced in the
strongest terms. "This is the great scab," said Fysh, "why
they will not let the Neic Testament go abroad in your mother tongue,
lest men should espy that they, by their cloaked hypocrisy, do
translate, thus fast, your kingdom into their hands."
At the close of its being read, and after a long pause, the
King is reported to have said, " if a man should puU down an
old stone wall, and begin at the lower part, the upper part
thereof might chance to fall on his head ;" then taking the
book, he put it in his desk, commanding the men on their
allegiance, that they should not disclose to any one that he had
seen it.
Copies of this tract must have been possessed by not a few,
when the King's own servant knew its contents so thoroughly.
This, however, would not suffice, and so it had been determined!
that the people at largo should read it for themselves ; and, also,
that no doubt should remain, whether the King had seen it.
John Foxe, therefore, thus describes it—" A Libel or Book
entitled, the Supplication of Beggars, thrown and scattered at'
the procession in Westminster, on Candlemas day, before King :
Henry the Eighth, for him to read and peruse." This was on

1526.] TN I.0SD0N. 53
Friday the 2nd of February, 1526. Many copies might be thus
disposed of, but, by another account, they had been scattered
about the streets by night.
The moment of alarm had now come. This very trivial
incident had excited the greatest fear and dread ! Wolsey im
mediately went to his Majesty, complaining of " divers seditious
persons having scattered abroad books containing manifest
errors, desiring his Grace to beware of them ;" but what must
have been his mortification, when the King, putting his hand
into his bosom, and taking out one of these very books, delivered
it into his hands ! At this period Henry was not a little grati
fied by any information which he could procure, independently
of his domineering Prime Minister.
Wolsey, once roused, became fuUy awake to the importance
of his intentions in the year 1523. Engrossed as he had been
with poUtical affairs, some of these intentions had remained
unfulfilled. But now there was to be " the secret search," and in
divers places at one time, and a sermon to be preached, by Fisher,
the very man whom Henry had then named. It was resolved
to strike terror into the heart of the enemy, and give one vital
stab to aU that was now run down under the nickname of
Lutheranism ; for Divine truth had been slowly gaining its way,
and was now to spread, as it had done, independently of Luther.
The fact is, that the crusade, under which our country long
groaned and bled, was about to begin ; and as the authorities of
the day were now going to treat the people of God after the
primitive fashion, when they first put them in bear skins, and
then baited them, a word of terror was wanting. Lollard had
been the term for above a hundred years, as it especially was
under Longland, in 1521 ; but Lutheran was now a far more
effectual, because opprobrious, epithet ; involving aU those who
either read the Scriptures, or appealed to them as authority.
Before, however, we can rightly understand the course of
events, the evidence afforded by original manuscripts, by Foxe
and Strype, Bishop Tanner and Anthony Wood, as well as two
or three other authorities, must be carefully compared. After
¦this, when we look at London, Oxford, and Cambridge, as well
as the country at large, a scene, full of the deepest interest,
opens to view.

54 FIRST ALARM IN LONDON. [book I.
Not a day was now to be lost. London, though far from its
present size, was large enough even then to be favourable to
secrecy; but London, Cambridge, and Oxford, must all be
searched at one time, and Cardinal College, too, must not be
overlooked. Wolsey could not have been with the King sooner
than next day, Saturday the 3rd. The simultaneous orders for
both Universities must have been the same day, as the Sergeants*
at- Arms had arrived at both by Monday or Tuesday.
In London they commenced immediately. Among the very
first places where the " secret search" began, was a narrow lane
in Cheapside, nearly opposite to Bow Church. In a church
there, " AU HaUows in Honey Lane," Robert Forman, S. T. P.,
was Rector, and Mr. Thomas Garret, Curate. Strong suspicions
rested on the latter, as being at once a receiver and distributor
of books. The first of the Articles finaUy objected against him
furnishes an important link in the foUowing narrative.
"First, for bringing divers and many books, treatises, and works of Martin
Luther and his sect, as also for dispersing abroad of the said books to divers
and many persons within this realm, as well Students in the University of
Oxford and Cambridge, as other spiritual, temporal, and religious men, to the
intent to have advanced the said sects and opinions. Item, for having the said
books in his custody — for reading them secretly in privy places and suspect com
pany, declaring and teaching here, lies and errors contained in them."
Such were some of the charges formaUy brought against
Mr. Garret, and not without reason ; but among aU the books
imported, in Latin and in English, we have now to inquire
whether there was not one, infinitely above them aU in value,
though at the first unknown to the authorities, namely,
Tyndale's New Testament.
During part of January, Garret must have been busy in the
City and Diocese of London, but in the beginning or first week
of February, when sought for at his own abode, he could not be
found. He was then " searched for through all London," when
the Cardinal ascertained that " he had a great number of those
books, and was gone to Oxford to make sale of them there, to
such as he knew to be lovers of the Gospel." The truth is, that
this future martyr had been for some time in the habit of con
veying books to both Universities, and of visiting Oxford per
sonally. He was down there at the preceding Christmas, and,
with regard to the present occasion,—" About the year 1526/,

1526.] FIRST ALARM IN OXFORD. 55
says Foxe, " Master Garret, Curate of Honey Lane in London,
came unto Oxford, and brought with him sundry books in Latin,
treating of the Scripture, with the first part of ' Unio disiden-
tium,' and 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 tohile, and despatched those books, news
came that he was searched for through all London, to be appre
hended and taken as a heretic, and to be imprisoned for selling
those heretical books, as they termed them." Not finding him
in London, " they had determined forthwith to apprehend and
imprison him, and to burn all and every his foresaid books, and
him too, if they could, so burning hot was their zeal." By the
time, however, that the Sergeant-at-Arms had arrived, Cole of
Magdalen CoUege, who was afterwards cross-bearer to the Car
dinal, but an acquaintance of Garret's, gave him warning. So
in the morning of " Wednesday before Shrovetide," on the 7th
of February, he left Oxford, but returning again, he changed
his dress as far as he could, and disappeared on Friday
night. There is a beautifuUy graphic account of this, part
of which we must quote; for which we are indebted to
Anthony Delaber, one of the students, devotedly attached to
Mr. Garret.
" When he was gone down the stairs from my chamber," says he, "I straight-
ways did shut my chamber door, and went into my study, and took the New
Testament in my hands, kneeled down on my knees, and with many a deep sigh
and salt tear, I did, with much deliberation, read over the tenth chapter of Saint
Matthew his gospel : and when I had so done, with fervent prayer I did commit
unto God, that our dearly beloved brother Garret, earnestly beseeching him, in
and for Jesus Christ's sake, his only begotten Son, our Lord, that he would
vouchsafe not only safely to conduct and keep our said dear brother from the
hands of all his enemies ; but also that he would endue his tender and lately
born little flock in Oxford, with heavenly strength by his Holy Spirit, that they
might be able thereby valiantly to withstand to his glory all their fierce enemies,
and also might quietly to their own salvation, with all godly patience, bear
Christ's heavy cross ; which I now saw was presently to be laid oil their young
and weak backs, unable to bear so huge a burden, without the great help of his
Holy Spirit. This done, I laid aside my book, safe, "
In this first attempt to escape, however, Garret had, most
unwisely, yielded to worldly policy, in consequence of his
friends thinking it best that he should change his name, and
then engage himself as Curate to a brother of Delaber's, Parson
of Stalbridge in Dorsetshire, (though known to be a decided

56 FIRST ALARM [book i.
enemy,) till the first opportunity should present itself of es
caping beyond seas. But he was too conscientious a man to
proceed in this way, and so, seized with fear, he returned to
Oxford on Friday evening. That night he was apprehended,
but escaped again, and was finally taken at Hinksey, about
two miles distant ; when he, and aU besides, who were suspected
as receivers of books, were very soon in safe keeping !
We have now, then, to witness what has come over Cardinal
College, as weU as others ; for the future eminence of the
young men now imprisoned, fills the present story with no
common interest.
" Divers others, indeed," says Foxe, " were now constrained
to forsake their colleges and seek their friends ; " but still he
favours us with the names of the captured ; corroborated and
increased by Strype, as well as Wood. Thus, we find expressly
mentioned, John Fryth, with the Chaplain, his feUow-prisoner,
Thomas Lawney, John Clarke, Godfrey Harman, Henry Sumner,
William Betts, Richard Taverner, Richard Coxe, Michael
Drumm, and  Radley, all of Cardinal College ; Nicholas
TJdall and John Diot of Corpus Christi ; Eeden and others of
Magdalen College ; Goodman, WiUiam Bayley, John Salisbury,
Robert Ferrar, of Glo'ster, Bernard, and Mary's Colleges;
Langport, a Monk of St. Austin's of Canterbury, and Anthony
Delaber, of St. Alban's HaU.
Garret and Delaber, as convicted heretics, were made to carry
a faggot, in open procession, from St. Mary's to Cardinal Col
lege ; the former, as Master of Arts, having his red hood on
his shoulders. These young men, besides others not named,
followed in procession, aU of whom were obUged, in passing,
to cast a book into the large fire which had been kindled to
receive them. Garret and Delaber were then incarcerated at
Osney Isle, till further orders from London, when the former
was called up to appear before Tunstal, as we shaU see towards
the close of the year.
As for the other young men, along with Clarke, they were all
immured in a deep cell, under Cardinal College, the common
repository of their salt fish, a noisome dungeon, where the air
and food together proved but too fatal. Betts, no suspected!
books being, at least, detected in his chamber, through entreaty

1526. J IN OXFORD. 57
and surety, got out of prison, and, as soon as he could, went to
Cambridge. Taverner, though deeply implicated, as having con
cealed Clarke's books under the floor, being skilful in music,
was excused by Wolsey ; but the rest remained in this most
miserable abode ; where, eating nothing but salt fish from the
beginning of March to the middle of August, four of them
died in a short time ! After this, but in consequence only
of a letter from Wolsey, they were aU released, on condition of
not moving above ten miles from Oxford. How many thus
continued as prisoners at large does not appear ; but John Fryth
being so far at liberty, and now aware of the treatment of
Garret and Delaber, he "escaped by flight over the sea to
Tyndale." He left Oxford for the Continent, therefore, in
August or September 1526.
It wiU now be aUowed that an event such as this, so rich in
incident, and so fraught with consequences, was worthy of being
fully traced ; though, as far as Tyndale's New Testaments were
concerned, of course every thing depends on the time in which
aU this took place. Fortunately, however, the period can be
fixed, not only to a month, but to a day ; and it is the more
remarkable, as coinciding with the same month in which it wiU
be afterwards deponed, that New Testaments were purchased by
other people. Foxe has said that this happened about 1526 ;
Strype says about 1525 or 1526 ; and the fact is, that being in
February, when the year ran on to the 25th of March, it would
be called either the one or the other. The year 1526 is pointedly
fixed by Wood, for to any one who observes the early history of
these eminent young men it is indubitable. Thus, " Clarke of
Cardinal CoUege was incorporated M.A. of Oxford in 1525, but
ejected soon after for Lutheranism." Hdall had passed B.A. in
1524, and " two years after supplicated for the degree of A.M.,
but in vain, as 'tis probable, because he was much addicted to
the opinions of Luther." Taverner escaped imprisonment ; but
being in disgrace, did not pass A.M. till 21st May, 1527.
Ferrar was a canon of St. Mary's, "where," says Wood, "I find
him in 1526, in which year T. Garret did supply him with
prohibited books."
The season of the year, the month and day, are no less certain ;
as it was on "the Wednesday before Shrovetide" that Garret

58 FIRST ALARM [book I.
first departed from Oxford. Shrovetide, this year, feU on the
13th, so that Wednesday before was the 7th of February.;
This date must be observed in connexion with what took place
at Cambridge.
As for the whole transaction, there need be no surprise at so
much being made of it at the time. In the year 1525, Rincke
and Cochlseus had put the highest authorities on their guard,
and these were not mistaken, in now regarding this as no trivial
affair, no inferior triumph. Students drawn away even from
other Colleges was sufficiently mortifying ; but Cardinal College,
a favourite project of Wolsey's, was one in which he had felt
almost absorbed. It was to be " the most glorious in the world."
Every other College had been made subservient to this, and, at
his command, had yielded up its most choice young men. All
these Canons had passed before his own eye, having either been
selected or approved by himself, on account of the eminence of
their attainments. What, then, must have been his disappoint
ment, when, after all his pains, he saw the scale turning in the
opposite direction from that which he had aU along intended?
And what his indignation, when such a proportion, if not a
large majority, of these fine young men were found to be
infected with that new learning, as it was termed, which, instead
of yielding to the old, was ultimately to triumph, and maintain
its ground in spite of the fiercest opposition ?
Besides aU this, the books distributed were a mighty griev
ance in addition, and they were now gone into corners, they
knew not where ; but of all that had been circulated or sold,
there were none to be compared with Tyndale's New Testament,
This was the Word of Life, and felt to be so. We have already '
seen it, in the grasp of Delaber, to have been their sheet anchojE;|
in the raging storm. It is therefore well worthy of remem
brance, that one of Tyndale's earliest blows, dashed to the
ground the insidious design of the lofty Cardinal. It was an
attack upon the lion in his own den ; while as to the young
men, now branded as heretics, whether caught or escaped, :
Tyndale had given them, not a book of new learning merely, but
the volume of Divine Mercy — it was not the owl of Athens, but
Mount Zion's dove.
If Oxford had been thrown into a ferment during these early

1520.] IN CAMBRIDGE. 59
days in February, the commotion at Cambridge was, if possible,
stiU greater; but there had been some powerfully exciting
causes, and now in fuU operation, which were pecuUar to this
University. A very brief retrospect will explain, as well as
lend additional interest to the present burst of opposition.
The pubUcation of the Greek Testament by Erasmus, in 1516,
was one of the most important events in the progress of letters ;
but Cambridge seems to have been inferior to Oxford in their
cultivation. Even the Priests, in their confessions of young
scholars, had cautioned them against the acquisition of Greek
and Hebrew, on account of the consequences they dreaded.
Standish, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, was one great pro
moter of this hostUity ; and, upon one occasion, on his knees
before the King and Queen, is said to have conjured them, by
every thing sacred, to go on as their ancestors had done, and
put down Erasmus. When, therefore, his Testament appeared,
at Cambridge it was absolutely proscribed by some of the
-doctors of the day, and one CoUege forbade it to be brought
wifjrin the walls ! Yet the book they had thus contemned,
was the very same by which God intended to promote His own
designs, and in Cambridge itself.
Not long, therefore, after the publication of this Testament,
which contained the Latin and Greek in parallel columns, the
heart of one student was smitten with it ; and this, in the hand
of God, was sufficient to produce a great moral change. An
LL.D., and FeUow of Trinity Hall, he had already excelled in
the study of the Civil and Canon Law, to which he had intended
to devote his future life ; but falling into great distress of mind,
he appUed to the Priests. They appointed him fastings and
watching, with the purchase of pardons and masses ; but after
having spent almost his all on these ignorant physicians of no
value, it had fared with him, as with one of old, to whose
situation he compares his own ; for " he was nothing the better,
but rather grew worse." His case is the more interesting, in
that no human agent was employed to relieve him. Having
bought a copy of the Greek Testament of Erasmus, he happened
at the first reading to light upon the weU-known passage,
1 Tim. i. 15.
" ' It is a true saying, aud worthy of all men to be embraced, that Christ Jesus

60 FIRST ALARM -. [book I,
came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am the chief.' This one
sentence," he writes, "through God's instruction and inward teaching, which I
did not then perceive, did so exhilarate my heart, being before wounded with
the guilt of my sins, and being almost in despair, that immediately I felt a
marvellous comfort and quietness, insomuch that my bruised bones leapt for joy."
This was no other than Thomas Bilney, the future martyr of
1531. His preaching was foUowed by great and powerful effects,
for, among others, Hugh Latimer and Robert Barnes owed their
conversion to him. So early, therefore, as 1523, before Tyndale
went abroad, Cambridge lay under strong suspicion of heresy ;
and yet it is curious enough, that in that year, when certain
Bishops moved, that there might be a visitation appointed to go
down, for trying who were " the fautors of heresy" there, the
Cardinal forbade it ! " Upon what grounds," says Burnet, "I
cannot imagine." It seems to have been, either because he then
meditated a reform of the Church, after his own fancy, as already
disclosed in the letter of Longland, and of which his own sove
reign authority as Legate should appear to be the only fountain);
or if not, to show at the moment his authority over the cLergy.
His mind, we know, was then engrossed with affairs of State,
abroad as well as at home. At aU events, the over-ruling hand
of God is manifest, in preventing all interference for at least
three years, or from January 1523, to February 1526.
The order for Oxford we have stated to be the third of this
month ; that for Cambridge must have been at the same
moment ; but in this case, previous information through Dr.
Tyrell, after-mentioned, had suggested the necessity for two
individuals being sent. One Gibson, the Serjeant-at-Arms, a
creature of Wolsey's, hated by the Aldermen and Common
Council of London, was therefore accompanied by Dr. Capon,
one of the Cardinal's chaplains. They had arrived on Monday,
as upon Tuesday the Sergeant " suddenly arrested Dr. Barnes
openly in the Convocation-house, to make all others afraid;"
and by Wednesday evening, (on the morning of which, Garret
first escaped from Oxford,) Dr. Barnes stood before Wolsey.
Robert Barnes, born near Lynn in Norfolk, after proceeding
through the schools at Cambridge, had entered the Monastery;
of Augustine Friars there, in the year 1514. Having then gone.!
to Louvaine, where he studied, and passed as Doctor of Theo-

1526. ] IX CAMBRIDGE. 61
logy ; after his return he was made Prior and Master of his
Monastery, in 1523. In conjunction with another Louvaine
scholar, Mr. Thomas Parnel, whom he had brought over with
him, he became, says Strype and others, " the great restorer of
good learning at Cambridge." He had introduced the study of
the classics, and was reading Terence, Plautus, and Cicero ; but
being brought to the knowledge of the truth through Buney, he
proceeded to read openly with his scholars, the Epistles of Paul.
Sometime before this, Latimer had been also enlightened
through BUney's preaching, and was proclaiming the truth
with great decision and effect. Whether Latimer was actually
in expectation of the New Testament of Tyndale, does not
appear, but the fact is, that he was now powerfully preparing
the way for it ; as he frequently and particularly dwelt on the
great abuse of locking up the Scriptures in an unknown tongue.
Prior Buckingham, his opponent, inveighed against him, and
insisted, that if that heresy prevailed, we should soon see an end
of every thing useful ! This man, Latimer put to silence, by
that singular vein of humour for which he was distinguished ;
while Venetus, a foreigner, with whom he reasoned in a strain
full of gravity, was obliged to leave the University. Latimer's
opponents finding argument fail, resorted to authority; and
West, the Bishop of Ely, after hearing him, and even professing
to be charmed, ultimately prohibited him from preaching in any of
the churches belonging to the University, or within his diocese !
The Monastery of Dr. Barnes, however, was happily exempt
from episcopal jurisdiction, — an exemption, indeed, peculiar to
almost all the Monasteries, so that the Prior boldly Ucensed him
to preach there. The place was unable to contain the crowds
that assembled, and Dr. Barnes having been requested by the
parish to preach at St. Edward's Church hard by, resolved to
comply. This was a memorable evening on account of the
effects. It was in fact a crisis, though never sufficiently marked
as such. It was " Christmas eve, and on a Sunday," says
Foxe, or as Barnes himself explains, — " in the year of our Lord
1525, the 24th of December." Latimer was also officiating at
the Monastery that evening ; while the present, says Foxe, was
"the first sermon that ever Barnes preached of this truth."
Understanding now the way of truth more perfectly, and alive

62 FIRST ALARM IN CAMBRIDGE. [booki.
to the state of things around him, he had resolved to be openly
explicit. By two chaplains, Drs. Robert Ridley and Walter
Preston, fellows of King's College, and kinsmen of Tunstal,
Bishop of London, he was immediately accused of heresy. This
they did in the Regent-House, before the Vice-Chancellor
Edmund Nateres ; and these two men, assisted by three others,
viz. Tyrell, Watson, and Fooke, having gathered up certain
articles against him, desired him to recant. The University as
a body immediately took up the matter, and disputed their
authority. His adversaries, however, within two or three days,
having secured another meeting before the Vice-Chancellor, by
fraud and intimidation, they " so entreated and cozened him,"
that Barnes agreed to yield to their authority and their promised
clemency. They then enjoined him to read his revocation in
St. Edward's Church next Sunday. Barnes consulted with
eight or ten of his learned friends, among whom were Stafford
and Bilney, and then declined; but he had already ensnared
himself in these private interviews, and his accusers, aware
of this, desisted, only to wait their favourable moment. The
learned of at least seven different coUeges now flocked together
in open day to sermons, whether at the Augustine Monastery or
St. Mary's.
Disputations were held during the whole of January, at a
house caUed Germany by way of derision, and " this tragedy,"
says Foxe, " continued in Cambridge, one preaching against
another, in trying out of God's truth, until within six days
before Shrovetide," or, in other words, to the very day that
Dr. Barnes stood before Wolsey.
It was not, however, to apprehend Barnes alone, that the
Sergeant-at-Arms had arrived at Cambridge. He had been
charged to make secret search for books, and instantly seize the
whole, as well as apprehend all who possessed them. Not fewer
than thirty were suspected, and spies had given them precise
information as to every one of their rooms ! But Dr. Forman
of Queen's CoUege had happily, at the first moment, informed
all the parties of the privy search, and "God be praised," says
Foxe, the books "were conveyed away by the time that the
Sergeant-at-Arms, the Vice-Chancellor, and the Proctors were
at every man's chamber." The business of Gibson was therefore;

1526.] FIRST EXAMINATION. 63
soon accomplished, and Dr. Barnes being his only prey, he was
immediately carried to London.
We return, therefore, to Wolsey's gaUery at Westminster,
on Wednesday evening, Gardiner, his Secretary, and Fox, being
the only parties present with Barnes. The Cardinal soon dis
covered, that he was not unacquainted with what Dr. Barnes
had been deUvering at Cambridge, telling that his noted sermon
in December, was " fitter to be preached on a stage than in a
pulpit." Certainly it was very different doctrine from that with
which almost every pulpit was filled ; and as for the rest, the
fact is, that, whether weU advised or not, Barnes, unable to
repress his indignation at the gross abuses of the times, had
opened up before the people Wolsey's extravagance. To him
belongs the distinction, of having led the way in boldly and
pubHcly exposing the gorgeous and tyrannical bearing of the
lofty Cardinal. This accounts for the severity with which he
was now treated, for both BUney and Latimer were permitted
to go on for some time longer.
Wolsey, however, read the articles with patience, tiU he came
to one personal to himself; for the men at Cambridge, in draw
ing them up, knew how to touch him at the quick. " What,
Master Doctor," exclaimed the Cardinal, " had you not a suffi
cient scope in the Scriptures to teach the people, that my golden
shoes, my pole axes, my pillars, my golden cushions, my crosses
did so offend you, that you must make us rediculum caput before
the people ? We were joUily that day laughed to scorn.
Verily it was a sermon fitter to be preached on the stage than in
a pulpit, for at the last you said — I wear a pair of red gloves, I
should say bloody gloves, quoth you, that I should not be cold
in the midst of my ceremonies." Whether this charge was cor
rect, does not appear, but Barnes, as yet unmoved, ' repUed, "I
spake nothing but the truth out of the old Doctors." In the
end, he delivered to the Cardinal six sheets in manuscript, to
confirm and corroborate aU that he had spoken. Wolsey smiling,
said, " We perceive that you mean to stand to your articles,, and
to show your learning." " Yea," said Barnes, " that I do in
tend, by God's grace, with your lordship's favour." Wolsey
enquired if he did not know that he was there for heresy, and
whether he could bring six or ten doctors of divinity to swear

64 FIRST RECANTATION. [book I,
for him ? Barnes offered twenty honest men, as learned as him
self, if not superior — but these would not suffice. " They must
be of your years according to law," said Wolsey. " That," re
plied Barnes, "is impossible." "Then," said the Cardinal,
" you must be burnt ! "
At the close, Wolsey was about to commit him to the Tower,
but Fox and Gardiner interceded, and became sureties for his
appearance. Daring the whole night he was engaged in
preparing for his defence before the Bishops, to whom Wolsey
had committed him. Three of his students, Coverdale, Good
win, and Field, having foUowed him up to London, were
also occupied in writing to his dictation. On Thursday morn
ing, after caUing at York Place, (WhitehaU,) for Fox and
Gardiner, the Sergeant-at-Arms conveyed him down to the
Chapter-House at Westminster. He was now in the pre
sence of John Clark, Bishop of Bath, as principal judge, who
treated him with marked severity ; Henry Standish, Bishop of
St. Asaph, who was sure to be an enemy and not a judge ; Islip,
the Abbot of Westminster ; the Abbot of Bury ; Dr. Jeffrey
Wharton ; Dr. AUen ; and Dr. Gardiner. After this examina
tion he subscribed his articles, and was then committed to Fleet
Prison, but no one to speak with him. On Saturday at three
o'clock, when called to appear again, a long roll was shown to
him, which he must promise to read in public, with the assu
rance now, that he would not add one word, more or less ! They
exacted this promise before he had read a line of it, and put it
to him solemnly three times ! Barnes continuing firm, was
desired to retire. On being called in, they had agreed that a
Notary should read it to him, and as Barnes listened, he felt as;
though he would rather die than agree. After long disputation,
threatening, and scorn, it was now five o'clock; when they
caUed upon him to know whether he would abjure or burn.
Barnes was in great agony, inclining rather to the latter, when
they sent him again to take counsel from Fox and Gardiner
alone ; and they, " by persuasions that were mighty in the sight
of reason and foolish flesh," brought him at last to yield and
abjure ! It is easy for us now to say, that he ought to have
stood firm, and if he had, Barnes would have led the van at
least, of this division of martyrs, for the Word of God ; but

1523. J FIRST BURNING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 65
neither Garret nor he were yet able to brave the horrors of the
stake. With regard to Barnes, in particular, the sight on the follow
ing day was indeed most humiliating, and to his adversaries
must have seemed a great triumph. On Sabbath the 4th, in his
pulpit at Cambridge, and on the next, or 11th, bearing a faggot
at St. Paul's ! The church was crowded to excess, and there sat
Wolsey in aU his glory, smiling, no doubt, over the pointed
repHes of Thursday evening, while he saw Barnes and five
others, StiUyard men, humbled before him ; and Fisher de
claring to the people, how many days of pardon and forgiveness
of sins they had, for being present at that Sermon ! To him, as
weU as Wolsey and Longland, it was a high day, and one to
which they had looked forward for three years.
Here then, we have the first of a series, for it preceded Oxford
by a few days, in which books were committed to the flames ;
and among many others, upon this day, the 11th of February,
1526, copies of Tyndale's New Testament were no doubt for the
first time cast into the fire, as they were at Oxford in the same
week. By this period we shaU yet have curious and abundant
evidence that they were in the country ; Garret was convicted,
as we have seen, for conveying books to Cambridge as well as
Oxford, and among the stores of the StiUyard men, now accu
mulated in the " great baskets," the London stock was so far
involved. AU this was evidently done by the Cardinal's supreme and
express authority. He led the way, therefore, so that it is not
correct to exonerate him, as some authors have done, by affirm
ing that this was an after-thought of the Bishops, when Warham
and Tunstal commenced their crusade against all books of the
neio learning. Even then, Strype affirms, that they were
instigated by the Cardinal ; but upon this day, Warham was not
present, and Tunstal was as far distant as Madrid. No, stung
more than once, and in one week, by what had been detected at
Oxford and Cambridge, as well as in London, Wolsey must
have felt exasperated in the highest degree, and it is manifest
that, by aU this parade, he intended to produce a deep and
general panic.
At the close of aU, poor Barnes, though received formally

66 ESCAPE BEYOND SEA. -[book I.
into the Roman Catholic Church again, was rernitted to the
Fleet, tiU the Lord Cardinal's pleasure should be known ; but
his friends were permitted to visit him, and he there relented.
As the season of conviction at Oxford and Cambridge' had
been the same, so also was that of reUef to both parties. Per
haps the sad deaths at Oxford, in consequence of severe treat
ment, led to this ; since it was about the very same time that
the young men at Oxford were released, on condition of not
moving above ten mUes distant, that Barnes was deKvered from
the Fleet ; that is, at the end of six months. He, however, Was
not permitted to go at large, even to the same extent, but was
committed to be a free prisoner at Austin Friars in London;
and from evidence which wUl come out in 1528, it wiU appear
that he was here as busy as his circumstances would perrnit,
in actually disposing of copies of Tyndale's Testament ! His
enemies, therefore, were not incorrect in their suspicions, for,
says Foxe, " they complained again to the Lord Cardinal, where
upon he was removed to the Austin Friars of Northampton,
there to be burned." By a most unworthy stratagem, however,
feigning himself to have been drowned, he escaped to the Con
tinent. His enemies searched for him seven days, but they
dragged the pond in vain.
Once abroad, and having time for reflection, Barnes must
surely soon have seen the evil of his conduct with regret ; for
alas, independently of its own sinfulness, his example proved
most baneful ! At the moment it must have been, " as when a
standard-bearer fainteth," or rather flies, for he first led in a
path which cost many a sigh to those who followed him. His
faU and escape, for faU he did, certainly had no smaU influence
in leading to the sad expedient of abjuration, instead of resistance
unto death — an expedient which produced, as we shaU find' in
Bilney's case and others, mental agony to a degree, compared
with which, the tortures of the stake were transient, and far
inferior. With regard to this entire statement, such a remarkable con-
junction of circumstances has never before been traced';' and
though "The Supplication of Beggars" has aU along been
fanriliar to the readers of history, they cannot have beeh before
aware of the mighty stir occasioned by the distribution of these

1526.] AXXIETY OF WARHAM. 67
few pages of letter-press, on Candlemas-day. London, Oxford,
and Cambridge, the subjects of Wolsey's " secret search and at
one time," were ascertained, in February 1526, to be impreg
nated with the same leaven ; but that the King himself, and
before aU this uproar began, should have possessed and read
this powerful tract, to the Cardinal especially, must have proved
not a little gaUing.
On the whole, however, it may have been observed, that none
of the principal or leading characters in Oxford, simUar to
Barnes at Cambridge, had been called up before Wolsey.
Garret, indeed, had been apprehended at Oxford, but he be
longed to London, and they were young men only, who had
been incarcerated, with the exception of Clarke, and even he
was not a man of authority. StiU one or two of a higher grade
had been there suspected, of promoting the " new learning."
The month of February, therefore, had not expired, when the
University formaUy appUed to Warham of Canterbury, then
their Chancellor, as he had been since 1506. He was Uving
retired at KnoUe, but might not be so fully aware of all that
had happened, tiU he was officially thus informed. Accordingly,
on the 8th of March, he wrote a cautious and imploring letter
to the Cardinal, full of fear and anxiety as to Oxford and its
honour, advising that only the leaders should be punished, and
that the scholars suspected, whom he caUs " a number of young
and uncircumspect fools," should be called up to London for
examination, but, for the honour of the University, " the less
bruit the better." This letter was little calculated to allay the
irritation felt Jby Wolsey in the matter. Nor was the advice
offered in it taken, or the requests granted, though Garret and
the young scholars were already in durance vile. The Cardinal
will take his own way and act as it best pleased him. He wiU
watch for his own revenge, and before long something may
occur, which wUl carry even the King fuUy along with him.
Accordingly, so it happened ; for in less than a fortnight after
this letter, and Uttle more than a month after the day of terror
at St. Paul's, an opportunity was presented, which Wolsey, with
the Bishops, did not fail to improve for the most impious of all
purposes— the burning of the Sacred Scriptures, and to be
burned by authority of the King.
f 2

68 WRATH OF THE KING. [book i,
Henry the VIII. having written against Martin Luther's
book on the Babylonish Captivity, and thus procured from
Rome the title of "Defender of the Faith;" Luther in 1521
had published his bold and very rough reply. In September
1525, however, as already hinted, no matter by whose advice,
or under what impression, he made an attempt at reconciliation,
by addressing a letter to his Majesty. In this letter he actually
confessed that at the instance of other persons he had grievously
offended, by a foolish and precipitate publication, yet, from the
reported clemency of the King, he hoped for his forgiveness.
He had been told that his Majesty was not the real author of
the book edited under his name ; and, at the same time, though
denouncing Wolsey as " a monster, the general odium of God
and man, and the plague of his kingdom," he yet prayed for a
gracious reply ! Luther pled afterwards, that he had been
urgently pressed by Christiern King of Denmark to write even
this letter, but the step taken no one can defend. It was not
only unworthy of his character and place, but at variance with
the upright integrity of any follower of Christ. " Who knows,"
said Luther, "but in a happy hour I may gain the King of
England ?" A little of human vanity, therefore, seems to haTe
been lurking in his mind ; but at aU events, he must have been
quite in the dark as to the existing state of affairs in England,
when he could pen and print such a letter.
Henry, in reply, having reproached Luther with levity and
inconstancy, as weU as his marriage, and the vflest heresy,
represented Wolsey as peculiarly dear to him, and of great
value in preventing the contagion of the Lutheran heresy;
of which, it might have been added, he had lately given a
flaming specimen.
A remarkable fact, however, respecting this letter of Luther's
has been all but overlooked. Though dated from Wittenberg,
on the 1st of September, 1525, more than six months had elapsed
before it met the eye of the King. He himself professes that
he only received it on the 20th of March ! Its non-arrival may
well be observed, for, had the same wrath been excited by the
end of 1525, the entrance of books at that period, and in
January, must have been still more difficult than it was. But
arriving five weeks after the famous burning at St. Paul's, a

1526.] DENOUNCES THE NEW TESTAMENT. 69
fine opportunity was now presented for exciting the royal
indignation against the English Neio Testament, and covering it
with all the odium oi' Luther anism, the assumed cant ofthe day.
The name of the translator not being yet known, for Cochlseus
had not mentioned it, no doubt it was deemed a happy thought,
boldly to assert that the production teas the device of Luther
himseK! Henry must have been sufficiently incensed by the
letter of Luther alone, and, as for any additional information,
both he and Wolsey must have remembered, too late, the letters
of Rincke and Cochlseus ; but in the preface of the King's
Answer to Luther, addressed to his " dearly beloved people," he
denounces the New Testament in EngUsh as the " device of one
or two lewd (illiterate) persons born in this our realm," at the
instigation of Luther, noticing " certain prefaces and other
pestilent glosses in the margins," so that by the advice of
Cardinal Wolsey he had resolved that all copies of it found
should be burned, and holders or readers of it punished. This
advice, thus given and sanctioned, as to the burning of the
quarto book, the only edition yet marked out, must have
occurred immediately after the reception of Luther's letter, and
prepares us for the more formal injunctions of Tunstal and
Warham, which, however, did not come out tUl towards the
end of the year, so that we have still several incidents to record
before then.
From March to October, whether the friends of truth had
enjoyed a breathing time or not, as it regards the prudential
importation and circulation of Tyndale's precious volumes, cer
tain events show, that, though living in perilous times, they
had zealously improved them. Thus, when the " Supplication
of Beggars" was scattering about in London, at and before
Candlemas, the author, Mr. Fyshe, it is presumed, was not in
England, otherwise he must have run the hazard of being
amongst the first victims. Return, however, he did, and to
London, where he not only sojourned for a season during this
summer, but was useful and active in the circulation of Tyndale's
New Testament. It seems as if he had come for the purpose.
He may have brought over copies with him ; but, at all events,
when we come to the disclosures upon oath in the spring of 1528,
we shall find, that, at this very period, he was a confidential

70 PERSECUTION RESUMED. [book i.
agent, importing the Testament from Mr. Harman of Antwerp,
and dealing it out for sale to such as travelled through the
country and sold them. After Tunstal's return, he again fleet'
abroad, not returning for about two years and a half.
Mr. Rodolph Bradford, a Fellow of King's CoUege, Cam
bridge, coming to London, by the help of Mr. Jeffrey Lome,
the Usher of St. Anthony's School, and confidential agent of
Mr. Forman of Honey Lane, the coUeague of Garret, " he met'
with certain New Testaments, translated into English by
Tyndale, and went to Reading with them, out of a godly zeal
to disperse them." There he delivered them to a certain monk,
who being apprehended, made known the names of him and
others from whom he had them. Whereupon letters were sent
over to Cambridge to apprehend this Bradford, now returnedj'
together with Dr. Smith of Trinity HaU, Simon Smith of
Gonville Hall, High Latymer, and Segar Nicolson, a stationer
there. Bradford escaped to Ireland, but was taken and im
prisoned two years. He afterwards returned to Cambridge,
passed as D.D. in 1534, and lived and died Chaplain to Latimer
when Bishop of Worcester.2
As the year advanced, however, the alarm continued to
increase. .The Pontiff himself seemed to be in jeopardy —
Luther's rash letter was not forgotten — Henry was printing
his Latin reply, and translating it also into English for tho
press, with a preface to his people — the Bishops were consult
ing — Tunstal had now come home, and something must be done. •
In what particular month of this year Tunstal had arrived from
Spain, does not appear. Wolsey heard in March, says Lord
Herbert, that he was on his way homewards, so that it must
have been some time after this ; and then, however annoying it
certainly proved to such a man, he could not remain long in
London, before he found it necessary to look into the state of his
diocese ; for so widely were both editions of the Testament now
circulated, that even the Archbishop of Canterbury must examine
his province. The Bishops were assembled, and, according to
Strype, at the instigation of Wolsey. Of this consultation we
have no record, but one curious account of it may be glanced at

2 Foxe, first and following editions, compared with Strype.

1526. J RECORDED IN RHYME. 71
from the famous Satire of William Roye against the Cardinal.
Being abroad, he could, of course, only write according to the
report that reached him — and this was incorrect as it regarded
Wolsey — but still it may be noticed as one proof, by the way,
of the deep interest felt in aU the public proceedings of the
time. According to Roye, it was Henry Standish, once Guardian of
the Franciscans, and now Bishop of St. Asaph, already men
tioned, who first informed Wolsey of the Testament being in
the country, imploring him most earnestly to prevent its circu
lation. This informer, Roye designates Judas; and making
Wolsey sustain the part of Pilate, he represents him as, at the
first, paying but little regard to the fury of Standish, and even
saying — " I find no fault therein." But when once the Bishops
had assembled as a body, and he with them, to examine and
determine what was to be done ; no sooner did Tunstal, Bishop
of London, (or Caiphas,) deliver his opinion, than the Cardinal
assented, and, of course, all the rest — giving judgment that the
book should be sought for, and committed to the flames. In
Roye's estimation, however, it was now all in vain, either to
¦"give judgment against the Gospel," or try to prevent its cir
culation. Thus, in one place, aUuding first to the Saviour, and
then to the book itself, he says, in his own uncouth, but nervous
rhyme — " God, of his goodness, grudg'd not to die,
Man to deliver from deadly damnation,
Whose will is, that we should know perfectlie
What he here hath done for our salvation.
O cruel Caiphas ! full of crafty conspiration^
How durst thou give then false judgment,
To burn God's word — ihe holy Testament ?
' ' The lewdness of living is loath to bear
Christ's gospel to come unto clear hght ;
How be it, surely it is so spread far and near,
That for to let it, thou hast little might ;
God hath opened our dark dimmed sight
Truly to perceive thy tyrannous intent,
To burn God's word — the Iwly Testament. " 3
Let the other particulars here given, with the exception of
3 See the original edition in the British Museum ; or Harleian Misc., vol. ix.
pp. 77, 81. Edit. 1812.

72 MANDATE OF WARHAM. [book i.
Wolsey's indifference, be as they might, we know that the
Bishops did assemble and consult : and that some prohibitory
instrument was issued by Wolsey himself, there can be no doubt,
as we find Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, acting on the strength
of it, in January 1529. Whatever it was, however, this was in
his own name, not that of the King, nor does there seem to be
any trace of it remaining in existence.
The first instrument generaUy known to have been published,
was the prohibition sent out by Cuthbert Tunstal ; in which
both editions of Tyndale's Testament, ("of which," he says,
" there are many books, some with glosses and some without,")
already dispersed in great number, are now, at last, denounced,
and Luther's sect falsely employed, as the convenient word of
terror. Tunstal's orders being issued on Wednesday the 24th of
October, a copy was sent to the Archdeacons of Middlesex,
Essex, and Colchester ; and eleven days afterwards, or the 3rd
of November, a " Mandate," in nearly the same terms, was
given out by Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, to search his
entire province. Both instruments refer simply to the New
Testament of Tyndale, of both editions, and in wide circulation ;
no other book being referred to, or prohibited at the same
moment. Tyndale, therefore, though not yet expressly named,
enjoyed the honour of being thus exposed alone, and as though
he had been the great offender of the day ; while it will be
observed, that the work here carved out for the Archdeacons,
instead of being finished in two months, occupied official atten
tion for years to come.4
After two such injunctions as these had been issued, it was
not to be supposed that these enemies of Divine truth either had
been or would remain inactive. Accordingly, whether we
regard the Bishops at home, or the King and Cardinal in their
exertions abroad, they are all alive, and equaUy on the alert.
With respect to proceedings at home, Barnes, it must be re
membered, had not yet left the country ; but he had been so far
released as to be now a free prisoner at St. Augustine's; and

¦* The injunction of Tunstal is in Foxe, vol. ii., p. 284, ed. 1631 ; and the
Mandate of Warham in Wilkins' Concil., vol. iii., p. 706.

1526.] PERSECUTION CONTINUED, BUT IN VAIN. 73
Garret, though he had endured penance sufficient at Oxford,
had not been so publicly cross-examined. This might elicit
some farther information. Articles having been, therefore,
vamped up against him, he had been brought up from Osney
prison, and about this time stood before Tunstal and his fellows,
as already narrated. FoUowing the sad example set him by
Barnes, he at last abjured.
Between Oxford and Cambridge, however, there has appeared
as yet one material difference in point of the number of convic
tions. True, the students at Cambridge, being forewarned, had
more dexterously concealed their books, and so escaped detec
tion ; but there were Latimer and Bilney, not to say others, as
notorious as Barnes ; nay, the two named were, in every respect,
far more so. It may have seemed strange, therefore, that they
at least were not ordered up to London at the same time. It
must, however, be remembered, that Barnes had rendered him
self most obnoxious at that moment, by his unceremonious
exposure of Wolsey personally : yet engrossed as he was with
poUtical affairs, after a season, neither these men, nor some
others, had been overlooked.
As for Latimer, his adroitness of reply, and vein of humour,
were often of service to him, and to these, perhaps, he was now
somewhat indebted. . Various complaints had been made against
him ; but though they had not, it is evident that the interdict of
West, the Bishop of Ely, could not remain unnoticed, however
unsupported it might be by other authorities. Wolsey, there
fore, sent for Latimer, to appear before him at York House,
where he himself examined him. Upon his first entrance, the
Cardinal seemed surprised, on observing him to be so far ad
vanced in years. Finding him also to be at once acute, learned,
and ready in his replies ; surpassing in accuracy of learning,
either of the Doctors, Capon and MarshaU, now in Wolsey's
presence ; he requested him to give some account of that sermon
which he had preached before Dr. West, the Bishop. Latimer
did so. " Then," said the Cardinal, "if the Bishop of Ely can
not abide such doctrine as you have here repeated, you shall
have my licence, and shall preach it unto his beard, let him say
what he will." Accordingly, after a gentle admonition only,
the Cardinal discharged Latimer, actually giving him his

74 PERSECUTION CONTINUED, BUT IN VAIN. [book i,
licence to preach throughout England ! A most singular inter
position in favour of the truth, at once raising the man above
the malice of his enemies, and the interdict of any Bishop in
the land ! 5
With regard to Bilney, who had preached with such effect,
not only at Cambridge, but in Suffolk and Norfolk, and even in
London, whose case at last became so affecting, he made two
appearances. The first has been generaUy overlooked, perhaps
partly owing to one passage in the first edition of Foxe having.
been omitted, and the fact coming out incidentaUy only in the
subsequent editions. But of the fact itself, there can be no
doubt, or that he did not escape as Latimer had done; for alas!
he then first got entangled, and first let go his integrity ! , A\
the close of this first appearance he had been enjoined " not to
preach any of Luther's opinions, but to impugn them every
where;" yet afterwards, taking refuge merely on some supposed;
informality in the oath administered to him, he had gone on
much as before. It was on this account that we shall find him,
eome before them in November 1527, or next year, charged with
having relapsed. More than this, we shall find afterwards, that,
at whatever period this first appearance of Bilney took place,
there was another man along with him, Thomas Arthur, in the
same situation. As for any other Cambridge men, they seem to
have been merely admonished.
The mildness hitherto shown to men, must have been most
annoying to some of these persecutors ; and it was afterwards,
to be visited on the head of Wolsey, when impeached, that he
had been the disturber of " the due and direct correction of
heresies ;" but as for zeal in the burning of books, the Cardinal
was certainly not one whit behind any of them. By the end of
this year, therefore, many copies of the New Testament must
have been consumed in the flames, for it has been altogether a
mistake to confine this to one or two great occasions. On the
contrary, in the very first month of next year we shall presently
hear the ambassador of Henry, in the Low Countries, bringing
it forward as an argument for burning others there, that this had
been doing in England daily !

6 MS. Harleian, No. 422, fol. 85-86.

1526.] THIRD EDITION OF NEW TESTAMENT. 75
In the midst of all this determined, though vain fury, agamst
the reception of the Word of God into England, it is most
gratifying to find that the friends of truth abroad had been so
active. It was there that the King and the Cardinal had been
playing their part in this tragedy, and to them we must now
turn, after a few words of explanation ; for we are not- yet done
with this notable year, 1526.
The editions of Tyndale's Testament have been hitherto di
vided into two classes, styled the genuine and spurious ; mean
ing by the former such as he himself edited, and by the latter
such as were printed from his, by others. The latter were
not so correct, but still they nobly and effectually served
their purpose, enUghtening and consoling many an immortal
spirit. We have already given the history of the first and second
editions printed in 1525, and issued from Worms. We now
come to the first printed at Antwerp by Christopher of End
hoven, or the third edition. The whole history of it is curious^
giving such a display of opposition to the entrance of the Word
of God into our native land, as is nowhere else to be found,,
though it has never before been even noticed in any printed
publication. The two months formaUy specified in Tunstal's injunction for
caUing in books at home, were not permitted to expire before it
becomes evident that the King and Wolsey, as well as the
Bishops, had entered fuUy into the subject. Finding that, some
how or Other, copies were importing, they resolved, if possible,
to cut off the supplies from abroad. Well aware that it was
from, the Low Countries, Brabant, that all these hated Testaments
had come, no stone must be left unturned to find them out. AU
the energy of the English ambassador at the court of Lady
Margaret, must be put to the stretch, and we shall now have
one striking iUustration of how much in earnest were all parties
—King, Cardinal, and Bishops — to arrest the progress, and
prevent the triumphs of Divine truth. Oh how joyfully would
they have consigned the last leaf to the flames ! And this,
assuredly, they would have done, but for this most annoying
and hated "new invention of printing." While, however, they
were burning at home, others were busy at the printing press

76 PERSECUTION CARRIED ABROAD. [book I.
abroad, and, therefore, the frenzy of the enemy must extend
from England to Brabant.
How providential was it, that, by this time, the power and
the terror of Wolsey's name were upon the wane ! Only a
few years before, the Lady Regent of these countries, Princess
Margaret, had whispered in his ear the sweet sound of the
Popedom, and her own wish to see him in the Papal Chair ;
nay, and proposed to write to the Emperor, her nephew, in his
favour.6 Now, however, she had found good reason to suspect
the man.7 High words had passed between the parties, and also
with Count Hoogstrate, one of the Lady Margaret's Council, to
whom application was about to be made. Wolsey, moreover,
had insulted, by the insolence of his language, Monsieur Bever,
the Lord of Campvere and Admiral of Flanders, the Emperor's
ambassador to England, now returned to the Low Countries.
Added to all this, it had been a favourite project of the Cardinal,
to withdraw the EngUsh merchants and " the mart for goods,"
from Antwerp to Calais. All these things were against him ;
and " the Lords of Antwerp," who, at one period, not long past,
would have at once crouched before him, by the good providence
of God, wiU now prove neither so pliant nor obsequious.
Wolsey, however, fully aware of aU these circumstances, had
resolved that the search for books upon the Continent should
commence with the highest authority ; and he must, therefore,
have the King on the throne called the "Defender of the
Faith," to command the destruction of the Sacred Volume!
The ink of Tunstal's injunction was scarcely dry, before Henry
had signed his letters ; one addressed to Princess Margaret, and
the other to the Governor of the EngUsh House at Antwerp.
Wolsey's letters, also, dated the 31st of October and 3rd
November, were directed to John Hackett, the Agent for the
Crown and English Envoy at that Court, and all were conveyed
by the same messenger. At a formal audience, on Saturday the
17th of November, Hackett delivered the King's letters to the
Lady Margaret, in presence of the Lords of her Council ; and,
on the 19th, the Princess herself rephed to Henry— " She can-

0 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. vii. p. 353, 354, b.
1 Galba, B. vi.. fo. 3, 9, 10,

l526.] PERSECUTION IN ANTWERP. 77
not sufficiently praise his Majesty's virtuous intentions ! She
had consulted with Hackett, and since tho reception of the
King's letter, she had pointedly commanded her officers to search
the country for these books, intending to proceed in all rigour
against those whom they found culpable."8 Two days after
this, Hackett informs Wolsey of his cordial reception at Court,
and that he had " deUvered the King's letter to the Governor
of the Merchant Adventurers, who promised that on the first
day at Barrow,9 he would show the King's highness and the
Cardinal's mind and pleasure as touching these new imprinted
books, and shaU do his best, (and so will I,) utterly to destroy,
and bring them to nought." Hackett is very warm in the
cause, for if it did not succeed, he thought that " every fool would
think to be a doctor ! " 10
But in negociating this business, our ambassador had no easy
task assigned to him. Books were to be sought for in the large
and busy city of Antwerp. As Envoy, he lived fifteen miles
distant, at Mechlin, where the reigning Princess held her court.
In Antwerp itself, the Margrave, as representative of the
Emperor, resided ; but as that city enjoyed its own laws and
privileges, of which the "Lords of Antwerp" were the guar
dians, their authority was paramount to all others. Hackett
eagerly desired to gratify the Gardinal and his English Bishops,
but then he was about to meddle with the citizens of " no mean
city." On the 17th of December he wrote to the King's Secretary,
reporting progress, and addressed another to Wolsey on the
22nd, an instance of those double dispatches which the Cardinal
uniformly required. In the latter he states the difficulties he met
with in the business ; as it was " one that touched both life and
goods," the Lords of Antwerp would give no sentence tiU they
had a translation of the EngUsh Testament into Latin or
German, by which to form a judgment of its heresy. In vain
he urged his Master's authority ; they must have a copy of each
of the books condemned ere they could proceed in the matter,
» Galba, B. ix. fol. 33, b:
9 Barrow, Barois, Barrough, all refer to the same place, now known as
Bergen-op-Zoom, then in immediate contact with the water.
10 Galba, B. ix. fol. 35.

78 PERSECUTION NOBLY RESISTED. [book I.
remarking that each country had its own laws, and must act
upon them alone. He concludes by begging a copy of each
book for the CouncU of Lady Margaret, and for the Lords of
Antwerp. Copies of the ¦ Testaments had, however, been sent before he
wrote for them, and he soon had to report that the Lady Regent,
on seeing the books and the Cardinal's letter, had written to the
Margrave and Council of Antwerp, " to do justice and correc
tion upon aU such books as they can find in the Umits of their
jurisdiction," — that the Lords of Antwerp had promised to "do
their devoir according to right and reason," but this required
that Christopher Endhoven, the printer of these books," should
be heard in his own defence. And heard he was, and to so gopd
effect, that the Lords gave sentence, " that, before the banish
ment of the said printer, the confiscation of his goods, or the
burning of his books, the Margrave, as officer of the Emperor,
shall show and declare some articles contained in the said books,
where these errors and heresies be found." But the Margraye
would proceed no farther in the business. FinaUy Hackett pro
poses as the shortest way of getting quit of the books, to buy the
whole stock, send them over to England and burn them there.
How degraded was the condition of London then, compared
with that of this city ! The Lords of Antwerp stand here, de
servedly, on very high ground. The name of the reigning
Princess, or even that of the Emperor himself, though backed
by the orders of the " Defender of the Faith," and his mighty
Cardinal, could not intimidate them. The establishment ,of
those cities which, in return for their opulence or commercial
power, obtained for themselves certain invaluable privfleges, has
been styled " the commercial phenomenon of the thirteenth cen
tury." It was one of those providential arrangements of human
society, which Infinite Wisdom occasionally employed afterwards,
for the . protection of civU rights, or staying the vengeance of
the oppressor. But, added to this, there was yet another ar
rangement, and in favour of .Britain, — the establishment of
English factories within those cities, known by the title of "the
English House," or Company of "Merchant Adventurers."
These were, in one sense, Normal Schools, where our country
men first came to understand and value the liberty of the

1526.] TESTAMENTS BURNT ABROAD. 79
subject. The English merchants resident in Antwerp became
citizens, and to more than one of them, England stood greatly
indebted for the importation of the Sacred Scriptures.
In the abundance of his zeal, Hackett not only visited
Antwerp, Barrow, Zealand, and other places, but made " privy
inquisitions" at Ghent and Bruges, at Brussels, Louvaine, and
elsewhere, after books, which was aU in obedience to Wolsey's
instructions ; so that he thinks forty marks (£26 13s. 4d.), which
he had just received, should be allowed him for " expenses extra
ordinary." Yet, in the end, notwithstanding all this toil, it is
gratifying to observe, that so far from Christopher Endhoven
being banished, they could not even touch his goods. Thanks
to his residence in the free city of Antwerp ! The books, how
ever, so far as detected there and at Barrow, were burned,
though happily they had found out only a part. Of all this
Hackett did not faU immediately to inform the King's Secre
tary ; and in his second dispatch to Wolsey, dated from Mechlin
the 20th of February, he informs him that "execution and
justice has been done in the towns of Antwerp and Barrow,
upon all such English books as we could find in these countries,
similar to three such other books as your Grace sent unto me
with my Lord the Bishop of London's signature." This, how
ever, had been accompUshed, it is evident, with no small diffi
culty, and it was, in the end, only by a stretch of power ; as the
Envoy confesses that tUl " a translation of some particular
heresies contained in the said book were got out of England,"
he could not get the printers, buyers or seUers punished, either
in body or in goods.
In conveying this request, Hackett did not foresee the conse
quences to himself afterwards, otherwise, perhaps, he would
have been sUent, for we are not done with him yet ; though we
have sUghtly- trespassed on 1527, only that we might finish the
account' of this business, and bring to a conclusion the impor
tant transactions of the preceding year.
All this turmoU is entirely new to the English reader, and
certainly it lends an additional and peculiar interest, not only
to the two first editions of Tyndale, but to the first imitation
of his book, or the third edition. No printer would have ven
tured on such a thing, without the prospect of a ready sale, even

80 THREE EDITIONS THUS EARLY. [book.i.
in the face of royal indignation. For could a copy of this first
print at Antwerp now be identified, then might we say of it-
Here is the volume, printed by Endhoven, which so agitated
our authorities at home and abroad ; and engrossed our am
bassador as eagerly as if he had been intent on preventing the
plague from entering into England. We have, however, yet to
see whether this interference was to his honour or disgrace.
Meanwhile, although we can by no means affirm that we have
found out the book, since the foUowing coUation refers to one of
the earliest editions, we give it entire —
" A copy is in Bishop Cosin's Library at Durham, which may turn out to be
some one very early and unknown. The title is in a small compartment of four
parts, with top and bottom scriptural subjects. On the top, the creation and
birth of the Saviour; at the bottom, Adam and Eve beguiled, and the cruci
fixion. The volume consists of 446 leaves, on the last of which is the Bevela-
tion of St. Judas, Jude. There are 20 lines in a full page. Matthew begins on
folio 11 ; and the volume extends to B r in eights. The chapters are marked
into portions by large letters on the margin ; and there are a few marginal notes.
It has ornamented capitals ; the first T, two boys carrying on a stick a dead stag,
with the head upwards." H
Should this, however, prove to be one of the edition now
under consideration, there is another copy, and of a more ex
traordinary character, in the collection at Norwood-hill. Not
only is it in the original hog-skin binding, which would be
curiosity enough, but, to this hour, many of the leaves remain
not yet cut open ! — a peculiarity not to be expected in a book
nearly three hundred and twenty years old, and one which, it
may be safely presumed, will stamp the volume as unique,
amongst all these rare early editions.
The foUowing pages wiU throw still farther light on this
interesting period, but we have now done for the present with
the memorable year 1526.
Instead of having to be satisfied with only one edition of the
New Testament, and that of doubtful or hitherto disputed
origin, we have had three distinctly before us, besides, as will
be more fully proved, a separate impression of Matthew and
Mark, circulating through the country. We have seen all the
authorities, from the King downwards, roused in opposition;

11 Lowndes' Bib. Manual.

1520.] THREE EDITIONS THUS EARLY. 81
and the people, though in secret, were reading with avidity.
It was the season of entrance to Britain's greatest earthly
treasure ; and one should have imagined that it would have
been marked in our calendar, with a red letter, or fuUy under
stood, long ere now. Viewing these first printed volumes in
their ultimate effects, the year may well be regarded by all
British Christians, as by far the most important, in the long
and varied history of their native land.
A fire was then kindled by the Almighty, through the in-
strumentaUty of his servant, which, in the highest exercise of
his loving-kindness, He has never suffered to be extinguished ;
Hght was then introduced, which He has never withdrawn ; and
a voice was then heard by the people, which has sounded in
the ears of their posterity to the present hour. For whatever
may be said of men, as men, it is to the word of truth in the
vulgar tongue that we owe everything in this highly-favoured
country !
Many of these volumes, it is true, were consigned to the
flames; and the wonder is that any of them escaped detection.
But every one knows with what avidity men will read an
interdicted book, while the call for its deliverance up would
only make certain minds grasp it harder stiU. Besides, though
in part detected, in such places as London and Oxford — for
in Cambridge they were not — copies had gone, far and near,
into the hamlets and towns in the country, where, no doubt,
they were enjoyed by stealth, and hid with anxious care.
The preceding statements are not hypothetical; the reader
has been entertained neither with mere conjectures or proba-
biUty only ; and as subsequent events will both iUustrate and
confirm the preceding, we presume it wiU now be conceded,
as not a little extraordinary, that more than three centuries
should have been aUowed to pass away, before a year so full
of incident, nay, of peculiar favour to Britain, has been in
vestigated. We have said Britain, because it will appear, in its
proper place, that, at this very period, Scotland was mercifully
visited with the same favour.

82 tyndale's progress.

MDXXVII.
THE TRANSLATOR'S PROGRESS — HIS EARLIEST COMPOSITIONS — PERSECUTION IN
ENGLAND — OPPOSITION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT — WARHAM AND THE BISHOPS
BUYING IT UP — FRESH IMPORTATIONS — THE FOURTH EDITION — SCRIPTURES
SINGULARLY INTRODUCED ONCE MORE.
,n returning to Tyndale, whom we left alone at Worms,
after having completed his New Testaments, we do so
with abundant evidence, that he had not laboured in
vain. Much has vaguely been ascribed to Latin works
then imported from the Continent, and in consequence
of even their effects, the " spirituaUty " of the day
no doubt dreaded almost every leaf; but the history
already given clearly shows, that the New Testament in the
vulgar tongue was the great object of apprehension. While yet
in his native land, Tyndale " had perceived by experience how
that it was impossible to stablish the lay people in any truth,
except the Scriptures were plainly laid before their eyes in their
mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and
meaning of the text : " and so now, as the Word of the Lord
was enUghtening the minds, " converting the soul, and making
wise the simple," it had proved also " Uke a fire or a hammer,"
and was breaking the rocks in pieces.
Very soon, through whatever medium, Tyndale was made
intimately acquainted with the storm that raged in England,
and, amidst all its tumultuous howling, he had ample en
couragement to proceed with his Old Testament from the
Hebrew ; but in the year 1526, he must have been also very
busy in preparing for the press, as we shaU find that the year
1527 was distinguished by the first appearance of two publica
tions, namely, his exposition of " The Parable of the Wicked
Mammon," and his " Obedience of a Christian man."
Some time, however, before the appearance of anything else
in print, we may now safely assert, that Tyndale had been
favoured by the company, consolation, and assistance of his
devoted Christian friend, John Fryth, who had fled from Oxford
to the Continent about September 1526, and no doubt fully
reported progress. An affection subsisted between these two

1527.] TYNDALE'S PROGRESS. 83
eminent men, akin to that between Paul and Timothy of old,
though in one point the parallel fails — the younger died first.
Fryth was not only Tyndale's own son in the faith, but he had
no man so dear to him ; and as aU parties, even his enemies,
agreed in bearing testimony to the attainments of Fryth as a
scholar, nothing could be more opportune than his arrival ; but
before saying more of him, some notice must be taken of William
Roye, whom Tyndale had found it necessary to dismiss from his
service in 1525.
In 1526, as already hinted, circumstances having suggested
to our Translator, the necessity of encouraging those to whom
it had been sent, by some exposition of his own views of Divine
Truth, he commenced by writing out " The Parable of the
Wicked Mammon;" but before it appeared, there had come
to his possession the copy of a Dialogue, translated out of Latin
into English, which had been printed at Strasburg by his late
amanuensis, with a prologue of his own composition.
This singular character, Boye, as well as another named
Jerome, were two Franciscan friars from the noted monastery
at Greenwich, close by the favourite palace of Henry VIII.
The inmates of this monastery, as well as of another at Rich
mond, with whom they were occasionaUy in league, were a
great annoyance to the King. Thus the residence of Roye and
Jerome, in immediate vicinity to the Court, and to all the
gorgeous feats of Henry and his Cardinal, afforded such oppor
tunities as fully account for the very graphic poetical satire
already quoted, and to which we now refer. After leaving
Tyndale's service, Roye had proceeded to Strasburg, where he
published his "Dialogue between the Father and the Son,"
about the end of 1526. Soon after this came his " Rede me,
and be not wrothe," or Satire on Wolsey and the Monastic orders,
frequently denounced as " The burying of the Mass," — one of the
most extraordinary satires, it has been said, of this or any other
age. It was first published in smaU octavo, black letter, with
a wood-cut of the Cardinal's coat-of-arms. Wolsey was so
annoyed by it, that he spared neither pains nor expense to
procure the copies, employing more than one emissary for the
purpose. Hence its extreme rarity ; a copy of this original
edition having been sold for as high a sum as sixteen or twenty
g 2

84 DISOWNS ROYE. [book I.
guineas ! It is reprinted, however, in the Harleian Miscellany
by Park.
With a modesty and prudence, highly characteristic, our
Translator had put forth the New Testament without his name>
and he earnestly wished to have gone on, through life, with
anonymous publication ; but the sight of Roye's Dialogue and
Prologue, in connexion with his previous conduct, had fully
convinced Tyndale that there was an imperative necessity, not
only for affixing his name to what he now pubUshed, but for his
disclaiming all connexion or even intercourse with Roye, after a
certain period. This he does in his preface to the " Parable of
the Wicked Mammon," where he informs us when and how long
and in what capacity he had employed Roye, tiU he bade him
" fareAveU for our two lives," and afterwards had occasion to
warn Jerome of his boldness (see p. 28) ; that Roye, on coming
to Strasburg, found this Jerome, and " gat him to him and set
him a work to make rhymes, whUe 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.
It becometh not the Lord's servant to use railing rhymes, but
God's Word, which is the right weapon to slay sin, vice, and all
iniquity." It is a curious fact, that, notwithstanding the above distinct
explanation, and decided disapprobation of aU such rhyme,
Tyndale for a year, if not two, lay under the imputation of
being actuaUy the author of Roye's Satire. He was now, by
anticipation, endeavouring to prevent this, and the event fully
¦justifies the severitv of his language.
Tyndale had already given a specimen of his scholarship. It
remained now to be discovered, whether he was to be at all dis
tinguished as a judicious man ; a character from which a mere
scholar often stands at a great distance. One is curious to hear,
what he had got to say first, and especiaUy, if to England, from
the city of Worms. In his deliberate judgment, it becomes
evident, that most of the evils with which his native country was
now infested, were to be traced to the love of money. Hence, even
the title of this, his very first treatise — " The Wicked Mammon.":
The " Spirituality" of the day, so called, appeared to him as the
" Successors of Simon Magus," " who would have bought the

.1527.] THE WICKED MAMMON. 85
gift of God to have sold it much dearer." Bred up as Tyndale
had been in Gloucestershire, it was quite natural that he should
feel deeply for the people, as ground down or piUaged, by
exactions, and " spiritual alms," falsely so denominated. It
was not, however, that he had now commenced, by a lecture on
covetousness. Far from it. But the title having once attracted
the reader's eye, as it was very likely to do, he found himseH at
once addressed on the only genuine origin of aU vital religion.
Commencing with the great and fundamental subject of a
sinner's acceptance before God ; believing the gospel to be the
ministration of righteousness and of the Spirit, and Christ alone
"the great store-house of mercy ;" he magnifies Divine revela
tion as the ground of aU certainty in matters so important.
Selecting a great variety of passages, the interpretation of
which involve a deep and intimate acquaintance with Divine
truth, though in one or two instances he has not hit the sense ;
yet Tyndale shows, with no common discrimination, how they
aU perfectly coalesce, and agree with the general doctrine, that
a man is justified before God by faith in Christ Jesus, and not
by the works of the law.
This publication, however, in Tyndale's estimation, was not
sufficient. He intended to be open and explicit, not only as to
doctrine, but the Divine precepts ; not only as to faith, but obe
dience, in its fuU extent. He saw, and deeply felt, that, in his
native country, the whole foundations were out of course, — that
there were men reigning there, falsely called, nay, and calling
themselves " spiritual," who not only had taken away the very
key of knowledge, and taught for doctrines the commandments
'¦ of men ; but who had broken the bonds of aU human society,
^beggared the nation by their exactions, and sunk it into a state
of poUution and depravity. This accounts for his able exposi
tion of duty incumbent on aU parties — the obedience of children
jto parents, of servants to masters, of wives to their husbands, of
; subjects to their sovereign ; not forgetting the obligations of all
tithe superior parties, including the duty of kings, of judges and
[officers of the land. That false and usurped spiritual power
^vhich undermined and destroyed aU other, is then particularly
/^amined and reprobated.
$ This pubUcation Tyndale entitled " The Obedience of a

86 THE CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE. [book I.
Christian Man, and how Christian Rulers ought to govern;
wherein also (if thou mark dUigently) thou shalt find eyes to
perceive the crafty conveyance of all Jugglers."
Such, with his name affixed, was the manifesto of WiUiam
Tyndale, published, too, at the very season in which God was
pleading with Britain by the voice of his mouth, and had risen
up in judgment on the city of Rome. After this, no man could
affirm that he did not plead emphatically for practical rehgion,
or the fruits of faith. Nor is it wonderful if Henry VIII. him
self was, at one moment, moved by this pubUcation, as we shall
see afterwards ; for, to every impartial mind, it must have been
evident that Tyndale was not only a genuine lover of his
country, but one of the most enUghtened and loyal subjects of
the Crown.
Throughout the year 1527, political events rendered it next to
impossible that any moment should be left to attend to the sup
pression of Tyndale's New Testament, or the persecution of those
who possessed it. But if there was, we can more fully estimate
the extent of that apprehension and anxiety which agitated,
even at such a time as this, not only the Bishops of the day, but
aU the votaries of " the old learning."
It was but one short year since the Sacred Volume had arrived
in the country ; and yet see how deeply its enemies were moved.
The first inveterate opponent who excites notice, was m" an
ancient doctor, caUed, as I remember," says Cavendish, " Doctor
(Robert) Ridley, a very small person in stature, but surely a
great and excellent clerk in divinity ! " He was celebrated as a
canonist, and had been consulted by Wolsey, years before this,
respecting the prevention of Lutheranism. Related to Cuthbert
Tunstal, he, in the year 1523, had made him Rector of St.
Botolph's, Bishopsgate; in 1524, Prebend (Mora) of St. Paul's,
and more recently Rector of St. Edmond's, Lombard Street.
Was it wonderful that this little man should wax warm in the
service of the hierarchy ? The bitterness of his zeal would exceed
belief, could we not present a specimen from his own pen. Yet
was he no other than the uncle of the learned and amiable
Nicholas Ridley, the future martyr ; and gave him, at his sole
expense, his fine education at home and abroad ! The uncle and

1527.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 87
nephew have occasionally been confounded, though no two men
could form a stronger contrast.
From a singular letter of this Robert Ridley,1 as yet unpub
lished, dated 24th February, 1527, and addressed to Henry Golde
at Knolle, as chaplain to Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury,
we learn that in the year 1526, Tyndale's quarto Testament,
with the prologue prefixed, was circulating in England. We
learn also that there was an edition of Matthew and Mark sepa
rately, which he designates the first print, the former being
styled the second print. That he was correct in this, in 1528,
there will be but Uttle doubt ; to say nothing more of its giving
such emphasis to the language of Foxe, already noticed,
" WiUiam Tyndale first placed himseU in Germany, and there
did first translate the gospel of St, Matthew into English, and
after, the whole New Testament." The invaluable fragment,
however, of the quarto New Testament, lately discovered, and
now in the GrenviUe Library, British Museum, is not, as before
hinted, a part of this pubUcation. It extends, indeed, no farther
than the 23rd chapter of Matthew ; but then it has the preface or
prologue prefixed, with the pages, or rather letters, running on ;
and, besides this, the list of all the canonical books of the New
Testament at the beginning. There is, however, little or no
necessity for pointing out this distinction, since Ridley quotes
from Corinthians and Titus — a decisive proof that he had had
the quarto Testament entire before him. From this letter we
also learn to a certainty, that the Introduction, or Prologue to the
Romans, by itself, was already in circulation. Herbert was
therefore correct in his conjecture, when he placed this under
the year 1526. What proofs were these, that Tyndale, for his
country's best interests, must have been labouring night and
day! Notwithstanding the solemn and pointed injunctions of the
Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury, issued in
the close of 1526, calling in both editions, both Bishops had
found that the possessors of the Sacred Volum'e were by no
means disposed to surrender it, merely for being threatened;
1 Cotton, Cleopatra, E. v. fol. 362, b.

88 WARHAM AND THE BISHOPS [book i.'
and as for the copies still abroad, if the influence of Wolsey
over Brabant was last year less than it had been, in this, of
course, it was lower still. His political leanings were now
better known, not only to the Emperor and the Lady Margaret,
but to the Lords of Antwerp, and aU the merchants. Hackett
the ambassador, it wiU be remembered, had implored a list of
heresies, taken out of the Testament, to be translated into
German, that he might proceed at Antwerp or other places with
more rigour and despatch ; but Providence intervening, Wolsey
was engrossed in far different employment ; and so now, it seems,
if any more Testaments are to be obtained, they must be bought,
not seized. The ambassador either dared not, or could not, play
the same game a second time.
At his wits' end, as we have already seen, Hackett was the
first who suggested the idea of purchasing and burning, in order
to prevent the circulation ; and all preceding accounts hitherto
printed, without exception, hold up Tunstal as the only man
who adopted it. But this, like too many others, is a general
mistake, as for two years to come he did nothing of the kind.
The purchasing began with a higher ecclesiastical authority than
that of Tunstal ; nor should the step be represented as merely
foolish, even although it actually furthered the work it was meant
to crush. The fact was, that these Bishops were in a frenzy, yet
none of them were so far gone, as to purchase without a reason.
Any one of them, as we shall see presently, was not disposed to
be at more expense than what was absolutely necessary ; but they
were certainly in great haste, because the haste of fear, and so
the purchase became a matter of necessity, not of choice : since
the rights of the subject were, at this moment, far better under
stood at Antwerp than in England.
It was Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, in the
spring of 1527, had busied himself in procuring what copies
could be found out abroad of Tyndale's New Testament ; and he
succeeded in purchasing a part of Tyndale's original editions in
quarto and octavo, though there might be some of the third
Antwerp impression among them. Wolsey and Warham were
not far from being as much at variance, as were Herod and
Pontius Pilate, in the days of old ; but, as opposition to the
Saviour made them friends for the moment, so, in opposition to

1527.] BUYING UP THE NEW TESTAMENT. 89
His Word, these modern authorities were cordially united.
From a letter of Nix, Bishop of Norwich, dated 14th June,
1527, 2 we find him congratulating Warham on his zeal and
success in buying up all the English New Testaments, both those
with glosses and those without them, at a cost of £66 9s. 4d., a
sum equivalent to nearly £1000 now. Of this sum the Bishop
offers to pay a tenth part, and more if required. Poor old
man ! He had been literally blind for a considerable time, and
was now seventy-seven years of age. His signature has all the
appearance of a blind man's mark. Few individuals in England
were more annoyed by the circulation of the Scriptures than he
was. We shall find him persecuting and consigning Bilney to
the flames ; for he Uved nine years longer, and died, as he had
Uved, blind in every sense, in January 1536, at the advanced
age of at least eighty- six ! But we shall meet with him more
than once, before his death.
If Warham was busy abroad, Tunstal was not less so at home ;
if the one was eager to prevent importation, the latter had not
relaxed in anxiety to obtain all those books that were in use.
He seems, however, to have been annoyed by a double suspicion ;
that his Archdeacons were either remiss in obeying his injunc
tions, or the people were too knowing for all their research.
Both suspicions were, in fact, not without foundation. Tunstal,
therefore, instead of waiting longer for the owners of the Tes
taments deUvering them up, resolved upon a strict visitation of
his whole diocese this summer. But see again the kind inter
position of a gracious Providence ! This man, as well as Wolsey
and Sir Thomas More, must all prepare in June to embark for
France, where they are to remain tiU the month of October.
The consequence was, that although the visitation was remitted
to Geffrey Wharton, as his Vicar, Uttle, or rather nothing, was
done in the way of persecution till Tunstal's return.
After his return, however, he had received some written in
formation against certain individuals ; and in November, as
already explained, the Bishops were summoned by Wolsey, as
Vicar-General of all England, to meet him at Westminster.
He opened his court in this character, and commenced the pro-

2 Cotton, Vitell. B. ix. fol. 117, 1>.

90 BILNEY AND ARTHUR EXAMINED. [book i,
ceedings ; " but because," says Foxe, " he was otherwise occupied
with affairs of the realm, he committed the hearing of the
matter to the Bishop of London, and to other Bishops there
present, or to three of them, to proceed against aU men, as well
spiritual as temporal, as also against writings and books —
giving them full power to determine upon them."
On this occasion Bilney and Arthur were rigidly examined.
Arthur soon abjured, and is heard of no more. Bilney stood for
a while, and endeavoured by calm and tender representations to
soften his persecutors, but in vain. They tormented and in
veigled his conscience, tiU at last he too abjured, and bare the
faggot at St. Paul's. Thus he feU, though like Peter of old,
after bitter repentance, to rise again.
It has never been before observed, and it may now scarcely be
believed, that these proceedings were going on in London amidst
general and extreme misery, through the very high price, and,
in many instances, the absolute want of food. Such, however,
was the fact ; and so burning hot, as Foxe would say, was
their zeal. What with the distress of the people for the neces
saries of life, and this formidable array of men, cafling them
selves Bishops, sitting in judgment under their lately promoted
Vicar- General, as if the power of Rome had now been concen
trated in England ; so far as it regarded the progress and circu
lation of the Divine Word, the horizon could scarcely become
darker. The hand of God was certainly not unseen in its
first introduction; but then these blind and cruel authorities
were scattered by the plague ; and though they had been fore
warned by the common enemy, they were not then upon their
guard. Now they are " gathered together," and literally "taking
counsel" on the very subject. But let us see what happened;
and observe also, whether the God of Nature, and the Governor
among the nations, be not also the God of the Bible.
Nothing, it is true, could be more unUkely, than that any
more copies of the Sacred Volume should arrive in this,
country at such a crisis ; it might seem altogether impossible.
Throughout the whole year, England, under Wolsey's influence,
was fomenting war with the Emperor, and consequently with
the Low Countries or Flanders, but courting aUiance with
France. In the latter, there were, of course, no Enghsh

1527.] ERESH IMPORTATIONS. 91
Scriptures; in the former, copies were lying ready for being
introduced here confidentially, with secrecy and silence. But
if there should be a bar to merchandise in general, and
the merchants of Flanders and England cannot exchange
goods, how was there any chance of conveying the " Book of
God " with them, or under their cover ? It had come through
this medium before, but how could it by any possibility do so
now ?
The reader may recoUect, that the year 1527 was introduced
by severe disease. Immediately after this, in consequence of
" the great rains which feU in the sowing time," by the faU of
the year, bread advanced to such a price, that the people were
in danger of starvation. Wheat, at last, not only had risen
from sixteen shUUngs, to one pound six shillings and eightpence
the quarter, but ere long it was not to be obtained for money.
Commissioners were sent into every county to inquire what
wheat remained in the realm ; but at the same time to enjoin,
that none should be conveyed from one county to another. The
consequence was, London at last so felt the pressure, that the
Mayor and Aldermen came to Wolsey on his return from
France, and told him, " either the people must die from famine,
or else they, with strong hand, wiU fetch corn from them that
have it." He cared Uttle for any man's life, when his path was
crossed, and put them off with, no doubt, a daring falsehood !
— that the King of France had said to him, that "if he had
but three bushels of wheat, England should have two, so much
he loveth and regardeth this realm ! " This was at least ac
knowledging, that whUe he was abroad, the scarcity was weU
known to him, amidst aU his gorgeous parade. The people then,
from day to day, looked for French wheat, but none came ; and
what is more observable, even such as the EngUsh merchants
had bought and shipped in Normandy and other places, was there
restrained, so that aU reUef from these parts entirely faUed !
But just then, " the gentle merchants of the Stilyard," says the
old chronicler, HaUe, " brought 'from Dantzic, Bremen, Ham
burg, and other places, great plenty ; and so did other merchants
from Flanders, Holland, and Frisland, so that wheat was better
cheap in London than in aU England over." And thus it was,
that a way was opened for the introduction of more books ! On

92 FOURTH NEW TESTAMENT. [book I.
board of these vessels with grain, there must have been various
importations of Tyndale's New Testament ; but one is too re
markable to be passed over in silence, as it included not less
than five hundred copies by one man. Yes, notwithstanding all
the fury of Hackett, and the imprisonment of Endhoven,
another printer in Antwerp had already finished another edition !
This was now the second in that place, or the fourth in all. '
The fact comes out, incidentally, about four months after this,
in the examination of a distributor, before Tunstal. He had
been charged with going about to buy a great number of New
Testaments, when he emits the foUowing answer : — " That about
Christmas last (Dec. 1527), there came a Dutchman, being now
in the Fleet prison, which would have sold this respondent two
or three hundred of the said New Testaments in English, which
this respondent did not buy, but sent him to Mr. Fysh." Con
nect this with the foUowing entry in Foxe's list of persons
abjured in 1528 : — " John Raimund, a Dutchman, for causing
fifteen hundred of Tyndale's New Testaments to be printed at
Antwerp, and for bringing five hundred into England." There
is but one mistake here, in the name of the Dutchman, as he is
called. Every one at aU acquainted with Foxe, knows how
inaccurate and irregular he is in the orthography of proper
names. Hans van Roemundt is the name of the Antwerp
printer as given by Panzer and Le Long. The name in English
ought to have been John Ruremonde.
One distinguishing feature of this edition consists in certain
woodcuts. It is thus referred to by Joye, as the second Dutch
edition — " They printed it again, also, without a corrector, in a
greater letter and volume, with the figures in the Apocalypse,
which were much falser than their first;" and aUuding then to
the former impression, he adds, " there were of them both about
five thousand books printed." One copy of this book, which
appears to have been reprinted from the quarto edition of
Tyndale, is supposed to be in the library of Emanuel College,
Cambridge. The fact was, and it is animating to discover it even now,
that such a book was printing in Antwerp at the very time when
Endhoven was suffering ; for so early as the preceding May, and
just about the time that Warham was rejoicing over his purchase

15'47.] BY OTHER PRINTERS. 93
of Testaments, the printer had completed the volume ! Thus,
after aU the toil of Master Hackett, he was then the subject of
fresh alarm. On the 23rd of May, 1527, therefore, he wrote to
Wolsey that he had found copies of the English New Testament,
printed by "new printers of the town of Antwerp," and had
seized 24 of them in one man's hands, but could not lay hold on
the printers or vendors till he had a specific charge of heresy to
make against them. He states also that " more than two
thousand such like English books" were offered at last Frankfort
market. Under aU these circumstances, it is now almost evident that
part of this fourth edition had found its way into England, by
the end of 1527 ; for that Testaments did arrive at this gloomy
and necessitous period, there can now be no question. Men
are but too apt to overlook the footsteps of a particular pro
vidence, but the arrival of books through such a medium, and .at
such a period, was too remarkable an event to be passed over in
sUence. Could it fail to be observed with gratitude at the
time? After turning "a fruitful land into barrenness," and
the people were " brought low, through oppression, affliction,
and sorrow;" with bread corn came the bread from heaven.
Through these very channels, the Sacred Volume had come
before, and now, notwithstanding aU the wrath and rage in
high places, it came again. The bread that perisheth must rise
in price, and finaUy faU, that the bread of life may come. He
who appointed a way for His anger, was at the same moment
preparing a way also for the reception of His Word. In wrath
He remembered mercy. WeU might the people have said —
" Whoso is wise, and wiU observe these things, even they shaU
understand the loving kindness of the Lord."

94 TYNDALE AND FRYTH. [book i.

MDXXVI1I.
TYNDALE AND FRYTH — PRESENT PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND — ARRESTED BY
PREVAILING DISEASE — PERSECUTION IN ANTWERP — NOBLY WITHSTOOD AND
DEFEATED — WOLSEY'S PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE AND OTHERS — ALL Itf
VAIN. ,n the course ofthe year 1528, we have no distinct account
of any thing new having issued from the press, trans
lated or composed by Tyndale ; although some of his
smaUer tracts, without date, may have been prmted.
There were, however, fresh editions of his two pub
lications, already mentioned. Of " The Parable," there
was one if not two editions, and of " The Obedi
ence" certainly two, the first of which is dated in May,
and the second in October of this year. That the books had
been read or purchased with avidity, and were in growing de
mand, — this, especiaUy in those early days, is proof sufficient ;
but not one of these were printed at Worms. Tyndale and
Fryth had now certainly removed elsewhere. AU these pieces
were printed at one place and by the same man — Hans Luft,
a favourite printer " at Malborough in the land of Hesse," or
Marburg,1 the capital of Upper Hesse. To our Translator,
within the last eighteen months, this place must have become
strongly attractive. There is no intimation or even hint of any
visit yet paid to Wittenberg ; it was still 200 miles distant, and
it becomes more than doubtful whether Tyndale was ever there.
Nor are we at any loss to understand how Tyndale was here
engaged. It must have been a mighty addition to his comfort,
for such a man as Roye to be succeeded by John Fryth. The
former once dismissed, in 1526 Fryth had reached his friend
and father of the same opinions. EquaUy interested in the
translation of the Scriptures for their native land, from day to
day this subject had fully engrossed their minds. But at pre
sent we refrain from saying more tiU the books of the Pentateuch
were printed. As Fryth, however, is the only man who can
certainly be associated with Tyndale in his present engagements,

i Marburg, the ancient Mattium, is situate on the right bank of the Lahn, a
tributary of the Bhine, 41 miles north from Frankfort.

1528.] TYNDALE AND FRYTH. 95
it is necessary that he should be now more fully introduced to
the notice of the reader.
John Fryth was born in 1503, at Westerham, a market-town
in Kent, near the head of the Darent, a tributary of the Thames.
His father, Richard, as an inn-holder, lived afterwards at
Sevenoaks, near the same stream. It was allowed, even by
his enemies, that Fryth was an excellent scholar, after the
advantages he had enjoyed, first at Cambridge, and then at
Oxford, thus reversing the order of Tyndale's education. As
Fryth, however, received his University education at King's
CoUege, Cambridge, he must, of course, also have been a scholar
at Eton. It was while proceeding in his studies, that Tyndale
was at Cambridge, and through his instrumentaUty, as Foxe
expresses it, Fryth " first received into his heart the seed of the
gospel, and sincere godliness." Such being the case, it is a
circumstance not to be forgotten in our future history, that
Fryth had for his tutor no other than Stephen Gardiner, the
future Bishop of Winchester. Some time in 1523, when
Tyndale was in London, it is next to certam his much-loved
friend must have been with him, since before they were
separated, and Fryth remained behind, it has been stated, that
they used to converse respecting the necessity for the Scriptures
being " turned into the vulgar speech, that the poor people
might also read and see the simple plain Word of God." In
this case, Fryth must have looked and longed for success to
attend the enterprise of the man he most loved upon earth.
Tyndale, however, sauing for Hamburg, Fryth was, ere
long, selected, for his acquirements, as a Cambridge scholar;
and caUed away to Oxford by Wolsey, became a canon
in Cardinal CoUege. Having already proceeded as B.A.
at Cambridge, he was admitted to the same degree at
Oxford in December 1525. Fryth could not have been idle
in advancing his opinions, for those young men from Cam
bridge, already mentioned, were much of his mind. But in
two months, even to a day, after he had taken his degree, not
only he, but they, had incurred high displeasure. These men
might have been styled " the hope of the nation," though we
have heard old Warham rate them, in his letter to Wolsey, as
nothing more than " a number of young uncircumspect fools."

96 TYNDALE AND FRYTH. [book i.
Fools they might be called by the Primate of England, but
uneircumspect was not the right word. GeneraUy speaking,
they were looking in one direction, and, at the moment, saw
farther than their calumniator. Here at least was Fryth ; but
little did Wolsey imagine, that in selecting him, and most
probably by his tutor Gardiner's recommendation, he had laid
his hand on the ardent admirer of that man whom he was after
wards so eager to apprehend on the Continent. Left behind in
England, Fryth had proved, among his fellows, an expectant of
whatever Tyndale should be able to accomplish ; and one can
more easily conceive than express how he must have hailed the
arrival, and the very first sight of the New Testament at Oxford.
It certainly had been longed for, and it came at last.
Fryth was then twenty-three years of age, and not only a
lover of learning, but acute and eminent in talent. Yet, once
aware of the cruelties practised on Delaber and Garret, as
already detailed, and being so far at liberty, he effected his
escape, and - landed, like his forerunner, on a foreign shore.
This could not possibly be before the autumn of 1526, so that
the undivided credit of translating the New Testament, and
forwarding it to his country, remains with Tyndale alone. The
flight of Fryth has been placed much later, even in 1528, but it
is evident that he durst not have remained so long. That he
ever revisited England before he came to die at the stake, we
have no certain evidence ; but we now see him as the able
coadjutor of his elder brother for years.
At the commencement of 1528, according to the preceding
history, the New Testament of Tyndale had now been intro
duced into England for the space of two years, a fact which
wiU be abundantly confirmed by the disclosures of the present
period. Speaking generaUy of these times, Strype has said,—
" The New Testament translated by Hitchen, that is Tyndale,
was in many hands, and read with great application and joy ;
and they had secret meetings, in which they instructed each
other out of God's Word ;" but after carefully examining the
minute, though scattered details, a far more interesting and
graphical account now comes out, not only of these two years,
but of the years preceding.
From the days of John Wickliffe, if not Richard Fitzralph,

1528. J RETROSPECT. 97
the disciples of Christ were much in the same situation with
those Israelites in the days of Elijah, whom God " reserved to
himself." Hidden and unknown, their number can never be
ascertained, otherwise it probably would surprise us, as much as
the " seven thousand" did the desponding prophet of old. But
there can be no doubt that portions of the Scriptures in manu
script were read in secret, and by many with great profit, not
withstanding all the virulent opposition. Our only key to the
extent of this, is to be found in the opposition displayed. Mere
gleams of light obtained from the Sacred Word, were sufficient
to bring down the wrath of the oppressor. During the fifteenth
century, various cases of abjuration and burning for heresy had
occurred, but from the commencement of the sixteenth, as light
increased, the opposition became more determined and sys
tematic. Particular periods are then to be marked as seasons of
persecution. To say nothing of the first ten years, though dis
graced by not a few instances of great cruelty, — the years 1511
under Warham of Canterbury and Smith of Lincoln ; 1509 to
1517, under Fitzjames of London ; and, above aU, 1521, under
Longland of Lincoln, — were so many seasons of the most deter
mined opposition to the Word of God. Nor should it be unob
served that aU these persecutions, including even the last, were
on account of opinions, not gathered or received from any foreign
land or Continental Christian. Whatever those opinions were,
they were indigenous to this country, and are mainly to be
ascribed to certam portions of the Sacred Writings in English
manuscript. Before, and even long before the name of Luther
was heard of by the people, these opinions were sifted, debated,
and maintained; nay, as late as 1521, though the writings of
the German Reformer were then publicly denounced, they were
as yet locked up in Latin, so that, amidst aU the barbarities of
that year, under Longland, we hear of no punishment inflicted
for Lutheranism so called. It is certainly, therefore, to be re
gretted, that even British historians, in too many instances,
should have so hastUy looked over to Germany, as accounting
for the commencement and progress of aU that occurred in their
own country in the first quarter of the sixteenth century.
After an examination of the official records of the day, and
other original manuscripts, more patient and laborious than that
H

98 READING OF [book I.
in which any man has ever since engaged, it is not surprising
that John Foxe should dwell on the retrospect with dehght,
and confess his inabiUty to do it justice ; while he as distinctly
ascribes this work of God, to his own Word in the vernacular
tongue, and to this alone, though not yet in print.
We have glanced at aU this as justly due to what may be
styled the age of manuscript. But as the invention of printing
was itself an era, so assuredly was that of the reception of the
Sacred Scriptures in print into Great Britain. This might be
fairly inferred from the history aUeady given ; but it is now
worthy of special notice, that for three or four years before the
arrival of Tyndale's first editions, a people seem to have been
signally prepared for their reception. We could not with pro
priety notice them at an earUer period, as it is chiefly by the
severities of the present year, that they come out to view. From
the examinations upon oath, about to be noticed, we could now
enumerate above a hundred of these people by name, and state
their places of abode, but these were merely the persons de
tected, exposed, or punished. Many, many more there must
have been, whose record is on high. They met together, chiefly
in London, but also at different places in the counties of Essex,
Suffolk, Norfolk, and Buckingham. They caUed each other
Brother, and said that they were Brothers in Christ. They had
the four Gospels separately and in one volume ; some of Paul's
Epistles in another ; the Epistles of Peter and that of James ;
aU in English manuscript, however inferior the translation, or
inaccurate, through frequent transcription. In regard to the
Epistle of James, in some parts it was a great favourite, and far
from startling at it, as the German Reformer himself did at
first, and for some time, they could repeat it from memory ; even
one young woman was detected who could say the whole. Their
high esteem for the Oracles of God, was to be seen in the price
paid for them in whole or in part.
These friends in London seem to have held their meetings,
from about 1523, very frequently in the house of one William
Russel in Coleman Street, at the gate of Bird's Alley, over
against St. Stephen's Church ; when Father John Hacker, as
they called him, and sometimes others, read and explained the
Scriptures. We have already pointed out the spot to which the

152S.] THE SCRIPTURES. 99
authorities first sent to seize books ; 2 and it is now not unworthy
of notice that very near, and even round it, notwithstanding
" the secret search," the Word of God continued to be read and
prized — it even "grew and multiplied." The great fire in
London of 1666, it is true, consumed all those parts, but of the
eighty-nine churches burnt down, at least fifty-four were re
built, and on the same ground. Bird's AUey is gone, but the
church remains where it was ; and if any one wish to stand on
the same spot where, amidst aU the wrath and blasphemy of the
day, the Sacred Volume was then perused with the keenest in
terest, he has only to walk along that part of King's Arms
Yard which yet remains, tiU he come "over against" St.
Stephen's Church, Coleman Street.3
Similar meetings were held in Essex. The largest was in
Colchester itseH, but there were friends' at Witham, Braintree,
Saffron Walden, and Birdbrook, as weU as at the Friary of
Clare, or Stokeclare, in Suffolk. In the north of Essex the
parish of Bumstead was, as the persecutors would have said,
a hot-bed of heresy.
So early as September 1526, two plain country men from
thence came to London, in search of the new printed Testaments,
and going to Austin Friars, there met with Dr. Barnes, who, it
may be remembered, was then a prisoner at large. One of these
men had been in possession of Tyndale's New Testament, which
he procured from Colchester about the month of April before.
These men reported the curate of this parish, Richard Foxe, as
favourable to inquiry, and begged a letter from Barnes to him.
He gave them one, sold a Testament to each, and after their
return, the curate, and even two friars, Topley and Gardiner,
seemed to be making progress ; but besides them there were
a number of persons, male and female, scattered throughout
these parts, stUl farther advanced. It will be remembered that
Myles Coverdale, one of Barnes' students, came up to London
after him, at the time of his melancholy abjuration in February
1526. We shall trace him now preaching in this part of Essex,
in company with Richard Foxe. Thus, on the 29th of March,
2 Honey Lane, Cheapside, nearly opposite to Bow Church, p. 54.
3 In the vicinity of the house where lived, for many years, the venerable John
Newton. II 2

100 READERS PERSECUTED. [book i.
1528, one of these friars, Thomas Topley, heard him preach at
Bumstead Church, and such doctrme as, in connexion with
subsequent conversation, shook his mind with regard to various
superstitions. But the persecutions we are now about to notice
must have scattered, for a season, all these groups in this county,
as well as the meetings in London'; more especially as Wharton,
the Vicar- General of Tunstal, moved down into Essex in July
this year, searching after his prey. It is then that we shall
hear more of Coverdale.
Many of those, however, throughout the land, who had either
purchased or perused the Testament of Tyndale, were now about
to find that it was " through much tribulation they must enter
into the kingdom of God ;" and it would have been weU if then
the brother had not betrayed his brethren, the husband his wife,
and the father his chUd ! Not three months before, the country
had been in the greatest extremity, through scarcity amounting
to famine, and not a few had pined away in disease. London,
also, as we have seen, had more especiaUy felt the pressure, but
no sooner had plenty returned by the importation of foreign
grain, and bread had faUen in price, than the same city became
the seat of bitter and sifting persecution. The country at large
had just suffered severely, through the crooked and ambitious
policy of Wolsey ; and now the best of his Majesty's subjects,
simple hearted and unoffending people, are to be molested
through the cool malignity of Tunstal. He had before this
preached his sermon, in which he boasted that he had found
more than 2000 errors in the printed New Testament. Tunstal's
infamous injunction also, of October 1526, had hung over the
people for fourteen months, without being rigorously followed
up, but we have accounted for this forbearance. It was un
avoidable, as he had been so engrossed by foreign political
affairs. It was, therefore, in the opening of 1528, that one
feature of his character began to be more fully developed, of
which in general a very strange, not to say erroneous, estimate
has been given. Sir T. More and he were united, as men
familiarly say, like hand and glove ; and, therefore, it was to be
expected, that he should pronounce him to be inferior to none
"in the integrity of his principles, and the sweetness of his
disposition." Godwin says that " he was a very rare and

1528.] READERS PERSECUTED. 101
admirable man, with nothing wrong but his religion, and yet he
was a profound divine, as many of his works yet do testify."
" He had," says even GUpin in his Life of Ridley, " true notions
of the genius of Christianity ! He considered a good life as the
end, and faith as the means ; and never branded as an heretic
that person, however erroneous his opinions might be, in points
less fundamental, who had such a belief in Christ as made him
Uve like a Christian. He was just, therefore, the reverse of his
early patron Warham ; " and he concludes by affirming, "that
Tunstal thought persecution one of the things most foreign to his
function ! " We aUow that the reverse of this, in some points,
was the character of Warham ; but was it less so of Tunstal ?
Both were men of learning and talent, and Tunstal's taste in
letters was superior to most of his contemporaries ; but let any
one hold fast opinions which they conceived would, even ulti
mately, affect the hierarchy, and neither of them scrupled for a
moment in proceeding to the greatest extremity. Tunstal, it is
true, was stiU, and of quiet behaviour, cautious, and had great
command over his passions; a worldly-wise man, who contrived
to thread his way through those difficult times, so that he died
in his bed, at the advanced age of 85. But, on the other hand,
if works bear witness, by these he must be judged. What
signifies learning, however eminent, except it be appUed to some
laudable and beneficial purpose ? And though it should be
accompanied with apparent sedateness, and much sagacity in
worldly affairs ; aU these in union, so far from conoeaUng great
and radical defects in moral character, only render them the
more atrocious. To say nothing of the violence of Tunstal's
language when writing to Erasmus, in earlier life, or of the
incontinence with which he has been charged ; certainly no man
who was so frequently employed by Wolsey, and served his
purpose so weU, could by any possibility hold fast his integrity,
or walk uprightly ; and Tunstal being most celebrated as a
courtier, and at such a time, the reader may be left to judge of
his veracity. As for humanity, what though he might have an
aversion from shedding blood, or rather a dread of shedding it ?
What shaU we say as to his cool barbarity in sifting and cross-
examining, then threatening and re-examining, tiU the poor
creature quivered, and became perplexed, trembled, and abjured ?

102 READERS CROSS-EXAMINED [book I.
Not satisfied, see him seize on the abjured parties, and, through
his sophistry, compel them at last to expose and even accuse
their nearest and dearest relatives and friends ! No, he was an
ingenious tormentor, distinguished for his patient dexterity in
producing mental misery ; and we may rely on it, that Tyndale,
who knew his doings weU, though he did not charge him with
shedding so much blood, had good reason for designating him
as he did, — " that still Satan, the imaginer of aU mischief."
" Cursed," said Jortin, when speaking of him, " cursed are those
theological principles, which produce such sad effects even in
good-tempered men, and eat up so much of their honour and
humanity ! " The only mistake in this exclamation, is that of
styling such principles theological. The truth was, that none of
those men, even the mildest, understood the sacred rights of con
science, because their own was " seared with a hot iron." They
were, for the time, the " rulers of the darkness of this world ;"
while the praiseworthy people whom they tried to devour or
exterminate, were, in fact, however poor and despised, a chosen
band of wrestlers " against spiritual wickedness in high places."
At all events, whatever Warham had been in days that were
past, we shall find that Tunstal was " the grand Inquisitor" in
1528. In January his underlings were busily preparing for his
sitting in judgment ; and then foUowed those numerous cases,
from February to May inclusive, which are upon record, in his
Register. The shrewd and systematic method adopted by Tunstal seems
to have been, to find out the most intelligent or influential men,
among these people who were to be cross-examined, and by
effectuaUy threatening them, so detect many of the rest. In
January or the beginning of February one man was found, and
before long other two if not three. In the midst of these harass
ing times, it was not to have been expected, that aU would
prove faithful ; but surely these early readers of the printed
New Testament upon EngUsh ground, had not anticipated that
any of their leaders would fail and betray them ! Yet so it was,
for poor Hacker, the first man referred to, being, as Strype says,
" hard set upon, made a discovery, by interrogatories put to him
upon oath, of a great many of his friends and followers both in
Essex and London." FoUowing out this clue, at least three

1528.] AND PERSECUTED. 103
other men foUowed the sad example ; John Pykas of Colchester,
with John TybaU and Thomas Hempsted of the parish of
Bumstead. These poor men now stood in the character of " Per
secutor's evidence," and were to be called upon, whenever it was
found necessary ! Hacker, to save himself, had betrayed at
least forty of his friends, with whom he had often read the
Scriptures, the majority of whom resided in London, and the
others as many more, in the county of Essex alone, as amounted
to above a hundred in aU ! Happily, these were but a part of
the whole ; but here was a field, quite sufficient for the Bishop
and his Vicar-General. The former required only to assemble
his deeply prejudiced assistants, and the reader may be curious
to know who were those men who first sat in judgment upon
Tyndale's translation, and the earliest possessors of the precious
volume. Tunstal hadr taken care to secure round him more than
a dozen of men to preside, either all together, or by turns, and
they are styled in the Register " all learned men," of course.
Besides Geffrey Wharton, D.D., his Vicar-General, and John
Darel, B.D., Wharton's official, Matthew Grafton and Henry
Bonsfel, Notaries ; there were Robert Ridley, D.D., and John
Royston, Professor of Theology, Richard Sparchforde, M.A.,
Thomas Forman, S.T.P., John Tunstal and Thomas Chambre,
Chaplains, Nicholas Tunstal, Thomas Dowman, Thomas Pil-
kingtbn, and James Multon.
Wliarton, to do him justice, would seem to have been not so
bitter as some others ; he died next year. Royston had been far
more indebted to Humphrie Munmouth, than even Tyndale.
Yet Munmouth is about to be molested and imprisoned, and
Royston is here ! Sparchforde had been promoted in 1522 to
the living at Hackney; but the most conspicuous of these
assistant persecutors was Robert Ridley, already noticed. The
Tunstals, as weU as Ridley, were related to the Bishop.
In the disclosures made by persecution in the early part of this
year, we find important evidence on one point, namely, the period
in which the New Testaments of Tyndale were first introduced
into England. Independently of the abundant proof already
given, they show that Tyndale's quarto and octavo editions were
purchased and perused throughout the year 1526 ; and that
Tunstal's injunction, in October of that year, was not ground-

104 READERS CROSS-EXAMINED [book I.
less, when it affirmed that they were spread throughout " all his
diocese, in great number."
From the Register we select the following cases : — Sebastian Herris, Curate of
the parish Church of Kensington, confessed "that he had two books ; viz. the
New Testament in the vulgar tongue, and 'TJnio Dissidentium,' containing in
it the Lutheran heresy. " For this he is banished from the City of London,
being "so dangerous a place to be infected with heresy," for two years.
John Pykas of Colchester confessed, among other things, that " about a two
years last past (March 1526) he bought in Colchester of a Lumbard of London,
a New Testament in English, and paid for it four shillings (about £3 present
value), which New Testament he kept, and read it through many times."
Having abjured, this poor man was enjoined penance and sworn to confess all
the known men and women, friends, brethren, relatives, and those whom he had
brought into these opinions.
John TybaU of Bumstead confessed, that "about two years agone (Apr. 1526)
he companied with Sir Richard Fox, Curate of Bumstead, and shewed him all
his books that he had; that is to say, the New Testament in English; the
Gospel of Matthew and Mark in EngUsh, which he had of John Pykas of Col
chester; a book expounding the Paternoster, the Ave Maria, and the Credo ; cer
tain of Paul's Epistles after the old translation." That he and Thomas Hilles had
bought New Testaments in English of Friar Barnes, who enjoined secrecy of the
sale : this was in Sept. 1526 ; and that he was wont with some others to resort
to Bower Hall, the seat of the Bendish family, where the New Testament was
read in presence of "them and of their household."
By the beginning of May, Tunstal had removed from the
chapel in his palace, to one near Charing Cross, in the manor
of Nix, the Bishop of Norwich, of whose temper and spirit
we have had such ample evidence. On the 11th, he was still
sitting in judgment on the poor people from Essex ; but the
spirit of persecution was now gathering strength, and, on the
14th, Sir Thomas More comes in view. On that day, he and
Sir William Kingston, Constable of the Tower, as members of
the Privy Council, sent for Humfrie Munmouthe, as he sub
scribes his name. He was far too important a character to be
passed over ; and his being so, is a proof that there had not
been, till this year, any severe search after supposed offenders.
Not satisfied, they went with him to his house, and examined all
his letters and books. This generous man, with whom Tyndale
had lived, who corresponded with him afterwards, and aided
him all the time he remained in Hamburg, was now com
mitted to the Tower, " on suspicion of heresy, for some books
found in his house." Five days after this, on Tuesday the
19th of May, he addressed a petition to the King's Council. B

1528.] AND PERSECUTED. 105
is entitled — "Unto the most honourable Lord Legate and
ChanceUor of England, and to the honourable CouncU unto
your Sovereign Lord, King Henry VIII., the 19th of May, and
in the 20th year of his reign ; beseeching your Grace, and aU
my Lords and Masters, to have pity on me, poor prisoner in the
Tower of London, at your pleasure." In this petition, he con
fesses, among other books —
" Also I delivered a book of the New Testament, the which book my Lord of
London had. Also I had a little treatise that the priest, Tyndale, sent me,
when he sent for his money. And all those books, save the books of the
New Testament, lay openly in my house, for the space of two years, or more,
that every man might read on them that would at their pleasure."
Munmouth's testimony brings us to the same period with that
of Pykas ; but as for the Testament, no doubt Tyndale would
take care that, if possible, his generous patron should have one,
at least, as soon as Garret was carrying them from London to
Oxford, in January 1526. It may here be added, that in earlier
Ufe Munmouth had visited Rome itself, which majr have had a
simUar effect on him as it had on some others. When the
times improved, he was an Alderman of London, and served as
Sheriff there in 1535. His wUl is dated 16th November, 1537,
by which he leaves a sUver cup, and gilt, equal in value to
£120 sterling, to CrumweU, that he might be kind to three
preachers there mentioned, among whom was Dr. Barnes. Soon
after this, Munmouth died, having commended his soul unto
Christ Jesus, " my Maker and Redeemer, in whom, and by the
merits of whose blessed passion, is all my whole trust of clean
remission and forgiveness of my sins."
But of the confessions now made, that of Robert Necton is
not the least important. It includes the disclosures of a man
who had been very active before this, and, notwithstanding,, as
much so as he could, even afterwards. By him we learn that
Mr. Fyshe, whose tract, "The Supplication of Beggars," had
created such commotion in February 1526, had actuaUy returned
to London, and was living- there, long before that year had
expired. We now find also Mr. Richard Harman, an English
merchant at Antwerp, had acted in concert with Fyshe, and had
contrived modes of secretly conveying the Sacred Volume into
England. The account which Necton gives of his first engaging

106 SUMMARY. [book I.
in the business of sale and circulation, is no less curious, from
its being at the instigation of such a man as George Constan-
tyne, who, though originally bred a surgeon, by this time had
entered the Church, and hence is styled Vicar. Of course,
therefore, he had to proceed with the greatest caution. He
would not go direct to Fyshe himself, but informs Necton, and
then from him he bought whatever copies he wished. Con-
stantyne, one of the most singular characters of the day, survived
the present period, at least, thirty-two years. At certain
periods, doing aU that in him lay to promote the circulation of
the Word of God ; at another, betraying the whole cause ; he is
here introduced incidentaUy, for the first time, but he will come
before us again and again, and some notice must be taken of his
singular and varied life.
The reader now only requires to be reminded, that such a
man as this Robert Necton is not to be regarded as poor and
dependent, perambulating the country to obtain his bread by
seUing books — far from it ; the occupation was too hazardous
then for any mere hireUng. Thus, Necton speaks of hving at
his brother's house in Norwich, and this was no other than the
Sheriff of the city, as will appear in 1531. From his confessions,
as well as those of Munmouth, Pybal, and others already men
tioned, before this tribunal, the following facts may be consi
dered as established : —
That in January 1526, Thomas Garret, at least, received from
abroad copies of the New Testament, printed in the English
language — that he immediately had given them out in London,
sent them down to Cambridge, and carried them himself to
Oxford, in that very month — that notwithstanding the grand
burning of books at St. Paul's, on the 11th of February, 1526,
and the anathemas of Fisher on that day, nay, and the burning
at Oxford soon after, when the Testament, amongst other books,
was involved in the flames, still the work went on— that even
Fyshe himself was soon after in London, and remained in it,
receiving from abroad, and dispersing the precious volumes for
a considerable time. Then come up these men from Essex, and,
along with Munmouth, all agree in their testimony. Put upon
their oath, not one among them could have any motive to falsify
in regard to the length of the time in which these Testaments

1523.] PERSECUTION ARRESTED. 107
had been in their possession. On the contrary, could such an
idea have occurred to any one of them, the temptation must
have been to shorten, not extend the period ; for the longer it
was, so much the more guUty must they have appeared in the
eye of their judges. But in receiving their united testimony,
how far does it carry us? That as early as February, and
downwards to October 1526, Tyndale's Testaments, both quarto
and octavo, as well as the first separate edition of Matthew and
Mark, were upon EngUsh ground, and reading with eagerness,
not only in the metropolis, but the surrounding counties, — that,
notwithstanding the fulminations from London and Canterbury,
and "the secret search, at onetime," the precious books were
retained and read in secret stUl. Nay, we have seen one man,
Necton, immediately afterwards commence his cautious opera
tions — mentioning very distinctly, first, the quarto of Tyndale,
or the large volume, then the octavo edition, and finally another
edition, printed at Antwerp, as aUeady described. Doubtless
there had been other men before him so employed, as there were
others afterwards, including himself again.
But the purposes of Infinite Wisdom in thus trying the faith
ful, and purifying His cause, were, for the present at least, ac-
compUshed. Tunstal, it may have been observed, had shifted
his seat, from his own palace, near the old bridge of London,
up to Charing Cross, and, for aught we know, this might be
from fear ; but such cool and deUberate cruelty must not con
tinue either in London or Westminster, and so the persecution
seems to have been cut short by a Sovereign hand, or the imme
diate visitation of God.
That fearful disease, styled by foreigners, the Sudor Anglicus,
on account of the violence with which it seized this nation, or, as
the English themselves called it, the "sweating sickness," broke
out in the end of May. The patient expired in a few hours, and
often in two or three. By the 7th of June, above two thousand
had died in London ; and by the 30th, forty thousand had been
affected, of whom died at least two thousand more. Early in
' June, the King himself became alarmed; the disease entered
the Royal household, and proved fatal in at least three cases ;
and before the month ended, it had entered Wolsey's establish
ment. Henry kept himself shut up, had his household reduced

108 PERSECUTION ARRESTED BY DISEASE. [book I,
to the smallest number permitted by the statutes of Eltham, and
his fear increased. In July, on the 5th, still more apprehensive,
he directs Wolsey " to cause general processions to be made,
universally through the realm, as well for good weather to the
increase of corn and fruit, as also for the plague that now
reigneth."4. By the 9th, he had made his wiU, advises Wolsey
to foUow his example, and desires to hear from him every second
day. " He confessed himself every day," say Le Grand and
Burnet ; " the Queen did the same, and so did Wolsey."
This was the fourth visitation of that singular disease, of
which the EngUsh only died ; and which has been described so
accurately by Armstrong, both in its operation and its effects—
"O'er the mournful land
The infected city pour'd her hurrying swarms— ^
Others, with hopes more specious, cross'd the main,
To seek protection in far distant skies ;
But none they found. It seem'd the general air
From pole to pole, from Atlas to the East,
"Was then at enmity with English blood ;
For, but the race of England, all were safe
In foreign climes ; nor did this fury taste
The foreign blood that England then contain'd."
During the prevalence of this malady, however, it does not
appear that the Cardinal was so much afraid of it, as of forfeit
ing the entire confidence of his Master. He had appointed an
Abbess to the Abbey of WUton, which had ruffled Henry's tem
per ; for ever since the disclosures of Clarencieux as to Spanish
affairs, he was more suspicious and apt to take offence. But,
Wolsey once more mollified him ; by August the disease had
passed away, and all went on as before. The King was hunting
in September, and inviting Wolsey to take part with him in the
sport. All was bustle and preparation for the arrival of Cardinal
Campeggio, and Henry wished to have the use of Hampton
Court for three or four days to receive him there.5 But we
now return to more important affairs.
Though the cruel proceedings of Tunstal and his coadjutors
seem to have been cut short by frightful disease, in the course
•' MS. Chapter-house, Westminster, vol. x., no. 25.
5 MS. Chapter-house, Westminster, vol. v. , no. 24. Campeggio arrived at
Dover 29th September.

1528.] PERSECUTION ABROAD REVIVED. 109
of the examinations held, the persecutors had obtained several
pieces of information, far too important in their eyes, to be either
forgotten or neglected. Tyndale and Roye (erroneously sup
posed to be still with him) were now conspicuously before them.
One gentleman in particular, Mr. Harman, had been mentioned
as actively engaged in importing English Testaments, and
neither George Constantyne nor Mr. Fyshe could pass unnoticed.
MeanwhUe, since Tyndale's writings had obtained such circula
tion in our country, it seemed necessary that an attempt should
be made to answer' them ; and so by way of adding greater
horror to the heresies said to be contained in them, as we have
aHeady seen, it was during the very period when Tunstal was
busy with his cross-examinations, that, with all due solemnity,
he had issued his official licence to Sir Thomas More, that he
might retain and read those troublesome pubUcations, and, with
aU his skiU in sophistry, write them down.
As for Cardinal Wolsey, after these examinations in London,
he was bent on seizing the Men abroad, and three persons in
particular, though other two were also specified. In June,
therefore, he had written to Hackett, requesting that the Lady
Margaret would sanction the delivery of these three, with a
view to their being immediately sent into England. But on the
28th of that month, the envoy informed him, that after many
arguments " debated pro et contra, they to me and I to them,"
the Privy CouncU had concluded, that even the Emperor himself
might not send any heretic out of his dominions as a prisoner,
except his first examination was held abroad, where he was ;
and even after that, the transmission of the party must be by
the advice of the Inquisitors of the Faith there. They had,
however, resolved that aU the foresaid three heretics, when they
could be found, should be taken prisoners, they and their books
with them ; but the Council requested one or two learned men
to be sent abroad to confront them. If they should be " con
founded or found guilty," they would either be sent over to
Wolsey, or punished there, according to their deeds.6
The names of these obnoxious men were not, as yet, mentioned
by Hackett, but, as the reader proceeds, he will have no doubt
« Galba, B. ix., fol. 126.

1 ] 0 HARMAN IN PRISON. [book I,
that Tyndale, Roye, and Harman were the three parties. George
Constantyne and Mr. Fyshe may appear to have been the other
two, if Jerome Barlow, soon to be noticed, was not the fifth
individual. Fourteen days they busily searched, but Mr. Har
man alone could be found, when Hackett once more writes to
Wolsey that one of the three persons he had been able to get
apprehended, Richard Harman, and had also caused his wife to
be taken with him ; but as he feared there would be some diffi
culty in getting them punished for heresy in the free city of
Antwerp, he proposes a plan by which, under charge of treason,
they might be sent to England, and there flealt with as the
Cardinal thought fit.
Hackett, however, is now somewhat afraid. He had found
considerable difficulty, when dealing with Christopher Endhoven,
the German printer, in the end of 1526 ; but now that an Eng
lish merchant and a gentleman has been seized, should the
" Lords of Antwerp" stiU remain firm to their purpose, as then
expressed; in the end, at least, our officious ambassador may
find his interference to be foUowed by greater trouble and dis
grace. Antwerp was stiU the staple, and, for commerce sake,
their English merchants must, if possible, be protected ; but to
England for protection it was in vain to look. She was not then,
what she has often been since, — 'and thanks to the Sacred
Volume alone ! — " the refuge of the oppressed ; " so that the
Emperor himself must be applied to. He was, accordingly, and
by two petitions, in the Flemish language, on behalf of the
English prisoners. Both are now in the British Museum.7
Wolsey, however, was not slow to act upon the vile suggestion
of his correspondent, and, accordingly, in the month of August,
Hackett had actuaUy obtained letters from Henry the Eighth, •
to seize Mr. Harman as a traitor; but the reigning Princess
wished to be informed what were the particular acts of treason.
Great interest was then made for Harman, who had, for many
years, been a burgess of Antwerp. Hackett implores Commis
sioners to be sent from England ; and, little knowing the secret
politics of our Cardinal at the moment, which had destroyed his
influence in the Imperial Cabinet, he is eager that the Emperor

Galba, B. ix., fol. 131.

1528.] HARMAN RELEASED. Ill
should be requested to write to Lady Margaret ; otherwise, he
fears that " the great purse of Antwerp" would prove the de-
Uverance of Harman, his victim. And, by the 10th of Septem
ber, he is obUged to confess, that " notwithstanding the King's
patent letters, the Lady Margaret and her Council would not
deUver up the heretics." 8
Our poor ambassador was now, certainly, in no very enviable
plight. A pause of more than four months took place in his
correspondence. Month after month passed away, and no fresh
instructions nor assistance arrived, for both Wolsey and his
Master were completely engrossed in a very different subject —
the royal divorce. At last, in despair, Hackett having written
to the King himseK, on the 17th of November he wrote also an
earnest letter to Friar West of Greenwich, of whom we shaU
hear more presently, dated from MechUn, complaining bitterly
of receiving instructions neither written or verbal from the King,
in answer to his communication ; so that Harman is likely to be
discharged for want of proof of his treason, if this is not adduced
before the end of the foUowing February ; nay, that Harman
was threatening to recover damages for loss sustained by false
imprisonment, to the amount of two thousand guUders.
On the 2nd of January, he addresses Mr. Brian Tuke as
Treasurer of the King's Chambers, and one of his Council,
informing him of his having written, by duplicate, letters to
West ; but complains, whether " I write east or West, I can
have no manner of answer — yet for the reputation of the King's
patent letters, we ought to take the better regard." On the
20th he writes again, imploring that Friar West may be sent to
his aid, but all in vain. The fact was, that at such a time,
neither Henry nor the Cardinal could expect to have the
smaUest influence with the Emperor or the Princess Margaret.
No proofs or probations, therefore, having arrived, the term
finaUy granted to Hackett expired on the 26th of February,
and consequently Mr. Harman and his wife, after an imprison
ment of above seven months, were released !
This interference, however, on the part of our English Envoy,
was one which "the Lords of Antwerp" could by no means
8 Galba, B. ix., fol. 177.

112 AMBASSADOR ARRESTED. [book I.
brook. The twain of the three men name'd to him he could not
find, but he was to have perplexity aU-sufficient, in consequence
of touching with only one of the three ; and though we trespass
a little on the year 1529, we must not here lose sight of
Mr. Harman and his lady. Hackett must now abide the con
sequences, and Harman waited his proper time for redress.
Though the ambassador was resident at Mechlin, it was not
long before an opportunity presented itself; hewas arrested at
Harman's instance for the costs and charges he had suffered in
prison, but standing on his privilege as Ambassador to the King
of England, the Lords of Antwerp declared him " free and quit
ofthe said arrest, with condition that he or his procurator should
appear again, when the said Lords by their letters would adver
tise him." The transaction cost him a change of residence, if
not more, for he had to leave Antwerp, where he had made him
self so unpopular. His letters in future are dated from Brussels.
His meddling with the man who had taken a benevolent interest
in sending the Word of God into his native country, eventually
removed this ambassador to a distance ; and if Antwerp is to
have a British resident in or near it, some other than John
Hackett must now be found. The overruling providence of
God wUl, before long, be here also very manifest. Had such a
man as this remained, when Tyndale himself came to reside in
Antwerp, never had he spoken of him, as his successor will be
found to have done.
As for Mr. Harman, we shall hear of him again, but it will
not be tiU five years after this, or in 1534 ; in which year his
persecutor, Hackett, died at Douay, and in debt. But, before
then, Mr. Harman, it will appear, had returned to England-
was commended for his zeal — was restored to favour, as well as
all his privileges connected with " the EngUsh House" at
Antwerp, and at the express request of the Queen of England.
This gentleman had been a devoted friend of Tyndale's object
and design, as weU as of Tyndale himself, in which his wife had
cordially joined with him. The printers of Antwerp managed
their own business, and, by various means, imported their
editions into England, which, of course, had affected the sale of
Tyndale's books ; but the Testaments with which Mr. Harman
was charged, were said to be sent to him out of Germany.

1528.] PURSUIT OF TYNDALE. 113
Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, must therefore, to his
great mortification, have very soon perceived, that he had not,
as he at first supposed, purchased all ; and, therefore, even in
Antwerp, where Hackett had so raged, we shall actually find
Tyndale himself ; and when his finances were at the lowest ebb,
selUng the remainder, with great advantage, next year. Nay,
seUing them to Tunstal, who, in 1524, had thought that, as
a Greek scholar, Tyndale "could not fail" to find some
situation !
In the midst of aU this turmoU at Antwerp, however, the
truth was, that Wolsey had been far from inattentive to the
information received from Hackett, although he had seemed to
be remiss in not answering his letters. On the contrary, as
soon as he understood by his letter of the 14th of July, that
"the twain of the three," or Tyndale and Roye, were not to be
found in Antwerp, or its vicinity, the Cardinal had bethought
himseK, and resolved to apply elsewhere in pursuit of them.
But, at such a time, how striking was the display of Wolsey's
enmity to the Sacred Volume ! How great his fear of himself,
and of the hierarchy ! His alarm is more worthy of notice, as
this was, perhaps, his final official effort in this warfare. Let it
only be remembered, that sickness had been raging in the land
throughout June and July, nor had it entirely ceased at the
moment of which we speak — that disease of which the poet
said —  " 'Twas all the business then,
To tend the sick, and in their turns to die.
In heaps they fell, and oft one bed, they say,
The sick'ning, dying, and the dead contain' d."
Besides this, Wolsey had scarcely recovered the favour of his
Master, after having ruffled his temper, by one false step,
aheady noticed; nor had they yet met. Notwithstanding, so
important was the capture of these two men, that not a day was
to be lost. The New Testament, and the two pointed publi
cations of Tyndale, were, it is true, not the only things rankling
in his mind ; the bitter Satyre of Roye and Jerome had, by this
time, begun to annoy him, as it greatly did, and no expense
must be spared in buying it up. Tyndale, wishing it to be
known that he had no connexion with Roye, had said, in print,

114 PURSUIT OF TYNDALE [book I.
that these two men (Jerome and Roye) were "Friars from
Greenwich;" and who then so fit to ferret them out, as a
shrewd Friar Observant, from the same monastery? And to
whom could the Cardinal now apply on the Continent more
likely to be of service, than the man whom Cochlseus had at first
roused in 1525 — CounseUor Herman Rincke of Cologne ? Ac
cordingly, as early as the 5 th of August, Wolsey sat down in
Hampton Court palace, and addressed him. In Rincke, he had
a determined enemy to the " new learning," and a man, in some
respects, quite to his own heart. His letter finished, a suitable
agent was found in the person of Friar John West of Greenwich,
already mentioned. He had been instructed to proceed by way
of Antwerp, and consult with Hackett, who furnished him with
the necessary means and some instructions.
On West's arrival at Cologne, Rincke was absent from home,
at the autumn fair in Frankfort ; but the letter was immediately
conveyed to him by a swift messenger ; and, by the 4th of
October, we have his reply, sent by the same Friar. After
acknowledging the Cardinal's letters respecting the apprehen
sion of Roye and Tyndale, and the buying up of their books, he
informs his correspondent that these persons had not been seen
in Cologne since the 1st of March, nor could their present resi
dence be traced. He then states that he had been at Frankfort
" with ready money, labouring himself personaUy to the utmost
— but John Scott, the printer, besides a pledge to be given to the.
Jews, demanded also the reward of his own labour, and the
expense of the paper ; and said that he would seU them to him
who would offer him most money." That he had, therefore, by
gifts and presents, attached to him the Frankfort Consuls, and
so " had gathered and packed up the whole stock of books, which
otherwise would have been enclosed in packages, artfuUy covered
over with flax, and transmitted by sea to England and Scotland,"
That he had also used all diligence to trace out and apprehend
Roye and Hutchyn, though hitherto in vain. He then proposes
that a licence should be granted to him of the largest extent,
that, by its force and legality, " William Roye, WiUiam Tyndale,
Jerome Barlow, Alexander Barkley, and their adherents might
be taken, punished, and exposed." He finally states that he
had forced Scott of Strasburg, the printer of the books, to state

1528.] AND OTHERS. 115
upon oath the number he had thrown off, and to deUver the
whole to him upon payment; "wherefore I have purchased
them almost aU, and now have them in my house at Cologne." 8
After this, no one will question the anxiety or eager desire of
Cardinal Wolsey to seize Tyndale, and especiaUy this Friar
Roye. How deeply he was stung by the stanzas of " Rede me,
and be not wrothe," is now apparent. But this letter, in con
nexion with the past, suggests several curious considerations.
We are now at Frankfort great fair, and the reader may recol
lect of Hackett the ambassador informing Wolsey, that he
heard of New Testaments, to the number of two thousand,
having been for sale at the spring fair of last year ; but now,
when Scott is apprehended and examined, he demands a pledge
to be given to the Jews, in security for their concern in such
traffic, " to Scotland and England as to the same place." No
doubt the Jews were there last year, as weU as this ; and it
certainly would be a very singular and memorable coincidence,
if the Jews, for hire or gain, had assisted in such importations !
And yet, what else can be inferred, from Scott's exaction or
demand ? But if so, the descendants of Abraham, to whom
were committed " the Oracles of God," as recorded in the Old
Testament, may have been unconsciously conveying to this
Island, as an article of merchandise, "the living oracles," as
recorded in the New : and doing this too at a period when the
nation, as such, was up in arms against the undertaking ! To
this people, under God, we stand indebted for a Saviour, and
the Bible, but we know not that it has ever been conjectured
of any other nation, that the Jews had any concern, however
remote, in giving or conveying to it the New Testament.
We are not, indeed, to suppose, that our Translator either
had been at Frankfort, or that any of his publications are here
referred to as printed at Strasburg ; much less that any con
nexion whatever now existed between him and Roye. With
regard to Tyndale at this moment, or Fryth, of whom no notice
is taken, happUy Mr. Counsellor Rincke was altogether off the
scent. Forty-five miles to the north, at Marburg, they were
busily engaged, both with the pen and the press ; yet is it quite

8 Cotton MS., Vitellius, B. xxi., fol. 43. I 2

1 1 6 wolsey's PURSUIT. [book I.
possible that some of Tyndale's productions may have passed
through this Frankfort fair. Rincke, however, had certainly
laid hold of the printer employed by Roye, and these as certainly
were his publications to which reference is made. Perhaps no
great dependence can be placed on the accuracy of Scott's dis
closure, even upon oath ; but still there can now be little or no
doubt that we have found in him the printer of the celebrated
Satyre on Cardinal Wolsey, a point hitherto unknown. Rincke
expressly states of some of the books, that they were " against
the magnificence and honour of his Grace."
Most providentially, however, by the time that West and his
companions arrived in England with this letter, Wolsey, so far
from prospering "many happy years," as Rincke had prayed,
probably never had one day of unmingled enjoyment. The
confidence of his own Royal Master had begun to decline, and
Rincke but little knew the game that Wolsey was playing at
that moment with the Emperor ; otherwise, neither he nor
Hackett could have expected him to have any influence, upon
any subject, with Charles. Thus the remainder of the Cardinal's
wrath was restrained, and happUy Rincke never obtained the
licence or Commission for which he panted ; besides, his politics
must have soon changed with the times. His son had been in
England before, and now that he came a second time, he has
been supposed to have remained for some time, though of this
we have found no positive evidence.
As for Friar West, he entirely failed in apprehending any of
the men pointed out. It must have been still more mortifying
to him that, while he was wandering on the Continent, in his
disguised habit, Roye, the very man whom Wolsey wished to
have, above all others, had actually paid a visit to England;
and to crown all, West, upon returning to his monastery, not
only received no thanks for all his toil, but very soon found it a
great deal too hot for him. The " new learning" had begun to
spread even there! He might, as we have found, write to
Hackett in November, telling him how the King and the
Cardinal were engrossed, and could not answer his letters ; but
by the next month, he himself could not gain access even to
Wolsey, and was at his wits' end. He had, no doubt, many
weighty reasons for wishing once more to go abroad, but they

1529.] TYNDALE'S PROGRESS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 117
were all in vain. Wolsey, by this time, had his hands full.
Henry was absorbed in his own affair. Our Envoy, indeed,
wrote in January, imploring that the Friar might be sent to his
aid, but we hear nothing more of Father West, and Hackett
wiU never obtain any farther orders. The chase was now over
till Henry himself began, for thus ended, at least, the Cardinal's
hunt after heretics so called ! After this, he will have quite
enough to do, in taking care of himself. It was Providence
ruling and over-ruling aU things, for the sake of His own
Word.

MDXXIX.
TYNDALE'S PROGRESS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT — PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND —
THWARTED ONCE MORE — TUNSTAL AT ANTWERP — TYNDALE'S INFLUENCE IN
THE PALACE — MORE, THE BISHOPS, AND THE KING, IN LEAGUE AGAINST THE
SCRIPTURES — COVERDALE SENT TO HAMBURG — ANOTHER OR FIFTH EDITION
OF THE TESTAMENT.
,n the denunciation of the English New Testament by
Tunstal and Warham, in 1526, we then noticed one
curious omission, that of Tyndale's name ; at that time
they appear not to have known it, but we have already
seen, that very soon after the names of Tyndale and
Roye were distinctly known to one of Tunstal's chap
lains, Dr. Robert Ridley, prebend of St. Paul's ; and
he may have been the first individual, who, in writing at least,
denounced the Translator by name as weU as his invaluable
work. Tyndale's frank acknowledgment of his authorship in
1527, made this more generaUy known ; and the confirmation
was completed, by the examinations held before the Bishop of
London during the last spring. It was then, too, that one of
the ablest scholars, said to be the greatest genius, if not the only
wit in all England, obtained Ucence from his friend, the bishop,
first to read Tyndale, and then to write in reply. Ever since his
licence in March last, More, as he tells us afterwards, had been
busy " night and day," and this year we find him bringing out his
first controversial pubUcation, consisting of above one hundred
and twenty foUos, or 250 pages, printed by John Rastell, his
brother-in-law.

118 TYNDALE'S PROGRESS

BOOK I.

If, therefore, Tyndale wished to go on with his labours, it had
now become more than ever necessary that he should use pre
cautions for the safety of his person : and removal from place to
place seems to have been one of these. Before, however, ad
verting to these places, let us first return and mark the course of
his engagements.
With regard to the translation of the Old Testament in which
Tyndale had for some time been employed, with aU the aid
which young Fryth was so weU fitted to lend, we have now
some tangible proof of his progress.
It has been customary to speak of Tyndale's Pentateuch as
published in 1530, but this is incorrect. The five books might
be afterwards bound up, but originaUy they were neither prmted
at the same press, nor published together, but separately. In
the order of importation, at least, the account of the Creation
and the early history of mankind in Genesis, seems to have been
followed by Deuteronomy, that compendious repetition or sum
mary of the law, with explanatory additions. At all events
before the end of their year 1529, or the 25th of March, 1530,
these two books are among those publicly denounced ; and those
alone under the foUowing titles : — " The Chapters of Moses,
caUed Genesis — the Chapters of Moses, caUed Deuteronomos."
When we come to the spring of 1530, the five books of Moses
will be more fully noticed.
During this year, the state of his native land had continued
to oppress the mind of Tyndale. However modest and unpre
tending in his character, as he could not be unacquainted with
the great effects produced by what he had already done, so he
must have felt that he was raised up for a certain purpose ; and
that with the progress of events or the condition of his country
he must endeavour to keep pace with his pen. The correctness
and celerity, as well as power, with which he did so, wiU appear
alike remarkable.
One distinguishing feature of our Translator's character, was
loyalty to his King, blended with love to his country. The
latter he had discovered by commencing with " The Parable of
the unrighteous Mammon," and the former, or rather both, by
his next pubUcation, " The Obedience of a Christian man."
Deeply interested as he was, however, in the best interests of

1529.] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 119
the reigning monarch, he would not stoop to flatter him, much
less wink at the course he now pursued. Hence this year his
smaU pubUcation on the subject of matrimony, and his exposi
tion of 1 Corinthians, vii. chapter. The former, a warning as to
its abuse ; the latter, illustrative of the sin attending its gross
violation — an abounding evil of the age.
Marriage was then a question of vital importance to the virtue
and happiness of his country ; dreadfully trampled on and
invaded by the priesthood of the day, and now, by the highest
authority of the land, in his own person, threatened to be dis
solved. It became, therefore, such a man as Tyndale to take up
the subject. His voice was soUtary indeed, but it had now a
power, which, probably, he had never anticipated ; it went also
through the land, for whatever he now pubUshed was sought for
and read ; and not the less so, that every thing he put forth was
so denounced.
Fryth was engaged about this time in translating from the
German a smaU work, entitled " The Revelation of Anti-
Christ," one of the first books printed in English against the
Roman Pontiff. He published it, with a long prefatory epistle
and an antithesis at the end, under the assumed name of Richard
Brightwell. It was printed " at Malborow, in the land of
Hesse, the 12th day of July, 1529, by me Hans Luft."
About this period both Tyndale and Fryth had removed from
Marburg ; and by the month of August, in Antwerp itself, a
negociation with Tunstal, respecting books, there took place,
which wUl be narrated presently, after we have noticed other
contemporary movements in England.
With regard to the progress of that noble cause in England,
for which Tyndale only lived and at last died, it must be read,
as before, in the opposition displayed. Wolsey may be re
moved, but enemies, in reality more bitter and determined, wUl
remain, nay stiU flourish and rise in royal favour.
It wiU be remembered that abroad, Hackett, the British
ambassador, had been affronted at Antwerp, and resenting the
indignity, had, in April, conveyed the inteUigence to England.
In the same month, at home, Tunstal was again busy at his last
year's employment, and firmly pushing his victims to abjure.
He seems as though he had resolved that the spring of the year

120 PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND, [book I.
should be so distinguished, and happy would he have been to
have rooted up the seed sown by other hands ; but this season
the number of persons caught was comparatively few. Last
year, Hacker, and Pykas, and TybaU had sadly faUen, by
exposing so many of their friends, but happily no one now
followed their example. Among those who were examined, the
most eminent was a respectable citizen and leather-merchant of
London, John Tewksbury. His case was the more interesting
from his having possessed a manuscript copy of the Bible, and his
openly deponing that he had been studying in the holy Scrip
tures from the year 1512. He professed, however, that he had
been brought to the knowledge of the truth by the reading of
" Tyndale's New Testament," and his subsequent publication or
exposition of the Parable of the Wicked Mammon. "In the
doctrine of justification," says John Foxe, " and all other
articles of his faith, he was very expert and prompt in his
answers, in such sort as Tunstal and all his learned men were
ashamed, that a leather-seUer should so dispute with them, with
such power of the Scriptures, and heavenly wisdom, that they
were not able to resist him,"
The number of Bishops presiding at the examination of this
good man, proves at once the importance of his case, and the
extent to which their alarm and hatred had now gone. Besides
Tunstal himself, there was West of Ely, and Clark of Bath,
with Standish of St. Asaph, and Longland of Lincoln. These
men had the truth told them on this occasion, and were even
warned. Amongst other things, Tewksbury had the boldness
to say,— " I pray God that the condemnation of the Gospel and
translation of the Testament, be not to your shame, and that ye
be not in peril for it." They continued disputing with him
day after day, for more than eight or ten days together ; his
first appearance being on the 13th of April. At last he abjured,
though, like Bilney, only for the present.
As old Thomas Fuller said — "It takes more to make a
valiant man, than being able to caU another coward," though in
reporting such abjurations, one cannot but revert to the first
grand and public recantation of Barnes, at St. Paul's. He
might, before that year ended, be selling New Testaments con
fidentially, and in private, but this could never compensate for

1529.] BUT SAFETY ONCE MORE. 121
the mischief he had done, by his great and sad failure. Its
influence must have been yet felt, in preventing that bold deci
sion which would have been followed by the crown of martyr
dom. Thus, this worthy man Tewksbury only required another
to precede him, in the year 1531, when we shaU find him gather
courage, deeply repent, and follow with great and determined
courage to the stake.
How criminal was that man, who, with cool deliberation, thus
spent his days in laying a snare, or in weaving a net for the feet
of these saints ! By him, indeed, they were not put to death ;
they were left by him for Stokesly to butcher, though the guilt
of this righteous blood must ever rest upon Tunstal, as well as
his successor.
But again, and that a third, if not the fourth time, a gra
cious Providence interposed. This, too, was about the very same
month as in the two preceding years ; not by disease, indeed, as"
last year, but by a method as effectual, the occupation of Tunstal
abroad. In 1526 the authorities were scattered by prevaiUng
sickness. In 1527 they were so again by political affairs. In
1528 they were scared, as we have seen, by the " Sudor
AngUcus," and this year they are again diverted from their
prey by pressing affairs of state. These men could discern some
of the signs of the times, but they could not, or rather would
not, observe the finger of God.
Tunstal, cool and fresh, was ready to engage whenever state
poUcy demanded his services ; and the. proof of his being as yet
the leading persecutor of the truth, is plainly seen in this, that
when once he departed, the storm in a great degree subsided.
In a very short time, however, far from forgetting Tyndale's
operations, we shall find him fuUy as busy, in another way,
abroad, as he had been at home.
On the 30th of June, he and Sir Thomas More, with Dr.
Knight, the King's Secretary, received their commissions, and
left England for Cambray, where the treaty of Madrid was to be
finally settled, and there Hackett met them. Altogether they
watched over their own King's interest, so far as it was involved
in the treaty of Cambray ; remaining in attendance till the 5th
of August, when, what was called "the Women's or the Ladies'
peace," was finally concluded. It has, however, been but seldom

122 TUNSTAL AT ANTWERP. j

BOOK I.

observed, that at the same time and place, another treaty was
signed, betwixt our King and the Lady Margaret, in the name
of the Emperor ; Tunstal, More, and Hackett, being the commis
sioners. It embraced " the continuation of traffic for merchants
between the two countries, and the forbidding to print or sell
any Lutheran books on either side." l
Thus it is that we are introduced, very naturaUy, to the
period when Tunstal's zeal for the burning of the Scriptures
emphatically began to display itself. No doubt he, as well as
the Bishop of Norwich, had cheerfully borne his share of the
first purchase by Warham in 1527 ; but he was eager to seize
this fine and favourable opportunity of proving his own zeal.
He was now in the north of France, and could easily take
Antwerp on his way home. With three such men, aU equally
hostile, the subject of heretical books must have been fully can
vassed, involved as they were in a formal treaty. The first was
bent on burning them ; he had licensed the second to read them,
only that he might write them down, and his first production,
written in 1528, had just come out as he left London ; and as
for the third, John Hackett, he had first suggested both burn
ing and persecution, and not as yet succeeded to the extent of
his wishes ; though it was only four months since he had been
affronted at Antwerp, and so deeply felt the indignity. The
high privileges of Antwerp, however, remained inviolate, for
they had been fully and expressly recognised in the recent
treaty, as well as those of aU the other Hanse Towns under the
Emperor's sway. No choice being thus left, as to the mode of
procedure, the policy of purchasing books in order to burn them,
and thus prevent progress, was discussed. This, indeed, might
ultimately promote the cause they desired to damage, and More
shrewdly suspected it certainly would. " So much," said he to
George Constantyne, afterwards, " so much I told the Bishop,
before he went about it." Tunstal's zeal, however, could not
thus be quenched. Knight proceeded to Italy on the King's
business ; More returned home ; Tunstal went by way of
Antwerp, and there meeting one Packington, a merchant of
London, expressed to him his desire to obtain all the Enghsh

1 Cotton MS. Galba, B. iv., fol. 196.

1529.] TUNSTAL RETURNS HOME. 123
New Testaments. Packington assured him he could buy up for
him every copy that remained unsold. Tunstal agreeing to pay
the necessary cost, the merchant, who was a secret friend of
Tyndale, went direct to him and purchased the whole stock on
his hands, " and so," says the old chronicler Halle, " the Bishop
had the books — Packington had the thanks — and Tyndale
had the money." Thus provided, our Translator was enabled to
correct his version and print a larger edition, which soon after,
continues HaUe, " came thick and threefold over into England."
The books purchased by Tunstal were sent home, but they were
not committed "to the flames tiU it could be done with the
greatest effect.
Tunstal and More having both returned to London, the pro
ceedings at Cambray were reported and highly approved.
Before Sir Thomas was sent into France, the King had sounded
him as to the divorce. He was then opposed to it, and as much
so now; but as he had succeeded to admiration in procuring
more money from the Emperor than had been expected, and
Henry might anticipate that, Uke most men, he only had his
price, and would come round, he was about to elevate him to the
ChanceUorship. Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas More had
never cordiaUy agreed, for in many points they were perfect
contrasts. Under the auspices of the latter, amiable in domes
tic Ufe, having no thirst for pomp or display, and superior to
the love of money, some great change was at hand. A new
order of things, whatever that might be, was inevitable.
Throughout this last year, of his declining influence, vexations
in quick succession awaited the Cardinal. About May he had
wished to proceed once more into France, upon a mission to
Cambray, (on which we have found that Tunstal and More were
sent in June,) but the King pointedly refused, as he could no
longer confide in him.2 Again, Sir T. Cheney, for having in
some way offended the Cardinal, had been excluded from the
Court, when Lady Anne Boleyn interposed and secured his re
turn, whether Wolsey would or not.3 But finaUy, and as if to
crown aU, and after we have witnessed how eager he had been

' Bayonne's Letter in Le Grand, p. 333.
3 Le Grand, p. 296.

124 tyndale's POWERFUL INFLUENCE. [book I.
to apprehend Tyndale, he must be brought in contact with one
of his publications. The story, in full, is to be found in Foxe's
manuscripts, now in the Museum, and it has been quoted by
Strype. Lady Anne Boleyn had been in possession of a copy of
Tyndale's " Obedience of a Christian man," for though the time
drew nigh, it had not then been pointedly condemned by Royal
authority. She had lent this book to one of her female attend
ants, named Gainsford ; but one day as she was reading it, a
young gentleman, also in the service of Lady Anne, Mr. Zouch,
father to the knight afterwards of that name, snatched the
book away, and was very unwilling to restore it: He had been
induced to read it, and was so affected, that, as the story goes,
" he was never well but when he was reading of that book."
Wolsey had ordered all about the Court to take special care, and
prevent such writings from being circulated there, lest they
should chance to come into the hands of the King ; but this
very caution proved the means of bringing to pass what he
most dreaded ! The Dean of the Chapel Royal, Dr. Sampson,
saw this publication in the young man's hands, who was reading
it in the chapel, not improbably tired of the unmeaning service.
Calling Zouch, he took the pubUcation from him, and delivered
it to the Cardinal. In the meantime, Lady Anne, inquiring
for her book, the attendant, fearful lest her Mistress, as well as
herself, should come into trouble, fell on her knees, and told her
aU the circumstances. Her Mistress expressed no displeasure
with the parties in her service, but replied with emotion, —
" Well, it shall be the dearest book that ever the Dean or the
Cardinal took away." Lady Anne forthwith applied to Henry,
and upon her knees, " desired the King's help for her book."
Upon the King's token it was delivered up, and Lady Anne
carrying the volume or tract to his Majesty, requested that he
would read it. The King did so, and professing to be pleased
with the contents, added, " This book is for me, and aU kings, to
read." This story is fully confirmed by Wyatt, with some slight
variation. Lady Anne " was but newly come from the King,
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, and withal to take occasion with him, against those

1529.] PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED. 125
that countenanced such books in general, and especiaUy women ;
and as might be thought, with mind to go farther against Lady
Anne more directly, if he had perceived the King agreeable to
his meaning. But the King, that somewhat before, distasted the
Cardinal, finding the notes Lady Anne had made, aU turned the
more to hasten his ruin, which was also furthered on aU sides."
This incident therefore must, in substance, have occurred ;
although Foxe goes on to build by far too much upon it. The
words, in Henry's mouth, were probably nothing more than a
compUment to the lady ; or at best, they expressed only a
transient feeling, similar to one of old, in the mind of King
Herod towards John the Baptist. But be this as it might,
Campeggio was off to Italy, and the sun of royal favour had set
upon Wolsey for ever.
There had been no Parliament held since 1523 ! These were
troublesome assembUes, and had by no means suited the speed
of Wolsey's chariot wheels ; so that now, when such an assembly
as had not been convened for six years, was about to deliberate,
very much wiU depend upon the general spirit and temper of
the new Lord ChanceUor. AU things had been regulated by
that strange anomaly, — Legantine authority : they were now to
be discussed professedly by a legislative Assembly of Lords and
Commons, so that some change, for better or worse, must await
the country.
On Wednesday the 3rd of November, at the Chamber in Black-
friars, ParUament met ; when Lord ChanceUor More, in his
eloquent oration, gave the first overtures of the King's inten
tions. The Cardinal's fall, — the state of the Church, — and the
" new learning," formed the pith of this opening speech. The
King was present when the Cardinal was glanced at, and in no
courteous terms. It was only sixteen days since he had been
sent to Esher, and the orator had only been chosen in his room
ten days before ; yet, along with a fulsome compliment to Henry,
as having " seen through him, both within and without," though
Wolsey had so often led him as a child ; Sir Thomas having
compared Henry YIII. to a shepherd, and his people to a flock,
then referred to " the great wether which is of late faUen, as ye
aU know," — " who so craftily, yea, and so untruly juggled with
the King !" There was truth here, unquestionably ; but though

126 PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED. [book i.
such language from a judge, from a Lord ChanceUor, referring
to his predecessor, might pass in those days, in later times it
would, of course, have been regarded as the height of indecency.
It was much worse, when it is remembered, that though the
great seal had been taken from Wolsey, still he had been sum
moned to attend this Parliament, and actuaUy sat in the House
after this among his peers, when the BiUs were discussing
during November. But it becomes a great deal more difficult
to characterise this false and fulsome compliment to Henry's
sagacity, when it is observed, that only on the Monday week
before this, or the 25th of October, when first brought into
Chancery, where the King was not present, More, though
alluding to Wolsey's faU, had spoken in a far different style.
" And now," said he, " when I look on this seat, and recollect
how great persons have filled it before me, — when I contemplate*
who sat in it last, — a man of such singular wisdom, such skill
in business, blest with such long and prosperous fortune, and
visited at last with so high and inglorious a faU, I cannot but
see the difficulty of my situation. For it is difficult to succeed
with approbation, to one of such genius, wisdom, authority, and
splendour, or to trace his footsteps with an equal pace. It
seems as if we should light a taper, after gazing on the setting
sun !" More might say that he eulogised only Wolsey's talents,
and blamed his want of integrity ; but his whole procedure was
unworthy of himseU, nor can it ever be justified, much less
admired. As for the various subjects then styled ecclesiastical, they
were incorporated or interwoven with civil affairs. The abuses,
says Herbert, having now come at last to the King's knowledge,
he remitted their redress to the Lower House of Parhament.
The Mortuaries, or the exactions from the children of deceased
parents, — the enormous expense of Probates, or proofs, or wills,
— Pluralities to the extent of eight or ten livings, engrossed by
one man, — abounding non-residence, — Priests being Surveyors,
Stewards of estates, Farmers, and Graziers in every county,—
Priors, and other ecclesiastics, being the buyers and sellers of
Wool, of Cloth, and all kinds of merchandise. Such were the
grievances then to be redressed.
Three bills were therefore drawn up, by the appointment of the

1529.] COMMOTION THERE. 127
Burgesses of Parliament, — the first relating to Mortuaries, the
second to Probates, and the third embracing all the other evils.
The first, when sent up to the Lords, was rather courteously
received ; the second, concerning Probates, followed in two days ;
but on this, Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and all the
other bishops, frowned. Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, spoke
with greatest violence and warmth. In the parliament chamber,
says the contemporary chronicler, he said openly these words, —
" My Lords, you see daUy what bills come hither from the Com
mon house, and all is to the destruction of the Church; see what a
realm the kingdom of Bohemia was, and when the Church went
down, then fell the glory ofthe kingdom, — now with the Commons
is nothing but down with the Church, — and all this, me seemeth,
is for lack oi faith only."
These last expressions once reported to the Commons, they
sent their Speaker, Sir Thomas Audley, with thirty members, to
the King. Henry, also dissatisfied, promised to caU for the
Bishop, and send them reply. Accordingly, Warham and six
of his brethren, besides Fisher, had to appear, when the latter
apologised, saying, he meant " the doings of the Bohemians were
for lack of faith." The King received his representation, but
the Commons were stiU by no means satisfied with this " blind
excuse." After this, the Commons referred to the laws and constitu
tions of the Church, as enforcing these biUs, but the " Spiritu-
aUty " defended the existing state of things by " presumption
and usage." One commoner, a gentleman of Gray's Inn, had
the courage to reply, — " The usage hath ever been of thieves, to
rob on Shooter's hill, ergo — is it lawful ?" Of course very great
offence was taken at the comparison, as if the fees for Probates
were to be considered robbery. The Commons stood firm, and
the temporal Lords began to lean to their side, but the biUs
could not yet pass.
Meanwhile the Lords assented to a biU of their own, and sent
it down to the Commons, which WiU remind the reader of years
gone by, as it referred to measures introduced by Wolsey, and
ultimately supported by the present ChanceUor, then Speaker of
the House of Commons. This was a biU releasing the King of

128 PARLIAMENT UNANIMOUS. [book I.
aU such sums as he had borrowed from his subjects, in the
fifteenth year of his reign. The measure, of course, was felt
severely by the Commons, and the more so, as it would render
them unpopular with their constituents ; but as the majority
of members were the King's servants, and others were gained
over, the bill passed.
By way of gratitude in return, the King granted, with cer
tain exceptions, a general pardon of offences, and aiding the
Commons for the redress of their grievances, he caused two new
bills to be presented afresh to the Lords, to which they at last
assented, although that in reference to the probate of wills was
peculiarly offensive to the Bishops.
The Commons then sent up their third biU, in reference to
pluralities, non-residence, farming, &c. At this the Priests not
only railed on the Commons as heretics, but the Bishops, in the
Upper House, says Hall, " would in no ways consent." At last
the King interposed. Causing eight members from each House
to meet and confer in the Star Chamber, the Temporal Lords
present united with the Commons, and next day the bill, some
what qualified, passed into a law.
Before this Parliament was prorogued, on the 17th of
December, there was one other measure respecting which there
was no dissension among the Bishops, nor any division between
the two Houses, and this was how to deal with the new leaning
come into the land. " It had been," says Lord Herbert,
" secretly admitted into many places of this kingdom with much
approbation, so that even the most ignorant began to examine
whether the errors then ordinarily controverted, did belong to
the doctrine or the government of the Church." This subject, it
should be remembered, had been noticed among the " overtures
of the King's intentions," in this short session, and whether
suggested by the new Chancellor, must appear by what followed.
Sir Thomas More might smile at Tunstal's simplicity, in having
purchased books at Antwerp to burn them in London, by and
by ; but at the same time, whatever his pen or his power could
do, was now to be employed against the authors and the pos
sessors of all such publications. With his pen he had been busy
ever since he was licensed, in March last year ; and now, as

1529.] AGAINST THE TRUTH. 129
Lord Chancellor, he will enjoy the gratification of employing
his power, and immediately upon his entrance into office.
Sir Thomas More has certainly been fortunate, even to a
proverb, in his biographers. At once the pride and the pet of
the literary world, they have drawn his character on this prin
ciple — that " what offends the eye in a good picture, the painter
casts discreetly into shades ;" so that any writer laid under the
necessity of bringing to light the generally concealed features of
the man, must run the risk of being charged with a sin against
taste. It is, however, chiefly with his official character, and as
the opponent of Tyndale and Fryth, that we have here to do.
His official movements against them are matter of history, and
as for his sentiments and feelings, there is no necessity for
caUing witnesses to prove what they were. Plentifully were
they expressed by himself, through many folio pages.
Wolsey being degraded, had the spirit of persecution rested
only in his breast as Prime Minister, of course it must now have
abated under his successor. Notwithstanding, therefore, the
prodigious faults of the faUen Cardinal, let us inquire, and
render him impartial justice.
It must have been observed, that the criminal charges pre
ferred against Wolsey by the Lords, were presented to the
King, with More at their head ; and that the 43rd article in
cluded these words, — " Besides all his other heinous offences,
the said Lord Cardinal hath been the impeacher and disturber
of due and direct correction of heresies, being highly to the danger
and peril of the whole body and good Christian people of this
realm." The neglect of Warham's letter was now no doubt
remembered ; but they specially referred to Wolsey's inhibiting
the Bishops who desired to repair to Cambridge, in 1523, for
the correction of such errors as were said to reign among the
students and scholars there ; in consequence of which, they now
affirmed, these errors had " crept more abroad, and took greater
place." This was a charge which, when the whole article is
read, evidently came warm from the heart of all the prelates
who were present ; and Wolsey, in various instances, certainly
had not aUowed them to run riot, to the extent they demanded ;
his own interests, at the moment, forbidding the gratification of
their maUce. The loftier flight of his own personal ambitionic

130 MORE AND THE BISHOPS [book I.
had so engrossed his mind, that the fiery and unmitigable zeal
of these men must have frequently been felt by him as an
annoyance, retarding his progress ; and now, that he is to be
crushed, they were rejoicing in hope of other days under his
successor — better in their estimation, but bitter days and nights
to those who either stood in their way, or dared to oppose them.
As it regarded, therefore, what the Bishops longed so much
to enjoy — " the direct correction of heresies," the reader will
bear in mind the embassy on which More with Tunstal had
been lately sent ; but more especiaUy the closing treaty at
Cambray, which they had arranged and signed. It was the
first amicable arrangement of any kind, between the Emperor
and Henry, for a considerable time past. Charles, before this
period, had twice issued what were styled "Placards" through
out his dominions, and, in fulfilment, it seems, of this treaty, on
the 14th of October he had issued a third. By this, all those
who had relapsed after abjuration, were to be burnt; — as for
others, men were to die by the sword — women to be buried
alive ! All were warned against receiving any heretic to their
houses, on pain of death and confiscation of goods ! Suspected
persons were to receive no honourable employment; and, in
order to find out heretics, one-half of their estates was promised
to informers !
Was there then no echo in England to this ferocious placard?
or did More and Tunstal pay no regard to the treaty they had
signed ? So far from this, the subject was one to which both
immediately bent all their energies. For months past, indeed,
the pen of More, dipped in gaU, had been busy on the subject
of suppressing heresy ; arguing for persecution unto death, in
his strange and characteristic "Dialogue;" and the first time.
he opens his mouth in Parliament as Chancellor, he has it
among the overtures of the King's intentions. His appearance
in print, since the month of June, as the determined opponent
of Tyndale, had fully shown the man, for five months before his
elevation to the Great Seal ; and the spirit now displayed by
him, afforded no comfortable prospect for those who had espoused
the truth, and were promoting its diffusion at great hazard and
expense. "As soon," says Burnet, "as More came into favour, he

1529.] IN LEAGUE AGAINST THE TRUTH. 131
pressed the King much, to put the laws against heretics in
execution, and suggested that the Court of Rome would be more
wrought upon by the King's supporting the Church, and defend
ing the faith vigorously, than by threatenings : and, therefore,
a long proclamation was issued out against the heretics, many
of their books were prohibited, and all the laws against them
were appointed to be put in execution, and great care was taken
to seize them as they came into England." '
The facts of the case may be more distinctly stated. Tunstal,
as weU as More, must perform his part ; and Warham also,
now that Wolsey is out of the way, has no objections to go all
lengths with his fellows. Accordingly, before the opening of
this Parliament, the Convocation had been summoned to meet.
They did so on the 5th of November, when at their first meeting
a reformation of abuses was proposed ; and with that an inquiry
was made concerning heretical books. A Committee of Bishops
was appointed with relation to heretics. On the 19th of Decem
ber, two days after ParUament had risen, secrecy was enjoined,
and again a second time, on pain of excommunication, so eager
were they to catch the prey. They closed their Convocation on
the 24th, or a week after Parliament, and then came out that
proclamation which, as Foxe says, was made throughout all
England, the year of our Lord 1529, and the 21st year of
Henry VIII. ; commencing, " The King our Sovereign Lord,"
&c. — "The Bishops," he tells us, "were the procurers of this
fierce and terrible proclamation, devised and set out in the
King's name ; " but there can be no question that the Chan-
ceUor's influence was united with theirs in this matter. Indeed,
the style in several places wiU show, that it must have been
their joint production. More and Tunstal, no doubt, drew it
up ; and as the ChanceUor's hand is so visible throughout, this
consequently may be regarded as about the first of his official
papers. Having first forbidden aU preaching, teaching, or
writing any thing contrary to the doctrine of Holy Church,
inflicting fines for the first offence, and death for relapse after
abjuration, it proceeds to prohibit under high penalties the
"selling, receiving, taking or detaining any book or work
* Burnet, edit. 1720, Kb. ii. p. 159.
K 2

132 SPIRIT OF PERSECUTION [book i.
printed or written against the faith CathoUc, — the decrees,
laws, and ordinances of Holy Church." That no man might
plead ignorance, a list of the books restrained or forbidden was
also published. Of the twenty-four in EngUsh, eight were by
Tyndale and one by Fryth.
"(The Bishops," says Foxe, " had that now which they would
have ; neither did there lack, on their part, any study unapplied,
any stone unremoved, any corner unsearched, for the diligent
execution of the same."
Here, then, we have the first Royal proclamation interdicting
printed books, and pursuing the importers, the possessors, or
authors of them, to death by fire. This was one of the first
fruits of the new administration, and it marks the present period
as an era in the history of persecution for conscience' sake;
since the government of the country, that is, the King and his
Council, were now fully committed. The only formal pubhc
instruments hitherto issued, were the injunctions of Warham,
Archbishop of Canterbury, and Tunstal, Bishop of London,
in the close of 1526 ; and up to December 1529, this persecu
tion had been an affair of the " Spirituality" alone. The King,
it is true, had approved of what they did in 1526, and, before
then, was himself writing to the Netherlands, and eager about
the burning of books. But his name as Sovereign had never,
till this period, been employed to strike terror into the hearts of
his own subjects, to make heresy and treason convertible terms,
and lay the entire civil power at the feet of the Bishops.
Wolsey, unquestionably, had great influence over his Majesty,
but he had never employed it in persuading him thus publicly
and personally to embrue his hands in the blood of his subjects
on English ground ; this was reserved to distinguish the ad
ministration of Sir Thomas More ; so that the chief redeeming
point in the character of the lofty and overbearing Cardinal,
must stand in contrast with the greatest blot in that of his
unostentatious and learned successor.
Oh, when writing his Utopia, in earlier life, or, as Sir James
Mackintosh has described it, "his admirable discussions on
criminal law, his forcible objections to capital punishment for
offences against property, his remarks on the tendency of the
practice of inflicting needless suffering on animals, in weaken-

1329.] STRONGER THAN EVER. 133
ing compassion and affection towards our feUow-men," and his
extraordinary latitude of toleration as to the mind ; had any
one said to him — " I know the evil and the cruelty thou wilt
yet inflict on the people around you," — would he not have
replied, " What ! is thy servant a dog that he should do this
thing ?" But now, it seems the only answer might have been,
" Thou shalt, one day, be Lord ChanceUor of England," and
then  !
But before then, and only just before, he had himself already
given a fearful omen to his country, of what might have been
anticipated from his administration. His appearance this year
as a controversiaUst must have been haUed by the entire hier
archy, licensed or hired as he had been by high prelatical au
thority ; and certainly the EngUsh language had never been so
prostituted before he took up his pen. Even in the eulogised
" Utopia" of his early days, it should never be forgotten that he
there stood forth, more than insinuating the lawfulness of
suicide ; and now, alas, he must appear as regarding with equal
indifference the blood of others. The proclamation already
quoted, which was to be read throughout aU the land, was in
him but the natural result of the sentiments he had already ex
pressed in print ; and now the civU authority, from the Lord
ChanceUor of England down to the lowest Bailiff of a burgh
town, bound, by oath, must make official inquiry after "heretics."
" The prelates," he had already said, in print, " ought temporally
to destroy those ravenous wolves ; they were by grievous punish
ment to be repressed in the beginning, and the sparkle well
quenched, ere it was suffered to grow to over great a fire ! " But
once in possession of power, the mace as well as the pen must
be employed to prevent the progress of the " new learning ;"¦
so that if Wolsey had chastised the people with whips, More, as
led by these Bishops, seems determined to do so with scorpions.
And what was the existing condition of this prelatical cause,
which the new Lord ChanceUor was so eager to defend and
maintain ? It consisted mainly of priests, and according to
his own admission in his "Dialogue," — "he wot well that
many were very lewd and naught," — but " let the priest be
never so vicious, and so impenitent, and so far from all purpose
of amendment, that his prayers are rejected and abhorred ; yet

134 SIR THOMAS MORE'S DIALOGUE. [book i.
the profit of his mass was to every one else, just as good as if
he were the most virtuous man ! " And again, — " If the
Church say one thing, and the Holy Scriptures another thing,
the faith of the Church is to be taken as the word of God, as
well as the Scripture, and therefore to be believed." These are
a few of his own express words ; but no solitary selected
expressions can convey an adequate idea of the virulence, not
to say the verbosity and fallacious reasoning of this writer.
It certainly would exhaust the patience of most readers, in the
present day, to wade through his folio "Dialogue."
Such was, in part, the state of things in England at the close
of this year and commencement of the next. It was purely
with a view to enlighten and bless his country and to deliver it
from thraldom, that Tyndale had hitherto laboured, assailing
only what was positively sinful, and worthy of destruction. No
English writer had drawn his pen against him till this summer,
when Sir Thomas More put forth his laborious "Dialogue."
Tyndale's translation of the New Testament he had severely
condemned, artfully approving of a new translation, to meet the
pressure from without, — a translation of course by the Bishops;
one of which Crammer said about eight years after this, that
he had no idea of its being accomplished " tiU one day after
Doomsday." No choice therefore was now left to Tyndale, but to encoun
ter this " ornament of the Pontifical chair," — " one of the great
est prodigies of wit and learning," according to Anthony Wood,
" that this nation ever before his time had produced." Tyndale,
however, entertained no fear of him, and he wiU not long re
main without a sufficient answer. On the -whole, it is now
evident that this had been a most busy season, nor is' it difficult
to perceive the occasion or cause of all the turmoU. For while
the " nether house of parliament," as Foxe calls it, had been
"communing of their griefs wherewith the spirituality had
before time grievously oppressed them ; " the Convocation had
been communing also, with mingled grief and indignation, over
the "new learning" come into the land. Some might say that
the hand of Tyndale was in all this, and in one sense it was,
but then he was not in the country. Properly speaking, the
commotion is to be ascribed to the Word of God, however

1529.] COVERDALE AT HAMBURG. 135
denounced, which he had translated, and sent home, to fight its
own way.
Before the close of this year, however, if we look abroad
once more, we are cheered by observing that the great cause
went on. The Government at home had been absorbed in
human legislation, and confounded by its perplexities. All the
while, Tyndale had been diligent in preparing more of the
Divine law for his countrymen, and it will be home presently.
He had been employing the press at Marburg, but had left it
himseH, for Antwerp, as already explained. It is in reference
to this period that we find a statement by John Foxe, that
minding to print his translation of Deuteronomy at Hamburg,
Tyndale went thither this year and met Miles Coverdale by
appointment, who helped him to translate the whole Pentateuch.
Now Coverdale might have gone to Hamburg by appointment
of some one, but that he met our Translator there cannot be
proved, nor is there any evidence to show that Tyndale ever was
at Hamburg after 1524. Certain it is that Coverdale afforded
no assistance in translating from the Hebrew, as two years after
this, he confesses his own incompetence for such a task. What
ever aid Tyndale had in preparing the Pentateuch was derived
from Fryth. Of any meeting with Coverdale, Tyndale gives
not the sUghtest hint ; nor in the whole of his writings, or those
of Fryth, is there a shadow of reference to Coverdale, more than
if he had never existed.
In conclusion of this year, we have been, and wiU continue to
be, cautious of admitting into these pages any loose conjecture.
But after all that we have read, it would be difficult to believe
that the Antwerp press had stood still, either last year or the
present. An edition of Tyndale's Testament has been long as
signed to about this period, though we are not able to fix it, by
adducing such curious evidence as in preceding cases. Hackett,
however,' as early as May 1527, has hinted at as many as 2000
having been for sale at Frankfort ; and Joye affirms that the
Dutch, as he calls them, had printed' it a third time. We may,
therefore, with all safety, put down another, or the fifth edition,
to 1529. It is quite possible that there might have been one
last year, as weU as this; but, at aU events, Tyndale himself
wiU reprint his Testament next year.

136 TYNDALE'S PROGRESS. [book I.

MDXXX.
tyndale's progress in the old testament — practice of prelates — per
secution goes on — king and prelates denounce the scriptures—
latimer's bold remonstrance — new testaments burnt — another, the
sixth edition — vigorous importation — death of s. fyshe.
D ,, e have come to a more noted period in our Translator's
| [ 5 eventful life. From the variety and importance of
his publications which had now appeared in print, it
is evident that the past and the present had been
years of great and incessant activity on his part;
nor were his opponents less active. The bench of
Bishops, now headed by the civil power, were firmly
leagued together, and arrayed against him. Considering all
that Tyndale already knew, it is quite apparent from his
writings, that he had, long before this time, been prepared in
spirit for martyrdom. Resolved to tell the whole truth, and, as
far as he knew, nothing but the truth, his path lay right before
him. When pressed out of measure, he might and did seek for
quiet and safety, that he might pursue his work ; but he was of
one mind — and no peril, no prospect of danger, could turn him.
Depending on the sword of the Spirit for success, and feehng,
as he had translated, that " the wrath of the God of heaven
appeareth against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
who withhold the truth in unrighteousness," he must have
resolved to suppress nothing, or sooner " die upon his shield,"—
a better than that of the ancient warrior, because the shield of
faith. Tyndale's translations of the five books of Moses were soon in
circulation through his native country. His treatise entitled
" The Practice of Prelates," was also this year in England ; and
his " Answer to the Dialogue of Sir Thomas More," wiU follow.
After disposing of Wolsey and the prelates in general, he had
taken up the production of Wolsey's successor in office. Two
Lords Chancellor against one poor expatriated Exile, might
seem to be fearful odds, but time wiU show who gained the
victory. That portion of the Sacred Volume now sent into England,

15S0.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 137
has frequently been referred to by previous authors, as being
" the first edition of Tyndale's Pentateuch;" but that this is
incorrect, wiU at once appear from the following coUation.
Genesis, in black letter, 76 leaves, with this colophon at the end, " Emprented
at Marlborow, in the land of Hesse, by me, Hans Luft, the y«re of our Lorde,
m.d.xxx., the xvii dayes of Januarii." Exodus, in roman letter, 76 leaves;
Leviticus, roman letter, 52 leaves ; Numbers, in black letter, 67 leaves ; Deuter
onomy, in roman letter, 63 leaves. There is a separate title and a prologue to
each book ; at the end of Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy, and at the be
ginning of Numbers, are tables expounding certain words. There are a few
notes in the margins, and throughout the whole, ten wooden cuts. There is no
colophon or date, except that already given, attached to Genesis. From all this,
but especially from inspection, it is evident that these five books were printed
at separate presses ; Genesis for certain, and probably Numbers, at Marburg.
Deuteronomy, and for aught we know, Exodus and Leviticus, at Hamburg.
That they were circulated at first, separately, in England, is evident, because
they were thus distinctly denounced ; first, Genesis and Deuteronomy, and then
the whole five books, but still distinctly noted. At the same time, when the
whole were finished, Tyndale meant them to be bound together, as he then
printed a general preface, whicli may have led to the popular description of
"the Pentateuch, first edition."
The rarity of these five books, entire, is almost equal to that of the first
octavo New Testament of 1525. Only one perfect copy is known to exist
which once belonged to Mr. Wilkinson, and is now in the Grenville Library,
British Museum. The next best copy, as it has been completed, in the finest
fac-simile, from the preceding, once belonged to Mr. Tutet. It was purchased
at the sale of his books, by the late Mr. Heber, and from his collection by Mr.
Grenville ; who only seems to have parted with it, on obtaining his present
unique perfect book. We know not what the perfect copy cost, but this second
was advertised for sale in 1836, by Thorpe of London, at fifty guineas. Little
did Tyndale imagine that, at the distance of more than three centuries, the
labour of his hands would be so highly estimated.
Besides these two, all the other copies known to exist, are incomplete. That
in the Museum at Bristol, wants the book of Genesis ; that in Sion College, pre
sented by Mr. Lewis, the book of Deuteronomy, and besides, the marginal
notes are cut off, as directed by Act of Parhament in January 1543 ! The copy
in the British Museum wants the first and last and two other leaves ; the one
at Cambridge is also imperfect. In the Bodleian library at Oxford, there is a
beautiful copy of Genesis alone.
Tyndale's next pubUoation was " The Practice of Prelates ; "
and, as far as it regards the subjects introduced, as weU as the
manner in which they are handled, it is, in some respects, the
most remarkable of all his controversial writings. More than
ever bent upon the emancipation of his country from mental
bondage, he longed to see the throne established in righteous
ness ; but he could entertain no hope of this until the power
behind it, which had risen above the throne itself, was laid

138 PRACTICE OF PRELATES. [book I,
prostrate. " If that King of the grasshoppers," said he, " which
devoureth all that is green, were destroyed; then were the
kingdom of our caterpillars at an end." But it was when, in the
same publication, he came down to what he styled " the practice
of our time," and " the cause of all that we have suffered these
twenty years," that Tyndale's powerful sentences were so deeply-
felt. Other men, before this year was done, might sing a
requiem over the grave of Wolsey ; but before he died,this des
pised and unpatronised exile had already exposed to public view
his entire policy ; and withal, so ably, that it is stiU quoted by
the best of our historians. By Burnet and Strype in former
times ; by Turner and Tytler in our own day.
Wolsey, it is true, was descending to the tomb, but what did
that signify ? Sir Thomas More had just come into power.
He had opened the first ParUament which had been held for
years, and with what was said to be, an eloquent oration.
What then must have been his surprise and regret, if not his
indignation, to find the man whom he had laboured to over
whelm by his sophistry, and all the quip and merrv turns in his
" Dialogue," reviewing this very session of Parhament, and the
first bUls that were passed under his administration ? Exposing
the proceedings as only so many strokes of poUcy, Tyndale
showed that they had been merely clearing away the brush
wood, or lopping the branches of a tree, which would grow
again, while it ought to have been uprooted from the soil of
England. " The root yet left behind, whence all that they
have for a time weeded out, will spring again, by little and
little, as before ; if they, as their hope is, may stop this light of
God's word that is now abroad." These few last words show the
soul of our Translator. The authority of the Divine word was, '
in his mind, paramount to every other consideration, and this
was the cause of his now speaking out so boldly ; but it cer
tainly was no common proof of talent and of an enlarged mind, ¦
that so early after Parliament rose, Tyndale should be able to
send such a publication into England ; embracing, as it did,
not merely the corruption of past ages traced to its source, but
the national doings of the day, down to the end of March in the
present year, if not later.
One of the latest eulogists of Sir Thomas More is Sir James

]5S0.j PRACTICE OF PRELATES. 139
Mackintosh, and a more able and fascinating pen could not have
been employed; but in his just indignation at the brutality of
Henry in putting More to death, and his warm admiration of
the ChanceUor, he is not the first who has shot rather beyond
the mark. "He was," says he, "the first Englishman who
signaUsed himself as an orator, the first writer of a prose which is
still intelligible, and probably the first layman since the begin
ning of authentic history, who was ChanceUor of England."
It is not improbable that Sir James had never thought of
looking into the pages of More's opponent in controversy.
Tyndale's prose, however, in one sense, it must never be for
gotten, has been read in Britain ever since, and that too " every
Sabbath day ;" for notwithstanding aU the confessed improve
ments made on our translation of the Bible, large portions in
almost every chapter stUl remain verbally the same as he first
gave them to his country. In this, it is true, he was merely a
translator, but then the style of his translation has stood the
test of nearly ten generations. It has been their admiration aU
along, and it wiU continue to be admired while the language
endures. But independently of his translation, the purity of his native
language was maintained by Tyndale in as high a degree as by
any of his contemporaries. And even as to his opponent it may
safely be questioned, if in the wide compass of More's contro
versial writings there is one passage to be compared for pathos
and simple beauty with the solemn appeal of Tyndale to his
King and country, after ParUament and the Bishops had drawn
the sword of persecution from its sheath, and placed it, naked,
in the hands of their Sovereign. It wUl be' found at the close
of the " Practice of Prelates."
By this tract did Tyndale prove, that he was intimately
acquainted with all that was going on in Fmgland, up to the
moment of his publication, as weU as able to give sound advice ;
an evidence of such talent that Sir T. More could not but recog
nise it, two years afterwards, though he affects to despise the
writer. " Then," says he, " have we ' the Practice of Prelates,'
wherein Tyndale had wente 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 fuUy

140 PRACTICE OF PRELATES. [book I.
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." A facetious vein of style con
tinued to be the favourite mode of Sir Thomas. Perhaps he
preferred it for effect, or saw no necessity for any other ; but
Tyndale was ever in earnest, to the end.
As far as intelligent and skilful, though pungent, warning
could go, Tyndale had nobly done his duty. He had fully
exposed the once aspiring Cardinal, now sinking into ruin, and
the enormous expense entailed on the country by his tortuous
administration ; he had faithfully warned his Sovereign, and
put the country on its guard, as to the state persecution, which
we have seen that the new ChanceUor as weU as the prelates
had advised. Few men, if indeed any one of that age, could
have written such an exposition of the times, as Tyndale had
just given ; and yet his labour for this year was not at an end.
He had commenced his reply to Sir Thomas More's " Dialogue,"
and in the printed edition of his works it is said to have been
made in 1530 ; but as it certainly did not appear in print till
next year, we defer tiU then saying more of a production which
Henry the VIII. was so eager to see, that a part of it at least
was actuaUy written out, by his Envoy in Brabant, and sent him
for perusal before its publication. This, too, as we shaU find,
was done without Tyndale's knowledge, and it is mentioned now
simply as a proof of his powerful influence, as well as the
interest attached to any thing which might come from his pen.
The virulent opposition now manifested to his translation of
the Scriptures, and his other "writings, could only refer to his
publications before this year ; so that what we are now going to
relate, may be regarded as no slender testimony to their powerful
effects upon his native country. As for the " Practice of Pre
lates," as soon as it begins to be known and felt, we shall find
other measures resorted to, besides that of denunciation in
England. The first person who excites notice in 1530, was that poor
old and bUnd, literally blind man, the Bishop of Norwich once
more. He felt sorely annoyed by the circulation and effects of

1530.] PERSECUTION GOES ON. 141
these EngUsh books. Three years ago, he had contributed, with
great good wiU, towards the purchase made by Warham, of
Tyndale's New Testaments, — a vain expedient, as might have
been anticipated, to prevent their getting into the hands of the
people. But he was as warm in the cause as ever, and in a
letter to his friend the Archbishop, dated 14th May, 1530, he
complains that it passeth his power to suppress the reading and
beUeving of the New Testament ; — that there are who say,
" that the King's pleasure is, the New Testament in English
shaU go forth, and men shaU have it and read it ; and from that
opinion I can by no means turn them." He therefore desires to
know the King's pleasure on the subject, " that a remedy may
be had ;" adding with respect to the readers, " If they continue
any time, I think they shall undo us all." x
But there was no occasion for this miserable old man being
so urgent. Little did he know how deeply Warham and his
brethren were impressed with the impending danger, if these
books were not seized and burnt. The highest authorities were
now aU alive to the perils of the hierarchy. For some time,
the united strength of the most able opponents in the kingdom
— Lord Chancellor More, Warham, Tunstal, and Gardiner, —
had been employed in framing an authoritative Ust, of all the
heresies detected in Tyndale's writings, with a denunciation of
them aU. Tyndale's name, too, in connexion with his New
Testament and Pentateuch, was now stiU more distinctly branded,
even by royal authority. These prelates and their assistants
had contrived to find out about two hundred heretical sentences
in only six publications, of which one hundred and seven were
charged upon " Tyndale and Fryth." A document enumerating
these heresies, and condemning by name the various works in
which they were found, was drawn up, and authorized at a CouncU
held in the Palace of Westminster, 24th May, 1530, the King
himself being present. In this paper " the Scriptures corrupted
by WiUiam Tyndale, as weU in the Old Testament as in the
New," is especially mentioned. There is added a "Bill in
English to be published by the preachers," urging the im-
1 Cotton MS., Cleopatra, E. v., fol. 360.

] 42 HUGH LATIMER. [book I.
mediate delivery of these books "to the Superiors, such as call
for them." It is signed by three Notaries alone.
The" original document, closely written on eight skins of
parchment, may stiU be seen in the Library at Lambeth Palace.
At the end there is an array of twenty names, pointing out the
most noted persons present on this occasion, to which they add,
" with many more learned men of the said Universities, in a
great number assembled, then and there together witness to the
premises required and adhibited." But although the language
employed was no doubt intended to convey the idea, it by no
means foUows, that they individually assented ; far from it. A
minority there was, we know from other sources, though we
cannot give their names. More and Warham, Tunstal and
Gardiner, the framers of the whole, besides others, of course
cordiaUy approved of every word ; but Hugh Latmer was
among the number present, and this has perplexed or misled
more critics than one. Perhaps he had no business to be there,
however anxious to know what was going on ; but the occasion
of his being in such bad company admits of explanation, after
which he wUl appear in his noblest character.
Latimer had been preaching, ever since he saw Wolsey at
Whitehall, and before then he had argued for the Scriptures
being given to all. For some time, also, before the present
period, it had been in his favour, that his old opponent, West,
the Bishop of Ely, took part with Queen Catherine, and was
one of her Advocates. Henry, eager to have the assent of the
University of Cambridge to his divorce, had sent down Dr.
Butts, the physician, to promote this object. Latimer, whatever
may be said, approved of the divorce, and, therefore, so pleased
if not aided the Doctor, that he invited him to accompany him
to London. Introducing him to the King, he had been officiat
ing before him at Windsor in the month of March. In the
afternoon of Sunday the 27th, while Latimer was preaching,
the Vice- ChanceUor of Cambridge, Dr. William Buckmaster,
arrived with the University's letters for his Majesty. The King
was not altogether satisfied with their decisions, but Latimer
was already high in favour. "At afternoon," says Buckmaster
to himself, "I came to Windsor, and also to part of Mr.

1530.] HIS LETTER TO THE ICING. 143
Latimer's sermon, and after the end of the same, I spake with
Mr. Secretary — and so after evensong I delivered our letters in
the chamber of presence, all the Lords beholding. His High
ness gave me there great thanks, and talked with me a good
whUe. But by and by, he greatly praised Mr. Latimer's
sermon, and, in so praising, said on this wise : — ' This dis-
pleaseth greatly Mr. Vice-ChanceUor yonder. Yon same,' said
he unto the Duke of Norfolk, 'is Mr. Vice-Chancellor of
Cambridge,' and so pointed to me."2 The next day, after
another conversation with Henry, the King having told him
that he would have their final and a better decision, Buckmaster
was dismissed home after Easter ; but Latimer stUl remained,
and continued preaching.
Meanwhile Warham's party were already sitting in council
at Westminster, and Latimer, not having left London, was
present among others, on the 24th of May, but his account of
the meeting afterwards was this. Referring his Majesty to that
very day, he tells him, " As concerning your last proclamation,
prohibiting such books, the very true cause of it, and chief
counseUors were they, whose evil living and cloaked hypocrisy
these books uttered and disclosed. And howbeit that (although)
there were three or four that would have had the Scripture to go
forth in English, yet it happened there, as it is evermore seen,
that the most part overcometh the better ; and so it might be
that these men did not take this proclamation as yours, but as
theirs, set forth in your name ; as they have done many times
more, which hath put this your realm in great hindrance and
trouble, and brought it in great penury."
These proceedings, says Burnet, were printed in June, but
when once they were sent forth through the country, so far
from having assented to them, they proved the urgent motive
to one of the noblest acts of Latimer's varied life — his weU
known letter to Henry the VIII., of this year. In this letter,
from which the words already quoted are taken, . he pleads
powerfully for liberty to " read the Holy Scripture in our
mother tongue," and spares neither Bishops or ChanceUor,
s MS. c. c. c. Burnet's Reform., iii., App., p. 23, ed. 1715.

144 NEW TESTAMENTS CONSUMED. [book I.
closing with an earnest prayer for, and solemn charge to, the
King. "Wherefore I pray to God that your Grace may be found acceptable in Hia
sight, and one of the 'members of His Church ; and according to the office that
He hath called your Grace unto, that you may be found a faithful minister of His
gifts, and not a defender of His faith ; for He will not have it defended by man"
or man's power, but by His Word only, by the which He hath evermore
defended it ; and that by a way far above man's power or reason, as all the
stories of the Bible make mention.
' ' Wherefore, gracious King, remember yourself. Have pity upon your soul,
and think that the day is even at hand when you shall give account of your
office, and of the blood that hath been shed by your sword. In the which day,
that your Grace may stand stedfastly, and be not ashamed, but be clear and
ready in your reckoning, and to have, as they say, your quietus est sealed with
the blood of our Saviour Christ, which only serveth at that day, is my daily
prayer to Him that suffered death for our sins, which also prayeth to His Father
for grace for us continually. To whom be all honour and praise for ever, Amen.
The Spirit of God preserve your Grace. Anno Domini 1530, lmo. die
Decembris. "
Certainly no monarch was ever more pointedly addressed, or
more seasonably and faithfuUy warned. It seems, therefore,
unaccountable that Latimer should have ever been supposed to
assent to such proceedings, merely because his name was men
tioned as being present. The calumny, however, no doubt
unwittingly, has been bound up, even with the reprint of
Tyndale's New Testament, in our own da);-. At that moment,
indeed, the Bishops might think it fortunate to have such a
name appended, but had they foreseen the result, it had never
been there. MeanwhUe, Latimer had done what he could to
damage this Royal and prelatical Bull.
To return, however, to these Bishops as a body ; having in
May secured their object, in so far as a Royal proclamation
could go, it seems to have been with a view to greater effect,
that a second grand and more public book-fire was then deter
mined. The first had been the result of Wolsey's "secret
search" in 1526; the present was the consequence of the
negociation at Antwerp last year. Warham's purchase in
1527 was disposed of, or consumed, without show ; but Tunstal
had reserved his books tUl now. Tyndale by name, and his
translation, had both been branded by royal authority, and the
Bishop, no doubt, thought it a fortunate moment for fdfllhng
his purpose. "I intend, surely," said he at Antwerp, "to

1530.J NEW TESTAMENTS CONSUMED. 145
destroy them aU, and to burn them at Paul's Cross." Ac
cordingly, says HaUe, " this year in May, the Bishop of London"
(formerly, now of Durham) "caused aU his New Testaments
which he had bought, with many other books, to be brought
into Paul's Church Yard, in London, and there were openly
burned." That Tunstal was acting for Stokesly, tiU his return
from the Continent, and recording what was doing in the
diocese tUl then, is evident from several documents at the close
of his Register.
There was, however, a great difference between the effects of
this burning, and that in the year 1526. Then the people,
generaUy, were not aware of the value of what they saw con
sumed ; but it was far otherwise now, and this alone is a proof
that the cause of Divine Truth, which the Bishops would fain
have crushed, was making decided progress. This burning
"had such an hateful appearance in it, being generaUy called a
burning of the Word of God, that people from thence concluded,
there must be a visible contrariety bettoeen that book, and the
doctrines of those who handled it ; by which both their prejudice
against the clergy, and their desire of reading the New Testament,
was increased." s
In corroboration of this statement, it is certain that neither
the purchase at Antwerp, nor the burning at Paul's Cross, had
any effect on the importations into this country, except the
reverse of what was intended and desired by the enemy ; and
before long Tunstal himseU was fuUy sensible of this. " After
wards," says Halle, "when more New Testaments were im
printed, they came thick and threefold into England, the Bishop
of London," (now of Durham,) " hearing that stiU there were
so many, sent for Augustine Packington, and said to him — ' Sir,
how cometh this, that there are so many New Testaments
abroad, and you promised and assured me that you had bought
all?' Then, said Packington — 'I promise you, I bought aU
that then was to be had ; but I perceive they have made more
since, and it wUl never be better, as long as they have the letters
and stamps ; therefore, it were best for your Lordship to buy the
stamps too ! and then you are sure.' The Bishop smiled at
3 Burnet.

146 NEW TESTAMENTS IMPORTING. [book I.
him, and said —'Well, Packington, weU;' and so ended the
matter." And so, perhaps, ended the device of purchasing books in
order to burn them ; but it will not be long before we find these
enemies proceed to men themselves, and, with a bitter zeal, still
more inflamed, consign them to the fire ; for very soon after this,
seizing and burning men instead of their productions, or the
books in their possession, became the order of the day. But it
is with books we have now to do, and there is no doubt that
while Wolsey was descending to the devouring grave, and the
Bishops, with the King at their head, were imagining a vain
thing, the printing press was as busy as ever. Another edition
of Tyndale's New Testament was executed this year, and it is
the more worthy of notice, that there appears to have been a
positive connexion between him and it. The author is perfectly
aware that the edition of 1534 has been styled the second
genuine edition of Tyndale, but so many mistakes have been
detected already, that one need not feel any surprise if this should
prove another.
It has, indeed, been often stated, that with the money received
from Tunstal, Tyndale reprinted the New Testament, and Ham
burg has also been mentioned as the place where one edition was
printed. But whether it was executed there or elsewhere, of
his having now printed an edition, though he had no time as
yet to revise the version, there can be little or no doubt. Foxe,
and Strype, and Tanner expressly assign this edition to Tyndale,
the last stating Marburg as the place of printing. But there
are corroborating circumstances as to the book itself. It is not
till the close of this year, or rather the following spring, that we
hear of Tyndale having a brother, and resident in London ; and
if the records of the Star Chamber are to be received as evidence,
it is there distinctly stated, that he " sent the Testaments, and
divers other books, to his brother, John Tyndale, a merchant in
London." This impression, too, has been pronounced to be
more correct than the Antwerp editions, at least so said the late
Bishop Tomline : and when we come to John's apprehension!?
and appearance before Sir Thomas More, as well as the importa
tions by Richard Bayfield, little doubt will remain as to this
reprint coming from the original translator, although he had
not found leisure as yet to improve the translation.

1530.] DEATH OF SIMON FYSHE. 147
About the end of this year an incident occurred, which may
seem unaccountable, as out of keeping with the usual current of
events ; were it not that the capricious temper of the monarch
admitted both of words and actions, directly at variance with
each other. Mr. Fyshe, the author of " The Supplication of
Beggars," we found had been in London in the summer of 1526,
as weU as in 1528 ; and, according to his wife's representation,
in Foxe, " he had been absent now the space of two years and a
half." His tract, as we have seen, had interested Henry, when
first he saw it in 1526 ; and this excellent woman having gained
access to the King, he engaged that her husband should " come
and go safe, without perU, and that no man should do him
harm," if she brought him to the royal presence. Emboldened
by the King's words, she went and brought him. His Majesty
conversed with him, it is said, for above three hours, and, in
the end, desired him. to take his wife home, for she had taken
great pains for him. Fyshe had fled formerly for fear of the
Cardinal, and now he repUed — " He. durst not so do, for fear
of Sir Thomas More the Chancellor, and Stokesly the Bishop of
London." The King, taking the signet from his finger, recom
mended him to the Lord ChanceUor, charging him not to molest
him. More received the signet as a sufficient safe-guard, of
course, but inquired if he had any discharge for his icife ? She
had displeased the friars, by not allowing them to say their
Gospels in Latin in her house, as they did in others, and insisted
that they should say them in EngUsh. Next morning, More
actually sent his man for her, but her young daughter being
sick of the plague, prevented his approach, as weU as any farther
molestation. Within six months after this, Mr. Fyshe himself
died of the same disease, and was interred in St. Dunstan's, the
very same church where Tyndale had been accustomed to preach in
1523. The ChanceUor, in his loose and mendacious style, re
presented him as recanting before he died, of which there is not
the sUghtest evidence. His widow was afterwards married to a
gentleman of the same profession as her first husband, Mr-
Baynham, of whom we shaU hear before long.4.

' See Wood's Ath. by Bliss, i., p. 59-60, and Foxe's "Story of Simon
Fyshe."
L 2

148 GOVERNMENT PERSECUTION. [book I.

MDXXXI.
FORMIDABLE OPPOSITION — PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE BY THE KING AND CEtJM-
WELL — STILL IN VAIN — TYNDALE'S ANSWER TO SIR T. MORE — EPISTLE OF
JO UN EXPOUNDED — JONAH, WITH A PROLOGUE — RENEWED PERSECUTION—
BROTHER OF TYNDALE — BILNEY — BAYFIELD — MANY BOOKS IMPORTING — CON
STANTYNE CAUGHT — ESCAPES — PERSECUTION ABROAD — POWERFUL REMON-,
STRANCE FROM ANTWERP WITH CRUMWELL, INCLUDING THE KING AND THE
LORD CHANCELLOR. he principal feature of the present year was that of
determined opposition to Divine truth, abroad as well
as at home ; for although one man had been raised
up by God to lead on the faithful, unquestionably it
was truth alone which occasioned aU the uproar, not
the opinions of men. And as to our native land
especiaUy, if we should still farther discriminate, it
was through the Book of God, in our native language, that
Divine truth now penetrated into the heart of this country.
Last year had witnessed the Royal denunciation of our Trans
lator by name, as weU as aU that he had then published ; but
since then, by his " Practice of Prelates," he had advanced one
step farther, in combating the darkness and superstition which
covered the land. That tract had been read by men of every
grade, from the palace itseU, down to the hamlet ; by citizens of
London, and husbandmen in Essex, in Suffolk, and elsewhere.
Here he had not only implored, but warned the King to beware
of persecution, and faithfuUy gave his judicious opinion with
regard to the divorce ; that miserable question stiU in discussion
throughout Europe. By this year, however, Henry had nearly
got this question framed, according to his own lilting; and as
he was soon to bring it before ParUament, he must have felt
incensed by Tyndale's reference to its proceedings, not to say
that the next would lie open to a second review. Besides, Sir
Thomas More had but lately come into office, and he, with the
Bishops, had cordially concurred in advising persecution, having
secured the royal name to sanction and enforce their measures,
The safety of Tyndale, therefore, was now in far greater hazard,
than it ever had been in the days of the Cardinal. Wolsey had
been roused from his lair, chiefly by the Satyre of Roye, and his

1581.] PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE RENEWED. 149
chase of the prey had ended with his own downfaU ; but the
truth and good sense contained in Tyndale's last production, was
like a spur by far too sharp for the passions and the pride of
such a man as Henry the Eighth. His anxiety to seize the
man, or aUure him into the kingdom, wiU be found to harmonise
with the growing ferocity of his character. Tyndale's escapes,
during this year, must have illustrated the tender care of a
gracious Providence ; but the mystery now is, how he had
contrived to make such progress at the press. Yet once engaged
he had determined not only to maintain his ground, but advance
in the prosecution of his great enterprise. This year was, there
fore, distinguished by the appearance of not fewer than three
distinct pieces. His Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue ;
his Exposition of the First Epistle of John ; and his translation
of the Prophet Jonah, with a long preface or prologue.
The annoyance and persecution of Tyndale personaUy, how
ever, preceded the appearance of any of these pieces, and it is
due to their contents that this should first be noticed. De
nunciation of the Scriptures, and of all that he had published,
would now no longer suffice. The King was incensed, and be
fore the summer of this year, would have dealt with anything
of Tyndale's, as Jehoiakim did of old with Jeremiah's roU.
The Priests of the day also, as in the case of another ancient
Prophet, had thought of the man, if not said, — " the land is not
able to bear aU his words." The strong arm of power must be
stretched out to reach him if possible, and, no doubt, there were
not a few who imagined, that his days were now numbered.
Amidst aU other affairs, the apprehension of Tyndale at this.
period held a place in point of importance, which has never
before been fully explained. It would certainly be too severe,
to ascribe all the measures adopted to Henry alone, even though
he should appear most conspicuous, and engaged in eager pur
suit, through the instrumentality of three, if not four, indivi
duals ; for still the head and hand of Sir Thomas More, and the
hearts of the Bishops, sanctioned all ; but it will be far more
melancholy, if CrumweU, so lately come into power, should
appear to be a most willing agent, and even Cranmer, for many
a day, nay, throughout the whole of Tyndale's lifetime, evince
no sympathy whatever !

150 PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE [book i.
The Government persecution of our Translator, which had
now commenced, lends a peculiar emphasis to every page he
had already emitted, but more especially to the publications of
the present year.
In December last, the aunt of Charles, Lady Margaret, or
Regent of the Low Countries, had died, and the Emperor had
nominated his sister, Mary, Queen of Hungary, to succeed.
She, however, did not assume the reins of government till
October of this year. Whether this interregnum was deemed
favourable to the apprehension of Tyndale, is not distinctly
expressed ; but certainly no time was lost in taking advantage
of it ; and it was during this season that he was next so keenly
pursued. Hackett, who is already weU known to the reader,
returned to England after Lady Margaret's decease, bearing a
letter, dated 3rd January, 1531, from the Emperor to Henry ;'
but he was sent abroad again that same year, and had an
audience in June, at Ghent, with Mary, the new Regent.3
Most gladly would he have apprehended the Translator of the
books he had so repeatedly burned ; but, independently of him,
or immediately after the death of Margaret, if not before, it
had been resolved to send two accredited Envoys to the Low
Countries, one of whom, if not both, were charged with special
instructions in reference to Tyndale. The first, Mr. Stephen
Yaughan, was much employed in commercial and pecuniary
negociations, down to as late a period as 1546. The second was
Thomas Wriothsley, uncle to the first Earl of Southampton,
afterwards Lord ChanceUor, and the second Earl. The first, by
far the most candid of the two, was stationed at Barrow and
Antwerp, and the second, a uniform enemy of the truth, repaired
to Brussels. The draft of their credentials afterwards, upon
Lady Mary's appearance, and as corrected by Henry's own hand,
is now in the Museum.3
So early as the 22nd of January, Vaughan writes to Crumwell;
and, on the 26th, to the King himself, — a letter which shows
how much in earnest his Majesty had been, to lay hold on this
eminent man, or get him within his grasp. It appears from

1 Cotton MS. Galba, B. ix., foL 234. 2 Idem, fol. 238.
3 Galba, B. x., foL 38.

1531.] BY THE KING AND CRUMWELL. 151
this letter that Yaughan had sought an interview with Tyndale,
and had opened a correspondence with him, endeavouring to
persuade him to return to England. In accordance with the
earnest wish of Henry, he sought, but in vain, to get a copy of
the yet unpublished answer of Tyndale to Sir Thomas More, but
sent the letters he had received in answer from the Translator.
In a communication to CrumweU, his patron, which accompanied
the former, he owns, —
" It is unlikely to get Tyndall into England, when he daily heareth so many
things from thence whieh feareth him. After his 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 well
appeareth by his works. Would God he were in England !"
This envoy of Henry alludes to some other person who had
also written to Tyndale, and to whom he had replied. This
could not be Wriothsley, otherwise he would have named him ;
but Yaughan's impression was, that various individuals were
now out in pursuit, and had been commissioned to seize the
same man, or entice him into England. Tyndale also had
replied to Yaughan, though still he could not find him out. In
the meanwhUe, chancing to meet with a part of the intended
answer to Sir Thomas More, in manuscript, he immediately
informs CrumweU, and actuaUy sits down to copy it out for the
King. February and March had passed away, when at last,
and most unexpectedly, Tyndale himself gave him the benefit of
a personal interview. StUl more deeply interested, without loss
of time, on the next day, or 18th of April, Yaughan writes to his
royal Master, from Antwerp, where Tyndale then was, from
which we extract the following : —
"The day before the date hereof, (17th of April,) I spake with Tyndale with
out the town of Antwerp ; and by this means. He sent a certain person to seek
me, whom he had advised to say, that a certam 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 (said) 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,' said I to him. 'My name,' said he, 'is Tyndale.' 'But,

152 PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE [book I.
Tyndale,' said I, 'fortunate be our meeting!' Then Tyndale— 'Sir, I have
been exceeding 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 dis
pleasure with me, for putting forth of certain books, which I lately made
in these parts ; but specially for the book named " The 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 them practised, not a little threatening the
displeasure of his Grace, and weal of his realm : in which doing, I showed and
declared the heart of a true subject, which sought the safe-guard 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 paius therein taken, — if for my poverty, — if for mine exile out of mine
natural country, and bitter absence from my friends, — if for my hunger, my
thirst, my cold, the great danger wherewith I am everywhere compassed; —
and finally, if for innumerable other hard and sharp fightings which I endure,,
not yet feeling of their asperity, by reason (that) 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, and 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 proved, according to my writing 1 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 whieh Christ expressly commandeth in His Testa
ment, dare say, that it is not lawful for the people to have the same, in a tongue
tliat 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 ? As I now am, very death were more pleasant to im
than life, considering man's nature to be such as can bear no truth.'
"Thus, after a long communication had between us, for my part, making
answer as my poor wit would serve me, which was too long to write, I assayed
him with gentle persuasions, to know whether he would come into England;
ascertaining him that means should be made, if he (only) 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 writlai, your promise made, should shortly he
broken, by the persuasion of the Clergy ; which would affirm, that promise
made with heretics ought not to be kept.
"After these words, he then, being something fearful of me lest I would
have pursued him, aud drawing also towards night, he took his leave of me,
and departed from the town, and I towards the town— saying, ' I should shortly,
peradventure, see him again, or if uot, 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,

1531.] BY THE KING AND CRUMWELL. 153
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 your Grace, I have not communed with a man  " 4
But, thus abruptly, does the manuscript break off. The
character about to be given,. no doubt, from what we have read,
a favourable one, was most probably more than Henry could
bear ; and it would only have been in perfect conformity with
his passionate manner, if he tore it off, and burnt it ; for the
conclusion is nowhere else to be found. Sufficient, however,
remains, to render the reception of such a letter, at this time,
and from his own envoy, rather remarkable. Vaughan, it is
evident, was above aU things anxious to please his royal Master,
but he must have been sadly out of his reckoning, if he imagined
that such a communication as this would prove at aU acceptable.
His copying, with his own hand, a part of Tyndale's answer to
More, may be excused, as explaining the impatience of Henry
to see it ; but that he should send to the King, Tyndale's
remonstrance, even in such terms as he had now penned it, was
certainly one false step, as it regarded his own advancement in
royal favour ; and the character given at the close, must have
been a second. However, since the letter was sent and received,
it is obvious to remark, that, after Latimer's sterling counsel,
not four months ago, and that of Tyndale himself now, if
Henry goes on to sin, it must be with his eyes open.
Tyndale's having sent for Yaughan, is also worthy of notice.
His predecessor, Hackett, would have apprehended Tyndale
immediately, nay, and from what we have read, would have
consigned him to his native land, without a sigh, not as a
heretic only, but as a traitor. Hackett, however, had been
providentially removed from Antwerp, and Yaughan wiU turn
out to be a man of a very different stamp ; though certainly he
does not seem to have been aware that he was acting with too
much temper and candour, to secure the approbation of his
fiery and impetuous sovereign. But be this as it may, in his
next letter, very soon after this, Yaughan had made mention
of John Fryth also, wishing to know from his Majesty what
4 Cotton MS. Titus, B. i., fol. 67, dated at " Antwerp, the 18th day o£
April"

154 PURSUIT AFTER TYNDALE [book I.
was his pleasure in regard to him, if he should happen to meet
with him.
Yaughan was an Sieve of Crumwell, and it wiU now be very
apparent. The~ envoy was acting in a manner too mild or
straightforward, ever to rise in the royal favour ; and, therefore,
this letter of the 18th of April, as weU as that which followed,
demanded immediate notice, lest he should go farther wrong.
He is therefore tutored in a letter from CrumweU to be more
circumspect in reporting his interview with, and commendation
of, Tyndale, whom the King regarded as a dangerous heretic,
and had no wish to bring into the realm. As for Fryth, the
King respected his learning and parts, and desired that he
should return to his native country on promise of his leaving
his wilful opinions.
Crumwell then closes his letter by enforcing on Yaughan
a vigilant attention to certain shipments of grain, — to the
Emperor's affairs,— the advance of the Turk into Germany,—
the abiding of the Emperor in the Low Countries,— his agree
ment with the Princes of Germany ; and if in all these things
Yaughan can only make his allegiance and service apparent
unto his Majesty, then Crumwell doubts not that it wiU be to
his " singular profit and advancement." 5 After the letter is
finished, he adds a postscript or saving clause, apparently
softening his stern commands as to Tyndale ; but in fact only
suggesting another snare, by which, if possible, to entrap him.
Of this last passage Yaughan immediately avaUed himseff; and
writes on the 20th May, that he will do his endeavour to per
suade Fryth to leave his errors and return to England, though
his recent marriage in HoUand might hinder this ; that he had
obtained another interview with Tyndale, and had shown him
the postscript of CrumweU's letter, which had touched him
exceedingly, and drawn from him the remarkable and charac
teristic words : —
" ' I assure you,' said he, 'if it would stand with 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
3 Cotton MS. Galba, B. x., fol. 338.

1531. J ALL IN VAIN. 155
please his Majesty, I shall immediately make faithful promise never to write
more, nor abide two days in these parts, after the same ; but immediately repair
into his realm, and there most humbly submit myself 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. ' " 6
Here, however, and perhaps unexpectedly by the reader, the
subject drops for months ; but, for the best of all reasons.
Tyndale had something else to do, than to continue in conver
sation with this man. He retires from pubUc view, and proceeds
with vigour in his work. His letters, here mentioned, as sent
to England, we have been unable to find. They must have
added greatly to our interest, as well as enabled us to correct
some of the expressions which Yaughan has evidently put into
the mouth of Tyndale, to please the King, since CrumweU had
so enjoined. His offer to Henry of " a bare text of the Sacred
Volume," as a " sine qua non," was aU- important ; only that
text must be a genuine and inteUigible one, otherwise Tyndale
was to pursue his own path. But although we cannot foUow
our Translator to the exact place of his retreat, we now come
with far greater advantage, to whatever he may publish. He
had a character to maintain, which was stiU most shamefully
traduced, and traduced aUke by his opponent in controversy, by
Master Crumwell, and the King. The Scriptures he had trans
lated, besides the cause of God and His truth, which he had so
promoted in England, alike required him to speak out ; whUe
the account now given, must not only set the courage and energy
of the man in a stronger Ught, but lend additional emphasis
to every page.
We have witnessed Henry's apprehension and anxiety re
specting Tyndale's answer to Sir Thomas More. He would have
rejoiced in its suppression ; but the fact was, it had been much
farther advanced at press, than the author himself supposed.
It was actuaUy in England before Tyndale himself was aware,
or, as will appear afterwards, by the month of April this year,
and therefore, it now demands some notice.
This new Lord ChanceUor, the admiration of foreign coun-
6 Cotton MS. Galba, B. x., fol. 5, 6.

156 tyndale's ANSWER [book I.
tries as weU as his own, had employed sarcasm and sophistry
throughout three hundred foUo pages, chiefly against Tyndale
' and his translation. But why such a laborious and wordy pro
duction, if manifest error, and only one solitary heretic, were all
the host to be devoured ? Yet thus unwisely did Sir Thomas
proclaim the power of his opponent ; while one page after an
other only proved, that he was contending for victory, and not
for truth. He evidently placed great reliance on the power of
his wit or drollery, his ribaldry, and downright abuse ; sup
posing, in the employment of aU these in turn, that every man
would be affected by repartee, as powerfuUy as he was himself.
But he knew not the man whom he had now thus assailed.
Tyndale, it is true, was no cynic, and he had no objection to an
occasional sally of wit, but since the antagonist had chosen to be
playful and profane, as well as low and foul by turns, Tyndale
would by no means descend to his level. On the contrary, he
seems, in his reply, as though he had resolved that his short
and pithy sentences should stand out in bold contrast to the
wire-drawn and verbose sophisms of his opponent ; and in a few
lines often demolishes an entire folio page of " the first English
man who signalised himseU as an orator."
The translation of the New Testament, into the vernacular
tongue was, however, the great eye-sore to Sir Thomas, though
what he styled the wickedness of Tyndale's other productions,
was plentifuUy denounced. Tunstal had boasted of his having
found two thousand errata, and More had spoken of a thousand
texts by tale, as being erroneous, but now they are aU reduced
to the general rendering of about six words. Tyndale had
translated ecclesia into congregation, and not church, — he used
elder, and not priest, — knowledge or acknowledge, and not
confession, — repentance, and not penance, — favour, and not grace,
- — love, and not charity. These were his mighty offences, and
no wonder that More at least professed to be shocked and
offended, for certainly these simple and faithful renderings, once
read in their connexion, shook to its very foundations that
fabric which the Chancellor had strained all his powers to
defend. We have said professed, as there is so much evidence
that Sir Thomas was still a free-thinker to his dying hour.
In reply, Tyndale appealed to the Greek original, and to

1531.] to more's dialogue. 157
More's acquaintance with the language, before himself, and
completely triumphed. At the commencement, when referring
to the very first controverted word, " congregation," he lent his
opponent a blow, which he afterwards showed that he felt
exceedingly, but coidd not parry. Erasmus and More were
bosom friends ; and as the former had published the Greek and
Latin New Testament in parallel columns, eight years before
this, Tyndale inquires why More had not censured "his dar
ling Erasmus this long whUe ? Doth he not change this word
ecclesia into congregation, and that not seldom in the New Tes
tament ?" With respect to the word metanoia, he appeals to
More's knowledge of the Greek, "which he knew," says he,
" long ere I. But so our prelates thus rage, and that which
moveth them to call M. More to help, not that they find just
causes in the translation, but because they have lost their jug
gling and feigned terms wherewith they make merchandize of
the people."
Before leaving this controversy for the present — one which
interested and agitated so deeply at the time, and the effects of
which remain to the present hour — it may be remarked, that,
independently of his sound reasoning, there was in Tyndale's
style and manner, a solemnity, of which the Lord Chancellor
was more than haU' afraid, and which he knew neither how to
manage or evade. This grave style of writing sometimes
referred to himseU, sometimes to the translation, and at others,
to the parties in opposition. More having said, " When Tyn
dale was apposed of his doctrine, ere he went over sea, he said
and sware he meant no harm," Tyndale repUes —
"He sware not, neither was there any man that required an oath of him ;
but he now sweareth by Him, whom he trusteth to be saved by, that he never
meant, or yet meaneth' any other harm, than to suffer all that God hath
prepared to be laid on his back, for to bring his brethren unto the light of
our Saviour Jesus ; which the Pope, through falsehood, and corrupting such
poets as ye are, leadeth in the darkness of death. "
He regarded Sir Thomas as the official attorney in the
Bishops' spiritual court; and as he had put forth, after this
Dialogue, another thing in folio, entitled " The Supplication of
Souls," &c, by way of reply to the notable tract of Fyshe,
" The SuppUcation of Beggars," it must not be allowed to pass,

158 SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. [book I.
although Tyndale did not choose to name Sir Thomas. It was
this piece which led him to designate More as "the Proctor of
Purgatory," elsewhere ; and as he had resolved to print an ex
position of the first Epistle of John, he there, without any
controversial form, met, most judiciously, even more than had
been advanced by the Lord ChanceUor, in relation to purgatory
and the worship of saints, image worship, and other evils'
explaining to the people how they might detect false teachers.
In this last pubUcation he warns the people of the old and
hackneyed device of the Prelates " to caU the light that rebuked
them, seditious. They laid to Wiclif's charge, and do yet,
that his doctrine caused sedition, — and so they say now likewise
that God's Word causeth insurrection ; but ye shall see shortly,
that these hypocrites themselves shaU rise up one against another,
and some against themselves. Ye shaU see them run out before
the year come about, that which they have been brewing, as I
have marked above this dozen years."
Hackett had first lent such base counsel to Wolsey, and Henry
readily followed it. The idea, or device of constructive treason,
had been fully sanctioned by the Bishops and Sir Thomas More,
and now also CrumweU had joined in the cry. The words of
Tyndale were intended for aU these parties, as weU as to arm
the people with that fortitude which must be added to faith.
The concluding expression, however, as formerly hinted, is an
important one, in relation to Tyndale himself. He kept himself
much in the background, and it is only by such incidental hinte,
that any one can ascertain how early his mind had been en-
Ughtened, as to the corruptions reigning around him; and
so enlightened, as to be engaged in " marking" them. The ex
pression seems to go a great way towards establishing the cha
racter of Tyndale, as that of a man whose heart God himself had
moved, independently of all influence from his contemporaries,
whether at home or abroad.
But to crown all in the year 1531, nothing could possibly
have been more seasonable or appropriate than "Jonah;" that
book of sacred writ, which Tyndale now printed for his country.
The critical position of England, and the situation of the Trans
lator himself, sufficiently account for its appearance, at this
moment. Tyndale was now getting fast into the heat of the

1531.] JONAH TRANSLATED. 159
battle. The Bishops of England, as a body, with Tunstal the
ablest of them aU, were against him ; the Lord ChanceUor, as
a man and as a licensed writer, was against him, nay, the wrath
of the King, as " the roaring of a Uon," was against him. On
high principle, for the sake of Divine truth alone, he had to
encounter an entire people in the persons of its rulers ; nor was
he slow to advance. The Book of Jonah spoke alike to the
peasant and the prince. It contained the memorable example
of a great King bowing before the majesty of the Yoice of God.
" The people of Nineveh believed God — from the greatest
of them, even to the least of them ; " and this was precisely
what Tyndale longed for the people of England to do ; and
would their haughty and licentious monarch have now only
risen from his throne, and laid aside his robes, like the King of
Nineveh, and urged his subjects "to cry mightily to God,"
saying, "Let them turn every one from his evU way, and
from the violence that is in their hands," — nothing could have
fiUed the Translator with higher delight. The Ninevites
" repented at the preaching of Jonas," but for more than five
years the New Testament had been in England, and even
Scotland, and "a greater than Jonas was there." Tyndale
besides, to evince the ardour of his mind, had prefixed a long
prologue to the book, — an admirable production, and peculiarly
adapted for the moment, in which he once more boldly cried to
his country.
But neither Henry nor his advisers were to be moved from
their course. It was a year of most savage cruelty, though
Tyndale was now " pure from the blood of all men, having not
shunned to declare to them the whole counsel of God."
After this brief and very imperfect survey of the present
year's exertions, let the reader only contemplate the state of his
native land. He remembers the restless ambition, and but
recent death, of her faUen Prime Minister. Let him now mark
the one subject which engrossed her monarch's mind; the furious
counsels and blind infatuation which occupied the united strength
of her government, and then say, whether the value of such a
man as our Translator has ever been fairly appreciated. But
was there no one at home, not one man in aU England to lift
the warning voice ? None to guide her among aU the sons she

160 FRESH FURY. [book I.
had brought forth ? There was Hugh Latimer, it is true, but
if his voice was now drowned, then was there not even one, save
and except this exiled Christian patriot ! Yet he, as we have
seen, had been already denounced by name, and in the foulest
terms, by the highest authority, under the desecrated name of
Christianity, as doing God service ! Nay, and he had been so
harassed by emissaries, that, as he himself expressed it, " very
death would have been more pleasant to him than Ufe."
Such was his reward from man, but his work was not finished;
and that God whom he so served, though He did not as yet put
to silence " the lying lips, which spake grievous things, proudly
and contemptuously, against the righteous ;" yet did He, in a
most wonderful manner, " hide the object of their hatred, in the
secret of his presence," from the pride and the power of man.
Tyndale had yet five years to Uve.
If we were to beUeve CrumweU, when writing to the Con
tinent, in April, soon after the Convocation of this year had
adjourned, as far as the King was concerned, he could not now
appear, except as clothed in the white robes of innocence and
peace. When trying to entice Tyndale into England, as into a
sanctuary, he had talked of " the most gracious benignity" —
"the piteous regard natural" — "the mercy and grace" of that
" most virtuous and benign Prince and Governor," Henry the
Eighth ! Let the events immediately preceding and following
such language, now be observed.
The Convocation having not only yielded so far to Henry's
ambition, but given him the promise of a sum equal to above
£350,000 annually, for five years to come, perhaps he thought
that, by way of courtesy in return, he must comply with the.
wishes of this body ; but be this as it may, we shall presently
find the Clergy and the Star Chamber in perfect harmony. It
was the triumphant reign of Sir Thomas More, for the one
party, and of Stokesly, Bishop of London, for the other.
Immediately after agreeing to the preamble of the Bill of '
Subsidy, or in the 50th Session of the Convocation, inquiry had
commenced, at Stokesly's motion, into the opinions of Latimer,
Bilney, and Croome ; and by the 69th Session Warham was ex-.
amining John Lambert before two notaries. In the interme
diate space, finding no living victim, the very bones of the dead

1531.] tyndale's brother. 161
did not escape them ; but emulating the example of 1428, when
they dug up the bones of Wickliffe, they pronounced judgment
on the deceased William Tracy, Esq. of Todington, because in
his last wiU he had committed his departing spirit to God,
through Jesus Christ alone, and left no part of his property to
the priests, to pray for his soul !
It was while these transactions were going on, Sir Thomas
More and Mr. Brian Tuke introduced the business of Henry's
divorce before Parliament, by laying before it the sentence of
certain Universities, and the opinions of individuals, amounting
to a hundred, in its favour, soon after which the House was
prorogued, and the Convocation also dissolved, to the month of
October. But before then, two of the earliest victims of the present
year had been apprehended and punished ; and just as if the
entire honour of this arduous contest must redound to the praise
of our first Translator, these were no other than his own younger
brother, John, and a devoted friend, Thomas Patmore, both
merchants in London. They appear to have enjoyed the double
honour of passing through the hands of Sir Thomas More and
Stokesly, or the Star Chamber, and the* Bishop's Court. At
this period it was not unusual for More, when he suspected his
victims might be condemned for any thing else, to deliver them
over, by an indenture, into the paw of the Bishop of London,
but at all events, both these worthy men now fell into Stokesly's
hands. Tyndale was punished by him " for sending five marks
to his brother WiUiam Tyndale beyond the sea, and for receiving
and keeping with him, certain letters from his brother ! " As
for Patmore, who was charged with saying " that the truth of
Scripture hath been kept from us a long time, and hath not
appeared tiU now," &c. — "he had long hold with the Bishop.
First, he would not sicare — then he would appeal to the King ;
but aU would not serve. He was so wrapt in the Bishop's nets,
that he could not get out ; but at last he was forced to abjure,
and was fined to the King, an hundred pounds."
In the month of May, a second edition of Sir Thomas More's
"Dialogue" was pubUshed ; and now, during the rest of the
year, persecution became general. Stokesly and the Lord Chan
ceUor, in London ; Warham, and Fisher, and Longland, else-
M

162 BILNEY'S MARTYRDOM. [book I.
where, were aU busy ; and by the month of August, it seemed
as if Henry and his advisers had stepped into blood, and would
have struck down any man who presumed to question or oppose
their measures. We might repeat the sad tale of many, but
select only a few cases, as being pecuUarly characteristic of the
times. The particulars are at once humiliating and painful.
We have to read them also amidst the fires that were now
kindled in England ; though, amidst aU the lurid glare, it is
easy to perceive the rapid and decided progress of truth, or the
glorious extent of that cause, for which Tyndale only lived, and
at last died.
The first victim to the flames was Bilney. For though he
had fallen, and, in his own apprehension, past redemption, to
him was given the honour of leading the way in England at
this period, of resistance "unto blood, striving against sin."
If we except the case of John Hitton, of which we know little,
he was the first burnt, after the burning of the Scriptures, for
more than five years past. How long he had remained in
prison after his abjuration, cannot distinctly be ascertained;
but after his release and return to Cambridge, he was in the
deepest distress of mind for a long season. His agony of mind
was so great, that Latimer affirms, " his friends dared not suffer
him to be alone, day or night. They comforted him as they
could, but no comforts would serve ! And as for the comfortable
places of Scripture, to bring them .to him, was as though a man
should run him through the heart with a sword!" It was
Tunstal who had been the tempter, and the instrumental cause '
of all this mental anguish. At last, however, his conscience '¦
was quieted only by the same blood of atonement, which at first
had given him such peace and joy. And ere long, determined
no more to dissemble or conceal the truth, he took farewell of
his friends at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, saying that he must now
go up to Jerusalem. He then went into Norfolk, preaching first
from house to house, and then in the open fields. Making no
secret of his former abjuration, he warned aU to beware of fol
lowing his example. He appears then to have gone down
through Essex, and not improbably visited London itself, as the
"Jerusalem" he had referred to ; for at one period, six weeks
before his- apprehension, we find him as near to it as Greenwich-

1531.] BILNEY's MARTYRDOM. 163
There he committed four of Tyndale's New Testaments, with a
budget of books, to a faithful friend, Laurence Staple, who con
veyed them to Cambridge, and was afterwards called to sharp
account for so doing. But at last Bilney proceeded to Norwich
itself; and having given a New Testament of Tyndale's, and his
book on " Obedience," to a convert residing there, he was soon
apprehended by authority of the old Bishop. He immediately
sent up to Sir Thomas More for a writ ; and if it be correct, as
generaUy stated, it must have been with his wonted hilarity
that he rephed — " Go your ways, and burn him first, and then
afterwards come to me for a biU at my hand." At all events,
Bilney was soon condemned to die at the stake, and deUvered to
the sheriffs ; one of whom was no other than Thomas Necton,
the brother of Robert, already mentioned as a great distributor
of books. From dread of the Chancellor and the Friars, Necton
officiaUy was obliged to receive him ; when he implored Bilney's
forgiveness, and was not present at his death. The night before
his execution, the dying martyr, quite composed, resigned, and
even cheerful, among other passages of Scripture, dwelt much
on this one — " Fear not ; for I have redeemed thee, I have called
thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passesi through the
waters, I will be with thee : and through the rivers, they shall not
overflow thee : when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not
be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." It was not
that Bilney expected any other than mental support, or that he
superstitiously anticipated exemption from pain ; but " a pain
for the time," said he, " whereon, notwithstanding, followeth
joy unspeakable." At the stake, he closed his devotions with
the beginning of the 143rd Psalm; and the second verse —
" Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall
no flesh living be justified" — he repeated, in deep meditation,
three times. He had been led through the Bishop's gate to
this spot, called the LoUards' Pit, and there expired in the
flames, on Saturday morning, the 19th of August, amidst the
most cruel enemies, and not a few decided friends.
Thus, although BUney's progress in Divine knowledge may
have scarcely surmounted the superstition of the mass, his views
of Divine truth, on the points of the sinner's acceptance before
God through the righteousness of Christ alone, were clear and
m 2

164 bilney's LATIN BIBLE. [book I.
most decided, so that he died a martyr for the truth of God.
All Sir Thomas More's sad, if not unprincipled, attempts to
blacken his memory, as though he had recanted at the stake,
only recoUed in ultimate disgrace upon himself. It was a
favourite, though weak device of the ChanceUor's, when he
vainly attempted to answer Tyndale next year, to represent the
martyrs as recanting before death.
If the reader is not aware of the fact, he wiU be gratified in
knowing that the identical copy of the Latin Bible once belong
ing to Thomas BUney is stiU in existence. At least it is said to
be in one of the Ubraries at Cambridge. Many annotations are
inscribed upon its pages with his own hand ; and it is certainly
an interesting circumstance that the passage in Isaiah, aheady
quoted, which consoled the owner of the book when in prospect
of the flames, is particularly distinguished with a pen, in the
margin. The words, if not so marked with his own hand, must
have been by others at the time, for they received the words
as the legacy of a martyr ; they had them fairly written on
tables or in books, and derived comfort from them till their
dying day.
Among the persecutions under Stokesly of this year, there
is one which deserves notice, as one more illustration of the
connexion between Antwerp and London. " Christopher,"
says Foxe, " a Dutchman of Antwerp, for seUing certain New
Testaments in English to John Row, bookbinder, a Frenchman,
was put in prison at Westminster, and there died." This could
not have been Christopher Ruremund, already mentioned, as he
continued in business to 1541 ; nor is it at aU likely to have
been Endhoven, of whom we heard so much. Christopher was a
common name, but it was quite in character with the times
thus to treat a foreigner, for simply importing the Word of Life
in the language of the people.
We have no design merely to harrow up the feelings, by the
recital of brutal treatment, having a more important and
profitable object in view ; which is to ascertain, as nearly as
may be, the precise state of things, the rate of progress, and the
extent to which the cause of truth had by this time arrived.
We have one valuable illustration in the exertions of Mr.
Richard Bayfield, whose history cannot fail to gratify the reader;

1531.] MARTYRDOM OF BAYFIELD. 165
as, among the very hazardous, yet innumerable instances of the
importation of books, he occupied a conspicuous place.
Blest himself, at a very early period, with a copy of Tyndale's
New Testament, he laboured for a considerable time to bring
them into the country, along with other valuable books ; and
now, when examined by Stokesly, with what view he had done
all this, he at once replied — " To the intent that the Gospel of
Christ might be set forward, and God the more glorified in this
realm among Christian people."
The year and place of Bayfield's birth cannot be ascertained,
but by his own confession he entered the monastery of St.
Edmondsbury as a monk in 1514, and took orders as a priest
in 1518. After the return of Dr. Barnes from Louvain to
Cambridge in 1523 he used to visit a Dr. Ruffam, then in that
monastery, who had been one of his feUow students abroad, and
Bayfield, being chamberlain of the house, became interested
with the conversation of the visitor. From him he ere long
received a copy of the New Testament in Latin, but two citizens
of London, MaxweU and Stacy, who were zealous for the circula
tion of the Scriptures, and went round! the country with this in
view, presented him with Tyndale's . EngUsh New Testament.
From the subsequent history of his life, it is evident that this
must have been one of the earliest copies given away in the
country parts. After being at Cambridge with Barnes, he
seems to have not returned to his abbey, but proceeding to his
friends, MaxweU and Stacy, in London, he remained there in
concealment for a short time in the close of 1526. At this early
period, as appears by Foxe, b.e was a suspected person. It is
true he talks, in a vague way, of Bayfield suffering imprisonment
and cruel treatment for two years and nine months ; but this was
merely an anticipation, or rather loose summing up of all his
trials. At all events, he fixes the period of his first escape
beyond sea ; Dr. Barnes being then in the Fleet for God's Word,
which continued till August 1526 ; though Bayfield remained,
in fact, two months longer.
On his first going abroad, Foxe says, " this Bayfield mightily
prospered in the knowledge of God, and was beneficial to
Master Tyndale and Mr. Frythe, for he brought substance with
him, and was their own hand, and sold aU their works, both in

166 MARTYRDOM OF BAYFIELD. [book I.
France and England." This is a general description of
Bayfield's Ufe and services, during at least four different
voyages to the Continent, within the last five years. His first
return to England was some time in the year 1527. It had so
happened that in October 1526, just before leaving England, he
met, in Lombard Street, with three parsons of his own standing
— Edmund Pierson, James Smith, and MUes Garnet, — when
some conversation ensued, by no means pleasant to their ears,
but sufficiently explicit as to Bayfield's sentiments. Having
therefore now returned, it must have been but a very short
time before Pierson detected him, as by the 13th of September,
1527, we find his accusation against Bayfield recorded at full
length in Foxe's history.
Once brought before Tunstal, in 1528 he was enjoined for
penance "to go before the cross in procession, in the Parish
Church of St. Botolph's, BUUngsgate, and to appear before the
Bishop again on the 25th of April," 1529. The first part he
fulfiUed, but not the latter. He had gone to the Continent, but
what may seem strange, he did appear, and presented himself
before Tunstal on the 20th of June : and it was still more so, if
he then had brought over with him any books of the " new
learning." However, there being no fresh witnesses against
him, the Bishop merely pronounced upon him sentence of
banishment from the city and diocese of London. But in the
face of this, as Bayfield now entertained no reverence for their
ecclesiastical authority, he went on more determined than
before. In May or June 1530, he arrived at Colchester, with a
cargo of books, which were aU successfuUy sold or circulated;
an importation specially to be noted, as it was immediately after'
the " burning" at St. Paul's, if not at the moment ; immediately
after the Royal proclamation had been framed, which Latimer-
so reprobated ; and it is one among other proofs of books then
coming thick and threefold into England, to the annoyance of
Tunstal. Abroad once more, Bayfield returned with a second
importation in November, but landing at St. Catherine's, the
whole parcel fell, as a coveted morsel, into the hands of Sir
Thomas More. Nothing daunted, and at the very season when
Yaughan and Crumwell were trying to inveigle Tyndale info
England, Bayfield had another cargo upon English ground.

1531.] MARTYRDOM OF BAYFIELD. 167
These he landed safely in Norfolk, about the beginning of April,
and, not being detected, they were of course circulated far and
wide, to the farther vexation of the poor, infirm, and Uterally
blind Bishop of Norwich, as weU as his brethren. But at last,
in the fall of this year, coming to his old friend Mr. Smith in
Bucklersbury, the frequent receiver of his books, he was
betrayed ; and being traced to his bookbinder's in Mark Lane,
he was first committed to the LoUards' Tower, where, and after
wards in the Bishop's coal-house, he was most barbarously
treated. Being now, however, stedfast in faith, he had made up
his mind to die ; and though tortured to accuse others who had
bought his books, and three times in the Consistory of St.
Paul's put to his trial, as to whether he would abjure, he
remained immoveable. From such men as now bore sway, he
could expect no mercy, and he received none ; indeed, Stokesly
displayed aU the ferocity of his character, and behaved in the
most brutal manner. Being condemned, actually upon a
Lord's-day, the 19th of November ; on Monday, when he came
to be degraded, as they phrased it, not satisfied with the mere
ceremony, Stokesly with a blow of his crosier struck with such
violence on the breast of Bayfield, that, falling backward, his
skuU was almost fractured, and he swooned away ! When once
he recovered himself, the good man " thanked God that he was
(not degraded but) deUvered from the malignant Church of
Antichrist, and that he was come into the sincere Church of
Jesus Christ mUitant here on earth ; " and " I trust anon," said
he, " to 'be in heaven with Jesus Christ, and the Church trium
phant for ever." Nor was he mistaken, for that day he
was in paradise. After this outrageous conduct, he was led
forth to Newgate, and in about an hour afterwards committed
to the flames. He remained aUve for so long as haU an hour,
but continued in prayer to the end without moving !
How many persons, in a greater or less degree, had been or
were now engaged in the importation of books, it is impossible
to say ; but if we take this one valuable agent as an index, and
refer merely to his last successful adventure, it wiU be evident,
that amidst aU the fury of opponents, a tide had set in, which
it was beyond the power of man to stem.
On the 3rd of December, only a fortnight after having tor-

168 GEORGE CONSTANTYNE. [book i.
tured and murdered this excellent man, Stokesly proceeded to
the denunciation of books which " were openly at Paul's Cross,
by the authority of my Lord of London, under authentical seal,
by the Doctor that day preached, prohibited and straitly
commanded of no manner of men to be used under pain of
suspension, and a greater pain, as more largely appeareth in
foresaid authority." All Tyndale's works are included in this
prohibition. In the course of only eight or ten days after this interdict,
both Stokesly and More were busy with another martyr. The
reader may remember John Tewksbury, who, in 1529, on being
examined before Tunstal, answered so weU, but getting en
tangled by his sophistry, abjured. Moved now by the noble
example of Bayfield, he resolved to confess the truth at all
hazards. On Saturday the 16th of December, Stokesly being
at Chelsea, condemned him on the spot, in the house of the
Chancellor, and they delivered him to the sheriffs. Stokesly
had been consecrated or instaUed Lord Bishop of London on the
20th of December last; and so whether it was to give the
anniversary some farther celebrity, or as an appropriate
memorial of the day — yet so it was — the sheriffs deUvered this
worthy man to the stake, and he perished in the flames at
Smithfield, on St. Thomas' Eve, the 20th of December !
Before concluding this first year of Henry's supremacy,
among the men apprehended, we must on no account omit
George Constantyne, were it only on account of the consequences.
We first heard of him in 1528, when the examination of
Robert Necton occasioned his flight. Since that time he had
been m Brabant, and, having been originally bred a surgeon,
he had there, by his own account, practised as such. At the
same time, he evidently had taken a deep interest in the
importation of books, and, coming over himself this year, had,
as well as Bayfield, brought books with him ; but he was not
possessed of similar fortitude, nor was he ever, like him, to wear
the crown of martyrdom.
Falling into the hands of Sir Thomas More, he appears
evidently (by More's own expressions in the preface to his next
if olio against Tyndale) to have been, in some degree, smitten with
the man and his shrewdness. He must have conversed with
him frequently, and at great length ; and his communications at

1531.] FAILING THROUGH FEAR. 169
this moment, there is now no doubt, had excited great attention.
CrumweU wiU be seen, presently, to ground his foreign corres
pondence upon them ; and by the man's own account in 1539,
the King himself had conversed particularly with him. "His
Majesty reasoned with me himself almost nine years ago," — and
Constantyne then presumed to form his own opinion of the depth
of the King's learning. But More was the chief cross-examinator,
and Constantyne, very harshly treated, was now at the lowest
point of degradation throughout his varied Ufe. Yery strange
indeed were the changes that took place in these times. How
astonished would the ChanceUor have been, could he have been
informed of the future path of the person he then held in irons !
But Sir Thomas was not aware that he was now conversing with
a man who should return to England after his death ; who
should get into the service of Sir Henry Norris, and thus
become intimately acquainted with the Court ; who should be
present at the death of Henry's now intended Queen; and,
moreover, whose son-in-law should rise to be Archbishop of
York, (the very place that Wolsey himself once occupied,) nay,
and become President of Queen EUzabeth's CouncU for the
North of England !
The ChanceUor is represented by one manuscript, as having
put Constantyne in the stocks ; 7 but by a subsequent letter it
wiU appear, that this was another way of expressing that he was
in irons. Sir Thomas, by his official severity, at last constrained
the man, through fear, to affirm much more than he could have
•substantiated, respecting people abroad, including even Mr.
Vaughan, the English Envoy, himself; and as these forced
confessions came out, they soon found their way across the sea.
The ChanceUor had an evU eye fixed upon Yaughan, as having
been far from that rigour which would have gratified him ;
whUe, on the other hand, the Envoy, displeased with the
freedom now used with his character, immediately wrote to
CrumweU on hearing the first rumours, desiring to know what
Constantyne had said of him.8
Crumwell himself, however, now writes to Antwerp, once and
again counselling the Envoy ; as men of violent spirit abroad

7 Manuscript Life of More, edited by Dr. Wordsworth.
8 Cotton MS., Titus, B. i., fol. 368.

170 VAUGHAN'S NOBLE REMONSTRANCE [book I.
alone could satisfy the violent at home. But in the meanwhile,
to the no small mortification of our Lord Chancellor, Constan
tyne contrived to escape from his iron chain, and, sailing for the
Continent, he arrived in safety at Antwerp, on the 6th of
December !
Yaughan, by this time, was effectuaUy roused ; and in an inte
resting and noble letter, dated 9th December, 1531, only three
days after Constantyne had reached his home, he remonstrates
with CrumweU, his patron, for aUowing any suspicion of heresy
to rest on his conduct. In order to compass the ends of the
commission with which he was charged, his poUcy had been
various ; among the Jews, a Jew ; among Lutherans, a Lu
theran. " What can I do here," says he, " without such pohcy?
ShaU such policy hurt me because I used it to compass other
things?" He therefore prays to be removed from such a
service, where the only possible way of prosecuting it success
fuUy involved the Agent in so much danger. He was well
aware of the personal dislike with which he and his proceedings
were viewed by Sir Thomas More, who, by leading questions in
examining his victims, showed whom he wished them to impli
cate. It was thus his good name had fared iU in the hand of
Constantyne, who, in the hope of Uberty, would be willing to
accuse one to whom he was under no obligation. He adds some
nobler sentiments on the subject of persecution for conscience'
sake, which he shows only tended to spread the doctrines so
obnoxious to those in power, and to raise the character of those
persecuted for them. " Let His Majesty be farther assured,"
says he, " that lie will 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. If I say truth, let it be for such
received." It may here be caUed to mind that we have already seen one
English envoy in no smaU perplexity, and forced to move from
his ground, in consequence of his zeal in opposing this great
cause ; but here we have the second, and in greater perplexity
stiU. Eager to gratify his impetuous Sovereign, and his no less
temporising superior, Master CrumweU, the man had, in truths
been only doing his utmost. But being at once no favourite of'

1531.] WITH CRUMWELL. 171
Sir Thomas More (nor he assuredly of Yaughan), and, at the
same time, the pupil of CrumweU, by whom he had been
recommended to Henry ; between the two, this ambassador was
now in a maze. After such sound advice as he had tendered to
his King, and aU around him ; after such fine sentiments as he
had now so weU expressed ; one cannot but regret to find, in
the end, that through his "divers policies" he had been only one
of those of whom the Scriptures speak — " they have made them
crooked paths : whosoever goeth therein, shaU not know peace."
It may only be stated here that Constantyne again went on,
importing books : but it wiU be remembered that we have given
these instances, merely as a characteristic specimen of this sad
year. " For why stand I here," says Foxe in one place, " num
bering the sand?" And, again, "So great was the trouble of
those times, that it would overcharge any story to recite the
names of aU them, which during those bitter days, before the
coming in of Queen Anne, either were driven out of the realm,
or were cast out from their goods and houses, or brought to open
shame by abjuration. Yet, nevertheless, so mightily the power of
God's gospel did work in the hearts of good men, that the number of
them did nothing lessen for all this violence and policy of the adver
saries ; but rather increased in such sort, as our story almost suf-
fereth not to recite the particular names of all and singular such as
then groaned under the persecution of those days." But still
besides those whose names are given, there must have been many
who were never detected.
By these furious proceedings, the deep interest abroad, not
one whit diminished, was increased, and in more places than
one, for of course the parties molested fled to different ports.
But on the 30th of December, Yaughan concludes the year, by
giving us the result, so far as his own residence and neighbour
hood were concerned. In a letter, as before addressed, to Crum
weU, he reports that "divers, as weU men as women, whose
persons or names I know not, nor will know, be fled out of
England, for fear of punishment ; bringing with them aU that
ever they can make. So that by this means, it is Ukely that
new Tyndales shaU spring, or worse than he. But I am utterly
determined, henceforth, never to intermeddle, or to have any
communication, with any one of them ; but shall rather give
place to some other man, which, peradventure, shall have better

172 tyndale's progress. j

BOOK I.

luck than I hitherto have had ; whom they go about thus
unkindly to threaten, beat, rend, and tear for my service." 9
Yaughan, it is evident, was now thoroughly frightened, yet
he need not have greatly " marvelled." The reports respecting
him, must, of necessity, have been very contradictory, and the
miserable pUght, of which he complained so loudly, was nothing
more than the natural result of those " divers policies," which he
had dreamt to be the fruit of wisdom, or the evidence of his
superior talent. He never wrote again on this subject. The
truth was, he was at once alarmed for himself, and disgusted
with the proceedings at home ; yet he retained his station, long.
survived Sir Thomas More, and remained on the Continent for
years. But if Henry the Eighth be stiU resolved to have
agents out in pursuit of Tyndale, he must find some other man
than Mr. Yaughan. Already we have seen a Friar, and two
Ambassadors, completely foUed, and disappointed of their prey ;
though stUl the long pursuit is not even yet at an end ! In the
persons of her rulers at this period, no nation upon earth had
surpassed Britain, in her opposition to Divine truth.

MDXXXII.
TYNDALE'S PROGRESS — EXPOSITION IN MATTHEW — HIS SENTIMENTS UNDEE PEH-
SECUTION — THE KING NOT APPEASED — RENEWED PURSUIT OP TYNDALE — NOW
BY SIR THOMAS ELYOT — STILL IN VAIN — PERSECUTION GOES ON — BATNHAM—
LATIMER — MORE AGAINST TYNDALE — FRYTH ARRIVES IN ENGLAND — IN PERIL
— IN THE TOWER — WRITING THERE IN DEFENCE OP THE TRUTH, AND
ADDRESSING THE CHRISTIANS IN ENGLAND.
ad Tyndale been only left unmolested, or left to
proceed with the Scriptures, he would, unquestionably,
have had some additional portion finished at press ; but
since the year 1528 the reader may now judge of his
situation. Already he had given the New Testament,
the Pentateuch, and the Prophet Jonah, to his native
land. The work of translation, or the joy of his heart,
he still pursued, but without due deliberation he would not
employ the press. Our English exile fled for protection to no
foreign prince ; nor had he the aid of eminent literary assist-
9G-alba, B. x., fol. 25.

1532.] EXPOSITION IN MATTHEW. 173
ants, like his contemporary Martin Luther. If he had hitherto
enjoyed the assistance and feUowship of only John Fryth, this
was soon to be withdrawn, by his journey to the martyr's stake
in England ; and though labouring under the frown of his own
monarch, as weU as that of all his counseUors and bishops, on
he went.
MeanwhUe, he had one solitary encouragement. He well
knew that whatever he put forth from the press, excited imme
diate notice ; for, in fact, every thing he had yet published, had
enjoyed the honour of being denounced in England, and inter
dicted both by royal and priestly authority. The only piece
unnoticed as not being so, his "Exposition of the Epistle of
John," was this year added to the catalogue, and reprobated in
print, by the Lord ChanceUor.
Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, in the gospel by Matthew,
now engaged Tyndale's attention, as demanding to be ex
pounded, owing to the errors which stiU reigned triumphant ;
and his exposition first came out some time this year. In this
fundamental portion of the Sacred Yolume, he represents the
Saviour as "opening the kingdom of heaven," which the enemies
" had shut up, that other men should not enter."
Before this, we have had occasion to observe that Tyndale was
almost immediately in possession of whatever was transacted in
England; more especiaUy by the King, and his obsequious or
subdued ParUament; and, of course, he must have been fully
aware of their doings in the spring of last year. His opinion of
the change for which Henry and CrumweU had been so eager,
may be inferred from various passages now put forth. Already
he had shown himself a most loyal subject, and an ardent
admirer of good government ; in desiring, above aU things, that
his King and country should be rescued from spiritual thraldom :
but in desiring this, he was no less ardent in drawing the line of
distinction between the world and the Church. As to the latter,
he longed for its restoration to its original spirituality, and
simple grandeur ; and as to his much loved native land, that the
throne should be established on a safe and righteous basis. But
the truth was, the King was yet to be born whom Tyndale
wished to see. " No King, Lord or Master, or whatever ruler
he be, hath absolute power in this world, nor is the very thing

174 TYNDALE'S SENTIMENTS [book i.
which he is called, for then they cease to be brethren, neither
could they sin whatsoever they commanded. But now their
authority is but a limited power." Thus writes he in advance
of his age on a subject which perhaps not one of his contem
poraries understood. Nor could one of them have drawn the
line between civil and spiritual government so clearly as Tyndale
does in this very treatise. If his views on this subject, which
at that time agitated all England, have been partly the occasion
of his memory being permitted to sleep in oblivion ; if he
measured out " meat too strong" for the time in which he lived ;
we commend his sentiments to the consideration of his country
men now Uving, after more than three hundred years have
passed over the land.
The power of Tyndale's writing lay in his drawing from
the life, and his discerning, with superior judgment, the precise
moment when certain truths required to be pressed upon the
notice of his country. His views, whether of civfl government,
or the Church of God, were far above his age, and few there
must have been who could then understand him ; but apart
from these subjects, many passages, besides that last quoted,
were peculiarly weU timed. The preceding page, and several
others, were evidently intended to nerve the minds of the
martyrs and confessors in England ; to raise them above all the
fury of the Chancellor, or Stokesly, or any other Bishop^
Hitherto it seems as if all who had been apprehended and examined,
from Barnes down to the present hour, had abjured. And though
the fire had been now prepared for the bodies of men, as well as
the books they read, stiU the methods of Tunstal and More, for
perplexing the mind or tormenting the conscience, were pre
ferred in the first instance. The stake was the last resort,
merely on this account, that abjuration and recanting not only
saved appearances, but served, in some degree, to bolster up the
reigning superstition.
If, then, England herself could furnish the enemy with no
man of eminence, who had courage sufficient to act fuUy up to
his principles on the first call ; — a man, in whom there should
be no wavering, no subterfuge, no compromise or concession, not
one faltering word ;— one who should first triumph in argument
before the Bishops assembled, and abide firm by every syllable

1532.] UNDER PERSECUTION. 175
of his noble confession ; — then such a man must come to London
from abroad. The time is drawing near for his arrival in
the kingdom, though Uttle did Tyndale imagine, when thus
addressing the faithful in England, that the example which he
now enforced, was to be first given by his own bosom friend —
Fryth !
But it is with Tyndale himseU we have to do at present. It
was now six years since his translation of the New Testament
had been denounced and committed to the flames ; and not less
than four, since his person had been in danger. By the autho
rities in England, from the year 1528, he had been a man
sought for, but never yet seized. His pursuers, too, seem to rise
in point of rank, as we proceed. The first was Friar West,
who, but for his commission from Wolsey, had remained in
obUvion. Hackett, most gladly, would have sent Tyndale to
England, even by the foulest means, and, according to his
own logic, as a traitor ; but he could never find him. Yaughan
was incapable of so base an action, though Tyndale favoured
him with, at least, two interviews ; and from what we have
read, it may safely be inferred, that- he would never more
engage in hunting after heretics, — having, according to his
own confession, been " so beaten with his own labours." He
weU deserves, however, to be remembered as the only man
of the age who Ufted up his voice against the extreme folly
of persecution for opinion. Henry had no man near him so
enlightened at the moment, or if he had, not one who dared
to speak out, not even CrumweU himself ; for though so point
edly charged by Vaughan, it may be presumed that he never
had shown that envoy's letter, or reported its contents, to
the King.
But be this as it may, Henry was not appeased. Tyndale
had gone on to publish, it is true, and besides his Answer to Sir
Thomas More, his translation of Jonah was now in England ;
but his Majesty was no admirer of the King of Nineveh,
nor were his ministers like the nobles of that great city. The
person now put in commission, and by the King himself, to
pursue the best of his subjects, was no other than the weU-known
Sir Thomas Elyot, a Uterary man, author of " The Governor,"
and other publications. Yaughan had been patronised by

176 RENEWED PURSUIT OF TYNDALE, [book 1,
CrumweU, yet thought for himself; but Elyot was the very
intimate, if not bosom friend of Sir Thomas More, as well as a
favourite of the King, so that no zeal can be lacking now, even
if Tyndale should not be apprehended. In aU the histories yet
published, Elyot is first mentioned as sent by Henry VIII.
to Rome, about his divorce in 1532 ; but he was on the Con
tinent last year. He was with the Emperor in November at
Tournay, from whence he writes, complaining of being so long
without answers to his letters.
The Emperor, leaving the Low Countries in the beginning of
January this year, directed his journey towards Ratisbon, in
order to hold a diet there. Taking Mentz on his way, he had
not arrived tiU February or the beginning of March, but to this
city Elyot foUowed him. Whether his correspondence had been
still neglected, as both Henry and CrumweU were absorbed in
Parliamentary affairs at home, does not appear, but the ambas
sador had been anxious to revisit England. This desire, how
ever, could not be gratified, and on the 14th of March he writes
from Ratisbon to the Duke of Norfolk, the successor of Wolsey,
as Prime Minister of England, and as determined an enemy as
the Cardinal ever was : —
"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 moveable,
semblably so is his person uncertain to come by. And, as far as I 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.
" 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." 1
Every one who has paid any attention to these times, cannot
fail to be excited by the mention of Elyot's companion and
associate, and more especially as this is the earUest distinct
notice of Cranmer when abroad, which appears on the face of
these manuscripts. He had been at Rome for some time in
1530, but returned to England in 1531, where we find him at

i Cotton MS., Yitell., B. xxi., fol. 54.

153^.] THROUGH A THIRD AMBASSADOR. 177
Hampton Court in June, and in close attendance upon his
Majesty there. As busy as ever in Henry's one affair, from
thence, on the 13th of that month, he dates a long letter to
Lady Anne's father, the Earl of Wiltshire, criticising the book
of Cardinal Pole, on this business ; and as he remained at home
tiU January, he could not faU to be intimately acquainted with
aU the sad occurrences of last year. In that very period the
fatal fires had been kindled, and were blazing in England.
Then the martyrdoms of Bilney, of Bayfield, and of Tewksbury,
had taken place ; there were the grievous cross-examinations
and cruelties of More and of Stokesly ; and the public denuncia
tion, by the latter, of Tyndale's writings, in December ; and yet
here is Cranmer, associated as ambassador and fellow-traveller
with the man who has been charged, by their King, to seize the
Author ! But stiU it were nothing short of an injury done to
posterity, to represent any man, whoever he may have been, as
interested in a cause before he reaUy was, even so far as to
evince sympathy for the cruelty and death endured in it ; and
the truth of history does not furnish us with even a vestige of
such interest or feeling in Cranmer, for some time to come.
One eminent service in relation to the Scriptures he will perform
for his country, which wiU come before us, in its proper place,
five years hence ; but at this momentous period, let the men who
bore the brunt of this never-to-be-forgotten contest — the men
who died with their face to the foe —
" Who neither fear'd the darkest hour,
Nor trembled at the tempter's power ; ''
let them enjoy the place to which they alone are entitled ; an
eminence unapproached by others, whether from shame or fear,
from worldly policy or criminal ignorance. No unbiassed writer
can now wittingly confound Tyndale and Fryth with any other
men who in the days of peril, persecution, and universal obloquy,
either dared not, or could not, speak one word; nor will he
aUow their characters to be obscured by any, who never came
forth till after the battle of eleven years' duration was fought
and won. Since the year 1526, Divine truth, like concealed
leaven, had been in vigorous operation, enlightening, saving,
and sanctifying the souls of men ; but the Translator, after his
N

178 SIR THOMAS ELYOT [book 1.
long unaided warfare, had washed his robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb, before that Cranmer had ever
once expressed his approbation of the translation. It will not
be till in a moment of surprise, and after finding himself in a
dilemma, that he wiU speak out. But even this will not occur
till five years more have passed away.
It was on the 24th of January this year that Cranmer had
received his credentials as ambassador to the Court of the
Emperor, when he immediately left England, and must have
overtaken Elyot somewhere on the Rhine. The letter, from
which we have already quoted, narrates their progress towards
Ratisbon, where Elyot continued chiefly to reside, as Cranmer
did at Nuremberg. In prospect of the Turkish invasion, Charles
was now in treaty with the German Protestant Princes to secure
their co-operation against the common enemy of Europe, who
proudly insisted that no man should be called Emperor except
himself. These negociations commencing in April terminated
on the 23rd of July at Ratisbon, on which day Elyot wrote again
to the Duke of Norfolk.
This letter, however, conveyed no very welcome news to
Henry at least ; though the Princes (seven in number, and
twenty-four cities) regarded it as the first religious peace in
Germany. None were now to be molested on account of
opinions till the meeting of a General Council; aU judicial
processes relating to religion were to be suspended, and all law
suits for the restoration of Church property were null and void;
concessions which were published throughout Germany, by
imperial proclamation. These were measures, too, in perfect
accordance with those which Yaughan had urged upon Henry
the Eighth, through CrumweU ; yet so bent was our English
Monarch upon his favourite project, and the gratification of his
own will, that even the prospect of such relief to thousands of
the best minds in Europe, had no charms for him ; and Cranmer
had been engaged to employ all his skill in preventing such
enjoyment ! He had been " instructed to make a secret visit to
the court of Saxony, to deliver letters both to the Elector and
the other Princes who had joined the Protestant league, and to
assure them, by conversation also, of his Sovereign's friendship.
Henry was disposed, like the French King, to foment some bad

1532. J AND CRANMER. 179
feeling between these confederates and the Emperor. It was his
project of revenge for the Imperial opposition to the divorce ;
but it had no important result. The pacification of Nuremberg
indeed was effected within a few days after this effort to impede
it, and Cranmer had to relate to his Sovereign, instead of
dissension, the principal terms of that memorable treaty." 2
How long before the 14th of March, Elyot had been charged
with his commission from the King to seize Tyndale, does not
appear ; but as he chose to say, that he was " all the King's
except his soul," from the first moment he must have been on
the look out ; and as he had been moving from place to place
for about two months before he arrived at Ratisbon, he could
then speak from some experience of Tyndale " withdrawing"
himself, " as far as he could perceive." Now, however, he was
far distant from Brussels, and there he must remain. Provi-
dentiaUy, for Tyndale at least, he was detained month after
month ; and if Cranmer failed in his " secret visit," so did Elyot
as to his " commission," from the King. A storm was gather
ing in the East which occasioned every monarch in Europe to
pause and think ; it was the invasion of Solyman, the grand
Turk, with an army of three hundred thousand men. Elyot 's
letters, therefore, were now fuU of little or nothing else, if we
may judge by his very long epistle to Norfolk on the 11th of
August.3 And thus was he diverted from a pursuit which must
have for ever disgraced his memory, if it had ended in the
apprehension of England's greatest benefactor. Tyndale has
yet four years to Uve.
Sir Thomas More and Stokesly stiU went on as the most
eminent and busy persecutors of the Truth. In December last,
a gentleman of his own profession had fallen into the hands of
the Chancellor ; — Mr. James Bainham, the son of Sir Alexander
Bainham, a knight of Gloucestershire, who had married the
widow of Mr. Fyshe, already noticed. He had been seized by
, the Serjeant-at-arms, and carried out of the Middle Temple to
More's own house at Chelsea. This was another victim to
console him for the recent escape of George Constantyne.

5 Todd's Life of Cranmer, i., 41, 42.
3 Cotton MS., Vitell., B. xxi., fol. 64.
N 2

180 PERSECUTION UNTO DEATH. [book I.
Imagining that there must have been others of the profession
who had imbibed the same opinions, the Chancellor particularly
degraded himseU Jby his cruelty to this excellent man ; for after
being shamefully handled under his own roof, if not also in his
own garden, he was afterwards conveyed to the Tower,, and
there, in his presence, tortured by the rack till he was lamed.
He would, however, neither accuse any gentlemen of his
acquaintance in the Temple, nor disclose where his books lay
concealed. His worthy partner in life also, no more able to
see the face of Henry, and who might have been repulsed
though she had, now feU into trouble. Denying the books to be
at her husband's house, she was thrown into Fleet Prison, and
their goods confiscated. After aU this torment, Bainham was
handed over to Stokesly ; and his examination before him, at
Chelsea, is at once honourable to the confessor, Ulustrative of
the times, and of the positive enmity now reigning against the
truths of Divine revelation. But at length even he began to
waver in a state of doubtful perplexity, between life and death ;
so that, after two months' confinement, he read his abjuration,
was fined twenty pounds (equal to £300 now) to the King, and
being released on the 17th of February, was dismissed home.
He was, however, scarcely a month at large before he lamented
his conduct most bitterly ; and the terms in which his penitence
are recorded, deserve special notice.
"He was," says Foxe, "never quiet in mind and conscience, until the time
he had uttered his fall to all his acquaintance, and asked God and all the world
forgiveness, before THE Congregation in those days, in a warehouse in Bow Lane.
He wrote a letter also to the Bishop of London, so that shortly after
he was apprehended, and again committed to the Tower. On the 19th
of April he was examined, and again ¦ on the 20th, in the Church of All
Saints, Balking, Tower Street, after which he was condemned. On being
brought to the stake on the 1st of May, he addressed all present, in the
following words : —
" ' I come hither, good people ! accused and condemned for an heretic ; Sir
Thomas More being my accuser and my judge. And these be the articles that
I die for, which be a very truth, and grounded on God's Word, and no heresy.
They be these : First, / say it is lawful for every man and woman, to liave God's
book in their mother tongue. The second article is, — that the Bishop of Home is
Antichrist, and that 1 know no other keys of heaven-gates but only ihe preaching
ofthe Law and the Gospel.' He died, and according to his own statement, even
when half consumed in the flames, without any pain. "
In this account, there is one expression which should not

1533.] THE CONGREGATION IN BOW LANE. 181
escape notice: — "The Congregation, in. those days, meeting in
Bow Lane." What was this ? That it was the assembly to
which Bainham first resorted to bewaU his conduct, and ask for
giveness, is evident ; but why did he there resort first, except it
was that against that Congregation he thought he had more
especiaUy offended ? It may never have been observed, or if
so, accounted worthy of notice before ; and yet, if the proper
definition of a Church is aUowed to be — "a Congregation of
faithful men," — in such a connexion as the present, there seems
to be no sUght evidence, that upon this spot there assembled,
" in those days," perhaps the earliest resemblance of a Christian
Church, upon English ground, in the sixteenth century. That
there was such a congregated body of people, in London, by this
time, wiU be rendered more interesting, if, before the close of
this year, we find its character for Christianity described, by
the man, who, of aU then in England, was best quaUfied to
judge. In the early part of this year, however, there was another
instance of cruelty, too notable to pass unnoticed, although it
did not terminate fataUy. This referred to no other than
Hugh Latimer, and Stokesly was the prime mover. He had
summoned Latimer to appear before him, but he contemned
the message, referring to the Bishop of Salisbury as his ordi
nary. Stokesly then applied to Warham, and Latimer was
summoned to appear before him on the 29th of January.
According to Latimer's own statement, the case was remitted to
five or six Bishops, and he appeared before them thrice every
week. Firm and resolute for some time, he refused to subscribe
the articles they presented. For this he was declared contuma
cious, and afterwards excommunicated. In order, however, to
bring him to some submission, it was resolved, to take off the
sentence, if he would sign two of the articles, namely, one
respecting the observation of Lent, and another concerning the
crucifix and the lawfulness and profit of images in Churches, for
the worship of Jesus Christ and His Saints ! Foxe is in doubt
whether Latimer submitted ; and Gilpin in his Memoir roundly
asserts that he did not recant ; but the fact is put beyond all
question, by the minutes of the Convocation in March and
April 1532. His words were — " My Lords, I do confess, that I

182 EVEN LATIMER FAILING. [book I.
have misordered myself very far, in that I have so presump
tuously and boldly preached, reproving certain things, by which
the people that were infirm have taken occasion of UI. Where
fore I ask forgiveness of my misbehaviour.. I will be glad to
make amends. And I have spoken indiscreetly in vehemence of
speaking, and have erred in some things, and in manner have
been in a wrong way, lacking discretion in many things."
After this confession, which, it may be said, did not amount
to a retractation of opinions, he desired absolution. This, how
ever, was deferred to the 10th of April, when he subscribed the
two articles already mentioned, and a further hearing was
appointed. Unwilling to let him go, when the day arrived a
new complaint was produced, respecting a letter he had written
to one Greenwood of Cambridge, upon which Latimer appealed
to the King as head of the Church of England, and was ulti
mately restored to his functions.
Alas ! that Latimer should have so far identified himself with
the train of those who had gone before him, from Barnes to the
present hour, — for there was none like him in all England!
It was at the last Convocation that Warham had attended,
before his death in August ; and Latimer, it is true, will not
forget all this ; but another day, in St. Paul's itself, Stokesly
will have to sit still, and listen to certain awful truths, by way
of reminiscence, to which his ears had never been accustomed.
John Foxe, in his narrative, tries to palUate this whole affair
by saying — " whether he subscribed, no great matter or marvel,
considering the iniquity of the times : " but this is far from the
manner of sacred writ, in the biography of its highest cha*
racters. No, however painful, besides too many others, we have
seen Barnes, and BUney, and now even Latimer, at the first
onset, blench and falter through fear of death ; so that at this
special period, to the impartial writer, there seems to be nothing
left for him, but to look out for John Fryth. He will revive
the spirit of any reader, and give a new tone to the cause of God
and His truth. He was just about arriving in England, but, as
a controversialist, Sir Thomas More first stands in our way.
If the laborious Lord Chancellor had been busy in perse
cuting his fellow-subjects at home, he had been no less so with
his pen, in opposition to Tyndale abroad. His friend, Sir

1532.] MORE STILL WRITING AGAINST TYNDALE. 183
Thomas Elyot, might be "doing his best endeavour" to seize
the man, but More was determined to overwhelm and expose
him as a writer and translator. His huge publication being now,
in part, ready, must be put forth. The first three books of it,
with a long preface, printed by the son of his brother-in-law,
RasteU, appeared with this title, " The Confutation of Tyndale's
answer, made by Sir Thomas More, knight, Lord Chancellor of
England, — cum privUegio." He had six books more to come,
although the present folio extended to 363 pages, thirty-seven
of which filled his preface ! This, it will be observed, was
printed before he had resigned the seals, in May ; so that
between cross-examinations of worthy men, on the one hand,
and proof sheets against Tyndale on the other, he must have
been engrossed indeed.
Even in this first part, Sir Thomas thought it was time to
admit the talents of his opponent ; and, therefore, though jesting,
as usual, he affirms, that he had " an eagle's eye," that he was
"cunning enough, and can, I assure you, make as much poetry
upon any part of Scripture, as any poet can in England, upon
any part of VirgU." But then Tyndale's views and wishes were
the subject of his professed apprehension.
This Confutation, falsely so called, as well as More's Apology,
wiU come before us next year, so that we refrain from farther
remark tiU he has done. In the meanwhile, another opponent
had started up, and fretted him not a little. Fryth's pubUca-
tion had arrived, and was now greedily read in England, and
the ChanceUor must tell us, beforehand also, how he meant to
dispose of him. Like Goliath of old, he looked round, and dis
dained him, for he was but a young man, of fine person, and of
a fair countenance ; but certainly it was rather mortifying if, in
meeting three such seniors, (as Fisher, More, and RasteU,)
Fryth was to overthrow them aU, and convert one of them, and
that one the brother-in-law of the Lord Chancellor. He
speaks of him, however, with an air of affected pity, and would
fain have weaned him from his spiritual father; only they
were bound together by a tie of which the unhappy Chancellor
had no conception. In the preface, the old gentleman expec
torates aU his vanity, of which it seems to be too evident, his
breast was fuU. Covetousness and vanity are sins, which, in

184 FRYTH ARRIVES IN ENGLAND. [book I.
some men, are eminently conspicuous in old age. Of the former,
every one will cheerfully exonerate the Chancellor ; as for the
latter, and more especially when contrasted with the close of
the combat, we need say nothing more at present. In early
life, the stream of human depravity has several channels, but in
its later stages, those channels are in a manner dried up, by the
decay of the natural powers, when the whole current flows in
one direction ; and then, as ambition is often associated with
blood, so is vanity with venom. The bitterness and contempt
which distinguished Sir Thomas on these subjects, can only be
imagined by those who have the patience to wade through his
folio pages, while he goes on consigning every one to perdition,
for opinions which have long distinguished the British popula
tion. Utopia was the blossom of his youth, but there had been
little congenial moisture within him, and so it dropped off. His
tedious controversial writings were the fruit of his mature age,
and they remain, to any who look upon them, the saddest memo
rial of his falling into the yellow leaf.
In the meanwhile, it may here be remarked, that it would
have been prudent in Sir Thomas, to have left Fryth alone, as
the interference only exposed him, in the end, to a double
defeat. Even Tyndale was younger than himself, and he was
more than his match ; but John Fryth was only twenty-eight
years of age, when his book was published, last year. Besides,
the Chancellor had crowed by far too soon, as he had then no
idea that in a few months after, Fryth himself would come over,
and not only confront him upon English ground, though writing
from a dungeon ; but overcome in argument the Bishops assem
bled, with Cranmer at their head.
It is not possible to ascertain in what month of this year Fryth
had arrived in England, but it may have been as early as July
or August. Having been absent from his native country for six
years, he was first heard of at Reading in Berkshire, a place
into which the Divine Word had found an entrance, at least four
or five years before this. In 1528, wc have read of Rodolph
Bradford carrying New Testaments there from London, and by
the next year even the Prior of that abbey was a suspected man,
and had been placed in confinement.
We notice this man, as one purpose for which it is said

1532.] FRYTH IN PERIL. 185
Fryth came over, was to obtain some pecuniary aid from him,
or rather induce the Prior to accompany him, on his return to
the Continent ; a movement to which he might be more dis
posed, after such usage. In one place, indeed, Foxe states that
Fryth came over at the Prior's request ; but be this as it may,
his account is as foUows : —
"Being at Beading, it happened that he was there taken for a vagabond, and
brought to examination, where the simple man, loath to utter himself what he
was, and unacquainted with then' manner of examination, and they greatly of
fended with him, committed him to the stocks, where, when he had sitten a long
time, and was almost pined with hunger, and would not for all that declare
what he was ; at last, he desired that the schoolmaster of the town might be
brought unto him, which, at that time, was one Leonard Coxe, a man very well
learned. As soon as he came to him, Fryth by and by, in the Latin tongue,
began to bewail his captivity. The schoolmaster, being overcome with his
eloquence, did not only take pity and compassion upon him, but went, with all
speed, unto the Magistrates, grievously complaining of the injury which they
did shew to so excellent and innocent a young man. And so, through the help
of the said schoolmaster, the said Fryth was freely set at liberty without
punishment." The " stocks " in England had certainly never before been so
honoured, whatever they were afterwards ; nor should the
worthy and learned schoolmaster be forgotten.4 Thus enlarged,
we hear nothing of the Prior, and he might have removed after
this outrage ; but Fryth proceeded to London itself, and there
saw those friends of truth, to whom Bainham had first made his
confession, a few months before. The danger, however, was
extreme ; but there was to be no more any thing bordering
upon abjuration — no more halting between two opinions, or
between Ufe and death — in Fryth's case. He had come to read
a lesson to the Martyrs of England, and he read it nobly, by his
tongue, nay, by his. pen, and finally by the flames. It was
altogether a sight which had never been seen in England since
the days in which he himself had been reading the first imported
Testament, or was immured in the dungeon at Oxford. Yet

4 Leonard Coxe, a native of Caerleon, Monmouth, who had studied at
Cambridge, was an early popular philological writer, under Henry VIII. He
became a great traveller, and was well known on the Continent. He defended
the doctrme of justification by faith in Christ. The intimate of Erasmus, he
translated his Paraphrase of the Epistle of Titus into English, and was hving in
the reign of Edward VI.

186 FRYTH IN PERIL. [book i.
though of so decided a character, that he afterwards astonished
both friends and foes, Fryth still accounted it his imperative
duty to avoid apprehension if he could ; and, according to the
Divine commandment, first fled from place to place, rather than
his enemies should be involved in the guUt of blood. He
changed his raiment and place of abode again and again, but
could not remain long anywhere, even among friends. Sir
Thomas More had now heard of his being in England, and
" beset," says Foxe, " aU the ways and havens, yea, and pro
mised great rewards, if any man could bring any tidings of
him." While, however, he was yet at large, there was a Christian
brother, of whom Fryth says, " for his commendable conversa
tion, 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 applied to Fryth for his opinions
respecting the Lord's Supper, and after complying with his
earnest request, "he desired me," he adds, "to entitle the sum
of my words, and write them for him, because they seemed over
long to be well retained in memory." This was done with no
intention of its being read, except by select or choice friends,
who had already received the truth ; " for they knew the
spiritual and necessary eating and drinking of his body and
blood, which is received but with the ears and faith, and only
needed instruction in the outward eating ; which thing," adds
Fryth, " I only declared." By this time, More especially, if not
Stokesly, had various spies on the look-out in London; base
men, who insinuated themselves among the best of the city.
Two of these are named — one Withers, and William Holt, the
foreman of Mr. Malte, tailor to the King. The latter was the
guilty man, who betrayed confidence. Having seen the manu
script of Fryth, he begged a perusal of it ; and once obtained, he
carried it forthwith to the Chancellor.
Sir Thomas More, however, as if conscious of his incompe
tence to answer "the young man," for so he generally called
him, had now become more cautious, though it was only a few
months since his vaunting preface was abroad. This must have
been the more mortifying, when Fryth let out the secret ; for
referring to his manuscript, he tells us, that More suppressed

1532.] FRYTH IMPRISONED. 187
the work after it was printed, and though he saw a printed copy
in the Bishop of Winchester's, on the 26th of December, neither
he or his friends could obtain one, but got hold of a mitten
copy, which had been made in great haste.
From this it is evident that Fryth was not only in safe
keeping, and under examination by this month of December,
but that More had replied to his manuscript, and in print, and
therefore he must have been in England' for some months. He
had been apprehended, says Foxe, at a place caUed MUton Shore,
in Essex, where he had gone with a view to embark for the
Continent, and after that had been committed to the Tower.
The last six months of his valuable life wiU come before us in
due time.
But with regard to that great cause, for which Fryth was
now in prison, and Tyndale had been pursued for years, there
was no possibUity of stopping its onward progress. The
importation of the Scriptures, as well as other books, went on.
A tide had set in, which no vigilance, no power upon earth,
could either stop or turn aside. Though it be in vulgar, and
even profane language, by far the finest eulogium, on this
department of exertion, was pronounced by Sir Thomas More
himself, and in this very year. He would not, it is true, open
his eyes to the fact, that there was a thirst for the Word of
Truth, and that a market or demand had been created in
England, in spite of aU opposition ; and, therefore, he is
incorrect as to the way in which money was raised, or rather
capital embarked, but, in other respects, his denunciation
involves the very highest praise which could have been elicited.
"Which books, albeit that they neither can be there printed witlwut great
cost, nor here sold without great adventure and peril : yet cease they not with
money sent from hence, to print them there, and send them hither, by the whole
vatts-full at once. And, in some places, looking for no lucre, cast them abroad
by night; so great a pestilent pleasure have some devilish people caught, with the
labour, travel, cost, charge, peril, harm, and hurt of themselves, to seek the destruc
tion of other." 5
Such was the language of Sir Thomas More, and the same
spirit reigns throughout his pages. It was the testimony of an
6 Preface to More's "Confutation."

188 FRYTH STILL WRITING, [book I,
enemy, addressed to enemies, which is the strongest of all, and
therefore includes the higher commendation of unwearied zeal
in the cause of God and His truth. And certainly it was a mar
vellous thing, that one of those " feUows," as he caUs them, with
his junior companion, "who nought had here, and therefore
nought carried hence," should be able to kindle such a fire in
England. They were but " earthen vessels," it is true ; per
secuted, but not forsaken ; as unknown, and yet well known ;
as poor, yet making many rich ; for their friends, by this time
described as "evil-disposed persons within this realm," had
already become more than two bands. But now, since our only
controversialist thought so badly of them, we must hear the
opinion of a better judge.
We have alluded to a Congregation of these people, meeting
in London, but there were groups, in secret, throughout differ
ent counties. John Fryth had seen those in London, and then
proceeded from place to place, before he was to address them all
from his prison. He had worshipped God along with them, and
expounded the Sacred Volume they held so dear ; and what was
his deUberate opinion of those people, whom the ChanceUor and the
Bishops so defamed ? In a letter6 addressed to them from "the
Tower of London, a prisoner for the Word of God," he rejoices
that he found no smaU number of them walking in the ways of
the Lord, as He gave commandment, wUling that they should
love one another as He loved us ; that he had had experience of
their faith without simulation, of their love to the poor oppressed,
to whom they communicated " both bodily sustenance and
ghostly comfort, notwithstandnig the strait inhibition and
terrible menacing of these worldly rulers." He prophetically
adds : —
" I ever thought, and yet do think, that to walk after God's Word would cost
rne my life, at one time or another. And albeit that the King's Grace should
take me into his favour, and not to suffer the bloody Edomites to have their
pleasures upon me ; yet will I not think that I am escaped : but that God hath
only deferred it for a season, to the intent that I should work somewhat that He
hath appointed me to do, and so to use me unto His glory.
" He shall send a Joseph before you against ye shall come into Egypt ; yea.
He shall so provide for you, that ye shall have an hundred fathers for one; an

Fryth's Works.

1532.] THOUGH IN THE TOWER. 189
hundred mothers for one; an hundred houses for one; and that in ilm life, as I
have pkoved by experience ; and after this life, everlasting joy with Christ
our Saviour. "
Such were the fruits of the Sacred Word, printed in the
vulgar tongue ! In the outset, it was but like an handful of
corn, sown in a most unpromising soil, on the top of a moun
tain ; yet now that one of the sowers has come, " it cannot be
expressed, what joy and comfort it was to his heart, to perceive"
far more than the green blade above the ground.
That a Christian should receive an hundred- fold of temporal
good, with persecutions, has often seemed to be a mystery, and
the passage has so perplexed the expositors of more peaceful
times, that they have felt obliged to escape to the supposition of
celestial gratifications. How a man should leave one house and
find an hundred, in the days when mere professors are loth to
leave any thing for Christ, has appeared to be impossible ;
although the Saviour expressly confines the hundred-fold to this
Ufe. But the exuberant love and hospitality of the primitive
Christians untie the knot, and explain the promise. On the
part of our Redeemer, it was indeed a most extraordinary
intimation; informing the earUest age, not only that Chris
tianity should gain ground, but prevaU in such power over its
beUevers, and aU that they possessed ; and it remained for John
Fryth especiaUy to come over, and draw out the proof that
primitive Christianity had effectuaUy taken root in England.
AU the beUevers' houses had been open to entertain him, and
there was he treated with aU a father's, or a mother's, a
brother's, or a sister's kindness. Now that he was in bonds, he
was overcome with joy, by finding that such was their concern
for him, and that they felt his private or personal suffering as a
general calamity, or a pubUc wrong.
And now that the year is ended, what can be said as to the
Old man and the Young ? — the ChanceUor and his prisoner ?
What else than that "wisdom exceUeth folly, and as far as
Hght exceUeth darkness ;" or that "the wise man's eyes are in
his head, and that it is the infatuated only, who walk on
in darkness?"
By the mercy of God, however, Sir Thomas More must now
withdraw. He had resigned the Great Seal in May, but stiU

190 TYNDALE'S SYMPATHY [book I.
had acted officially till towards the close of the year ; in a few
w eeks hence he will be entirely dismissed, and left free, and at
leisure to go on with his voluminous controversy, though this
should only be to his final overthrow.
We have not been able to ascertain the precise object of
Fryth's journey into England, at a period so fraught with
danger. It must have been something of importance in his
own apprehension, as weU as in that of Tyndale. The latter
had no other man like-minded, no other companion, properly
so called, upon earth. For years together, he himself had been
pursued on the Continent, but Fryth was now in England
itself. One can, therefore, easily conceive what trembling
anxiety must have been felt by our Translator, in his absence ;
and we have one fine letter of judicious counsel, before he knew
the worst — that Fryth was apprehended, and in the Tower of
London. From this we extract the following sentences: —
' ' 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
world, 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 ihe Mother tongue, and
learning set up in ihe Universities. But and if aught be required contrary to the
glory of God and His Christ, then standfast, and commit yourself to God, and be
not overcome of men's persuasions, which haply shall say, we see no other way to
bring in the truth.
' ' Beloved of my heart, there liveth not, in whom I have so good hope and
trust, and in whom my heart rejoiceth, and my sold comforteth herself, as in
you : not the thousandth part so much for your learning, and what other gifts
else you have, as that you will creep alow 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 in boldness ; in open necessary things, and not to pronounce or
define of hid secrets, or things that neither help nor hinder, whether they be so
or no ; in unity, and not in seditious opinions : insomuch, that if you be sure you
know; yet in things that may abide leisure, you will defer, or say, methinks the
text requireth this sense or understanding ; yea, and if 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, iu earnest and necessary
things. "And I trust you be persuaded even so of me. For I call God lo 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, (as
Sir Thomas More had insinuated,) nor would this day, if all that is in ihe 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 (liberty ?) without which I cannot keep His laws.

1532.] WITH FRYTH. 191
"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." But whatever Tyndale might intend by his last expression to
Fryth, it was not long before he heard of his being in the hands
of Sir Thomas, and also in the Tower ; for, however impossible
it had ever been to find Tyndale's abode, it is remarkable that
no circumstances could ever impede his immediate communica
tion with England. Though Fryth had found it difficult to
procure a copy of More's reply to himself, either that, or some
other copy, was soon in Tyndale's possession, when he imme
diately discovered aU that deep interest which he had aUeady
expressed so warmly in his letter. Before this, too, he had also
received the ChanceUor's vaunted Confutation, so that, according
to More's own concession, he could now "pry upon" them both,
"narrowly, and with such eagle's eyen as he hath." By a
single passage, at the outset, which will be noticed presently,
he effectuaUy damaged the fame of the knight's " Confutation ;"
but the perilous situation of Fryth demanded haste, and Tyndale
immediately did his " uttermost" for him, as he had promised.
Whether he left Antwerp to superintend the press, is not
certain, but it is more than probable, for it is curious enough
that his pointed production was printed at Nuremberg by
Nicolas Townson, and was finished by the beginning of April.
It is entitled " The Supper of the Lord " — after the meaning of
John vi. and 1st Corinthians xi. — "wherein, incidentally,
Master More's letter against John Fryth is confuted."
For fresh events we must now, therefore, look forward to the
next year.

192 ONE DISTINGUISHING FEATURE

MDXXXIII.
ONE DISTINGUISHING FEATtTEE OE TYNDALE' S COURSE AND CHAilACTEll AS
COMPARED WITH HIS CONTEMPORARIES — HIS ANSWER TO SIE T. MOBE— HIS
LETTEE TO EEYTH IN PEISON — ERYTH's VOICE FROM THE TO WEE — EEYTH's
EXAMINATION BEFORE THE BISHOPS ASSEMBLED — HIS TEIUMPH IN ARGUMENT
— MAETYEDOM — ONE EFFECT OF FEYTH's DEATH — SIE T. MORE WRITING
STILL — ONE POWERFUL OPPONENT AT HOME — MORE AS A CONTROVERSIALIST
¦ — HIS PRODIGIOUS EXERTIONS — OTHER QUALITIES — FINALLY OVERCOME.
efore recurring to Tyndale's last publication, we are
constrained to pause for a few moments, and observe
more distinctly one marked or distinguishing feature
in his character. His one object in Ufe, was to gain
over his native land to the faith of the Mediator. The
foundation of all his hope of success, rested on the
Word of God itself. With its translation into Enghsh
he began, and laboured in it to his dying day. And having
once conveyed the New Testament to England, as containing
truth without any mixture of error, he might, indeed, because
banished from the soil, assail the love of the world or covetous
ness, in those who had arrogated to themselves the title of "the
Spirituality," in his parable of "the Wicked Mammon;" he
might lay down the law of " Christian Obedience," but built on
that faith which he had already explained ; might expose the
hypocritical "Practice of Prelates," who had sunk his country
into immorality, licentiousness, and debt ; or warn the whole
nation by Jonah and his prologue. These were great subjects,
and worthy of his pen ; but when once he found a Preacher
upon English ground, in whom, and in whose doctrine, he
reposed unlimited confidence, and came to explain the course
which he thought that Preacher should pursue, his ideas are
worthy of observation in any, or rather in every age. He him
self had been " about a great work, and would not come down,"
and so he would have Fryth to act. His weapons were to be
only two, — the Law and the Gospel ; subjects to which the
conscience would respond ; and hence his fervent anxiety that
he would commend himself to every man's conscience, as in the
sight of God ; or only " walk in those things that the conscience^
might feel." He thought that matters of essential belief should

1533.] IN TYNDALE'S COURSE AND CHARACTER. 193
first be received in England, and first settled in all cases, before
those of obedience should be enforced ; that the souls of men
should first have in possession that rest which Christ gives,
before His gentle yoke could be assumed ; that men should first
be disciples, and then taught all things whatsover Christ has
commanded. During his entire residence on the Continent,
from this fixed judgment he had never swerved, though amidst
many temptations so to do ; and this it is which should procure
for him, in the eye of posterity, one distinguishing eminence
among all his contemporaries. There is actually not a second
man to be placed by his side, except the prisoner respecting
whom he is now so concerned. In consequence of pursuing a
course aU his own, at no Conference, Diet, or Assembly can we
ever hear of him, nor do we find any references to these, in his
writings. There was in 1524, the Diet at Nuremberg, the
Assembly at Ratisbon in July, and another afterwards at Spire.
In 1526 the Conference at Baden against Zuingle in May, and
the Diet at Spire in June. In 1527 the Conference of Berne, not
to say the provincial Councils at Bruges and Paris. In 1529
the Diet in March held at Spire, then the Protestation, and then
the Conference in October, at Marburg, between the Lutherans
and ZuingUans. In 1530 there was the Diet of Augsburg ; to
deUberate on the Augsburg Confession, or the articles of Torgau,
including what they caUed " Sacraments," and " religious cere
monies;" and then the league at Smalkald. In 1531 the
Assembly again at Smalkald, and afterwards at Frankfort. But
at not one of these do we hear of Tyndale being present ; an
absence or retirement so uniform, that it could only have sprung
from some fixed determination, more especially as his talents
would have secured a chair for him, on any such occasions.
And as he frequented no pubUc conferences or disputations,
so he courted the patronage of no German circle, of no Duke
or Elector, no Landgrave or Counsellor, but, to use his own
expression, "kept alow by the ground." His rejection, at first,
by the Lord Bishop of London, actuaUy seems to have made an
impression which never left him, and six years afterwards he
refers to it, as though it had governed him ever since, — " God
saw," says he, " that I was beguiled, and that that counsel was
not the next way unto my purpose ; and therefore He gat me no
o

194 ONE DISTINGUISHING FEATURE [book i.
favour in my Lord's sight." After that period he seems to have
felt, as Johnson did in modern times, that a Patron would only
have " encumbered him with help ; " or he was not wiUing that
posterity should consider him as owing that to any earthly
protector, which Providence enabled him to accomplish, without
one smile of court-favour from his country. In short, Tyndale's
lack of protection from princes and assistance from learned men,
taken in connexion with the course which he had so steadily
pursued, forms a forcible contrast to the path and circumstances
of all his contemporaries. If these statements be observed, they
may so far account for the fact, that during the last nine years,
with a sound and discriminating judgment, Tyndale had sted-
fastly deprecated the Bellum Sacramentarium, and never more
so than at this period, as he himself has explained. It had
commenced about the very time of his arrival at Hamburg, in
1524, and, upon fixed principles, he had kept out of it, from
year to year. This of itself alone, was quite sufficient to havq
preserved him from personaUy combining with Luther ; a con
federacy, which he himseU denied after six years' residence on
the Continent ; and one, which, owing to the violence of the
Saxons, could not possibly have taken place since. But, now
that Tyndale's dearest friend upon earth, his " own son" in the
faith, is incarcerated, and in danger of his Ufe, — now that he
has fallen into the hands of these English Philistines, — nowi ;
that both Providence and Christian friendship caU him to speak
out, having no choice, he wUl not be slow, or rather was not,
so to do.
And never was triumph more complete, than that of Tyndale,,s
and Fryth over Sir Thomas More on the subject of the Lord's
Supper, though on their part it was entirely unprovoked. Fryth,
it must be observed, was precisely of Tyndale's opinion ; that
Repentance and Faith, or matters of essential belief, should be
first propounded and settled, previously to discussing any Chris
tian ordinances; that the former were to be testified to' the
world at large ; the latter, settled within the Church itself : that
the messenger of God to guilty men, was to preach and might
print on the former ; but as to the latter, beware of the printingi
press. The latter were to be " reasoned in peace and at leisure,"
among believers alone, or within the Church. Oh, had the

1533.] IN TYNDALE'S COURSE AND CHARACTER. 195
counsel of the "first two" been taken, what a different aspect
had the Church of God exhibited by this time ! And why may
not some invaluable instruction, even now, be drawn from this,
the very spring-head of religious controversy ?
It must be remembered, therefore, that believing, as he did,
in the plainness and aU-sufficiency of the Sacred Oracles, Fryth
had been exceedingly averse from putting pen to paper, and
that when he did so, it was only in compUance with the urgency
of a beloved Christian brother. But this was only a manuscript,
and one sacredly intended only for the eye of believers, in whose
faith Fryth had already found such reason to rejoice. In these
circumstances, the Chancellor stepped out of his way, to his own
discomfiture ; and so infatuated was he, that he must print in
reply, though he afterwards laboured to suppress it. Copies,
however, having gone out, Fryth must not shrink from con
futing him ; and Tyndale having received it also, neither does
he. Throughout this piece, Sir Thomas having contemptuously
styled Fryth " the young man," this it was which led Tyndale
frequently to place the Lord Chancellor in contrast as "the
old man;" and he wUl now require to put on his spectacles
once more.
In the outset of his attack on Fryth, the Chancellor had
insisted that in the sixth chapter of John the Saviour had
referred literally to the Lord's Supper. But in order to prove
John's Gospel imperfect and insufficient, he had said in the
third book of his " Confutation," that " John spake nothing
at all of this Sacrament," thus palpably contradicting himself,
and, adds Tyndale, "the young man here causing him to
put on his spectacles and pore better and more wisely with
his old eyes, upon St. John's Gospel, to find that thing there
written, which before he would have made one of his unwritten
verities." It is unnecessary to notice every corner out of which he
dragged his opponent, or the chain of argument by which he
bound him ; but at the close, Tyndale gives intimation that he
was quite prepared to meet, not merely the Chancellor, but all
who either beheved or dissembled with him ; and expresses his
longing for the day when this ordinance of Christ shaU be
" restored unto the pure use," as the Apostles used it in their
o 2

196 TYNDALE'S LAST LETTER TO FRYTH. [book I.
time ; giving a particular account of the manner in which he
wished it to be observed.
But now, whether Tyndale had been to Nuremberg, where
this was printed, or not, he had heard in May of Fryth's
dangerous condition in the Tower, and was in Antwerp again at
that time. Certainly he had not sojourned in this city since
January, where he must have heard much sooner ; or if there
was an earUer communication from him to England, it is irre
coverable. His whole soul, however, was now moved with
intense feeling, and he poured it forth in the foUowing final
epistle : —
" Dearly beloved, however the matter be, commit yourself 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 hght
that must be fed with the blood of faith. The lamp must be dressed
daily, and that oil poured in every evening and morning, that the hght go
not out.
" 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 undefiled, and say against that, nothing. Stick at neces
sary things, and remember the blasphemies of the enemies of Christ, saying,
they find none but tliat will abjure, rather than suffer the extremity. Moreover,
the death of them that come again, after they have once denied, though it be
accepted with God, and all that believe, yet it is not glorious, for the hypocrites
say, 'he must needs die ;' denying (then) helpeth not.
"If you give yourself, cast yourself, 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, which should 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, won
derfully, and work for you, above all that your heart can imagine : yea, and
you are not yet dead, though the hypocrites all, with all that they can make,
have sworn your death.
"Fear not the threatening, therefore, neither be overcome of sweet words:
with which twain, the hypocrites shall assail you. Neither let the persuasiofflif
of worldly wisdom bear rule in your heart : No, though they be your friends
that counsel you. Let Bilney be a warning to you, Let not their visor 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 shall ease your pain or shorten it. The Lord of peace, of hope, and of faith,
be with you, Amen. William Tyndale.
"P.S. Your wife is well content with the will of God, and would not, for her
sake, have the glory of God hindered. WiUiam Tyndale."

1533.] STATE OF ENGLAND. 197
In both these letters the reader has beheld the ardent affection
of Tyndale for his friend ; but see, in the last, how strong his
supreme regard for the truth of God ! The young man was dear
to him as his own soul, yet had he prepared his mind for the
severe trial, and given him up, though now, evidently, in a
state of great agitation ; but it was one of breathless anxiety for
the glory of God, and the subordinate glory of his friend's
character, rather than his life. Tyndale was in that frame of
mind, which no man, without a martyr's heart, such as he truly
possessed, can fuUy appreciate ; nor is the wife of the prisoner,
to whom he had been but recently united, less to be admired.
This letter, which was " deUvered to Fryth in the Tower," must
have proved most welcome ; although, ere long, we shaU find
that, strengthened by the power and grace of his Redeemer, he
had needed no human counsel to die with all the heroism of
Stephen, the first martyr to Christianity.
We cannot affirm that there was any positive connexion
between the marriage of Henry to Lady Anne Boleyn, which
took place on the 25th January, and the resignation of the
ChanceUorship by More ; but stiU it is very observable, that the
next day, Sir Thomas Audley, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal,
deUvered it to the King ; when his Majesty, retaining it only a
quarter of an hour, re-deUvered it to him, with the title of Lord
Chancellor. Thus, though Sir Thomas More had resigned the
Seals in May, he had been acting as an officer of the Crown tUl
about this period. We have seen him, long after May, active
in the pursuit and persecution of Fryth ; but the mace being
gone, he must now wield only the pen. It was the soUtary
instrument left him to carry on his warfare ; and with this he
continued more busy than ever, throughout the whole of this
year. This new appointment is worthy of notice, chiefly on one
account. An immediate relaxation took place as to Fryth, in
his imprisonment. In the earlier stage of his confinement here
was his situation — " I am, in a manner, as a man bound to a
post, and cannot so weU bestow me in my play, as if I were at
liberty ; for I may not have such books as are necessary for me ;
neither yet pen, ink, nor paper, but only secretly, so that I am
in continual fear both of the Lieutenant and of my keeper, lest

198 STATE OF ENGLAND. [book I.
they should espy any such thing by me. And, therefore, it is
little marvel though the work be imperfect ; for 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."
But now, though Sir Thomas Audley was as much disposed
to please Henry as any of the time-servers round his person, he
felt and acted very differently from his predecessor, as to the
" new learning ; " and CrumweU, who perhaps had profited by
the sound advice of Vaughan, is stated to have been disposed to
show favour to the prisoner. In short, had there been no deep
and too successful intrigue afterwards employed, Fryth might
have been permitted to depart from England. But still, in the
meanwhile, there was a pause — a suspension of that violence
and severity, which had run on during the reign of the last
ChanceUor. The very keeper of Fryth in the Tower greatly
relaxed ; and, " upon condition of his own word and promise,
let him go at liberty during the night, to consult with good men."
One happy result of aU this was, that Fryth was enabled to
write his fuU refutation of Sir Thomas More, from the very
Tower to which he had committed him, besides several other
things, afterwards printed in his works.
Under these circumstances, Fryth was not idle, nor did
Sir Thomas escape with impunity. " For though More wrote
with as much wit and eloquence as any man in that age did, and
Fryth wrote plainly without any art ; yet there is so great a
difference between their books, that whoever compares them,
wiU clearly perceive the one to be the ingenious defender of an
iU cause, and the other a simple assertor of truth."1 The palm
for "wit and eloquence" has been at once assigned to Sir
Thomas, upon all occasions ; but if any one desires to see the
"eloquent orator" and the "simple assertor of truth" in con
trast, he has only to consult Fryth, who certainly does him
justice, by quoting the eloquence, verbatim, such as it was,
before he confutes it —
"Fryth, the yoimg man, 'teacheth in a few leaves shortly, all the poison
that Wickliffe, (Ecolampadius, Huskyn, Tyndale, and Zuinglius have taught in
1 Burnet.

1533.] FRYTH'S NOBLE TESTIMONY FROM THE TOWER. 199
all their books before, concerning the blessed 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. ' — These dregs hath he drunken of Wickliffe, CEco-
lampadius, Tyndale, and Zuinglius, and so hath all that he argueth here before ;
which four, what manner folk they be, is meetly well perceived and known,
and God hath in part, with His open vengeance, declared. "
Fryth, after vindicating the other three individually, adds,
as to his dearest friend upon earth : —
" And Tyndale, I 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 I am 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, wherein, among other matters, he writeth thus — ' I call
God to record, &c.' -' Judge, Christian reader, whether these words be not
spoken of a faithful, clear, innocent heart. And as for his behaviour, it is such,
that I am sure no man can reprove him of any sin ; howbeit, no man is innocent
before God, which beholdeth the heart. "
Sir Thomas More having adjured them, if they would write,
to " keep their writings so secretly that never man should see
them," Fryth gives him this chaUenge : —
" But this hath been offered you, is offered, and shall be offered. Grant that the
Word of God, I mean tlie 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 ihe Scripture doth in many ; and so, at the least, save some."
In his progress, Fryth not only defended his opinions by
express quotations of Scripture, with a clear interpretation of
their meaning ; but he went on by quoting Tertullian and
Augustine, Origen and Ambrose, Jerome and Chrysostom,
Fulgentius and Eusebius, &c. These he gives in Latin, with a
translation in EngUsh ; bringing forward " aU these old doctors,
that his opponents might be ashamed" from henceforth to caU
it " new learning." A 11 the Prelates, therefore, with " Mr. More,
which taketh upon him to be their proctor," were caUed upon
now to speak out and answer, if it was a question to be settled
by fair reasoning ; and they were specially bound to have done
so by the manner in which Fryth summed up his arguments at

2 See the letter itself, page 190.

200 THE KING ORDERS [book I.
the close. Besides, the pointed strictures of Tyndale had also
arrived in England : but there could be no answer, properly so
called, though More wiU not refrain from some reply.
Ten days had not elapsed after Queen Anne's coronation,
which took place on the 1st of June, before Cranmer, in servile
obedience to his royal Master, must proceed with a widely dif
ferent scene. The martyrdom of Fryth has never been suffi
ciently marked in English history, as there are several points of
distinction between it and any preceding act of cruelty, in
Henry's reign. In 1530, it is true, he had fuUy authorized a
fiery persecution, but to this measure he had been strongly
advised by the last Lord Chancellor ; and the cruelties ensuing
had never commenced with him, nor had he yet personally
sanctioned the last sentence of the law. Bilney and Bayfield,
Tewksbury and Bennet, had been first seized and examined
by the Bishops, and then put to death without any writ
from his Majesty. The statute of Henry I V., and the warrant
of Sir Thomas More, had been regarded as sufficient, and
Henry only did not interpose. But Sir Thomas had now
retired, and ChanceUor Audley was not a persecutor. The
examination of Fryth was Henry's own deed, and though
the blood of the innocent was already upon him, so far as ex
plained, he now first degraded himself personally to the rank of
a Murderer. The importance attached to this reckless proceeding may be
seen, in the eminence of the parties expressly appointed by the
King to examine Fryth. These were Cranmer, Gardiner, and
Stokesly, the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Suffolk, or Henry's
own brother-in-law, and the Earl of WUtshire. The story
altogether, is one of the most affecting in the history of the
times. Fearing a concourse of citizens, the scene of the examination
was removed to Croydon, to which place Fryth was conveyed
under charge of one of the Archbishop's gentlemen, and one of
his porters. On the way, the gentleman pitying his prisoner's
youth and parts, besought him for the sake of his wife and
children, and the world which he might benefit by his gifts, to be
somewhat advised by the counsel of Cranmer and Crumwell, who
were willing to save his life. To this he replied, that his cause

1583.] fryth's examination. 201
and conscience were such, that he could not on any considera
tion fly from the true knowledge and doctrine which he had
conceived of the Supper of the Lord, — that he was weU prepared
for his defence, which could not be condemned without involving
Augustine and the Fathers in the same condemnation, — that as
for Ufe, he had made up his mind to lay it down rather than
" quaUfy" his cause, for death would be better to him and all his,
than life in bondage and penury, adding : — " God Almighty
knoweth what He hath to do with His poor servant, whose cause
I now defend, and not my own ; from the which, I assuredly do
intend, God wiUing, never to start or otherwise give place, so
long as God wiU give me life."
WhUe travelling on foot between Lambeth and Croydon, the
gentleman and porter devised a scheme for Uberating their
prisoner, and securing their own credit ; this they could hardly
have done without some understanding with those above them.
But he, whom some in power wished well out of the way, was
one who could be no party to the falsehood involved in this
scheme, or flinch from the defence of the truth for which he was
set. He therefore refused to take advantage of their intended
kindness, assuring them that if left by them he would deliver up
himself at Croydon. There, on the following day, he was
examined, and repUed so readUy in his cause, that " there was
no man willing to prefer him to answer in open disputation."
Here, therefore, a pause, of several days, ensued ; which
Cranmer himself helps us to explain. What we have already
narrated had taken place between the 10th and 15th of June,
and before the 17th, Fryth had been sent back to London.
After his examinations were over, and before his return to
London, Cranmer had caUed for him repeatedly, and tried to
turn him, but in vain, and the Archbishop must now speak for
himself. On the 17th he writes a long letter to Archdeacon
Hawkins, his successor, as ambassador, at the Emperor's court ;
in which it must be confessed that he seems far more elated by
" the gorgeous and sumptuous " display at the Queen's corona
tion, than depressed by the tragedy, in which, immediately
afterwards, he had also played his part. Of the former he gives
a long and minute account ; descending to the guns fired — the
dresses worn — the order of cavalcade. " Now, then, on Sunday,

202 cranmer's report. [book i.
(1st June,) was the coronation," when he, with six Bishops and
twelve Abbots, " aU revestred in their pontificalibus, with their
crosses and crosiers, walked in procession into the church of
Westminster," where " I did put the crown upon her head, and
then was sung Te Deum." It is in this very letter, after finish
ing his account, that Fryth is introduced, and in the following
terms : —
' ' Other news have we none notable, but that one Fryth, which was in the
Tower in prison, was appointed by the King's Grace to be examined before me,
my Lord of London, my Lord of Winchester, my Lord of Suffolk, my Lord
Chancellor, and my Lord of Wiltshire — whose opinion was so notably erroneous,
that we could not despatch him, but was fain to leave him to the determination
of his ordinary, the Bishop of London. I myself sent for him three or four
times to persuade him to leave that his imagination, but for all that we could do
thereiu, he would not apply to any counsel. Notwithstanding now he is at a
final end with all examinations, for my Lord of London hath given sentence and
delivered him to the secular power, where he looketh every day to go unto the
fire." Surely Cranmer could scarcely intend to speak contemp
tuously ; but a new made Archbishop, who had just been
crowning a Queen, when writing to an Ambassador and telling
the story, might imagine that " one Fryth" was only in good
keeping with such high affairs ; though in the Ups of Cranmer,
to say the least, it was an unfortunate slip of the pen ; as if he
had never heard of him before, and his friend as little ! " One
Fryth," — the Eton scholar of King's College, Cambridge;
the Canon selected for Cardinal College, Oxford, when Cranmer
declined ; the man known to Wolsey, whom the King himself
and CrumweU, and foreign agents, had been so eager to decoy
into England; the same man whom the late Lord Chancellor
pursued with such eagerness tiU he caught him ; who had just
overthrown his lordship in argument, and now silenced the
Bishops, including Cranmer himseU ; in short, the bosom friend
and associate of Tyndale, who had agitated the councils of
England, before Thomas Cranmer was known: but enough.
Only it had been well for " one Cranmer " had he ever
exhibited the same undaunted fortitude, and died a death so
glorious and unsullied as that of " one Fryth."
Notwithstanding what the primate had. here said, it was not
till three days after, or Friday the 20th of June, that Fryth
came to his final appearance before the Bishops of London,

1533.] fryth's martyrdom. 203
(Stokesly,) Lincoln, (Longland,) and Winchester, (Gardiner,)
in St. Paul's. His constancy, self-possession, and Christian for
titude never forsook him for one moment ; and when the
question was finaUy put, whether he would subscribe his answers,
he took up the pen, and with his own hand wrote these words —
"Ego Frithus ita sentio, et quemadmodum sentio, ita dixi,
scripsi, asservi et affirmavi," &c. — " I, Fryth, thus do think, and
as I think, so have I said, written, defended, and avowed, and in my
books have published."
Sentence being passed, and read against him, by Stokesly, he
was handed over to the Mayor and Sheriffs. By them he was
committed to Newgate, and put into a dark dungeon under the
gate. There, laden with irons, as many as he could bear, and
his neck made fast to a post, with a collar of iron, he could
neither stand upright, nor stoop down ! Yet even here, by
candle-light, for no other came into the place, was he continu-
aUy engaged in writing; the letter to his friends, concerning
his troubles, which was afterwards printed in his works, being
his first effort.
Such was the power of Fryth's example, that another indi
vidual, Andrew Hewet, (also betrayed by Holt, the miscreant
already mentioned,) who had been first examined in April, and
was now brought up again, resolved to follow his steps. The
Bishops used many persuasions to aUure him from the truth,
but in vain. His heart was one with Fryth's, and he told them
firmly, that he would do as he had done. He was therefore
condemned. And now at the last, that Henry might have his full share of
the guilt and shame of such a martyrdom, on the 3rd of July it
was noted to him, officiaUy, by Stokesly, sealed with his own
seal, how the matter stood, — but there was no reply, and there
fore fuU consent ! Next morning Fryth and his companion
were led forth to Smithfield.
Being both bound to the stake, " there was present," says
Foxe, " one Dr. Cooke, that was parson of the Church called
AU-haUows, in Honey -lane, situate in the midst of Cheapside.
The said Cooke made open exclamation, and admonished the
people, that they should in no wise pray for them, any more
than they would for a dog." At these words, Fryth, smiling,

204 the true division of the COMMUNITY. [book I.
prayed the Lord to forgive him ! The Doctor's words, however,
" did not a little move the people to anger, and not without cause.
The wind made his death somewhat longer, as it bore away the
flame from him to his feUow ; but Fryth's mind was established
with such patience, that, as though he had felt no pain, he
seemed rather to rejoice for his feUow than to be careful for
himself ! " This painful event was felt and lamented far and
near ; and in fact it marks an era, which wiU be noticed after
wards more particularly.
With regard to that war of opinion, now effectuaUy kindled
in England, which we have seen burst forth so decidedly in
February 1526, and continue without intermission, it was more
than ever on the advance ; but it has now become more necessary
to discriminate, if we are to keep pace with, the actual state of
the country. The positive progress of Divine truth must on no
account be confounded with certain opinions debated, and move
ments settled, whether in ParUament or the Convocation. In
England were two distinct parties, with views and intentions as
distinct as heaven and earth, or as Divine truth is from mere
political expediency. The former was, properly speaking, the
cause of God ; the latter party, though overruled by Him,
involved chiefly the passions and feelings of but one man, or the
Monarch, with his obsequious advisers. The former cause, appa
rently without one powerful friend on earth, was certainly, as
yet, without a visible leader in England. Notwithstanding both
fire and fury, the rage of Henry, and the vain imaginations of
his prelates, that cause had been feeling its way, silently but
effectually, in a thousand directions ; and the parties benefited
were scattered among the people, as " a dew from Jehovah, which
tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men." With
regard to other men, in all the discussions between the Pontiff
and Henry, on the one hand, and between the latter with his
Parliaments or Convocations, on the other, though rehgion was
verbally connected with them, all hated, and all as yet had equally
persecuted, the Truth. Yet feeble and unprotected as the cause
of God might seem, it was essentially the cause of aU that hap
pened. All the other movements were but the ground swell ; ¦,.
so that while human passions and worldly interests were in
agitation, the Almighty looked down from heaven, and in the

J538.J EFFECT OF FRYTH's DEATH. 205
things wherein they dealt proudly or cruelly, He was above
them. In short, if the names of men are to be mentioned,
the cause of Tyndale and Fryth was that of England's best hope,
and the most untoward events were overruled to advance it.
One iUustration must not here be omitted, as it is connected
with the martyrdom of Fryth. To the outward eye, this was
nothing more than the death of an interesting young man,
burnt to ashes in Smithfield, but it proved a decisive event.
Burnet has said, indeed, that " this was the last act of the
clergy's cruelty against men's lives," — but from the account
already given, this has appeared to be not quite correct. No
doubt the Bishops concerned were guilty to a man, and espe
ciaUy Gardiner, who intrigued and hunted for the Ufe of his
finest pupil, and who, with Stokesly and Longland, consigned
him to the flames. But the King was as deeply implicated as
any one man — nay, most of aU, as with him lay the power of
mercy, which, with his pen, or his ring, he could have extended
in a moment. But he commanded the final examinations, and
when the victim was on the borders of destruction, though dis
tinctly informed of this, he made no reply ! No, the martyrdom
of Fryth stands by itself in history, not only as the first perpe
trated directly by the King and the Clergy in union ; but as
distinguished from those of preceding years, and from aU the
violent deaths which were inflicted in England, for five years to
come. The preceding martyrdoms had certainly been for the
truth, and were accomplished by the Bishops and the Lord
Chancellor, without any King's writ, or direct orders from the
throne, although Henry winked at them all : the deaths that
ensued, for years to come, were state murders by Henry himself.
The preceding cruelties and death, however, it must be observed,
were inflicted on men who had abjured, and who knew they
must die ; but Fryth had called, at once, both the King and his
prelates to the mark, and they slew him. The former, no
doubt, had their effects, in graduaUy inspiriting the cause, and
advancing its moral courage ; but Fryth's calm and unflinching
intrepidity, his clear and pointed replies, his refusing either to
flee or yield, astonished even his bitterest enemies. As for the
people, they had never excited to any of these deeds of blood :
over them all, many had deeply lamented, but with the death

206 EFFECT OF FRYTH's DEATH. [book i.
of Fryth they were shocked. They had seen him embrace the
stake, and suffer with mildness and patience, full of faith, and
hope, and joy ; and not a few afterwards burned with indigna
tion against his persecutors. This, in short, was the climax of
these early martyrdoms on English ground, and it was the more
deeply lamented as involving the death of the dearest friend and
assistant of Tyndale himself. Yet was it fit that he should
occupy such a place in this noble warfare. The effect was felt
in Parliament, and at its first sitting, on the simple petition of
a poor prisoner, the subject was taken up ; not, indeed, by the
Lords or Bishops ; not by the King, but by that instrument of
national good, corrupt and servUe though it was — the House of
Commons. It was then, as we shall see, that heretics were
taken out of the hands of the Bishops, and then that no man
was to be, as many had been, immured in a dungeon, on sus
picion oi heresy. Even now the Scriptures were let alone, at
least not burnt ; nor was any one confined or burnt, for reading
or believing them. It was not a little remarkable, nor should
it now be forgotten, that such a season succeeded the martyrdom
of Fryth.
In conjunction with this event, however, we do not forget
the favourable consequences of the marriage of the King ; for
whatever may be said of that step, the results being matter of
history, of these the reader will be able to judge for himself, as
he proceeds. We only remark here, that the enemies of the
new learning, or of mental freedom, need not have been so
incensed with Henry for the step he had taken, since no English
monarch ever gave such proofs of devoted attachment to their
cause, as the " Defender of the Faith;" nor was he now weaned
from discovering that attachment, nay, nor yet will be, to his
dying hour. As for the new Queen, it should also be observed,
that of the three ladies which had been laid out for the King,
whichever he had married, the same consequences would have
ensued. The Princess Margaret, the sister of Francis I., and
Princess Rende, the sister of his deceased Queen, had been
thought of, in succession, and by Wolsey himself. Either of
these would have had his full concurrence, if it had so pleased
the King, and the matter might then, in all probability, have
been much earlier settled ; but it is remarkable that aU the three

1533.] SIR THOMAS MORE WRITING STILL. 207
were of similar sentiments ! In any one of these three, the
Monarch would have found a check-mate, in the bloody game
which he had begun to play against the new learning.
Although, however, from June 1533 the storm was beginning
to subside, opposition to the truth was by no means at an end.
On the contrary, so far as the pen and the press were concerned,
the present year stands most of all conspicuous. We have
noticed the slight inaccuracy of supposing that Sir Thomas
More retired to a Ufe of study and retirement, when he resigned
the Great Seal in May last, as for seven months afterwards he
continued active as a persecutor. Even then, he had been
writing ; but it was during this year especially, that he put
forth aU his strength, and must have been busy, night and day,
with Uttle or nothing else than his great controversy. Had
"abundance of words" been only reckoned a mark of greatness,
Sir Thomas must have seemed a giant in literature ; but now,
the amount of his exertions in this, warfare can only be placed
among its most melancholy curiosities.
We have already noticed the first part of his " Confutation of
Tyndale," so caUed, consisting of 363 folio pages ; and now
came the remainder, or five books, of 573 pages more, or 936 irr
aU ! Of these ponderous volumes, 150 pages were agamst
Barnes, and 786 in opposition to Tyndale !
Sir Thomas was partial to bold assumptions, and must have
one, even in his title, as the word " Confutation" was nothing
else ; for now, if any man has the perseverance to wade through
his folio, he wUl find the old Latin proverb fully apply to many
a page — Gratis anhelans, multa agendo nihil agens. It may be
truly said, that the Lord ChanceUor, whether in or out of office,
was out of breath to no purpose, and very busy about nothing of
any value whatever. To reply to Tyndale had certainly cost
him prodigious labour ; but the Chancellor, however witty, was
not the man to answer him, much less overcome ; and as for
the spirit and tendency of his writings, we must yet have a little
patience, for he is far from being done !
An important diversion from Tyndale personally, now, how
ever, ensued : his cause was gathering strength. Of these two
huge publications, the last had scarcely come from the press,
when there sprung up another writer, and upon English ground,

208 ONE POWERFUL OPPONENT AT HOME. [book I.
who disturbed the self-complacency of Sir Thomas not a httle.
He was of the ChanceUor's own profession, though, in other
respects, a very different man. An Oxford scholar, he had
entered the Inner Temple^ had long been eminent as a coun
sellor ; and, as a man, highly esteemed. A Christian, too, he
was a great admirer of the Sacred Volume, as appeared by his
habitual use of it. " Every night, after his business was past,
he read a chapter of the Bible to those that belonged to his
house, and the substance thereof he expounded to them." It
was natural for such a man to take a deep interest in the times.
This year, therefore, he published anonymously " The Pacifier,
or the Division between the Spirituality and the Temporality,"
printed by Berthelet. It was distinguished for its temperate
language, and formed a perfect contrast to the controversial
style of Sir Thomas. He was, therefore, the more censured for
the violence of his writing, as weU as his tedious verbosity.
The anonymous writer was held up to him as a pattern. Excited
once more, he must commence again ; but he ran on to 580
pages duodecimo, entitled " The Apology of Sir Thomas More,
after he had given over the office of Lord ChanceUor of
England." He very candidly gives us the popular feeling
against himself, for, after aU his toil, his Confutation was not
read ! So far from the high-sounding term " Confutation," the
author has now come down to an Apology.
But even when vanquished, More could argue still ; though
certainly a more candid statement of faults found, has never
been given by any author, from that day to this. It is valuable,
as descriptive of the taste and feeling of many ; it is honourable
to his opponent, but it proves that the Bishops had better never
have employed Sir Thomas More as their English DemosthenesHl
After all, our author's self esteem was not exhausted; he
proceeds to boast that some men had read his book three times,
and then goes on with his Apology.
The retired Chancellor's tone, however, was now, for a short
season, more subdued ; though whenever he touched on the
Spirituality, so called, his irritability returns. Referring to
Tyndale and others, he says — "As for wit and learning, I
nowhere say that any of them have none;" but now this new
writer, by his matter and manner combined, greatly puzzled

1533.] MORE'S CONTROVERSIAL WRITINGS. 209
him. He could not believe so good a man could be an enemy
to the Spirituality, and yet " he says nothing good of them."
Faults, and these alone, are specified, so that he must be sur
rounded by some " wily shrews, who have filled his ear with
such statements." StiU, to the manner of this writer, he must
concede the superiority, though he could not imitate it. " The
pacifier can yet use his words in fair manner, and speak to each
man gently. I cannot say but that is very true. Howbeit,
every one hath not like wit, nor like invention in writing ; for
he findeth many ways of calling evU matter in good words,
which I never thought upon, but am a simple plain body, much
like the Macedonians."
As soon as this Apology came out, which was chiefly against
the Pacifier, he pubUshed an octavo pamphlet of 200 pages,
entitled, " Salem and Bizance" — a dialogue between two
Englishmen, in reply. Sir Thomas, stiU fond of an assuming
title, then printed his " Debellation of Salem and Bizance,"
extending to above 280 pages in folio ! This was foUowed by
the "Apology agamst Sir Thomas," who said no more.
This anonymous writer was Christopher Saintgerman. More
could scarcely faU to know the name ; but the times were
rapidly changing — Saintgerman was twenty years older than
himself, and so highly respected, that when Sir Thomas referred
to him, he had thought it prudent to do so under the appeUation
of the Pacifier, or Sir John Some. This gentleman, who Uved
to the age of 80, and died in 1540, is better known as the
author of "Two Dialogues on the Laws of England, and the
grounds of those Laws" — or of "The Doctor and Student:
Dialogues between a Doctor of Divinity and a Student of Law."
The first had been pubUshed in Latin ten years before this, and
both together in English in 1528. His observations on Law —
on " the law of natural reason — of heavenly revelation — and of
man, that is of a Prince or any secondary governor that hath
power to bind his subjects," — discover a mind far above his
age ; whUe, as a lawyer, he was sapping the foundations of the
reigning superstition.
We have noticed him the more particularly on one account.
It is by no means improbable that he came forward this year,
not only from principle, but from feelings of friendship, if not of
r

210 MORE'S PRODIGIOUS EXERTIONS [book I.
kindred. His mother's name originaUy was Anne Tyndale ; he
being the son of Sir Henry Saintgerman, a knight of Warwick
shire, by Anne, the daughter of Thomas Tyndale, Esq. We
have not been able to trace the relationship, but his mother may
have been, in some remote degree, related to our Translator.
Sir Thomas, we have remarked, said no more to Mr. Saint
german. The reason may have been that, not knowing when
he was beat, he felt as if called away to battle, once more, with
his first and able antagonist. By the month of August, at the
latest, Tyndale's defence of Fryth against More, and Fryth's
letter to him, which he had penned in the Tower, had arrived
in print, from abroad. The retired ChanceUor then put forth
his reply to Fryth, such as it was ; which, though in print since
December last, he had kept back, he says, " more than a year ;"
and then he fell upon Tyndale, but for the last time. The brief
and unexceptionable treatise of Tyndale, entitled, " The Supper
of the Lord," &c, from which we have already quoted, was an
octavo tract of about 60 pages. Sir Thomas, in his usual style,
replied, in the same size, to the tune of 282 pages, besides his
preface ! It was printed, he tells us, " and many of them gone,
before Christmas."
This was a final effort, and every way worthy of the close of
such a stormy tempest. It is painful to quote his language;
but, without noticing it, no just or adequate idea can be formed
of the battle which was fought for the truth of God, and the
emancipation of the human mind ; nor, consequently, of the
obUgations of this country to the man who, for England's lasting
benefit, triumphed, and then went on with his work.
Through the whole of this interminable controversy, vindic
tive as it was from the beginning, a climax is observable in the
violence of the writer. When only Speaker of the House of
Commons, and having no judicial authority, an expression would
drop from him, very different from those that soon followed,
though still it was given in his own wUd, not to say profane,
manner. " By my soul," said he in his " Dialogue," " I would
all the world were all agreed to take all violence and compulsion
away, upon all sides, Christian and heathen ; and that no man
were constrained to believe, but as he could be, by grace, wisdom,
and good works, induced ; and then he that would go to God,

1833.] AS A CONTROVERSIAL WRITER. 211
go on, in God's name, and he that will go to the Devil, the
DevU go with him ! There be many more to be won to Christ
on that side, than to be lost from him on this side." But once
he is a Uttle older, and in possession oi power, what a change for
the worse is visible ! " There should have been," says he,
" more burned, by a great many, than there have been within
this seven year last passed : the lack whereof, I fear me, will
make more burned, within this seven year next coming, than
else should have needed to have been — in seven score !" The
next year he is more outrageous ; going so far as to assure his
readers, that the Saviour will pronounce Tyndale to be accursed,
at the last day, because he had derived aU his heresies from the
father of Ues ; while this is expressed in terms by far too coarse
for repetition. And now that he is come to the last tract, which
he so defamed, but could not answer, we have the last dregs of
his gaU of bitterness.
For want of active exertion no man could now blame Sir
Thomas, although aU his biographers seem to have been cautious
of pointing to the amount of his herculean labours this year.
This, however, being descriptive of character, should not be
withheld. Some part he may have composed in the few pre
ceding months, but at aU events, in this year alone, there
issued from the press, of his composition, more than 850 pages
in foUo, 580 in duodecimo, and 282 in octavo ; or above 1700
pages in aU ! So gigantic were the last year's exertions of this
controversialist. It must seem strange that aU he had said was
reprinted in his EngUsh works, but then this was in the days of
Queen Mary. Though in a smaUer type, the folio volume
amounts to 1458 pages, of which his controversy occupies above
a thousand ! It was now nearly five years since More had
begun. He had been writing for the King and the priesthood
entire ; but the crowning vexation must have been, that all this
mighty stir had been occasioned by only one of those un-
patronised exiles, who, he said, " nought had here, and nought
carried hence ; " and one, too, whom neither Wolsey nor the
King, neither More nor Crumwell, or their agents, had been
able, as yet, to apprehend.
Such, however, was the great and voluminous advocate for
"the old learning;" though it now becomes due to his memory
p 2

212 HIS OTHER QUALITIES. [book 1.
to observe, that it was only after he became such, or while so
engaged, that he displayed such a temper, and seemed to labour
under a sort of black inspiration. For oh, what a change had
come over the spirit of this man, within the last ten years ! It
was but a little before then that Erasmus drew his character,
with graphic minuteness, and so beautifully. If only the half
had been true, and there is no reason for questioning the general
portrait, one can scarcely beheve that it was the same individual
who Uved on, under the same name. But when writing his
Utopia, or rather when lecturing, in earUer days, to a crowded
audience, on Augustine's work, " De Civitate Dei" More was one
man ; and when, approaching to 50, after that he attacked " the
new learning," he was another. The course on which he
entered in 1528, is also the more deeply to be lamented from
the fact, that there stiU continued to be redeeming points in his
character, standing out in bold contrast. The rights of persons
and property he weU understood ; to the human mind only, would
he allow none whatever. More's superiority to the love of
money, and his sterling integrity as Chancellor, in all civil
causes, were alike remarkable ; nor was his despatch of business
less conspicuous. Coming into Chancery, which was clogged
with suits, some of which had been there nearly twenty years-, at
the end of his second year not one was depending. Sir Thomas
Audley, his successor, was far, very far, from being a man of
such despatch. In these causes, too, More would not have
known his mother's chUdren ; for, on various occasions, he
nobly shook his hand from receiving of bribes, or presents in
money or plate, to any amount, or of whatever description.
When he retired from the ChanceUorship, he did so most
honourably poor. Nay, when the Bishops came to offer him a
sum of four or five thousand pounds, as their grateful return for
these wordy exertions in their favour, he not only declined its
acceptance, but, on the hint of their wish to present the money
to his family, he replied, " I had rather see it aU cast into the
Thames, than that I, or any of my family, should have a
penny of it."
Had the unsuccessful controversialist only not suffered his
vanity to be flattered by Tunstal, when he called on him, with
mock solemnity, by his prelatic licence, to "play the Demos-

1533.] BUT FINALLY OVERCOME. 213
thenes in English," as he had done in Latin, and write down
Tyndale and his translation ; had he only kept to his Bench,
and judged between parties in civU causes, he had retired with
such honour, that there had been not one individual among the
King's servants who would have stood so high in the eye of
posterity. But it is a dangerous thing for any man to set him
self in opposition to Divine Revelation, or attempt to mingle
with it the chaff of human tradition. Sir Thomas, however,
had taken his ground, and the consequence was, that he wrought
himself into such a fury, that even the violent death of his
antagonist would not have aUayed it. Too like one of old, who
"thought it scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they
showed him the people of Mordecai ; " so the Chancellor must
not only write himseU into obloquy, but wash his hands in the
blood of those who beUeved as his opponent did ; that is, in the
blood of any man who saw farther than himself, or went not
with him into the depths of superstition. For him it was truly
an evil hour when he delivered himseH up to the blind rage of
an infatuated priesthood ; for now, in the end, what did it aU
avail? Independently of his interference proving an entire
faUure as to argument, the same want of brevity having dis
tinguished his writings to the very close, the same consequences
foUowed, with those which he has himself detaUed, after his
Confutation was finished. He was not read! Some curious
peculiarities of the times may, indeed, be picked out of these
writings here and there, but it may be safely affirmed that few
men have ever read his controversy through. Perhaps not one
man ever wiU.
It is, however, now not unworthy of enquiry, whether Sir
Thomas More was not writing throughout the whole of this
tedious warfare, under the influence of apprehension, as well as
professed hot displeasure ; and that from his penetrating more
deeply than others into the signs of the times. If we are to
depend upon a remarkable conversation with his own son-in-law,
Roper, there seems to be some good ground for the supposition.
" It fortuned," says Roper, " before the matter of the said
matrimony was brought in question, when I, in talk with Sir
Thomas More, commended unto him the happy estate of this
realm, that had so cathoUc a prince that no heretic durst show

214 CLOSE OF THIS CONTEST. [book I.
his face ; so learned a clergy, so grave and sound a nobuity, and
so loving obedient subjects, aU in one faith agreeing together!"
— " Troth it is indeed, son Roper," quoth he, " and yet I pray
God," said he, " that some of us, as high as we seem to sit upon
the mountains, treading heretics under our feet Uke ants, live not
the day that we would gladly wish to be at league and composition
with them ; to let them have their churches quietly to themselves, so
that they would be contented to let its- have ours, quietly to ourselves."
In conclusion, the peroration was worthy of the entire contro
versy. To compensate for his extreme prolixity, Sir Thomas
intended to print a ninth book to his Confutation, as a summary
of the whole. He commenced and went on so far, but at last he
grew weary, or faltered, and never finished it ! The fragment,
more than twenty years after his death, was inserted in his
Works. And so ended aU his efforts against the man whom he
had now confessed to be " the Captain oi our English heretics."
Tyndale's advantage lay in his being the advocate of truth ; but
it was no mean proof of his power as a writer, that, from motives
of the purest patriotism, he had so successfuUy exposed one
Lord Chancellor, and, from his zeal for the diffusion of the Word
of God, now so effectuaUy opposed a second.
Whether there had been another edition of Tyndale's New
Testament, since his reprint of 1530, we have not been able to
ascertain. Owing to his residence in Antwerp itseU, and the
promise of his revising the translation, the printers were pro
bably restrained. By this time, however, there were the tokens
of increasing demand, perhaps not altogether unconnected with
the reigning Queen of England ; but, from whatever cause, the
prospect of a large and ready sale will prove by far too strong
for these Antwerp printers to remain still. Let the market be
never so inviting, among aU the English printers, of course, not
one dared to move ; but to these foreign workmen George Joye
represents himself as saying, — " If Tyndale amend it (the trans
lation) with so great diligence as he promiseth, yours wiU never
be sold." — " Yes," they rephed, " for if he print two thousand,
and we as many, what is so Uttle a number for aU England?
And we wUl sell ours better cheap, and therefore we doubt not
of the sale."
Thus, notwithstanding the martyrdom of Fryth in June, nay,

1534. J THE PROSPECT BRIGHTENING. 215
aU that the Bishops had yet done to terrify the people at home,
or the King and his ministers to prevent importation of books
from abroad ; notwithstanding aU that Sir Thomas More had
written and published ; and though there was yet no symptom
of any favourable regard, on the part of even one official man in
all England ; it becomes evident that there was to be no wisdom,
nor counsel, nor might, which should be able to resist a tide
which had now set in with greater power than ever.

MDXXXIV.
tyndale all alone apter eryth's death — GENESIS, SECOND EDITION —
FRESH ISSUE OF THE PENTATEUCH — SURREPTITIOUS EDITION OE THE NEW
TESTAMENT BY JOYE — THE IMPROVED EDITION BY TYNDALE — JOYE'S INTER
FERENCE EXPLAINED — DIVINE TRUTH IN PROGRESS — HARMAN IN LONDON-
RESTORED TO FAVOUR BY THE QUEEN — GLANCE AT THE PAST AND PRESENT —
THE NEW TESTAMENT IMPORTING IN SEVERAL EDITIONS, IN CONTRAST WITH
THE DREAMS OE THE CONVOCATION.
,n returning to Tyndale at the commencement of this
year, it is impossible to do so without feehngs of
sympathy. By a cruel death, and in the prime of Ufe,
on the 4th of July, he had been bereft of that com
panion who was dearer to him than any man Uving.
That stroke must have been deeply felt stiU, and long
would the feeUng of bereavement return upon him, more
especiaUy when he sat down to his beloved employment. He
had, indeed, toUed in this hazardous undertaking before Fryth
came to him from England ; but having for years enjoyed his
company and aid, as weU as so highly prized them both, it must
have demanded no inferior degree of Christian submission and
fortitude now to plough through the deep all alone. Tyndale
actuaUy had no man Uke-minded, and the place of Fryth was
never to be supplied. We by no means forget another valuable
agent, John Roger, into whose hands came aU that Tyndale
had translated ; and who proved so admirable a posthumous
friend. But stiU, in the death of Fryth, there were aUeviating
circumstances, as there always have been in the afflictions of
the faithful. Such a glorious exit was weU fitted to prepare

216 TYNDALE ALL ALONE AFTER FRYTH'S DEATH. [book I.
Tyndale for his own, and to render it so much the easier, nay,
welcome, when it arrived. We have seen how intensely anxious
he was for the character of his friend, and in this he might now
well exult. That young man had fought a good fight, had
finished his appointed course ; and, above all, had preserved his
fidelity. He had come home from beyond sea, and shown to all
England how a martyr for the truth of God ought to die, if
he must. Nothing remained for him but the Christian's great
metropolis, the heavenly Jerusalem, the palace of the Great
King ; into which he had entered, no doubt, with joy upon
every side. In him there had been no misgiving, not a single
word of hesitation, no shift or evasion, no halting between two
opinions, no love of life, no fear of death. His crown of
martyrdom was, unquestionably, by far the brightest which had
yet been won upon EngUsh ground, ever since this war of
opinion had commenced. As Stephen of old had faUen asleep
amidst the shower of stones at Jerusalem; so Fryth, also
praying for his enemies, had done the same, in the midst of the
flames at London. But, besides aU this, there were the noted
effects, the impression his Christian heroism had produced, and
the season that almost immediately ensued. The sky had begun
to clear over England for a little season, and this was quite
sufficient to convey fresh vigour to our Translator. It was this
year, therefore, that there appeared a second impression of
Genesis, and an improved, because a revised edition of the New
Testament, both of which now deserve notice.
That it was the fixed and unalterable intention of Tyndale
to print an edition of the entire sacred text, there can be no
question. He had already commenced with "the first book
of Moses caUed Genesis, newly corrected and amended by
W.T. mdxxxiiii." His initials were now, of course, perfectly
sufficient to point out the author ; and thus, in the very teeth
of a tempest of more than eight years' standing, he modestly
intimated his firm determination to proceed as he had begun.
Of the four other books of the Pentateuch, copies being still on
hand, these five being frequently bound up together, form what
has frequently been styled the second edition of the Pentateuch.
By other local circumstances in Antwerp itself, however,
Tyndale was now imperatively called away to the revision and

1534.] FRESH ISSUE OF THE PENTATEUCH. 217
improvement of his New Testament ; and these circumstances,
hitherto but very imperfectly understood, deserve as weU as
demand some explanation. Although Tyndale himself was
somewhat annoyed by them, an ardent and growing desire in
England for his translation of the Scriptures formed the sole
cause of aU that took place. We have already alluded to the
printers and George Joye communing on this subject. This
they had done very cautiously, unknown to Tyndale; and as
Joye was now in Antwerp, it is necessary to glance at his
previous history.
George Joye, alias Gee, alias Clarke, a native of Bedfordshire,
a Scholar and FeUow of Peter-House, Cambridge, had fled from
persecution in 1527, and resided at Strasburg, tiU he came to
Barrow, early in 1532. By his then printing two specimen
leaves, in folio, he is supposed to have beem aiming after an
edition of the Bible for the English market. Before this he had
been translating from the Latin, as he was competent for
nothing more, and since 1530 he had put forth three such
translations. Tyndale having been necessarily engrossed else
where, with his tract in reply to Sir Thomas More, and on
behalf of Fryth in prison, relating to the Lord's Supper, Joye
came into closer conference with the printers at Antwerp. He
then engaged in correcting, after his own opinion, from the
Vulgate, an edition of Tyndale's New Testament, now passing
through the press. Christopher Endhoven, of whom we heard
so much seven years ago, being now dead, the business was
carried on by his widow. This, it wiU be remembered, was
the press at which the first surreptitious edition had been exe
cuted; and the progress of the present one had been very
carefully kept secret from Tyndale, even after his return to
Antwerp. This volume, in 16mo, with a title in rubrics, which
was finished at press in August 1534, is now exceedingly rare.
Collation. ' ' The New Testament as it was written and caused to be written
by them which herde yt, whom also our Saueoure Christ Jesus commaunded
that they shulde preach it unto al creatures." — Title, at the back of which is an
" ahnanacke for xviii. yeres." The signatures run a to /.. A to H. Then the
Epistles of the Apostle St. Paul on sign. Aai, and extend to Ccc. At the end
of the Revelation is this colophon— " Here endeth the Newe Testament, dili
gently ouersene and corrected, and printed now agayn at Antwerpe by me
Widowe of Chrystoffel of Endhoue, in the yere of oure Lorde mccccc. and
xxxiiii in August."

218 SURREPTITIOUS AND GENUINE [book I.
A copy of this book, in fine condition, was once in the pos
session of George Paton, Esq., of the Custom House, Edinburgh.
When his books were sold, the present writer weU remembers
seeing it fetch thirty guineas at public sale. The late book
seller, Mr. Constable, gave for it double the money, and at last
it found its way into the GrenviUe coUection, where it now is.
We are unable to mention another copy.
Meanwhile, Tyndale was very busUy occupied in revising and
improving the translation of his New Testament, and in three
months only after this, it was ready for circulation. Out of
England itself, too, ere his first sheet had gone to press, there
had come to him a species of encouragement, altogether unpre
cedented. This arose from his tried friend Mr. Harman having
gone to London, and the consequences wiU meet us as soon as
we return home from Antwerp. But before saying more of
the book, or of Joye's interference, we' first present a brief
collation, —
" The Newe Testament dylygently corrected and compared with the Greek by
Willyam Tindale, and fyneshed in the yere of our Lorde God a MD and xxxiii],
in the moneth of November." This title is within a wood border, at the bottom
of which is a blank shield. "W. T. to the Christen reader," 17 pages. "A
prologe into the iiii Evangelystes," 4 pages. " Willyam Tyndale, yet once more,
to the Christen reader," 9 pages. Then a second title — "The Newe Testa
ment, imprinted at Antwerp by Marten Emperowr, Anno MDXXxiiij." Matthew
begins on folio ii. ; Revelation on ccclv. ; and afterwards follow "the Epistles
taken out of the Old Testament," running on to folio cccc. A table of the
Epistles and Gospels for Sundays, 16 pages — with "some things added to fill
up the leffe with all," 5 pages. The signatures run in eights, and a full page
has 33 lines. It has wood-cuts in the Revelations, and some small ones at the
beginning of the Gospels, and several of the Epistles.
The second address of Tyndale to the Christian Reader forms
a caveat with reference to Joye's interference ; and there can be
little doubt that the first title with his name inserted in full, and
as having compared the Sacred Text once more with the Greek,
was owing to the same cause. The occurrence, which could not
fail to be felt at the moment, is to be valued now thus far, that
it gave occasion for Tyndale to speak out, and discover whether
he had not all along translated from the original, and was
laudably jealous over the precise terms of his translation.
When he alludes to Joye, it is in the language of a scholar, who
could not but regard him as rash and incompetent ; and in point

1534.] EDITIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 219
of fact, he soon discovered himself to be a man of very inferior
caUbre, whether in regard to learning or sound judgment.
Placed in such critical circumstances as Tyndale had been for
years, while every word of his translation had been so carefully
scanned, and a controversy was actuaUy in dependence at the
moment with the Lord ChanceUor of England, with regard to
certain terms, there was certainly no trivial occasion both for
alarm and offence. The important word " Resurrection," Joye
had very strangely altered to " the life after this ; " and,
in reference to the book generaUy, " I wot not," says Tyndale,
" what other changes, for I have not yet read it over." This
word, an aU-important one, was especiaUy so at that season,
and occasioned Tyndale solemnly to profess his faith in the
resurrection from the dead ; having observed that the word was
not so rendered as Joye had done, " neither by him, nor by any
other translator in any language." But the alterations were far
from being confined to a single word. In one place, indeed,
Joye speaks as if he had mended only " a few certain doubtful
and dark places," but the truth comes out when he adds,
" I say I have made many changes." This becomes manifest,
from his very simple explanation of what had been his
procedure. When I came to some dark sentence, that no reason could be gathered of
them, whether it was by the ignorance of the first translator, or of the printer,
I had the Latin text by me and made it plain ! And gave many words their
pure and native signification !
Of some of these changes he was not a Uttle vain, and,
through " Tyndale's Scribe," recommended them to his adoption ;
but the corrections were worse than the Vulgate from which
they were taken, and his officious intermeddling with a Uving
Author's work, put forth as they were after Tyndale's appre
hension, was deeply offensive to many. The fact was, that Joye,
in his ignorance, was contributing to the corruption of the
Sacred Text ; and, in one sense, to a greater degree than the
Antwerp printers, who, though they had erred occasionally, as
foreigners to the language, still rose quite above the specimens
which Joye had before furnished from Strasburg. Not a Uttle
conceited of his powers, he had been dabbling with the transla
tion, and with the Vulgate only before him, as he said, to make

220 JOYE'S INTERFERENCE EXPLAINED. [book I.
it plain ! Now, the whole pubUc life of Tyndale has been not
unfitly described, as " a series of hostilities against the defenders
of the Latin Vulgate." But it became much worse when Joye
was taking Uberties with the Vulgate itself, and was quite
nettled because our Translator would not imitate him in his
rash folly. In frowning, therefore, upon such interference,
Tyndale only showed his discernment; though, after all, poor
George Joye may now be cordiaUy forgiven for a petulance
even tinged with maUgnity, owing to a few terms in which he
expressed himself. He it is who contributed his mite to
establish the scholarship of our original Translator, and to an
extent but little known to some of our moderns. " I am not
afraid," said he, in one place, " I am not afraid to answer
Master Tyndale in this matter, for all his high learning in
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, &c." What other tongues he
referred to, we cannot say ; but after this testimony, though
uttered in a miserable spirit, we have no occasion to draw upon
the high-flown compUment paid to Tyndale, but by no mean
judge, after he had communed with him at Worms. We refer
to Herman Buschius, the friend of Spalatinus. He mentions
other languages, though not German, as Herbert Marsh ima
gined ; but Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, with which he begins,
are quite sufficient.
Tyndale has been accused of expressing himseU too warmly
against Joye, but his words appear to have been dictated by
zeal for the purity of the Word of God, and such as became any
man with whose language such freedoms had been taken.
After this, the "Apology" of Joye made matters worse. It
involved Uttle else than an unfair, not to say intemperate and
unfeeling attack on the original translator. Thus, for example,
he talks of Tyndale's long sleeping since his last edition. Sleep
ing ! So thought not Henry the Eighth ; so felt not Sir
Thomas More, whom he had kept thoroughly awake for years ;
although both the King and the ChanceUor would have been
most happy had Tyndale then only drawn the curtains and
retired to rest. Of Tyndale's eminently laborious Ufe, Joye
could not be altogether ignorant, though it may have been
above his comprehension ; but there could be no excuse for the
absence of gratitude, much less for the presence of any evil

1534.] TYNDALE'S PROTESTATION. 221
feeling ; and if this Apology, so caUed, did not come out tiU
after Tyndale was in prison, as there is reason to apprehend,
then no wonder that the writer was very soon made to feel the
consequences. The pubUc feeling at the moment clearly proves
that he must have been blameworthy both in temper and
conduct ; for the fact was, though never known before, that for
some months Joye lay under the imputation, both in England
and Antwerp, of having been concerned in the apprehension of
Tyndale ! This turned out to be a gross aspersion, as we shall
hear next year ; but stiU, as " the merchants of Antwerp, and
many others that were his friends, did greatly blame him,"
there must have been something very reprehensible. " At this
juncture," says one author, " he does not appear to have pos
sessed that conscientious integrity which would have added
Christian dignity to his character ; and it is to be regretted,
that whilst he (at other times) defended the Truth, the Truth
does not seem to have made him free from guUe and deception."1
It was the sin of the age, when almost every man was taught
equivocation from his youth. We have only to add, that Joye
could not remain in Antwerp ; but removing as far distant as
Emden, he there published a smaU duodecimo — "The subversion
of More's false foundation." But we shaU hear of him again,
after Tyndale's apprehension.
Few things, however, happened to our Translator which did
not bring out the character of the man more fully, and to great
advantage. But for what had taken place, we should never
have had his noble protestation with regard to his secret
motives, as weU as the grand object he had kept in view, ever
since he began to translate. The words may be regarded in the
hght of a peroration, for they mark the close of his labours,
while stiU at liberty. Not that he is about to die, but they
were among the last words he had printed before his apprehen
sion, and, as such, become the more memorable —
"Moreover, I take God, which alone seeth the heart, to record to my con
science, beseeching Him that my part be not in the blood of Christ, if I wrote
of all that I have written, throughout all my books, 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 ;
1 Townley's Biblical Literature, vol. ri., p. 394.

222 HERESY EXCHANGING FOR CONSTRUCTIVE TREASON, [book I.
Or that I would be esteemed, or had in price, above the least child that is born ;
save only of pity and compassion I had, and yet have, on the blindness of my
brethren, and to bring them into the knowledge of Christ ; and to make every
one of them, if it were possible, as perfect as an angel of heaven; andto.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 — 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 of the realm I was born 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, then to refuse it, as I do before
our Saviour Christ and His congregation. And where they find faults, let them
shew it me, if they be nigh, or write to me, if they be far off ; or write openly
against it and improve it ; and I promise them, if I shall perceive that their
reasons conclude, I will confess mine ignorance openly."
Such, while yet at liberty, was nearly the impressive conclu
sion of Tyndale's labours. His enemies were now thirsting,
more than ever, for his blood ; though stiU he has yet nearly
two years before him. But the base and artful traitors have
already embarked from England — they are almost in sight !
With them, and the long eagerly pursued victim, very soon, we
must repair to the castle of Vilvorde !
Parliament being now prorogued, one feature of the time is
worthy of notice. It was the exchange of the fear of heresy
for the fear of treason. That biU in mitigation of the treatment
of any who were suspected of the former, is worthy of remark,
as its success has been partly ascribed to feelings excited by the
death of Fryth. One Thomas Philip, who had been delivered
by Sir Thomas More to Stokesly, of London, by indenture, in
1530, had been crueUy detained in prison by him ever since !
Of Philip, who had appealed to the King, but could not gain
access to him, an account is given by Foxe, with an interesting
letter of exhortation to firmness, from " the Congregation," or
those followers of Christ who met in Bow Lane, Cheapside;
but Foxe concludes by saying, that he knew not what became of
him. The truth is, that, at last, he complained to the House of
Commons against Stokesly, and as the Bishop would not appear

1534.] MORE AND STOKESLY. 223
at their bar to answer for his conduct, the Commons' House
framed their biU, which had now passed.
It repealed the statute of Henry IV., by which Bishops might
commit to prison on suspicion of heresy ; heretics were only to
be proceeded against, by two witnesses, and to answer in open
court ; if guilty, the King's writ must be obtained, before any
sentence could be executed; but it was declared that none
should be troubled upon any of the Pontiff's canons or laws, or
for speaking or acting against him.
This act was generaUy regarded by the people as an especial
blessing, since it not only delivered them in a great degree from
the paw of ecclesiastical tyranny, but immediately brought some
of the most worthy characters from their dungeons. Not only
did PhUip, who had been there for years, escape, but Thomas
Patmore, who had been confined as long, obtained a commis
sion from Audley, CrumweU, and Cranmer, to enquire into
" the injurious and unjust dealings" of both More and Stokesly.
Patmore, who was most probably a relation of that gentleman
who had been so shamefully treated for importing and dispersing
Tyndale's New Testaments in 1531, seems to have been restored
to his former living. Thus, after a long season of most reckless
cruelty, here now was the dawning of a day of retribution.
This year, amidst aU the policy, and even the wrath of states
men, stiU absorbed in their own affairs, concurring events, in
which the overruling hand of God had been conspicuous, were
favourable to the progress of Divine Truth in Britain. That
cause continued to be one by itself, and stiU certainly without
any visible Head in England. There had been frowns, and
proclamations, and denunciations ; there had been solemn warn
ings, and martyrdoms ; but never one smUe from the Throne,
no sanction from the Privy CouncU, not one voice in Parlia
ment. But what did all this signify ? We observe edition
upon edition of the New Testament, as weU as the Law of God,
prepared at a distance, for EngUsh eyes. The cause was God's ¦
by way of emphasis, His. He alone had carried it on, in
defiance of aU the power and policy of the nation ; and He wiU
continue to do so, after the same marked and peculiar manner,
until the Sacred Volume He was now giving to this favoured
country, shall be completed.

224 RICHARD HARMAN RESTORED [book I.
After such efforts made in printing the Scriptures in Antwerp
and to the extent which we have already witnessed, it may
naturally be expected that we shall discover in England itself
at least some of the grounds of encouragement. The intelli
gence of all that was transacted in Parliament, of course, went
to Antwerp immediately, for there was no city on the Continent
where every thing passing in London was better known, or so
soon. The biU introduced by the Commons, which would have
the effect of taking any who were suspected of heresy out of the
hands of the Bishops, was of itself ominous of better days.
Originating in a complaint against the late Lord ChanceUor and
the present Bishop of London, and this complaint terminating in
such a cure, was better stiU. There must have been various
other encouraging circumstances, of which we have no account ;
but there was one party now in England of whom, tiU now, we
have heard nothing so tangible and distinct.
The reader is fully aware that five years ago a gentleman of
Antwerp, Mr. Harman, was grievously molested by Hackett
the English envoy ; that he, and his wife, equally zealous with
himself, were confined in prison for months, and had been
seriously injured through the furious enmity of both Hackett
and Wolsey. Such a change had taken place, that he was now
arrived in London, and to seek redress ! It is worthy of
remark, that he did not apply to Audley, the Lord Chancellor
of the day, though certainly a very different man from either of
his predecessors ; nor to Crammer ; nor to CrumweU ; but to
the Queen herself. The writings of Tyndale had been for years
weU known to her ; and that she had stolen a march upon his
Majesty, with one of his pubUcations, cannot be forgotten.
Unhappy man ! It apparently interested him for the moment,
but it was only as the voice of John did the ear of Herod or
that of Paul the ear of Agrippa ; since aU such impressions, for
Henry was not without them, like the morning cloud or the
early dew, passed away. The Queen, however, though she had
been in no favourable situation, had been interested, and now,
it is quite evident, more than ever. At all events, Mr. Harman,
or Herman, fully succeeded in his application, and, fortunately,
the very letter written on his behalf by Anne Boleyn herself
has been preserved. The foUowing is a copy : —

1534.] BY THE QUEEN'S LETTER. 225
By tlie Queen.
"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 Antwerp, in Brabant, was, in the time of the late Lord Cardinal, put
and expelled from his freedom and fellowship, of and in the Enghsh house there,
for nothing else (as he affirmeth, ) but only for that he, still like a good Christian
man, did both with his goods and pohcy, to his great hurt and hinderance in
this world, help to the setting forth of the New Testament in English : We
therefore desire and instantly pray you, that, with all speed and favour con
venient, ye will cause this good and honest merchant, being my Lord's true,
faithful, and loving subject, to be restored 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 relation unto you
in this behalf. Given under our signet, at my Lord's manor of Greenwich, the
xiiii day of May. To our trusty and right well beloved, Thomas Crumwell, Squire,
Chief Secretary unto my Lord the King's Highness."?
Whatever may be said, whether to the praise or disparage
ment of Anne Boleyn, it should not now pass unnoticed that no
man, either of influence or office in aU England, ever so expressed
himself while Tyndale Uved. Nor is this merely a letter of
authority ; the sentiments of the writer appear throughout, and
it also conveys some information. From one expression it is
evident that Mr. Harman had done much more than coolly
import the volumes. " With his goods and policy, to his great
hinderance in this world," he had done this. Every one
acquainted with the history of the Hanse Towns, knows how
much had been involved in the forfeiture of his privileges as a
merchant adventurer. The "English house," like all these
towns, exercised a judicial superintendence over its members,
and punished them by a species of commercial excommunication.
Mr. Harman had evidently been suffering under this for years.
He had been a friend of the cause, and therefore the friend of
Tyndale. As CrumweU had been appointed " chief Secretary of State"
only one week before the date of the preceding letter, this must
have been one of his earUest acts in that capacity. But the tide
is turning for a short season, and so does the " chief Secretary"
with it.
On the whole, what singular recollections does such an

3 Cotton MS., Cleop. E. v., fol. 330.

226 THE PAST AND PRESENT. [book i.
incident as this suggest ! What a striking difference between
even the letter of Crammer, only eleven months ago, and the
present ! That involved the death of " one Fryth going to the
fire," Tyndale's friend and assistant ; this is in vindication of all
that Tyndale had done ! We glance at the contrast, only
in justice to the change which had, for this year, taken place ;
but there is one other reflection which seems to be forced
upon us.
Tunstal, that early opponent, once of great power, was yet
alive ; and what would he have said, in 1526, to such a docu
ment, from the Queen of England ? He is now professedly approv
ing of the Pontiff's entire exclusion from this country, nay, and
preaching this to the people ; while there is no word now of " the
crafty translation of the New Testament in the English tongue,
containing that pestiferous and most pernicious poison, dispersed
throughout all our diocese of London, in great numbers." But
this is the book itself, and this is one of the very men who,
to his damage and loss, had so heartUy imported it. The writer
had these days in her eye when she took up her pen ; and yet,
says the Queen, Harman was only acting in character, and doing
only what he ought to have done, " as a good Christian man."
Wolsey and Warham were in their graves. Sir Thomas More
and Bishop Fisher were in the Tower. Tunstal and Gardiner
and Stokesly are muzzled. Norfolk, the Prime Minister, must
wink hard. The Secretary of State is requested to proceed
forthwith, "the sooner at this our request;" while Henry
himself, wilful, wayward, and reckless as he was, is, at the
least, occasionally now kept in check by the writer of this
letter. It was fit that the very book which had been so vilified, so
trampled on and burnt, by the King, Wolsey, Warham, and
Tunstal ; which had been fastened in derision, by Sir Thomas
More, to the garments of Tyndale's brother, or the men who
were then marched to the spot where they must cast it into the
flames ; — nay, the book which had been denounced from the
Star Chamber by the King himself, should at last meet with
some such notice as this ; and that it should proceed from the
pen of one, who, at this moment, could turn the heart of even
such a Monarch. The Translator himself should never be

1534.] THE PAST AND PRESENT. 227
forgotten, but he never set his foot on English ground again ;
the change was the work of no human hand, and more than the
finger of Providence was here. Is it too much to say, that for
the sake of His Blessed Word — first its entrance into this
country, and then its effects — God had shown strength with His
arm, and scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts ?
— had put down the mighty from their seats, and honoured a
man of low degree ? Nor had the Word, so singularly intro
duced, returned to Him void. Think of the many whom Fryth
had met with in England before his death, and of the high cha
racter he gave them. God had filled His own, however poor,
with gladness, though of the rich there was only one at this
moment to justify the whole proceeding, and thus far espouse
the hated though uninjured cause.
This token of regard on the part of Queen Anne was not
unfelt by Tyndale. He must have known her sentiments as
weU as most men, and been fuUy apprised of her influence — an
influence which had been at once deprecated and dreaded by the
old school. He had learnt also of this incident in sufficient
time for him to lay down at the press one copy of his corrected
New Testament, on vellum. Beautifully printed, with iUumina-
tions, it was bound in blue morocco, and the Queen's name, in
large red letters, equaUy divided, was placed on the fore-edges
of the top, side, and bottom margins : thus, on the top, Anna ;
on the right margin fore-edge, Regina; and on the bottom,
Angles: — Anne Queen of England.
The Translator, when he put forth his first edition, in that
spirit which Christianity alone inspires, sunk his own name ;
and would have done so afterwards, but for the character and
writings of his amanuensis, Roye; and this year the interference
of Joye ; but here he does so once more. Even his name is
withdrawn, and with great propriety all prefatory matter is
; omitted. Tyndale was no sycophant. There is no dedication, —
; no compliment paid, as there never ought to be, to any human
; being, along with God's most holy Word. The history of this
; beautiful book, since it was handled by Anne Boleyn, above
¦: three hundred years ago, would have interested any reader ;
but all that can here be stated is, that the last private indi-
i vidual into whose possession it had come, was the late Rev.
o 2

228 CONVOCATION IN CONTRAST WITH [book I.
Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode. After his death, in AprU 1799,
the volume came into its proper place, when, with his large and
valuable library, it was bequeathed to the British Museum.
The Scriptures, as translated by Tyndale, were now coming
more freely into England, and were reading in various places
with all eagerness. No man was now molested abroad as
Mr. Harman had been, nor was any man to be tormented at
home, for selling or buying, possessing or reading them, as had
been the fashion too long. For the moment at least, the storm
was changed into a comparative calm, and it is curious to
contrast all this with the doings of the Convocation, which sat
in November and December. By their own journal, it appears
that they addressed the King before rising. 3 This was on the
19th of December, and exhibited a striking proof of a house
divided against itself. Their resolution passed both Houses of
Convocation, in which they all agreed that Cranmer should
make instance, in their names, to the King, that his Majesty
would vouchsafe, for the increase of the faith of his subjects, to
command that aU his subjects in whose possession any books
of suspected doctrine were, especiaUy in the vulgar language,
imprinted beyond or on this side the sea, should be warned,
within three months, to bring them in, under a certain pain,
to be limited by him ! And that, moreover, his Majesty would
vouchsafe to decree, that the Scriptures should be translated into
the vulgar tongue by some honest and learned men, to be
nominated by the King, and to be deUvered to the people
according to their learning !
The first request exhibits the influence of Gardiner and
Stokesly in the Convocation, the latter that of Cranmer ; and it
seems to be evident that the two parties must have come to a
compromise, for the sake of each party securing, if possible, its
favourite request ; or this might be a feeler, put forth to ascer
tain more precisely the existing state of their master's mind.
At aU events, the two requests exhibit glaring inconsistency,
since the books of suspected doctrine might be made to include
all the Scriptures ever yet printed. How Cranmer acquitted
himself with the King, is not upon record. There was, how-
3 Journal of the Convocation, fol. 60.

1534.] THE SCRIPTURES NOAV PRINTING. 229
ever, no interdict, no coUecting of books; but the reader must
not faU to observe next year, when Cranmer comes to attempt a
translation of the New Testament, by actuaUy employing these
Bishops, what was the result, and how they wrangled.
Meanwhile, dreaming, as some of these men in this Convoca
tion were, about the Scriptures being translated — for it was but
a dream — what a singular contrast is presented in the editions of
Tyndale printed this year, and the vindication of Harman, by
the Queen herself, for importing them eight years ago ! And
now, if at last, after such long and vigUant pursuit, Tyndale
himseU was about to be betrayed into the snare so basely laid
for him, his seizure wiU only add renewed vigour to the press.
Besides the Testament by Joye, we have already mentioned
Tyndale's own corrected edition finished only in November ;
but their year ran on to the 25th of March, and before that day
we have not fewer than three impressions aU dated in 1534,
The books being nearly of one size, rather less than Tyndale's
own, may be mistaken for the same edition, but there are various
points of distinction : — ,
L "The Newe Testament, Anno mdxxxhii." printed within an ornamented
compartment ; at the top, Jesus preaching on the Mount ; on the right side, the
brazen serpent ; on the left, Moses with the two tables ; and at the bottom G. H.
on a shield, perhaps the initials of the printer ; the name, if found out, will
appear in our list. II. " The Newe Testament, Anno MDXXXini." also in black
letter, but not in a compartment, nor having any such initials affixed. These
two books have been compared. The first is in the collection of Earl Pembroke
at Wilton House, the second is in that of Lea Wilson, Esq. They are in the
same type, but the folios of the first are paged throughout, the second is not
paged at all ; and there are various characteristic differences, both in the ortho
graphy and the disposition of the pages. III. " The New Testament, Anno
MDXxxrm." also in a compartment with G. H. &c. This edition, imperfect, is
in the Bodleian, and, as described by Herbert, p. 1543, and Dr. Cotton, p. 131,
might be mistaken for the first mentioned. But this book, though the number
ing of the folios be often incorrect, runs from Matt. fol. i. — ccclx. falsely num
bered ccclxii. ; whereas the Testament at Wilton House runs only from Matt.
fol. i — cccxlvii. This third book, however, owing to what Dr. Cotton has said,
we have ranked under 1535, (see p. 242, ) though perhaps the above might have
been also placed there.
Besides these, there is in the Bristol Museum a New Testament in quarto,
dated on the back 1534 — certainly ancient, but the title-page is gone. Dr. Gif-
ford thought it might have been printed in Scotland, as Lewis did, of one in
1536 ; but an acquaintance with the interesting state of Scotland, as about to be
given, precludes every such conjecture.
In justification of the anxiety felt by Tyndale respecting the reprints of his
translation by others, it deserves notice, that in both the Testaments first men-

230 TYNDALE'S APPREHENSION [book I.
tioned, there is an omission which unfortunately became parent of the same
mistake in not a few subsequent editions. It is in 1 Cor. xi. The words—
" This cup is the New Testament in my blood" are left out! The omission,
though significant at such a time, could scarcely be intentional, as it could
answer no end ; but it occasioned the leaf to be reprinted in various instances
afterwards. Thus the contrast between the Convocation held in England
and these busy men abroad, furnishes one of the most ob
servable features of the time. It was like a flag of defiance
hoisted in Antwerp, to signaUze the moment, or the conse
quences, of Tyndale's apprehension.

MDXXXV.

TYNDALE'S APPREHENSION AT ANTWERP — IMPRISONMENT IN THE CASTLE 01
VtLVORDE — DISTINCT INFORMATION CONVEYED TO CRUMWELL AND CRANMEE
—THE STRENUOUS EXERTIONS OP THOMAS POYNTZ, BUT IN VAIN — TYNDALE'S
PROGRESS IN PRISON — THE BISHOPS APPLIED TO FOR A TRANSLATION OE THE
NEW TESTAMENT — A FRUITLESS ATTEMPT — FRESH EDITIONS OE TYNDALE'S
TRANSLATION, PRINTED AND IMPORTING THIS YEAR.
,)HE last year turned out to be nothing more than a brief
respite, or a transient gleam of sunshine. The present
was distinguished throughout, by the imprisonment of
Tyndale abroad, by cruelty and bloodshed at home.
The former was an exhibition of enmity to the truth on
the part of its opponents ; the latter gave decided
proof of fear for the safety of the throne. But before
adverting to the peculiar state of affairs in England, we first
proceed, as in previous years, to enquire respecting the Trans
lator of the Scriptures.
After a thorough investigation of this period, there can
remain no hesitation in ascribing the apprehension of Tyndale,
to the influence and authority of the old party in England, in
alarm at the steady progress of the " new learning." "Apian
was laid," says Foxe, " for Tyndale being seized in name of the
Emperor." By the name of the Emperor, as now mentioned,
coidd be meant nothing more than the authority of the perse-

1535.] AT ANTWERP. 231
cuting decrees he had sanctioned ; but from any share in this
plan, Henry, in the first instance, must be entirely exonerated ;
as the chief agents employed will turn out to have been as great
enemies to the King of England, and his royal progress, as they
were to Tyndale and his providential one. For years, it is true,
Tyndale had been deemed a man of such importance, that he
had enjoyed the distinction of having been pursued by the
agents of Wolsey the Cardinal, and of the King himself — of Sir
Thomas More the Lord Chancellor, and even Crumwell the
future vicegerent ; but in the final seizure, his Majesty had no
concern whatever ; though at last he wiU certainly come in for
his fuU share in the guUt of Tyndale's death. In the con
cealment of this plot from Henry before it commenced or suc
ceeded, we descry, not improbably, the existing powerful in
fluence of the Queen, Anne Boleyn. Had she been apprised
of it, and moved the King, this might have proved fatal to the
scheme. Up to this hour, it has aU along been generaUy supposed
that there was only one man hired to apprehend our Translator ;
but there was a second, of far greater note as to character,
joined with him, both in counsel and action ; and so, says Halle,
"he was betrayed and taken, as many said, not without the help
and procurement of some Bishops of this realm." The help,
partly consisting in money, of which we shaU find, presently,
there was no lack, is to be traced, therefore, to this source.
The Bishops, in 1527, had leagued together under Warham, and
contributed to the strange and fruitless project of buying up the
New Testaments to burn them ; and now, though Warham be
gone, several survivors of the same temper were stiU more eager
to consign the Translator himseU to the flames. That Stephen
Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester, who had succeeded against
Fryth, was in the secret, and deeply concerned in the intrigue,
there wiU be Uttle or no doubt presently; but if so, he may have
been the chief, for such was the weU-known temper of the man.
" Unless," says Bonner, who knew him weU, " unless he was
the only and chief inventor of any matter, he would have
thwarted it." Tutored and bred up under Wolsey, though the
King and the Cardinal, Sir Thomas More and Crumwell, had
not succeeded, and though abroad neither Hackett nor West, Sir

232 APPREHENSION OF TYNDALE. [book I.
Thomas Elyot nor any other agent, had been able to apprehend
Tyndale ; yet intimately acquainted with aU circumstances, with
persons and places, and of great address, there was no man now
alive who excelled Gardiner in gaining his end by secret and
circuitous methods. As his strength and skill lay in fetching a
compass, like the gyrations of a hawk before pouncing on its
prey, so was he much more likely to succeed in ensnaring
Tyndale than any one who had previously attempted it. At
least, no other individual knew so weU how to take advantage of
the rising discontent of monks and friars.
The men in England selected on this occasion, were Henry
Phillips, belonging to Poole in Dorset, on the borders of
Gardiner's diocese ; and the other individual, in counsel with
him, hitherto unknown, was Gabriel Donne or Dunne, a monk
from Stratford Abbey, who had proceeded to Louvain. The
former, a good-looking young man, acted as the gentleman, and
the latter, in disguise, as his counsellor and servant.
Tyndale had been living for nearly a year in the house
of Thomas Poyntz, an English resident at Antwerp, when
Phillips, who had lately arrived from England as a gentleman,
having a servant with him, met him at the tables of several
of the merchants, with whom he was a frequent guest. Having
acquired the confidence of Tyndale, he was invited more than
once to the house of Poyntz, who, though he had some suspicion
of him, received and showed him courtesy for Tyndale's sake.
He thus acquired an intimacy with our Translator's habits and
haunts which he soon treacherously used for his apprehension.
Proceeding to Brussels, he obtained there the necessary autho
rity from the Emperor's court, together with the Emperor's
Attorney and other officers; and in a few days after, having
waited till Poyntz was unavoidably absent from home, he called
at his house and asked for Tyndale, from whom he first borrowed
forty shillings, (value, about £30 of the present day,) and then
invited him to dine with him. This was declined by Tyndale,
who in turn invited him to dine with him at a friend's house
where he was , engaged. Phillips, feigning acceptance of his
invitation, went out with him at the hour appointed, but had
two officers set in a narrow entry through which they had to
pass. These on a signal from PhUlips seized Tyndale, whom

1535.J CARDINAL POLE IN CONTRAST. 233
they secured in prison. The Emperor's Attorney afterwards
secured his books and effects in Poyntz's house. Tyndale was
soon after sent to the castle of VUvorde, twenty-four miles from
Antwerp. The friends of Poyntz, who was from home, made immediate
appUcation to Brussels, but without effect. The English mer
chants did the same through their governor, but, as he was cool
in the cause, their suit was equally vain. The generous host of
Tyndale made every exertion, with a zeal and perseverance far
from common, but ultimately with no success. Intervening
events, however, first demand our notice, as they are connected
ultimately with Tyndale's apprehension.
The state of the Continent at this period having become
exceedingly critical with regard to Henry's personal security
as King of England, it became necessary for that division of
his Privy Council who favoured his movements, to have a
watchful eye over the secret intrigues of the adverse party,
and their correspondents in foreign parts. For ten long years,
it is now very observable, Tyndale had been working abroad,
and only for good — to whom the Monarch and his ministers had
been ever opposed ; but now, another man is becoming active
and formidable, who, for more than twenty years, and abroad
too, shall work only for evil ; his baneful influence extending not
only untU the death of the reigning King, but to that of two
of his children. This was Beginald Pole, the future Cardinal,
whom Henry had cherished, and educated with a princely
munificence, and even kindness, such as he had never shown
to any other human being. The cousin of the King, and now
abroad ; of polished manners, possessed of the best education,
having easy access to the highest circles wherever he travelled ;
the vivacity of his genius and his playful affability endeared
him to aU. His Majesty, having literaUymade him the man he
was, became eager to have his opinions in writing, as to himself
and his movements ; expecting, of course, that they would be
entirely in his favour. Pole assented, and, all the time living
on Henry's bounty, carried on the delusion. His opinions grew
into a volume, which he began in January of this year ; and so
late as June he had the profound hypocrisy to give assurances,
in writing, that he meant to serve the King in the cause

234 DISTINCT INFORMATION CONVEYED [book I.
desired.1 His book, however, such as it was, had been com
pleted in March, but it was retained for more than twelve
months after that, and shown to select enemies, just as if
intended to produce the more astounding effect on the day of its
presentation, next year.
Now, comparing the last ten years with aU those that fol
lowed, it is not difficult to perceive the finger of retributive
justice pointing out the contrast. But it is rendered far more
striking from a singular coincidence at the present period, and
never before observed. It was this. Henry's mind continued
in great kindness and respect for Pole, down to the end of April,
or the beginning of May, this year. It then became necessary
to watch him. But the same man who was now engaged to
examine and report as to the state of the Continent, and the
movements of Pole ; in his very first despatches, brings the
imprisonment of Tyndale before the eye of both CrumweU and
Cranmer. He writes, however, merely as though he would
invite their sympathy ; for it is evident, from his style, that he
had received no instructions to enquire with kindness after him.
The writer, Thomas Tebold, (Theobald,) was a man of no
notoriety ; but being well qualified, by shrewdness and address,
to answer CrumweU' s purpose, he was to travel from city to
city, and report. He had left England about the end of June,
proceeding first to Antwerp, and by the middle of July com
menced his first letters, despatching them at the end of the
month. From these we learn that he met Phillips at Louvain,
who boasted of his treacherous act, and threatened to bring
others into the same net, raiUng at same time against the King
of England as a tyrant and robber of the Commonwealth. He
evidently stood in dread of the merchants of Antwerp. In
another letter addressed to Cranmer, he shows no scrapie at
informing the Archbishop, that by dissimulation he had obtained
long and familiar conversations with Buckingham, one of the
Black Friars of Cambridge, who was evidently in the pay of
" him that hath taken Tyndale, caUed Harry PhiUips." This
Buckingham was the man, whom Latimer so successfully ex
posed, at Cambridge, in 1526. By this letter it appears that he

1 Cotton MS., Cleop. E. vi., fol. 334.

1535. J TO CRUMWELL AND CRANMER. 235
must have lived for some time among his brethren, in the
Black Friars' monastery at Edinburgh, on the high ground
opposite the wynd of that name, or nearly in the site of the
present Boyal Infirmary. Having received inteUigence from
Louvain, Buckingham, in company with some other friar, had
left that city about the 28th of March. There was evidently a
bond of union between the parties, and Phillips paid all charges,
possessing, as we have learned, money at command. Tebold
further proceeds to inform Cranmer, that it was evident Tyndale
was doomed to die; that PhiUips had said, "that there was
no man of his counsel but a monk of Stratford Abbey, beside
London, caUed Gabriel Donne, who at that time was student in
Louvain and in house with this aforesaid Harry PhiUips," but
now in England where, " by the help of Mr. Secretary, he had
obtained an abbey of a thousand marks by the year."
Thus, then, whatever is to become of our immortal Translator,
by the month of August, 1535, it plainly appears that both
Cranmer and CrumweU were very distinctly informed of the
circumstances connected with his apprehension. The former,
especially, is warned of Tyndale being in imminent danger of
death, as weU as of a certain Monk by name, deeply impUcated.
Was it possible that, in future Ufe, he could ever forget the
name of this man ? But whether the Archbishop or Mr. Secre
tary then moved one step ; -or whether Tyndale, to say the
least, was ultimately neglected and forgotten, and this very
monk was left at large to be promoted ; it must be left for the
sequel to explain. At aU events, Tyndale has stiU fourteen
months to Uve. Here was ample time to interpose.
Previously to these letters, however, some appUcation had
been made to England ; for the report in Antwerp was, that his
Majesty had interfered, requesting Tyndale to be sent back to
that city. It was but a groundless rumour ! But August had
now come, when Mr. Poyntz, Uke a sound-hearted EngUshman,
and impatient of delay, could no longer refrain. At such a
crisis, it is refreshing to find that there was one man true to his
crest, throughout ;2 whether CrumweU or Cranmer move or not.

2 A cubit arm, erect, the fist clenched, pp. vested arg.

236 THE STRENUOUS EXERTIONS [book i.
His first step was to send an earnest letter to his brother,
imploring his immediate and most zealous exertion.
The presumption is, that this letter, dated 25th August, at
last took effect ; for we have now the proof that Tyndale's
situation must have been explained to his Majesty. Mr. John
Poyntz had been, for twenty years, in familiar intercourse, not
only with the Court, but the King ; he had been long about the
King's person, and in the household, though now at his estate in
Essex. Hence the style of his brother's letter. It was to be a
direct appeal. At aU events, CrumweU was roused at last.
He had indeed spoken with great bitterness of Tyndale, when
writing to Vaughan ; and we have seen Cranmer, too, in com
pany with Sir T. Elyot, then charged to seize him; but the
times had now materially changed, and they aUke wavered with
them. Before, there was no such Queen upon the throne ; and
CrumweU could not have forgotten her letter to himself, last
year, respecting Mr. Harman. He, therefore, now acts very
differently, at least for a Uttle moment. Since Marshe, the
Governor of the Merchant- Adventurers, had been complained of
as so remiss, the messenger despatched had been directed to wait
upon another person, Mr. Bobert Flegge ; who replied3 22nd
September, that he had with all diligence got the letters
delivered, — that the Marquis of Barrow, to whom one of them
was directed, had left for Germany, but he had sent Mr. Poyntz
after him, — that the Marquis had repUed to the apphcation by
writing to several of his friends at Court that they might use
their influence in obtaining the King's request. The other
letter to the Archbishop of Palermo, who had consulted the
Queen and Council, was answered by a letter direct to Crum
well. By Foxe's narrative, in his first edition, we learn that Flegge
had consulted with the chief English merchants — that Mr.
Poyntz had to proceed sixty miles to the eastward. However,
he overtook the Marquis at Achon, (Alkhen,) fifteen miles from
Maestricht. On reading the letter addressed to him, the
Marquis, at first, retorted, that " there were of their countrymen
burned in England not long before" — alluding to the Dutchmen
3 Cotton MS., Galba, B. x., fol. 62.

1585.] OF ROBERT POYNTZ. 237
burnt in Smithfield. Poyntz acknowledged the fact ; " howbeit,"
said he, " whatsoever the crime was, if his lordship, or any other
nobleman, had written, requiring him to have had them, he
thought they should not have been denied." — "WeU," said he,
" I 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 to the next baiting place." The Marquis
assented, adding, " If you so do, I wUl advise myself by the way,
what to write." At Maestricht, accordingly, Mr. Poyntz
obtained the letters referred to by Mr. Flegge ; one to the
Brabant Council, one to the Merchant- Adventurers, and a third
to CrumweU. Mr. Poyntz proceeded direct for London, but
there he had to wait during the greater part of the month of
October. "At length," says Foxe, "the letters (in reply)
being deUvered him, he returned and delivered them to the
CouncU at Brussels, and there tarried for answer of the same."
This was on or before the first of November. But Phillips
being there, following his suit against Tyndale, and fearing lest
he should lose his purpose, he accused Poyntz, who, in his turn,
was apprehended and delivered to the keeping of two sergeants-
at-arms, and a charge of twenty-three or twenty-four articles
brought against him by the Procurer- general.
Eight days after, he was ordered to have his answer ready.
Meanwhile, he must send no message to Antwerp, or any other
place, but by the Brussels post : he must send no letters except
in German, and these to be examined first by the Procurer-
general : he must speak only in that language, that his keepers
might know every word he said. To this last rule there was
but one exception, when an English Noviciate of the White
Friars was aUowed by their Provincial to converse with Mr.
Poyntz. It was only a poUtic step, to ascertain his principles,
before receiving his written answer. Among other topics, Sir
Thomas More and the Bishop of Bochester, and their executions
in England this summer, were introduced, as one key to their
purpose. On the eighth day, when the Commissioners came for
the answer in writing, Mr. Poyntz had not his excuse ready,
when they gave him another week. He then presented a
general reply, but they insisted upon a specific answer to each of
the articles, separately. Thus he " trifled them off" from the

238 NARROW ESCAPE FOR HIS LIFE. [book I.
first of November to the twenty-fourth of December. On the
morning of that day, they informed him, that if his reply were
not brought in before night, he should be condemned without
it : it was eight in the evening before the Procurer-general
received the document. This led to a tedious altercation in
writing, during which process Mr. Poyntz demanded bail, on
security being offered. They at first assented, but afterwards
declined to take any security whatever. He had applied to the
English Merchants in Antwerp, for surety, and had they come
forward, it would have altered the case from a criminal to a civil
one ; but, strange to say, if they actuaUy had received the
application, it was in vain. In the meantime, the expenses of
this process were accumulating to a considerable amount.
During the whole time, Poyntz was not in a common prison,
but in the keeping of the two Sergeants-at-arms : besides his
own expenses, he had to maintain them, so that the daUy charge
was not less than five shillings ; an enormous sum in those
times. Altogether he had now been detained about thirteen
weeks, from the first of November to Candlemas, which, at five
shUlings daUy, had cost about £23, or equal to above £300 of
the present time. For part of these charges they now demanded
payment or surety, and gave him eight days to settle the matter.
Poyntz sent a messenger to the EngUsh Merchants who were
then at Barrow (Bergen) Market, resolving, however, not to
wait his return. If taken, he knew it would be but death, and
so during the night he contrived to escape, and at the opening
of the city gates, in the morning, got off. As soon as it was
perceived that he was gone, men on horseback were sent out in
pursuit ; but he knew the country well, and at last arrived safely
in England.
Here is a man, hitherto unknown, though certainly he now
demands our most grateful remembrance. For his friend he
could not possibly do more than he had done. It was the most
memorable exploit in his whole Ufe ; and, what is remarkable,
we shall, by and by, find it to have been engraven on his
tomb-stone, which, we are gratified to add, is still distinctly visible,
and not far from London.
With respect to Tyndale himself, now in close confinement
at Vilvorde, we are not altogether without information. The

1535.] TYNDALE'S PROGRESS IN PRISON. 239
fact of his imprisonment was now well known in England,
Scotland, and Germany ; and the zeal against him was " burn
ing hot," especiaUy at Louvain, a place long celebrated for its
ardent attachment to the old learning. This may easily be
conjectured from the men now arrayed, and apparently gathered
together against him. Dunne, having fulfilled his commission,
and for six months done his best, had left for England ; but
PhiUips and Buckenam, with others, were stiU at Louvain, only
twelve miles from VUvorde ; and they, in conjunction with the
doctors there, had led Tyndale into discussion. He, having
been permitted to reply in writing, was not slow to answer.
"There was," says Foxe, "much writing, 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 weU wield, to answer the authorities and testimonies
of the Scripture, whereupon he, most pithily, grounded his
doctrine." They had, indeed, now laid Tyndale in prison, but even this
could by no means prevent the progress of his work. It must
not pass unobserved, that there came out this year another, or
the third edition, of his " Obedience of a Christian Man," and it
may very safely be presumed not without his approbation, if not
concurrence, as it was printed at Marburg, where he and
Fryth had dwelt. Wolsey had been five years in his grave,
whose poUcy it so effectually exposed ; but Tyndale had there
said, even after the ParUament of November 1529, that, as they
had not uprooted the tree, it would grow again. By the reprint,
therefore, he seemed to repeat, that, in his estimation, much
stiU remained to be done in England ; and he himself was now
suffering under the very system he had there exposed. The
repubUcation at this period, however, would certainly not con
tribute to his enlargement, nor would it now help to raise him
in the estimation of Henry VIII. Once on a time, it is true, he
is reported to have said — " this is a book for me and all kings to
read," — but then, to such a man, there were "hard sayings" in
it, and that emotion had died away.
Another piece also now appeared, and appropriate to the war
then raging with the Doctors of Louvain. This was Wicliffe's
Wicket, or an exposition of the words, " This is my body"

240 cranmer's fruitless attempt [book i.
accompanied by Tyndale's judgment respecting the Testament
of WiUiam Tracy.
It was now precisely five years since " the translation of
Scripture," said to be "corrupted by William Tyndale, as well
in the Old Testament as in the New," had been denounced by
the King of England and his Bishops, " as utterly to be repelled,
rejected, and put away out of the hands of the people, and not to
be suffered to get abroad among his Majesty's subjects." But
the cause of Tyndale was that of a higher power, and as evi
dently/or the people. Nothing, however, had been done, in the
meanwhile, to furnish any other translation ; nay, at that time,
these men had the daring impiety to say to the people at large
— " You cannot require or demand Scripture to be divulged in
the English tongue, otherwise than upon the discretion of your
superiors; so as whensoever they think in their conscience it
may do you good, they may and do weU to give it unto you :
and whensoever it shaU seem otherwise unto them, they do
amiss in suffering you to have it ! ! " They then said also, that
this King of theirs " did openly say and protest, that he would
cause the New Testament to be, by learned men, faithfully and
purely translated into the English tongue ; to the intent he
might have it in his hands ready to be given to his people, as he
might see their manners and behaviour meet, apt, and convenient to
receive the same ! !" At the same time, they took care to inform
the people that the King " thinketh in his conscience," and that
by their "deliberation and advice, that in not suffering the
Scripture to be then divulged in English, he did well! ! "
By the good providence of God, however, we have seen that,
seven years before 1530, Tyndale had resolved that his coun
trymen should actually possess the Divine Word, and thus
come to know more of the Scripture than such men as these ;
and as both husbandmen and artizans had been brought before
Tunstal, Bishop of London, so early as 1528, Tyndale, confess
edly, had laboured with great effect. For nine years past we
have seen one edition after another coming into the country,
But now, at the last, it seemed as if something were actually
going to be done, and by Henry's learned men. Even the
Bishop of Winchester himself told CrumweU, that by the month
of June he " had been spending a great labour in translating

1535.] IN HIS APPLICATION TO THE BISHOPS. 241
Luke and John ! " This was an incident by far too remarkable
to pass now without farther notice ; and the more so, as it
admits of an explanation, fuUy as curious as the fact itself. In
the Convocation last December, it will be remembered that the
necessity for a translation of the Scriptures had been urged,
whUe all other books of suspected heretical doctrine were to be
caUed in within three months ; and though nothing was done as
to the latter design, the King seems to have been addressed as
to the former. This was, in fact, a second impUcation of all
that Tyndale had translated or written. One is curious, there
fore, to observe the first attempt of these men, standing as it
does, in contrast with the hitherto unaided, nay, despised exer
tions of the persecuted and now imprisoned Translator and
patriot. In proceeding with the plan, Cranmer took an existing trans
lation, — Tyndale's, of course, for as yet there was no other, —
and having divided it into eight or ten parts, he got them tran
scribed. These he transmitted to so many Bishops, the best learned,
accompanied by a request, that each part should be returned
to him, with their corrections, by a certain day. The time
appointed having arrived, every portion, including Gardiner's,
no doubt, is said to have been returned to Lambeth, with one
exception — the Acts of the Apostles, which had been assigned to
Stokesly. Cranmer then sent to Fulham, for the corrected manu
script ; but Stokesly, far less compUant than Gardiner, not being
then in such fear of court favour, or of his neck, only made the
following reply : — " / marvel what my Lord of Canterbury meaneth,
that he thus abuseth the people, in giving them liberty to read the
Scriptures ; which doth nothing else but infect them with heresy. I
have bestowed never an hour upon my portion, and never will. And
therefore my Lord shall have his book back again ; for I never will
be guilty of bringing the simple people into error." When the
Archbishop was informed of this uncourteous speech, he merely
observed — "I marvel that my Lord of London is so froward,
that he wiU not do as other men do." — " Why, as for that,"
said Lawney, one of the Duke of Norfolk's chaplains, who
stood by, — "Your Grace must consider that the Acts of the
Apostles are a portion of the New Testament. Peradventure,
my Lord of London knows that Christ has left him no legacy,

242 tyndale's EMPLOYMENT [book I,
and therefore he prudently resolves to waste no time upon that
which will bring him no profit ! Or it may be, as the Apostles
were a company of poor iUiterate men, my Lord of London dis-
daineth to concern himself about their Acts /"
That such an attempt as this should have entirely failed, can
excite no surprise ; and it not only did so, but Cranmer ever
afterwards, from this moment, despaired of obtaining a transla
tion of the Scriptures by any such means ; and of this he will
himself inform us, two years hence. These men of name and
pretension must stand aside, for never shall even a single book of
the Sacred Volume be conveyed to their country by one of them.
In contrast therefore, once more, to these prelates, whether in
Convocation, as in 1534, or out of it, as in 1535, in the printing
press of Antwerp we can discover no pause or hesitation; no
sympathy whatever with the scruples of the bUnd in England,
or any fear of the enemy in Antwerp itself. During last year
and the present, not fewer than seven if not eight editions of
Tyndale's New Testament had issued from the press ! Nor was
any printer ever prosecuted, save the first in 1526, or Christo
pher of Endhoven. Thus, if the Translator himself throughout
the whole of even this year continued to war with the enemies
of Divine Truth on the Continent, it was as if " the stars in
their courses" were fighting with England ; nor was there to be
any truce in this contest till the enemy was overcome, nay
overruled, and constrained to accept of the long proffered boon.
The editions of the New Testament to be ascribed to 1535 were at least three.
Of the first, which has hitherto been ascribed to last year, Dr. Cotton has said,
— "This book was doubtless printed at Antwerp, but from the great variations
observable in it, I cannot believe the date 1534 to be the true one ; especially
when it is considered that Tyndale's own (corrected copy), from which it is
-principally copied, did not appear till November in that year." But still by
their computation, as the year continued to the 25th of March, till that day
1534 would be their date. Owing to the circumstances now stated, however,
we rank it under 1535.
Collation. — Title, within four wood-cuts, "The Newe Testament, Anno
mdxxxiiii." On the reverse of the title, "The bokes conteyned in the Newe
Testament." The cut of the Apostle Paid prefixed to the Romans, Corinthians,
Galatians, Colossians, Thessalonians and Hebrews, in Tyndale's edition of 1534,
is small ; in this it occupies the breadth of the page. Such is a brief notice of
the book described by Herbert, p. 1543, and by Dr. Cotton, now in the Bodleian
Library. That copy, however, is but very imperfect.
Of the second edition, distinguished by its being iu folio, one copy is men
tioned by Dr. Cotton to be ascribed to this, if not the following year.

1535.] IN PRISON. 243
The third edition, in small 8vo, or 12mo, may be easily distinguished by its
orthography, which is very peculiar, having the colophon in large letters, —
"fynesshed 1535." There is one copy in Exeter College, Oxford, wanting the
first title and preface ; and in which the prologue to the Romans seems to be
transposed, but there is a beautifid one, quite perfect, in the University Library
of Cambridge. Collation. — After the first title and Tyndale's preface, tables
for the Evangelists and the Acts, and ' ' The bokes conteyned in the Newe Tes
tament," we find a second title, — " The newe Testament, dylgderdly corected and
compared with the Greke by Willyam Tyndale : and fynesshed in the yere of our
Lorde God A. md and xxxv." There are small wood-cuts at the beginning of
each gospel, and larger ones in the Revelations, with heads of Chapters, sup
posed to be for the first time. A full page contains 38 fines. While we at
present regret our inability to give an explanatory account of this book, it
remains a great curiosity of its kind. Witness its orthography, so different
from all the other editions : —
faether, moether, broeiher, maester, stoene, oones, thoese, sayede, whorsse, behoelde.
father, mother, brother, master, stone, once, those, said, worse, behold.
But is it possible that this could have been part of Tyndale's
occupation within the walls of the castle of Vilvorde ? While
warring with these Doctors of Louvain, on the one hand, was he,
on the other, at the same time engaged in earnest pity for the
ploughboy and husbandmen of Gloucestershire ? This orthography,
being regarded as provincial, so it has been supposed. If the
conjecture be weU founded, and Tyndale himself had to do with
this edition, it is but seldom that, in the history of any man,
such an instance of the true sublime can be produced. The book
has never been assigned to any Antwerp printer ; but if
Tyndale only furnished a list of words, to be employed whenever
they occurred in the translation, the volume could have been
printed in HoUand or any other place in Brabant.
At aU events, the book comes before us in the Ught of a step
in advance, or additional triumph. The Translator was " suffer
ing trouble as an evU doer, even unto bonds ; but the Word of
God was not bound," nor to be bound.
To those who have not before been acquainted with the
history of the EngUsh Bible, and in conclusion of the year
1535, one fact remains to be stated, which must occasion some
surprise. For some time past, there had been another transla
tion of the Scriptures into English in progress, which was now
completed. From the degree of mystery which stiU hangs over
it, the undertaking must have been conducted with great
privacy ; but it is a curious and not unimportant circumstance,
r 2

244 coverdale's TRANSLATION. [book I.
scarcely before observed, if indeed at all known, in connexion .
with the late Lord ChanceUor, so barbarously put to death by
Henry, in July ; that, though not a party concerned in the cost,
while yet alive, nay, long before his death, and at the very time
he was writing against Tyndale, with this proceeding he may,
if not must, have been acquainted aU along, even from its
origin ! From a single line throughout his many pages, no one
could have imagined this ; but the evidence wiU come before us
in due time.
Meanwhile, it was on the 11th of October that the last sheet
was put to press, under the eye of Miles Coverdale. Printed,
as it had been, abroad, copies could not have been ready for
importation to England, till about the opening of next year, at
the soonest ; but if any had reached this country, at whatever
time, the book, owing to very pecuUar circumstances, to be
explained, could not have been shown to Henry the Eighth
before the month of June. This, indeed, was the earliest
moment ; for, most probably, it was not presented to the King
tiU much later in that year.
But the origin and history of this translation we must reserve
for the year foUowing, or 1537. Then, only, can we view with
advantage and effect, the whole case at once, and in comparison
with that translation, on which our eye has been fixed from the
beginning. In other words, Coverdale's will then be compared
with that Bible which became the prototype, or basis, of aU that
have since foUowed, to the present day.
No such digression is admissible here, as the reader must be
impatient to foUow the history of that memorable enterprise,
which has engrossed his attention throughout aU the war, as
weU as that of the man who had been raised up to carry it on to
victory.

1536.] LAST YEAR OF TYNDALE. 245

MDXXXVI.
LAST YEAR OF TYNDALE — ANNE BOLEYN — THE NEW OR UNPRECEDENTED CON
VOCATION — LATIMER PREACHING BEFORE IT — STATE OF PARTIES THERE —
OLD AND NEW LEARNING — PROCEEDINGS IN CONVOCATION — THE FIRST ARTI
CLES — CRUMWELL'S FIRST INJUNCTIONS — NO BIBLE MENTIONED — TYNDALE'S
LATTER DAYS — PHILLIPS ONCE MORE — INDIFFERENCE OF ENGLAND — THE
COURT OF BRUSSELS — HOME AND ABROAD NOW DEEPLY IMPLICATED — THE
MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE — POYNTZ, THE FRIEND OF ^TYNDALE — FUTURE HIS
TORY OF THE MISERABLE BETRAYERS — THE ONLY PROSPEROUS CAUSE, OR
THE YEAR WHICH EXCELLED ALL THE PRECEDING.
((Q|, e are now within nine months only of the martyrdom
nJlflfl h> °^ Tyndale, but it is necessary that the reader should
ffljUJjJ have before him some of the leading events that
transpired in England during that period, as they
have a direct bearing on his character, and life-long
exertions to give the Word of God to his country.
On the 5th of January, Queen Catherine died, and
before the month closed, Queen Anne was delivered of a son, still
born ; but before this she might have perceived that Henry's affec
tions had begun to waver. He manifested this more openly then,
and his passions having already strayed in search of another
object, aU her endeavours to recaU them to herself were vain.
Indeed, before the sorrowful mother was fuUy recovered from her
languor and distress, her death had been resolved on, and steps
taken and deliberately pursued for this purpose with the most
dexterous secrecy.
The mock trial and judicial murder of the Queen, the
marriage of the King next day to Jane Seymour, are scenes
with which every reader of English history is familiar ; but the
part which the votaries of the " old learning" took in the plot,
and their exultation in its success, have been less observed. In
their, feeble apprehension, the great obstacle to the revival of
their influence was now removed. Borne itself was seeking to
regain the ear of Henry through her messengers, who seem to
have been weU aware of his wavering affections long before the
unhappy victim herself, and sought to divert them into a
channel favourable to their purpose. But aU in vain ; partly
by the marriage into which he had plunged so barbarously, and

246 THE NEW, OR FIRST CONVOCATION. [book i.
partly by the policy of CrumweU. Queen Jane was favourable
to the " new learning," and King Henry wanted more money,
which only the suppression of monasteries could yield. Not all
the subserviency of the clergy, or the Jesuitry of the Court of
Borne, could bend him from a course which gave him so pleasing
a prospect of augmented revenue, while he was overruled to
allow a greater measure of Uberty to the circulation of the
Scriptures than had hitherto been enjoyed.
Henry, having caUed a new Parliament, on the 8th of June,
had resolved also to have a new Convocation, and one differing in
its character from all that had preceded it on EngUsh ground,
or, indeed, anywhere else. Of the Parliament we can already
judge. " Henry's two divorces having created an uncertainty
as to the line of succession, Parliament had endeavoured to
remove this, not by such constitutional provisions in concur
rence with the Crown, as might define the course of inheritance,
but by enabling the King, on faUure of issue by Jane Seymour,
or any other lawful wife, to make over and bequeath the king
dom to any person at his pleasure, not even reserving a pre
ference to the descendants of former sovereigns!"1 But we
have now to look into the Convocation.
The confusion and misrepresentation which reigns throughout
almost aU our general histories, respecting this Convocation and
its results, more especially with regard to the Enghsh Bible,
render it imperatively necessary for the reader to observe what
actually took place. Having already witnessed the failure of
these Prelates in 1534 and 1535, their procedure in 1536 only
invites the more careful inspection, if not the deeper interest.
A universal mistake has consisted in the supposition that
Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, then ambassador at Paris, was
here present ; but there are many others, especiaUy in relation
to the Scriptures in EngUsh.2

1 Hallam's Constitutional History.
2 Thus, for example, Hume, in his History of England, informs us, that "a
vote was passed for publishing a new translation of the Scriptures ; and in three
years' time the work was finished, and published at Paris ! " Burnet represents
certain "arguments" as so prevailing with both houses of Convocation, that
" they petitioned the King, that he would give order to some to set about it.
" These arguments, joined with the power that the Queen had in his affections,

1536.] LATIMER PREACHING BEFORE IT. 247
The friends of the " old learning" round the King, included
two distinct parties — the nobility and the clergy. The present
prospects of these two, were direct contrasts to each other. The
former were looking forward, with eagerness, to the acquisition
of property ; the latter were trembUng in the apprehension of
losing it. The nobility were happy to aid the King in his late
affair, and had borne him through it ; but certainly not without
fuU expectation of his recollecting their services, for they had
laid the King under a debt of gratitude ; the clergy had also
rejoiced in the death of the Queen, and wUl immediately give
their official sanction. But then, it was not to foUow as a
matter of course, that because this latter party had gone along
with Henry in his bloody progress, that he was to aid them, or
even spare them, as a body, in theirs. By no means. On the
contrary, the clergy, at aU events, must prepare for farther
inroads and fresh humiliation. Crumwell had, last year, been,
very conveniently, made " Vicegerent, Vicar-General, and Com
missary Special and Principal," involving vast powers ; placing
him, in fact, next to the royal family, for specific and prospec
tive purposes ; and we have now to see the height to which he
thought himself entitled to act.
The Convocation had met on the day after Parliament, or the
9th of June. Cranmer had resolved to try what a sermon could
effect at the opening. We have seen how eager he was
respecting Latimer preaching before the Court, and he appointed
him now to preach before the Convocation. His text was appro
priate enough. " Tlie children of this world are iviser in their
generation, than tlie children of light," — and he did not faU to
speak as he thought. He deUvered two sermons, on the same
day, from this text, and in the afternoon, especiaUy, came to the
point. Perhaps nothing of the kind ever equaUed the keen and
searching power of these discourses, in which he bore testimony

were so much considered by the King, that he gave order for setting q.bout it
immediately! To wliom that work was committed, or how they proceeded in it,
I know not. For the account of these things has not been preserved, nor con
veyed to us, with that care that the importance of the thing required. Yet it
appears that the work was carried on at a good rate : for three years after this,
it was printed at Paris, which shows they made all convenient haste, in a thing
that required so much deliberation ! ! "

248 LATIMER PREACHING BEFORE [book i.
to the piety prevailing among the people of England, and
inveighed against the clergy, not only for the Uttle they had
done to promote that piety, but for the opposition they had
offered to the cause of truth. He details at length the evils to
be removed, and urges them all to " do something whereby they
might be known to be the chUdren of light," — as "all men
know that we be here gathered, and, with most fervent desire,
breathe and gape for the fruit of our Convocation;" and "as
our acts shall be, so shall they name us." After warning
them by that wicked professor who " beat his feUow-servants,
and did eat and drink with the drunken," he closes all by
saying :—
" Come, go to, my brothers ; go to, I say again, and once again go to, leave
the love of your profit ; study for the glory and profit of Christ ; seek in your
consultations such things as pertain to Christ, and bring forth, at the last, some
thing that may please Christ. — Preaeh truly ihe Word of God. Love the hght,
walk in the light, and so be ye the children of light, while ye are in this world,
that ye may shine in the world that is to come, bright as the sun, with the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to whom be all honour, praise, and glory.
— Amen. "
This stringent and intrepid discourse must have been as gall
and wormwood to many who were present ; but it certainly was
meet, that some such address should salute their ears, and at
such a time as this. It was fit that they should be told, when
thus aU assembled to hear, that already there were among the
People "many children of light ;" while they had not yet done
one thing, whereby the inhabitants of England had profited
" one hair." It was fit that Tunstal should be reminded, thus
publicly, of his miserable injunction in 1526, and his torturing
examinations in 1528, and his burning of the Sacred Volume in
1530 : nay, that in that very St. Paul's, where, after his return
from Spain, he had denounced the New Testament, of which
now so many editions had been sold and circulated, he should
have to sit still and listen to such harrowing interrogations
as these. And although some may question the delicacy of
Latimer introducing himself, more especially as he was revert
ing to the most humiliating scene in his past life, perhaps the
solitary speck in his public character; stiU it was fit that the
cars of Stokesly and his feUows should be made to tingle, in

1536.] THE FIRST CONVOCATION. 249
remembrance of their past cruelties. Stokesly had actuaUy
officiated, before the sermons began !
In short, taking the discourse aU in aU, a more perfect
disclaimer of any thing having, as yet, been done, by these men
in England, could not have been given ; nor a higher attesta
tion to the powerful, though denounced, exertions of Tyndale,
as weU as to their positive and extensive effects. It was only in
perfect keeping with aU that has been recorded, that such
an eminent and distinct testimony should have been delivered
before" an assembly of foes and friends, at St. Paul's in London,
three months before Tyndale received the crown of martyrdom,
— and that by Latimer, the man, among all present, best
qualified to judge.
It becomes of no Uttle curious importance to observe who
were actuaUy assembled to hear aU this ; and the more so, that
the statements frequently given have been both defective and
erroneous. Of the twenty-one Bishops, sixteen were present at
the Convocation, and two voted by proxy. As for the other
three, not present ; Gardiner of Winchester was still in France,
where indeed he remained for above two years. Athaqua
or Attien, Bishop of Llandaff, if yet alive, being a Spaniard,
could not now vote ; and Kite of Carlisle, once Archbishop of
Armagh, an appointment which he had received from Leo X. in
1513, and resigned for CarUsle in 1521, was now in extreme old
age, and died next year.
But besides the sixteen Bishops present, there were forty
mitred Abbots and Priors, or fifty-six in all. In the lower
house fifty members attended, namely, twenty-five Archdeacons,
seven Deans, seventeen Proctors, and one Master of a CoUege.
Of the eighteen who voted from the Bench, those who were
with and against Cranmer wiU show how equaUy they were
divided when discussion began. We give them, with the dates
of their appointment : —

1531.

Lee of York.

1533.

Cranmer of Canterbury.

1530.

Stokesly of London.

1534.

Goodrich of Ely.

1530.

Tunstal of Durham.

1535.

Shaxlon of Salisbury.

1520.

Longland of Lincoln.

1535.

Fox of Hereford.

1519.

Vesey of Exeter.

1535.

Latimer of Worcester.

1533.

Clerk of Bath.

1535.

Hilsey of Rochester.

250 STATE OF PARTIES IN THE CONVOCATION. [book I.
1534. Lee of Lichfield. 1536. Barlow of St. David's.
1534. Salcot of Bangor. 1536. Warton of St. Asaph.
1536. Rugge of Norwich. 1536. Sampson of Chichester.
Thus, although the reader wiU stUl recognise weU-known
enemies to the progress of Divine Truth, and to Tyndale per
sonally, he wiU observe that the coast is clear of the aged and
literally blind Nix of Norwich — of West of Ely, the crafty foe
of Latimer — of Standish, the slanderer of Colet and Erasmus—
of Fisher, the ablest opponent of the new learning — and of
Cardinal Campeggio of Salisbury, as weU as Ghinucci of Wor
cester, two Italians, ever ready to support the old — besides five
others. If death had not thinned the ranks of these men, it is
evident that Cranmer had been left in a smaU minority ; but it
now appears, that, since his appointment, only three years ago,
as many as eleven vacancies had occurred, and of these not fewer
than eight voted with him. So late as the 31st of May, the
other party had been strengthened by Bugge alias Bepps, being
elected for Norwich ; but it shows the keenness of Crumwell and
Cranmer, that on the very day before the Convocation, they got
Warton into St. Asaph, nay, on the day of opening, having
procured Sherburne's resignation, they put Bichard Sampson,
the King's great champion, in his place.3 Even then, how
ever, they divided, it appears, nine to nine. Fortunately for
Cranmer's peace, Gardiner was not there, and two disciples of
the old learning voted only by proxy, viz. Exeter and Lichfield,
for whom Longland of Lincoln acted.
Preliminaries being adjusted by Friday the 16th of June, the
old party in the lower house had prevailed in securing one of
their number to be Prolocutor in the Convocation. This was
Bichard Gwent, an Archdeacon of Stokesly' s, now presented and
confirmed by the upper house. But by way of keeping the
balance even, or rather of discovering how strong was the rod of
royal authority over them, there entered, on the same day, not
even CrumweU himself, for he was as yet too busy with Parlia
mentary affairs, but Dr. William Petre, as his deputy! He
claimed the precedency due to his immediate master, and the
3 Nicholas' Synopsis, where the day of his consecration is stated tlie Sth
of June.

1536.] CRUMWELL AS VICAR-GENERAL. 251
commission he brought with him being read, Cranmer assigned
him his place, next to himseK Some might weU question, and
probably did, as FuUer supposes, whether " a deputy's deputy"
might properly claim his place who was principaUy represented.
It has been said that it was with difficulty that the clergy sup
pressed their murmurs at CrumweU's appointment to his office
— a man who had never taken orders, nor graduated in any
University ; but their indignation increased, when they found
that the same pre-eminence was claimed by any of his clerks,
whom he might commission as his deputy at their meetings.
On Wednesday next, however, the 21st, Crumwell entered,
and as Vicegerent and Vicar-General seated himseU judi
cially above aU. He then presented them an instrument,
annulling the King's marriage with the late Queen. They aU
signed it, and one party most wiUingly, though, as already
noticed, the measure did not pass the House of Lords tiU
the 30th.
On Friday, the 23rd of June, Gwent brought up from the
lower house, a long list of what they styled mala dogmata, or
erroneous doctrines. The number amounted to not fewer than
sixty-seven ; and it now remained for Cranmer, Latimer, and
others, to say, what was to be done with them ; for this was no
other than " The protestation of the Clergy of the lower house,
within the province of Canterbury." As a picture of the men
within these doors, and of the opinions that were now travelling
the country, the document is of value. The puerility and the
absurdity of most of the items, strikingly evince the degraded
state of the human mind, in those who sanctioned the list ;
while, on the other hand, some of those very items prove, that,
in the face of their most furious opposition, Divine Truth had
already found its way into a thousand channels.
Independently of Latimer's testimony, this was a second, and
from many individuals. If it be said that their alarm may
have led them to exaggerate the good that had been done,
it must be remembered that God had been carrying forward His
work with secret energy, and that they were not the men to
know all : but stUl they come forward in proof that the Sacred
Volume, so far from having been read in vain, had already
produced some of its finest effects, and, it may safely be pre-

252 INTERMINABLE STRIFE. [book I.
sumed, to a considerable extent, since they affirmed that these
truths were "commonly taught and spoken." It is true, that all
this had been accomplished in the face of opposition, and
certainly without the bold and pubUc sanction of any present ;
but, though it has been too little observed, the moment was a
crisis in the history of England, more important than any one
that has since occurred in her eventful history. As far as the
vital interests of Christianity itself are concerned, who is there
now, understanding these interests, who can forbear to exclaim
— " Oh ! had they but let ' weU' alone ! and left those cardinal
principles, which the majority of these men now branded as evil,
to have found their way into every city and hamlet, till they
had leavened the community!" But no; the perfection, the
all-sufficiency of the Sacred Volume to accompUsh aU the pur
poses of the Divine wiU, was a tenet held by no one there.
And now the war grew warm, the strife interminate, for what
else could be expected from an assemblage such as this?
Cranmer alone, as yet possessed of no fixed principles, nor any
distinct conception of where he was going, though even backed
by Latimer, with aU his wit and shrewdness, could have done
nothing. Even in the absence of Gardiner, they would have
been crushed or overruled. Queen Anne was gone, and the old
party had determined to try their strength. " Oh ! " exclaims old
Fuller, " what tugging was here, betwixt those opposite sides,
(for I dare not take Bishop Latimer's phrase, as he took it out
of his text — betwixt the chUdren of this generation, and the
children of light,) whilst, with aU earnestness, they thought to
advance their several designs." The truth is, that the House
of Lords itself was often interrupted in their business by
these men ; and in their " Journal," the reason recorded for
many adjournments was this, that the Lord Bishops "were busy
in the Convocation."
It was while these discussions were proceeding, or rather
about their commencement, that a notable scene occurred, in
which Alexander Ales, a native of Edinburgh, made a con
spicuous appearance. One day, as Lord CrumweU was pro
ceeding to the house, he met Ales " by chance on the street,"
and, as if determined on stiU farther humiliation of the
Bench, " he called him, and took him with him to the

1536.] ALES OF EDINBURGH. 253
ParUament house, to Westminster." Upon entering, aU the
Bishops "rose and did obeisance to their Vicar- General, and
after he had saluted them, he sat him down in the highest
place." " Bight against him sat Cranmer and Lee as Arch
bishops ; and then Stokesly and Longland, Shaxton and Clerk,
Goodrich and Fox, Sampson and Bugge, Latimer and certain
others," adds Ales, "whose names I have forgotten." " AU
these did sit at a table covered with a carpet, with certain
Priests standing about them."
The Vicar- General of the Bealm commenced by stating the
object for which they had been convened, to " determine certain
controversies concerning the Christian faith in this realm;"
that the " King studied night and day to set a quietness in the
Church ; " — that such controversies " must be now fully debated
and ended through their determination ; " — that he desired that
they would conclude aU things by the Word of God, f6r his
Majesty would not " suffer the Scriptures to be wrested or
defaced by any glosses, or by any authority of Doctors or
Councils, much less would he admit any articles or doctrines not
contained in the Scripture;" — finally, that His Majesty would
give them high thanks if they would " determine all things by
the Scripture, as God commandeth in Deuteronomy."
However strange the former part of this address must appear
to every enlightened Christian now, toward the close the
trumpet gave a certain sound ; and, so far as words could convey
meaning, no man present could misunderstand the message.
But what foUowed ? " After this," says Ales, " they began to
dispute of the sacraments." First of aU, the Bishop of London,
Stokesly, (whom, a Uttle before, CrumweU had rebuked by
name, for defending of unwritten verities,) went about to defend
that there were seven sacraments of our Christian rehgion, which
he would prove by certain glosses and writers ; and he had upon
his side the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of Lincoln, Bath,
Chichester, and Norwich. The Bishops of Salisbury, Ely,
Hereford, and Worcester, and certain others, with the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, were against him. After they had made
much strife and contention about the sayings of the doctors,
Cranmer rose and reminded the Convocation that the very sub
jects they had met to discuss, as weU as their own character and

254 CRANMER SPEAKS TO ORDER. [book I.
office, forbade brawling about mere words ; — that " the contro
versies now moved were not of ceremonies or light things, but of
the true understanding and of the right difference of the Law
and the Gospel — of the manner and way how sins may be
forgiven — of comforting doubtful and wavering consciences, by
what means they may be certified that they please God, seeing
they feel the strength of the Law accusing them of sin — of the
true use of the sacraments, whether the outward work of them
doth justify a man, or whether we receive our justification
through faith — what constituted good works — what were the
traditions which bound men's consciences ; and finally, whether
the ceremonies which were not instituted by Christ, ought to be
caUed sacraments or no."
This assembly, to a man, had aUeady acknowledged Henry to
be the Supreme Head of their Church, and now also had made
obeisance to his Vicegerent, their Vicar- General ; but such was
the catalogue of affairs brought forward, and as explained by
Cranmer himself. He did not stop to inquire whether the men
whom he urged to engage in discussion were peace-makers, were
the sons of God, were Bishops indeed, — but, waiving this, here
was a field for strife and debate, confessedly wide enough, if not
boundless, and as now spread out, it certainly exhibited a strange
mixture of truth and error ; where the mere acts of outward
conformity were mingled with the inward feehngs of mental
obedience ; and comparative trifles were enumerated in company
with matter of divine authority. But stiU, should Cranmer
commence with faith and not with obedience, or with what he
styled "the principal points of our Christian religion," or
"high and earnest matters," and not with ceremonies, an
effectual turn may yet be given to discussion. Two steps were
before him, the right and the wrong ; and as he had precedence,
and was about to state the order of debate, and now had this in
his own hands, one naturally waits with anxiety to hear his
decision, — and here it was.
"Wherefore, in this disputation we must first agree of the number of the
Saokaments, and what a Sacrament doth signify in the holy Scripture ; and
wheu we call Baptism and the Supper of the Lord sacraments of the Gospel,
what we mean thereby ! "
How much of mental misery, nay of bloodshed, has some-

1536.] ALES SPEAKS BY REQUEST. 255
times depended upon only a few words, uttered by one man,
when in possession of what is called power — official power !
To such a momentous instant, Cranmer had now come. By
his ingenuous confession afterwards, he came to the knowledge
of divine things "but by slow degrees, or by little and little ;"
but had he only known how much of his own future misery, as
well as that of many others, now hung as on a hair, depending
on his course of debate, or his decision as to the order to be
pursued, he must have paused, if not shrunk back. That the
example which he now first set and sanctioned, both as to
"Articles" and the order of discussion, was to form a precedent
down to the Act of Uniformity, and farther stUl, was far beyond
his foresight : though had he taken only one leaf out of the
masterly writings of the man, so denounced both by his royal
Master and his singular Vicar- General, he had never so decided.
For twelve long years Tyndale had been warring with the dark
ness which brooded over his native country ; and although
perambulating the very field of battle on the Continent, with a
judgment and prudence peculiar to himself, he would on no
account first engage in the Bellum Sacramentarium ; but Cranmer
here plunges into it at once, and that too in discussion with
men who discerned not the things of the Spirit of God ; but
who, to this hour, had been the notorious persecutors of
the truth, as weU as of every man who had imbibed the
love of it. Cranmer, however, was emphatically now, a man
under authority.
But to proceed, — Lord Crumwell observing, by his counte
nance, that Ales was pleased with Cranmer's address, thought
it the proper moment to call upon him ; and having introduced
him to all present, under the high appellation of " the King's
Scholar," he desired him now to say, what he thought of
this disputation. The exiled Scotsman complied, maintaining
throughout, and for the first time upon English ground, for
many centuries, before any such audience, that there were only
.too* Sacraments, — easy to be kept, "and very excellent in signifi
cation, — and that these were " Baptism and the Supper of the
Lord." Stokesly sat with impatience, and at last fired, — saying
of what JAles had 'affirmed—" It is all false." To this he
answered, " I will prove aU that I have said to be true, not only

256 MEMORABLE ADDRESS OF FOX. [book I.
by the Scripture, but by the old doctors, and by the School
writers also."
Upon this Edward Fox, Bishop of Hereford, interposed, and,
in a noble address, warned his brethren that they could not "by
sophistical subtUties steal out of the world again, the light which
every man doth see." " Tlie people," said he, " do now know the
Holy Scripture better than many of us. Now many things be
better understood without any glosses at all, than by aU the com
mentaries of the Doctors." He then warned them not to make
themselves a laughing stock to all the world, or to give the
people the opinion " that ye have not one spark of learning, nor
yet of gentleness in you." He concluded with the noble senti
ment : —
' ' Truth is the daughter of time, and time is the mother of truth. And what
soever is besieged of truth, cannot long continue ; and upon whose side truth
doth stand, that ought not to be thought transitory, or that it will ever fall.
All things consist not in painted eloquence, and strength, or authority. For
the truth is of so great power, strength, and efficacity, that it can neither be
defended with words, nor be overcome with any strength : but after she hath
hidden herself long, at length she putteth up her head, and appeareth."
Encouraged by this oration, and confining himself to the
Sacred Volume, Ales proceeded to ply the Bishop of London
with this argument — " Sacraments be signs or ceremonies,
which make us certain and sure of the wiU of God — but no
man's heart can be certam and sure of the wiU of God, with
out the Word of God. Wherefore, it foUoweth, that there be
no sacraments without the Word of God. And such as can
not be proved out of the Holy Scripture, ought not to be called
sacraments." Stokesly, however, again interrupted him and said — " Let us
grant that the sacraments may be gathered out of the Word of
God, yet are ye far deceived, if ye think that there is none
other Word of God, but that which every souter and cobbler doth
read in this mother tongue !" The Vicar-General and others
smiled when he had done ; but it was now twelve o'clock, and
time to disperse.
The next day, however, when the Bishops were again met,
this dangerous man of Edinburgh must not be admitted. He
was punctually present with Lord Crumwell, and ready to

1536.] THE DAY FOLLOWING. 257
accompany him ; but poor Cranmer, ever in character, timid
and time-serving, became alarmed as to consequences, and sent
to Ales to inform him that the Bishops had taken offence at the
admission of a stranger into the Convocation ; and Crumwell
himself thought it best for the present to give way to the
Bishops, lest they should find worse means of getting the
intruder out of the way. So he kept Ales back, making use of
his papers only during the remaining discussion.
The obvious purport of this dispute respecting the ordinances
of Christ, here styled sacraments, was, whether there were seven,
or only two ; and Ales firmly maintained his ground, but his
arguments had no effect whatever in swaying such men.
In these circumstances, what was to be done ? To one of the
parties it seemed at last, that some expedient must be devised,
to enforce obedience or conformity, sUent or quiet submission.
But where did the power reside ? Only in the breast of a man,
who had been washing his hands in blood, and " following the
sport" on the day of his Queen's execution ! In the language
of sacred writ, that he was also " proud, knowing nothing, but
doting about questions and strifes of words," — " vainly puffed
up by his fleshly mind," we have already had but too much
evidence ; only he was now about to proceed one step farther,
and should he only fix on more sacraments than two, all must
yield, and at least bow assent.
Of course, neither Henry, nor any of his advisers, under
stood that Christianity, as revealed in the New Testament,
repudiated aU constraint of receiving and holding opinions by
human authority ; or, to use a word often employed since, aU
" imposition ; " that the nature of faith did not admit of this —
that God himself had appointed no such means to enforce belief,
: ; nor nominated any Vicegerent to attempt this — that dominion
over conscience is God's exclusive province, within which,
..; | especially, His name is "Jealous" — that any man, therefore,
presuming to enter here, must needs be an usurper, demanding
,..,., bhnd submission, — so that whatever means be adopted, they
must be nefarious. But, apart from all these vital considera
tions, so far as the present uproar was concerned, both Crumwell
and Cranmer weU knew, that they had only to repair to the
royal presence, and describe this scene of strife, — " the perverse
£ fy ft y

258 THE ROYAL COMMANDS. [book I.
disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth,
who supposed that gain was godliness." They did so at last,
when a message arrived from Henry. He soon stilled the
tumult, very much in the manner of Sardanapalus of old — " Sic
volo, sicjubeo, and let my will for reason stand." These men had
been convoked, in fact, not to discuss, but to " do the King's
business." The form in which this settler came, was in that of certain
" Articles," which all must subscribe. They were strangely
enough entitled — "Articles devised by the King's Highness'
Majesty, to stablish Christian quietness and unity among us, and
to avoid contentious opinions ! "
These, the first articles propounded in England, though not
originally composed by Henry, were carefully revised by him;
at least, in the preface, he speaks of having, in his own person,
many times, bestowed on them " great pain, studj*, labour and
travail!" No doubt, Cranmer and his coadjutors had done
their best before then ; and if, after passing through such an
ordeal, these articles are to be regarded as the amount of their
united wisdom, they only discover what darkness and confusion
still reigned in the minds of aU men in power. It is not only
the substance, but the order in which they are stated, which, at
once, betrays this confusion. At the same time, we now dis
cover that Cranmer must have had his secret reason for passing
over every Christian doctrine, or matter of belief, and giving it
out as imperative, that they must begin with the sacraments!
So it was with the Articles : for after simply aUowing the
particulars of the Christian faith to be contained in the Scrip
tures, but joining with them the Nicene and Athanasian creeds;
we have 1. Baptism. 2. Penance. 3. The Sacrament of the •
Altar, or the Mass. 4. Justification. 5. Images. 6. Honour
ing of Saints. 7. Praying to Saints. 8. Bites and Ceremonies.
9. Purgatory. They, in fact, allowed the use of images, sanc
tioned prayers to the Saints, defended purgatory, and recommended
prayers for the dead. Far from following the sentiments of
Ales, not only spoken, but more fully deUvered in writing to
Crumwell, and meant to have been read before them — they
assert three sacraments ; 1 . Penance, 2. Baptism, 3. tbe Lord's

1536.] THE FntST ARTICLES. 259
Supper — maintaining that infants, dying before the second,
perish everlastingly ! and that the real body and blood of Christ
are present in the third ! No wonder that Cranmer trembled
for his Articles, or was afraid of the set speech of Ales, next
day ; for if it had been listened to by any, not to say aU, it
might have at least retarded the attempt to " stablish Christian
quietness," after this fashion.
Nor had these miserable articles any such effect. On the
contrary, when once pubUshed, they occasioned, says Burnet,
" great variety of censures." Beyond the waUs of their as
sembly, "quietness," of any kind, was not to be the order of
the day; although, at this moment, aU the men within must
acquiesce in the unbending wUl of their acknowledged Head.
At least one hundred and nine individuals subscribed ; including
CrumweU and the two Archbishops, sixteen Bishops, forty
Abbots and Priors, and fifty Archdeacons and Proctors.
Nothing can more forcibly illustrate the absurdity of this
blind consent to certain propositions, professedly rehgious, than
that this assembly had never yet been able to agree upon any
translation of the Sacred Volume itseU; nor, upon this subject,
according to Cranmer's strongly expressed opinion next year, if
left to themselves, would they ever have agreed, to the end of
their days. But after thus subscribing, it would have been
more inconsistent still, had they now departed, without any
reference to the subject. They had, to a man, professedly
recognised the Scriptures as containing the essentials of the
Christian faith, but could not agree on a translation into their
own language ; neither could they, as a body, approve of that
translation, through which many of the people were already so
far before them in acquaintance with Divine Truth. They
agreed, however, upon the form of a petition, to be presented to
the King, that he would graciously indulge unto his subjects of
the laity, the reading of the Bible in the English tongue,
(which so many had already read without his indulgence,) and
that a new translation of it might be forthwith made for that end
and purpose. This was a convenient method for postponing the
subject ; but, providentially, their dissension or agreement was
of no earthly moment, since neither the petitioners, nor the
s2

260 crumwell's FIRST INJUNCTIONS, [book I.
King they addressed, were to be allowed to furnish that transla
tion of the Bible for England, which was, ultimately, to become
her own.
With regard to the other doings of this Convocation, his
Majesty had determined to reduce the prodigious number of
holidays. All feasts or holidays during harvest time, or from
the 1st of July to the 29th of September, were therefore at once
abolished, as well as those which fell during term time at
Westminster ; the number throughout the year being greatly
curtailed. And as a General Council had been summoned by
the Pontiff, to assemble at Mantua, Fox of Hereford submitted
to both houses the King's reasons for declining to take any part
in its proceedings, he being resolved to hold no intercourse with
that man ; for such was the phrase. To this document all per-
sent subscribed. This was on the 20th of July, or the last day
of that Convocation, to which Latimer, at the beginning, had
preached in vain.
Thus, Parliament having risen, and the Convocation being
dissolved, after having shown nothing save profound subser
viency to the wishes and the vices of the Sovereign, both
Crumwell and Cranmer will contrive to save themselves the
trouble of consulting either of these bodies, for some time to
come ; for it must be borne in mind that there was neither
Parliament nor Convocation held tUl the year 1539.
Immediately after this, the first act of Crumwell, as Vice
gerent, was to issue certain injunctions, and, upon one account
at least, they demand notice. Since the days of John Foxe to
the present, they have been generally misunderstood, and, with
respect to the Scriptures especially, have led all subsequent
historians wrong. These injunctions of 1536 differ materially
from those to be issued in 1538. The latter, in 1538, were
addressed to the Bishops, but not the former ; the latter em
braced the Scriptures, which these now issued did not, and
could not.
With regard to these now put forth, they were merely fol
lowing up the doings of the Convocation just dissolved. The
act abolishing the holidays in harvest, though intended to help
it forward, rather inflamed than satisfied many ; and Grumwtlh
present injunctions, therefore, embraced the holidays, and the

1536. J ONLY TO THE DEANS. 261
articles recently subscribed, but nothing more. The remarks of
Burnet and Collier are, on this account, equaUy inapplicable.
The former describes these injunctions as " the first act of pure
supremacy done by the King ; for in all that went before, he
had the concurrence of the two Convocations." But in these,
the King and Vicegerent had such concurrence. The holidays,
it is expressly stated, were aboUshed " with the common assent
and consent of the prelates and clergy, in Convocation lawfully
assembled : " and as for the articles, all present had subscribed
them, in conjunction with Crumwell himself. " These injunc
tions," says Collier, " we may observe, were only directed to the
Deans and downwards. Thus the Lord Crumwell had some
thing of modesty in his wonderful office, and forbore the
brandishing his vicegerency over the Bishops." But the fact
was, that the "brandishing," as we have seen already, had
taken place before many witnesses, anterior to this, in the
Convocation ; when the King, through CrumweU, had awed
them into silence and unanimous acquiescence. Hence his
injunctions were addressed only to the Deans, and aU below
them. Turning away, therefore, from the Convocation of 1536,
which, with reference to the Sacred Volume, was equally fruit
less of any benefit to the kingdom with that of 1534, no sooner
do we come to the actual history of the English Bible, than it
turns out to have been by far the most remarkable year of all
that had preceded it I Nay, to those who have never looked
narrowly into the subject, it may seem next to incredible, that
there should have been of Tyndale's New Testament, as many
editions as in most of the preceding years when put together !
Such, however, was the fact, and of this state of things our
Translator could not have been kept altogether in ignorance,
more especiaUy as the jailer and his family were won to his
principles. So far as he did know, after such a passage through
life, this must have cheered him in his entrance to the haven of
eternal rest, as a finer sun, which was to shine for ages upon his
native land. He had corrected his New Testament in 1534,
and these were reprints of that edition ; but we must refrain
from any farther account at this moment, reserving this for the
close, as the appropriate and the only refreshing intelligence

262 BETRAYERS OF TYNDALE. [book I.
throughout the whole year. Besides, the absorbing question,
at present, must be — " What has become of those guilty men
who had ensnared our Translator ? and, above aU, of Tyndale
himself?" Upon once more looking abroad, and before we approach the
castle of Vilvorde, or the martyr's stake, it is of importance to
record whatever can be certainly ascertained, not only respect
ing the betrayers of Tyndale, after that Mr. Poyntz had so
providentially escaped ; but the agitation of Henry VIII. him
self in connexion with one of them, in his assumed character of
the gentleman. Since not enly Halle and Foxe, but all other
historians faU us here, these particulars, now read for the first
time, will, it is presumed, prove the more interesting.
It will be remembered that Theobald, the man whom Crum
well and Cranmer had sent to the Continent last year, felt no
scruple whatever in imposing upon PhUlips, in order to extract
from him the precise circumstances respecting Tyndale's appre
hension ; and these he had duly communicated both to the
Primate, and the Vicegerent. He told PhiUips that he had.
come to remain, and had seemed ±o comply with the entreaty,
that he would abide in the same house. The natural conse
quence of this dissimulation soon followed. Theobald departed,
and Phillips then saw that he had been deceived. He soon
learned that he belonged to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and
immediately reported him to be, what he reaUy was, a spy;
though evidently not commissioned by either of his employers to
resort to Louvain, or there interest himself on behalf of the
illustrious exile and prisoner at VUvorde. PhUlips himself,
however, as we have seen, remained about Brussels and Louvain,
all the time that Mr. Poyntz was held in prison ; but after his
escape into England, the abandoned youth fled, leaving Tyndale
to the tender mercies of the wicked. The probability is, that
Mr. Poyntz, immediately after his arrival in London, had suc
ceeded so far as to excite alarm respecting this man ; and this
he could easily do, by communicating, through his brother, with
the King direct. But probability approaches to certainty, when
it is observed, that by the month of March, soon after Mr. Poyntz
had got to England, the conduct of Phillips had effectually
roused the indignation of the English Monarch. This young

1536. J TYNDALE'S LATTER DAYS. 263
man had not only been pursuing Mr. Poyntz and Tyndale him-
seU, unto death, but "raging against Henry," as Theobald had
stated long ago ; though no notice had been taken of the warn
ing. For eight months, from July last year, to March in this,
there is no evidence to be found that either Crumwell or
Cranmer had moved one step, and even now the apparent
apathy of both seems to force itself on our notice. The Vicar-
General was busy in chiming in with the King's odious purposes
and plan against his Queen : the Primate was looking after the
worldly interests of a brother-in-law. But it wiU be abundantly
more awkward, or rather humihating, for both, if, after the
letters from Theobald, one of the betrayers of Tyndale had
actuaUy been permitted to sit down in the Convocation in June,
and there Usten to Latimer, when he lectured so roundly the
whole fraternity ! We shaU see.
Already we have had sufficient evidence that the mind of
Henry, at this juncture, was Uke "the troubled sea," as it con
tinued to be, throughout the whole of this year. His " secret
commission" upon Anne Boleyn was already at work, and it
was whUe they were so engaged, that we find two letters of the
incensed monarch, dated from his palace near London. Both
manuscripts (in Latin, and bearing the same date) are very
imperfect ; but there is enough remaining t6 answer our inquiry.
The King, it wiU be evident, was enraged at least, if not
alarmed ; but it was only because of the language and conduct
of PhiUips, with reference to his own beloved self. For
Tyndale, or in regard to his seizure and imprisonment, we
look in vain for one word of sympathy ; though his condition,
by this time, could not faU to have been fuUy known to his
Majesty. The first of these letters4 was addressed to the Consuls and
Senators of Nuremberg, and the second to an old correspondent
of Henry, Lawrence Stayber, in the same city, in both of which
he entreats, that, if either of his two subjects, James Gryffith
ApweU (ap-HoweU), or Henry PhiUips, both guilty of the most
heinous crime, should pass through their territory, or that of
their aUies, they take care to apprehend and send them over to
* Vitellius, B. xxi., No. 39, and fol. 103.

264 PHILLIPS AND GRIFFITH DENOUNCED. [book i.
England at his charge. He advises Stayber to endeavour by
spies, " on both public and private roads," to trace these men,
and so get them into his power.
These letters furnish one proof, among others, of that wide
spread discontent which now prevailed against the King.
Gryffith and PhiUips were not precisely of the same party before
this ; but there was an evident sympathy between all these male-
contents, wherever they dwelt, and whenever they met ; and
they were all, more or less, acting in concert, either against his
Majesty's proceedings, or " the new learning."
As for this man, with whom PhUlips is now classed, James
Gryffith or James Greffeth ap-Howell, as he is sometimes called,
he was not a common individual, or, like PhiUips, of low
parentage, but the son of a gentleman in Wales, and a nephew
of Sir Bice ap- Thomas, the well-known military commander,
under both Henry VIII. and his father. Gryffith had been
imprisoned in London ; but, according to this letter, pardoned.
This was in 1533, on which he fled, in June of that year, into
Scotland ; where Lord Dacre and T. Wharton, the ambassadors,
were ordered to watch him. He went not alone ; on the 2nd of
July, Dacre informs Henry direct, that he had come to St.
Ninian's, near Stirling, having his wife and eight persons with
him, and that he named himself uncle to (Sir Griffith) Bice of
Wales, the son of Sir Bice already mentioned. From thence he
soon proceeded to Edinburgh, with his train, " well favoured •
and appointed;" where, though not received bj the King, he
frequently " resorted to the Lords of the CouncU." So long as
Scotland was at war with England, he wished to remain, and
was permitted to do so for some time ; but by the month of
December we find him in Antwerp, where he had been evi
dently desirous of stirring up war with England, and proffering
aid from Wales, if Queen Mary and the Emperor's Council"
would only send ships across the sea. Carondelet, the Arch
bishop of Palermo, declined, saying that the King of England,1
the Emperor, and that country were friends. In May 1534,
Gryffith was at Lubeck, and had gone from place to place, as he
was doing still. The truth is, that both of these men, whether
separately or in company, were now on their way towards
Cardinal Pole. He became the nucleus of all the disaffected.

1536.] INDIFFERENCE OF ENGLAND. 265
Every one that was discontented, in distress, or in debt, gathered
round him, or at least applied to him ; and although neither
PhiUips nor Gryffith received encouragement, in two years after
this, we shaU find the former, unwittingly, excite in Pole the
utmost fear and apprehension.
It cannot be forgotten, that PhiUips had, within the Court of
Queen Mary, denounced Henry as " a tyrant and a robber of the
commonwealth." The " first-fruits," no doubt, had already
been consigned to the King, and he was, at the moment, in the
act of receiving the spoils of the monasteries ; but this man had
been permitted to remain unreproved by the Court of Brussels ;
while Gryffith, for a longer period, had been allowed to harbour
in Flanders. This, for political reasons, had been hitherto
endured ; but, as the Emperor and Francis were, though known
to few, actually preparing for war, and Henry had resolved to
remain neutral, hence we account for the English envoy,
Mr. Vaughan, being now withdrawn. But to the disgrace of
the King of England, this envoy, the only one who had ever
spoken favourably of Tyndale, is recalled without a commission
to say one word to save his life.
Nine months ago, or in August last year, both Crumwell and
Cranmer had been very pointedly informed, by their common
agent, of Tyndale's situation, as well as of the myrmidons
who had betrayed him ; the first generous visit of Mr. Poyntz,
post haste, after this, had confirmed the whole ; when at last,
in October, Crumwell sent one solitary letter. Since then,
here was Mr. Poyntz, escaped to England only with his life,
and now comes Stephen Vaughan, who once pled so power
fully against persecution for opinions. But no ; nothing was
done !
It has now, therefore, become but too apparent, that neither
Henry, nor his Ministers, were free from the blood of WiUiam
Tyndale. Had he, or they, exerted their official power to the
last, the guilt might have fallen not so heavy upon them ; but
instead of this, they had all, as we have seen, only ten days
before Vaughan's letter, stepped into blood at home ; and what
sympathy or generous feeUng could be expected from them ?5
5 The 17th and 19th of May were indeed days of blood in London ; when

266 COURT OF BRUSSELS. [book I.
His own county having thus left him to perish, the only
remaining quarter to which we can turn, is to the Government
of Flanders itself. Curiosity must be awake to know the
character of the parties into whose hands Tyndale had fallen.
The reigning princess, Mary, was merely a vassal of the priests.
With the chief man, stiU in power, Carondelet, the Archbishop
of Palermo, we have been long famUiar, and to him the character
of Tyndale must have been weU known for nine years past, at
least ; but he was a mere courtier, without heart ; and from the
days in which Cornelius Grapheus, the learned Secretary of
Antwerp, had, under his eye, suffered so severely, for publishing
a book on " the liberty of the Christian Beligion," he had been
famUiar with cruelty. No mercy was therefore to be expected
from him. Erardus a Marchia, the Cardinal and Bishop of
Liege, the man to whom Beginald Pole fled next year for pro
tection, was, of course, a determined opponent of the Scriptures ;
and Montigni lived under the sovereign power of the monks.
Such were the men of influence and authority. It was only
three years since Erasmus himself, that eminent reviver of
Uterature, was invited to this Court. But he was then, and
ever afterwards, afraid to venture near it, even though the
Emperor himself had invited him, and money had been remitted
to defray his travelling charges. Some time after this invitation,
his picture of the Government was sufficiently graphical, and it
serves our present purpose. Having referred to the monks, in
a letter to Cholerus, in 1534, he says — "These animals are
omnipotent at the Emperor's Court," in the Low Countries.
"Mary is a mere puppet, maintained by our nation; Montigni,
a man of authority, is a tool of the Franciscans ; the Cardinal of
Liege is an ambitious friend, and when he takes offence, a violent
enemy ; the Archbishop of Palermo is a giver of good words,
and nothing else."
And thus it is, at last, that the history of the times, and
of the men of the times, whether in England or Brabant,
but too well prepares us for anticipating the martyrdom at
Vilvorde.

Queen Anne, Lord Rochford, Sir P. Weston, Sir H. Norris, and others, were
unj ustly put to death.

1536.] HOME AND ABROAD IMPLICATED. 267
After the escape of Mr. Poyntz, " Tyndale," we are informed
by Foxe, " was proffered an advocate and a procuror ; for in any
crime there, it shaU be permitted to counsel to make answer in
the law ; but he refused to have any, saying, that he would
make answer for himself; and so he did." But at last, after
much reasoning, when no reason would serve, although he
deserved no death, he was condemned, by virtue of the Emperor's
decree at Augsburg. Such had been " the power of his doctrine,
and the sincerity of his Ufe, that during the time of his impri
sonment, which endured about one whole year and a-half, (or
rather a year and three-quarters,) it is said he converted his
keeper, the keeper's daughter, and others of his household.
The rest that were in the Castle, and conversant with Tyndale,
reported of him, that if he were not a good Christian man, they
could not teU whom to trust : and the Procurator- General, the
Emperor's attorney, being there, left this testimony of him, that
he was ' Homo doctus, puis, et bonus'' — a learned, pious, and good
man." The decree issued at Augsburg, on the 19th of November,
1530, was still in fuU force, after which, no man was admitted
into the judicature of the Imperial Chamber, unless he approved
of it ; and the Privy CouncU of Brussels, of which Carondelet
was President, enjoyed ample authority in all matters, religious
as well as political. The persecutors of Tyndale, therefore,
knew full weU, since his own King and CouncU had left him to
perish, how they could, at any time, close the controversy, and
slay him. That detestable decree had not only enjoined the
continuance of aU the former ceremonies, rites, and superstitions,
— but particularly rejected the doctrine of justification by faith
alone. The doctors of Louvain must have discussed many sub
jects with their prisoner. His translation of the Scriptures, of
course, he would defend to the last ; but here was one point, on
which Tyndale would remain firm as a rock. There was no
man in Germany, to say nothing of England, who had written
with greater distinctness on the subject of justification ; no man
who had discovered a more profound esteem for this sacred and
precious truth. This was one of those " high matters," on which
'f. he had so warmly pressed his dearest earthly friend, Fryth, to
remain immovable in London ; and it is not a little remarkable,

268 MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE. [book I,
that, at this moment, besides his New Testament in folio,
Tyndale's first publication was either printing or finished, and
in London, too, under this very title — " A treatise of justification
by faith only, otherwise caUed, The Parable of the Wicked
Mammon." From the past history frequently showing how early, and
with what accuracy, Tyndale was in possession of intelligence
from England, we have already supposed it to be quite possible,
that, though in prison, he may have heard of many things that
had occurred there, during the last nine months; and, more
especially, that his New Testament, as corrected in 1534, was so
pouring into his native land, by repeated editions, from Antwerp.
This is the more probable, from his having been made useful
to the keeper of the Castle and his famUy, having thus gained
their favour. But, besides this, all that he had translated, was
now actuaUy proceeding to the press, in foUo, and under the eye
of a competent friend and great admirer, John Bogers. This
was more than CrumweU, or Cranmer, or the King, yet knew;
although the volume was to prove absolutely the first Bible, the
reading of which throughout England they were to enjoin !
But now, and after such years of persecution, the end was
come ! !
It appears to have been at some hour on Friday, the 6th of
October, 1536, that Tyndale was led forth to be put to death.
Before leaving the Castle, he delivered a letter to the keeper,
addressed either to Mr. or Mrs. Poyntz of Antwerp ; but no
copy of it remains. Having reached the fatal spot, the noble ,
martyr was fastened to the stake — upon which, crying with
a fervent zeal, and a loud voice — " Lord ! open the eyes or
the King of England" — he was first strangled, and then his
body was consumed to ashes ! Though, strange to say, even
up to this hour, " no marble teUs us where l* For surely, if
ever the lines of England's choicest Christian poet were strictly
applicable to any single man, every word, by way of eminence,
belongs to the Memory of WUliam Tyndale, —
 " His blood was shed
In confirmation of the noblest claim,
Our claim to feed upon immortal truth,
To walk with God, to be divinely free,

1536.] HIS WONTED BENEVOLENCE. 269
To soar, and to anticipate the skies.
Yet few remember him. He lived unknown
Till persecution dragg'd him into fame,
And chased him up to Heaven. His ashes flew —
No marble tells us whither.0 With his name
No bard embalms and sanctifies his song ;
And history, so warm on meaner themes,
Is cold on this."
Tyndale's dying invocation most emphaticaUy expressed his
opinion of Henry VIII. ; and uttered, as it was, with a loud
voice, though in a foreign land, was meant to be heard, if not
also carried to England. The precise meaning of the speaker,
in these dying words, it may be difficult to divine ; but if
Cranmer could go so far as to grossly flatter his Majesty, even
on the third of May, Tyndale told him the truth with his
last breath, from the stake, on the sixth of October. He re
garded aU that Henry had yet done, as the work of a
blind man, and certainly this was the most charitable of aU
constructions. Though to us now, who view the royal progress
entire, and such as it was, that bhndness, even by this
time, was no longer a mere misfortune, but his crime.
The King had already, and but too manifestly, closed his eyes,
and hardened his heart, of which his future life will afford the
saddest evidence.
As for the Martyr himself, since no good man was ever cut
off in the midst of his usefulness, so neither was Tyndale.
His work was done, and by an invincible providence, he had
been singularly preserved to the last. In the councUs of
heaven, he had accomplished, as a faithful servant, his day,
and evening's welcome hour had come. Occupying a place in
the history of his country, which no other man could ever
occupy after him, he was now called off from his labour, and
with a character unspotted. That character has been drawn
long ago, and with so much of simple beauty, that we must
give it entire. Oh, what a contrast does it exhibit to almost
aU those men around him, whether at home or abroad, to whom
his hfe and labours have constrained us to allude !

B How long shall this be true ? How long shall England's best benefactor be
without a monument to speak a nation's gratitude ?

270 HIS AMPLE REWARD. [book I.
"First, he was a man very frugal, and spare of body,' a great student, and
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 overburdened with children, or else were
aged and weak, those 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 exhibition that he had yearly, of the Enghsh 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 Hke 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. In this faith he died, with constancy, at Vilvorde, and
now resteth with the glorious company of Christ's martyrs, blessedly in the
Lord. — And thus much of the life and story of the true servant and martyr of
God, William Tyndale, who, for his notable pains and travail, may well be
called the Apostle of England, in this our latter age. "

Such was the estimate of old John Foxe in his day ; and
though, in various instances, he stands chargeable with indis
criminate praise, in the present he has not exceeded ; nay,
living so early, he could not be expected to distinguish the
relative greatness, and peculiar distinction of Tyndale's cha
racter. Standing above all his contemporaries, with only one
man by his side, his companion Fryth, he had never temporised,
never courted human favour, never compromised or sacrificed
one iota of Divine truth; but with his face to the foe, and
dying on the shield of faith, he was called to quit the well-
fought field, for his mansion near the throne ; to refresh him
self, after the dust and turmoil and heat of the day, in the
paradise of God, to exchange contention with the votaries of
darkness and superstition, for the harmony and the light of

1536.] THE FRIEND OF TYNDALE. 271
heaven; the solitude of his dungeon, for the presence of his
Bedeemer, in the city of the living God.
But the influence and usefulness of such a man, could not
possibly die with him. If he had now rested from all his
labour, we shaU find his works foUowing him. The light he
had kindled, was to prove " the joy of many generations."
Hence the force of individual consistent Christian character —
the importance of individual exertion.
At the place of honour, or as it were close by the martyr's
stake, we must not omit to notice his kind and generous friend,
Thomas Poyntz ; and the more so, since it has never been
before observed who he was. It is well that we have one
Englishman, who boldly stood by our illustrious countryman
to the last, and only left him at the risk of his own life, when
he could do no more. He is entitled to the grateful remem
brance of posterity.
The Poyntz family, descended from Drago FitzPons, who
accompanied WUliam the Conqueror into England, is weU
known to have been one of the most ancient in England.
One branch settling in Gloucestershire, and another in Essex ;
it is singular enough, that Tyndale commenced his career with
the one, and closed it with the other. The Lady of Sir John
Walsh, where he had been tutor, was the daughter of Sir
Bobert Poyntz of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire ; and Mr.
Poyntz, with whom he last Uved at Antwerp, was the second
son, and finaUy the heir of the Essex family.
When Tyndale was seized, it lends additional interest to the
zeal of this gentleman at the moment, when it is observed
that he had been but recently married, and to a German lady,
Ann, the daughter of John Calva, Esq. To her, after the
confusion had subsided, and notwithstanding the state of the
Continent, or the risk he had run, he returned ; and became
the father of three sons, Gabriel, Ferdinand, and Bobert, and
of one daughter, Susanna.
The Manor-house of North Okendon, in Essex, eighteen
miles from London, to which he addressed his letters, and to
which, of course, he fled from Brussels, had been in possession
of his ancestors from the days of Edward III. ; and his elder

272 THE FRIEND OF TYNDALE. [book I.
brother, John, to whom he wrote with such generous warmth
and so earnestly, having, by the death of his father, come to
the estate in the year 1500, died in the first of King Edward's
reign, without issue. Thomas, who survived him fifteen years,
but remained some time abroad, of course succeeded ; and dying
also at North Okendon, in 1562, lies there interred.
His eldest son, born about two years after Tyndale's death,
in 1538, Sir Gabriel Poyntz, High Sheriff of Essex, was in
terred by his father's side in 1607 ; and the only daughter,
Susanna, married to the Mayor of London, Sir Bichard
Saltonstall, lies by a mural monument in the adjoining parish
of South Okendon.
Although acquainted with the history of this ancient and
retired parish church, the writer could not be satisfied without
visiting the burial-place of Mr. Poyntz, and examining for
himself the memorials of his family. He was chiefly desirous
of ascertaining, not only what vestiges remained, but whether
there was any expression stiU legible, in regard to by far the
most memorable event in the life of Tyndale's friend; and
more especially because the interpretation intended to be con
veyed by the Unes on his tomb, had never been adverted to by
any author. Most probably they have never before been un
derstood, except by relatives at the time of his decease.
It was in the month of September 1837, or precisely' three
hundred years after the English Bible at which Tyndale
laboured, the basis of all following editions, had reached this
country. He found the little church, with its flint stone
embattled tower covered with ivy, in a condition distinguished
for its cleanliness ; and the monuments of different families,
some of them in elegant marble, in perfect preservation ; but
the humbler tablets excited the deepest interest.
In a horizontal line, in the wall of the Chancel, are the
monuments of the Poyntz family, in regular succession from
about the middle of the fourteenth century ; while that of
Tyndale's devoted friend remains, easily to be distinguished
from the others, by its still conveying to the reader, what had
been his own impressions, in reference to the scene through
which he had passed at Brussels. ¦
" This gentleman, for his most faithful service to his Prince,

1536.] THE FRIEND OF TYNDALE. 273
and his most ardent profession of the truth of the gospel, was
in bonds, and suffered imprisonment in countries bej^ond seas,
so that he was, at this time, evidently destined to death; but
forecasting with himself, relying on Divine Providence, he
wonderfuUy escaped out of prison. In this Uttle chapel, he
now peacefully sleeps in the Lord. Anno 1562, or the 5th of
Queen Elizabeth." The following is the epitaph, as copied
from the tablet in the waU : —
"Thomas Poyntz Armiger [filius Gulielmi] Pointz, ad quem post mortem
fratris, Joannis, Dominufm hujus villa?] et patronatus Ecclesiae pervenit ; qui
duxit in matrimonium Annam van Calva, Filiam et unam cohseredam Joannis
Calvse Armigeri nationeq. Germani, ex qva genvit Gabrielem, Ferdinandum ac
Eobertum filios, filiamq. unam Susanam.
"Hie pro fidelissimo Principis svi servitio, ac ardentissimo eu. angelica1 veri
tatis professione uincvla, et incarcerationes in transmarinis regionibvs passus est,
adeo ut Caedi jam plane destinatus esset, nisi divina fretus providentia euasione
§ carcere mirifice sibi prospexisset : in hoc sacello jam placide obdormit in
Domino anno 1562. E. Keg. Eliz. quinto."
At that early period, there may have been some prudential
reason for the immortal name of Tyndale not being mentioned.
But now, after the lapse of three centuries, without this ex
pressive key to the inscription being known to many genera
tions, to the audience assembling there every week, or, perhaps,
to any other persons ; tiU this be hinted, the Unes themselves
convey but feeble meaning. To this name alone, the epitaph
owes aU its emphasis ; and to it, the humble tablet may,
perhaps, now owe a more frequent inspection. Passed over
hitherto, without marked observation, if we once except the
Manor-house of Little Sodbury, it is the solitary reUc left upon
English ground, pointing to perhaps the greatest benefactor that
our native country ever enjoyed.
As for the exceUent man himself, this unpretending me
morial has, aU along, conveyed his own testimony to survivors ;
but a far more conspicuous token of respect for his memory
may now well be erected ; and the people should know how much
they stand indebted to a man " sleeping peacefuUy in the
Lord," in the vault below.
Let us now turn to a very different subject, and present a
melancholy, though instructive view, in the dark side of this
entire picture. T

274 THE MISERABLE BETRAYERS. [book I.
The two unhappy men, agents of their party, Henry PhiUips,
the reputed gentleman, and Gabriel Donne, the servant in dis
guise, who had been hired to apprehend Tyndale, and who
entered so heartily into the design, now present a contrast of
the blackest hue. No particulars respecting them have ever
been recorded ; but because of their sad connexion with Tyndale,
they must not now be consigned to oblivion.
As to Phillips, we still stand mainly indebted to Theobald,
in his official correspondence, as a spy, employed alike by
CrumweU and Cranmer. In the year 1535, PhiUips, as we
have seen, had been watching Theobald for months after his
departure from Louvain ; but the latter had proceeded on his
way, stopping only for a short time at Cologne, Frankfort, and
Heidelberg. He then visited Nuremberg, Wittenberg, Augs
burg, Ulm, and Tubingen. From Augsburg, in March 1538,
he writes to Cranmer about Gryffith, whom he might have
apprehended if he had had a commission, but says nothing of
PhiUips. However, from Padua, in October of the year follow
ing, he writes to Crumwell, that Harry Phillips, lately student
in Louvain, " at what time he betrayed good Tyndale," had come
from Flanders to Italy to beg succours of Cardinal Pole, but
that some , suspicious circumstances in his appearance induced
the Cardinal's friends to fancy he was a spy, or even a traitor
sent by the party in power in England to assassinate him ; and
hence, instead of affording him any assistance, they had closely
watched him, and prevented him from entering the territory
of Venice, where the Cardinal was. Beduced to extremities,
Phillips begged for money from all parties to assist him to
return to Flanders, but, suspected and avoided by all, none
would afford him the least aid, till, driven by necessity, he sold
his clothes, and is supposed to have entered the army of some
one of the powers that were then at war in the south of
Europe. No more is heard of him. ,
Thus sunk into oblivion one of the betrayers of our Trans- ,
lator. He might descend into battle and perish, or die in
misery before long ; but not so the other man, the Monk, the
elder, and probably by far the more guilty, of the two.
Gabriel Donne or Dunne, the Monk of Stratford Abbey,
has hitherto remained unobserved or unknown, at least as the

1536.] DONNE, THE ACCOMPLICE AVITH PHILLIPS. 275
crafty assistant of Phillips ; and for three hundred years his
name has escaped that disgrace, which, it is to be feared, must
now ever rest upon it. In extenuation of himself, Phillips not
only pled his youth, but complained of his having been the
victim of " evil counsel ; " and a shrewd Cistercian monk, so
much older than himself, would not be slow to tender it, on
such an occasion ; while the money, with which PhiUips was
so plentifully furnished, and of which he boasted, proves that
there were other powerful prompters to the heinous deed.
Donne was originally a Student of Trinity Hall, Cambridge,
and afterwards entered the Abbey of Stratford near London, of
which he became a conspicuous inmate. A suit arising in 1514
between the Abbot and Convent, who were patrons of the living
of Westham on the one side, and the Vicar of* Westham on
the other, "the provident and religious man Gabriel Donne,
Monk of the blessed Mary of Stratford of the order of Cister
cians," appeared and stood Proctor for the Convent in the
cause, which was carried by appeal to Borne. He next appears,
as we have seen, in 1535, in the degraded character of a spy
and tool of the " old learning " party, hired to seize the long-
persecuted Translator of the Scriptures. Beturning to
England from Louvain, his friends, or perhaps those who em
ployed him in that infamous service, had influence enough with
CrumweU to get him appointed Abbot of Buckfastleigh, in
Devonshire, and he was actually present in that character at
the Convocation held at St. Paul's in June 1536 (see p. 249),
and his signature appears subscribed to the Articles then
issued. He surrendered his Abbey in 1539 and received a
pension of £120 per annum, equal in value to £1,800 at
present. He afterwards became a Prebendary of St. Paul's
and Bector of Stepney, sine cura ; and was actually appointed
by Cranmer, who can hardly have known his character or
history, his Official and Keeper of the Spiritualities in the
City and Diocese, and was so till the appointment of Nicolas
Bidley, in April 1550. He died in 1558, and was buried in
St. Paul's, having kept his preferments through all the changes
of political and religious opinion of these chequered years.
Such was the end of Phillips' " man of counsel " in the appre
hension of Tyndale. Permitted by the long suffering of God
t 2

276 THE ONLY PROSPEROUS CAUSE. [book I.
to exist for twenty-three years after his sad exploit at Antwerp,
he seems to have died without any remorse. Living as he did,
and for some time under such favourable circumstances, under
Bidley, nay till above thirty editions of the entire Scriptures,
and about seventy of the New Testament, had issued from the
press ; all was in vain !
Such were the two men who had been richly hired to en
snare and seize Tyndale. In the one accomplice, there is to be
seen nothing but a fugitive and a vagabond to his dying day ;
in the other, a man who had time given him for reflection,
and space for repentance ; but we search in vain for either the
one or the other. So true it is, in many instances, that though
"favour be shown to the wicked, yet wUl he not learn righteous
ness ; he will not behold the majesty of the Lord." It is not
for us to draw rash conclusions as to the state of the dead, and
far from our province, to pronounce judgment ; whUe no man
can say, with impunity, that the ways of Jehovah are not
equal. The awful consequences of cruelty and sin are certain,
though not immediate ; and " though a sinner do evil an
hundred times," said the wisest of men, " and his days be
prolonged ; yet surely I know that it shall be well with them
that fear God," with them only " who fear before him."
To those who have never before been aware of the fact, it
must appear extraordinary, that the Martyrdom of Tyndale,
the first translator of our Bible into English, should stand so
emphatically by itself. There was no other, with which the
Councils of England, and of a Continental kingdom, were both
concerned ; no other, in the guilt of which, both our own
country, and a foreign power, were alike involved. The eyes of
Henry the Eighth, and those of his Ministers, were wide open,
when the martyr fell under a decree of the Emperor Charles V.
Considered as an event, amidst all the wide-spread and long-
continued violence of the times, his martyrdom rises up to view,
and appears Uke a conspicuous solitary column. If there be any
memento inscribed, it is a double one — German on one side, but
English on the other.
In this, the year of the Translator's martyrdom, was there to
be no demand for the work of his hands ? Was truth to be
silent or suppressed, because folly frowned ? So far from this,

1536.] THE IMBECILITY OF OPPOSITION. 277
though the two last years had been more highly distinguished
than ever, for the number of editions, the present year exceeded
them both put together. Or, to speak more generally and from
the beginning : from the year 1525 to 1530 there had been at
least six impressions, which, on an average, was more than one
edition annuaUy ; since then there had been seven if not eight
editions, which was equal to two every year ; but in this one
year, or the last of the Translator's Ufe, there were nine if not
ten editions from the press. One gentleman, deeply conversant
with the subject, does not despair of his being able to make out
the round dozen.
Once more, therefore, and for the third time, the members of
the Convocation had met again, as if resolved to force them
selves upon the notice of every future historian, and we have
already seen them striving to settle matters of high behest ;
but to the highest of aU, or the Sacred Volume itself, we are
here confined ; and, now that Tyndale is gone, it seems to be
due to his proceedings, to glance at what these men had as yet
said; for there had been nothing done, as Latimer, with such
pungent or galling frequency, had thundered in their ear.
They pray " that the King would graciously indulge unto his
subjects of the laity the reading of the Bible in the English
tongue," though as yet, by their own showing, there was not a
Bible to read ; they therefore go on to petition, " That a new
translation be forthwith made for that end and purpose." By
this expression new did they mean to frown on the translation
of the New Testament already in the hands of thousands ? or,
to cast contempt on that part of the Old Testament translation
already published ? or, to slight Coverdale's new-born attempt
to complete it ?
AU this, however, only lends additional interest to the vo
lumes, which, throughout the whole year, had been issuing
from the press, and coming into England "thick and three-.
fold," without the " gracious indulgence" of his Majesty being
either asked or granted. Of these New Testaments three
separate and entirely distinct editions were in quarto. Of the
duodecimo or small octavo size we know of five editions ;
and though in these pages we adhere to those books only which
have been verified, we may add that another edition, if not two,

278 FOLIO NEW TESTAMENT. [book I.
may yet be ascertained to exist. All these editions, with the
exception of one, had been printed abroad in Antwerp; but
that one, in several respects, may be considered as equal in im
portance to all the others. The size of the book, in folio ; the
season of its publication, the present year ; but above all, the
printer and the place, his Majesty's own patent printer in London;
all conspire to render the volume even stiU a mystery. It
comes before us, unaccountably, as the top stone of this hazard
ous but successful enterprise ; brought into view, also, about the
very time when our Translator was breathing his last, or con
suming to ashes at VUvorde. Some account of it, in particular,
must not be withheld. »
"The Newe testament yet ones agayne corrected by W. Tyndale : And in
many places ameded, where it scaped before by neglygence of the printer. Also
a Kalender, and a necessary table, wherein easely and lightly maybefounde any
story coteyned in ye foure Euangelystes, and in the Actes of ye apostels. Also
before every pystel of S. Paul is a prologue, very frutefull to yc reder. And
after ye newe testament, foloweth the Epistels of y old testament. Newly
printed (by Tho. Berthelet) in the yere of our lorde mdxxxvl " — in the com
partment of the boys in triumph, and with a small medallion of a head laureated,
supported by sphynxes ; peculiar to this printing press.
Collation. — Prefixes, viz. Almanake 23 years — Kalender — W. T. to the
Christen Eeder — a prologue into the four Euangelystes — the Offyce of. all
Estates, and the Bokes conteyned in the Newe Testament : 14 leaves. The
Newe Testament contains folio cxcvii., but the folios run on to ccv. ; then the
table of the Epistles and the Gospels, in double columns, &c. But at the end
we have the following distinguishing mark — " God SAUE THE Kynge, and all
his well-wylleks." Words which may have been actually printing, and in
London too, not far from the hour when the Translator himself, the most emi
nent well-wilier the King ever had, was praying for him, and passing into
heaven. Of this rare volume, a copy now Ues before the writer.
Very correctly printed, it is, perhaps, the first to be distin
guished throughout for one peculiarity in its orthography,
viz. the Anglo-Saxon particle of negation, nat for not, and
Wffiwithstanding ; which was occasionally adopted after this,
as in the Latin and English edition of Bedman, 1538, and of
PoweU, in 1547 and 1549. In all other respects, the book is
an exact reprint of Tyndale's corrected edition in 1534,
having his name on the title-page, and his long prologue to
the Bomans, which, by itself, had been so often and so long
condemned !

1536.] FIRST TESTAMENT PRINTED IN ENGLAND. 279
The name of Thomas Berthelet as printer, it is true, is not
mentioned, whether out of delicacy to the Bishops and their
adherents, we cannot tell ; but Ames, Herbert, and Dibdin,
agree in ascribing the book to his press. It is known, indeed,
by the type, and the ornamental title of the boys in triumph.
In the Harleian Library there were two copies of this edition,
one of them bound in red morocco, finely ornamented with
gold. It is probably one of these which is now in the Bodleian
at Oxford. But at such a season as this, in this style, and by
the King's printer, the book, we repeat, is a mystery • still.
Must it not have been got up under favour of the late Queen ?
Such a supposition is only in harmony with her letter to
CrumweU, on behalf of Mr. Harman, and with Henry's printer
being the man employed. But, at aU events, such was the
first Sacred Volume printed on English ground.
We, of course, cannot be supposed to, have attached any
essential influence to the late Queen. But, in conclusion of
this year, it ought to be remembered, that as she was now
gone, and her influence at Court, whatever was its amount, had
died with her ; this wiU now render the future overruling of
the King and his adherents, or of aU surviving parties, only the
more obvious and distinct.
In Bunyan's immortal story of the " Holy War," when ear-
gate was once broken up, and its bolts and bars shivered into
a thousand pieces, Emmanuel himself came forward, and set his
throne in it ; the weapons of war were then carried within the
waUs, to be employed on the citadel of the heart. So, in this
long and arduous contest, Wolsey and Warham, Fisher and
More, with many other opponents, were now gone ; but if
printers within the shores of England, and near to Henry's
own person, have begun thus to act, what will signify aU his
proclamations, or the wrath of all his official men ? In truth,
the day was nearly won. The printing press abroad was now
busy, in a style quite unprecedented ; and next year, though
quite unforeseen by the King, or Crumwell, or Cranmer, the
victory wUl be complete ! They had no idea whatever, of what
was awaiting them, only eight months hence.

280 ENTIRE SACRED VOLUME. [book i.

MDXXXV1I.
MEMORABLE INTRODUCTION OF THE ENTIRE SACKED VOLUME — MYLES COVER-
DALE — HIS CIRCUMSTANCES COMPARED WITH TYNDALE'S — COVERDALE'S TEM
PORARY SUCCESS — THE REMARKABLY SUDDEN CHANGE- TYNDALE'S BIBLE-
ITS ARRIVAL — ITS RECEPTION — BOUGHT AND READ — THE KING AGREES—
CRAFTON THE PROPRIETOR — ALL PARTIES OVERRULED — CONCLUSION OP THE
FIRST YEAR OF TRIUMPH.
),. ith regard to the highest favour ever bestowed upon
j this kingdom, there are no years so marked and
memorable as those of 1526 and 1537. The former,
distinguished by the arrival and introduction of the
New Testament Scriptures, printed in the native
tongue ; the latter, by that of the entire Sacred
Volume. The former, in defiance of aU the authori
ties ; the latter, with the immediate concurrence of the King
and his best advisers. The former came as Tyndale's first
effort ; the latter arrived as the distinct and appropriate tribute
to his memory ; both alike being foreign printed books.
It was now above fourteen years since the design had been
first formed. Up to this period, there had been more than ten
years of hard fighting, in single combat, with the nation entire,
from its monarch downwards ; but more than twenty editions of
Tyndale's translation of the New Testament had passed through
the press. They had gone into a thousand unknown channels ;
deep, nay, indelible was the impression already made upon
many minds. Latimer has informed the Convocation of his
brethren, that among the people there were " many children of
light;" and Fox has told them, that "the lay people knew the
Holy Scriptures better than many of themselves ;" but it was
time that the King and all around him should be overruled.
The day drew near, though they knew not of it. The Trans
lator was gone, it is true, but his translations were safe ; and
not only in safe keeping, but in the press. The volume must
have been preparing before he was consumed to ashes. But,
at aU events, the Scriptures entire, from Genesis to Bevelation,
will now be introduced; and his Majesty, however incensed
before, or armed with power and pride still, must at once bow
in assent, and all other men proceed, as it had been appointed

1537.] MYLES COVERDALE. 281
they should. The opposition hitherto had been both loud and
long ; but when once the day for the arrival of the Scriptures
comes, not a man must move his tongue agamst them.
We have heard already of one translation of the Bible by
Coverdale ; but the death of Queen Anne had retarded its
appearance in England. Henry had married Jane Seymour,
after which the name of her predecessor here inserted was no
passport to royal favour. Some time, however, having once
elapsed, although there be no positive proof of this book having
ever been laid before the King, what is curious enough, a
reprint of it had obtained favour in his eye ; so that we are
now prepared for a comparison of Coverdale's Bible, with that
of Tyndale, edited by his surviving devoted friend John
Bogers, under the name of Thomas Matthew, and imported
this year.
It is remarkable that such obscurity should have rested on
the origin of our two first Translators of the Scriptures ;
though that which still prevails over the very name and
parentage of Coverdale, i>e by far the greatest. No such sur
name being certainly known to exist, in the person of any
other man, it has been supposed to have been taken or given,
as in foreign countries, from the district in Yorkshire where
he was born. The parish or township of Coverham, near
Middleham, in the North Biding of that county, claims him
for a native. Burnet strangely imagined him to be a foreigner,
and native of Denmark. Into this mistake he may have been
led, from Coverdale having afterwards married abroad, though
this was to a lady of Scotch extraction, Elizabeth Macheson ;
a circumstance which we shaU find proved of great value to
him, in the reign of Queen Mary. The surname itseU being
so unknown, if Lewis be correct in saying that one of this
name took the degree of Bachelor of Canon Law at Cam
bridge, a.d. 1531, it could scarcely apply to any other than
the future Translator ; and it seems no unsuitable introduction
to his engagements from that very time. According to Godwin,
he received a doctor's degree from Tubingen, and, though late
in life, was admitted ad eundepi at Cambridge, but no dates are
mentioned. The origin and progress of Coverdale's translation have

282 MYLES COVERDALE. [book I.
remained in equal obscurity ; and hence the extremely different
opinions which have been hazarded as to the length of time he
occupied in preparing for the press, or in printing it after it
was ready.1 If he had overtaken a translation of the entire
Sacred Volume in the space of two years, or even three, and
employed nearly another in printing it, when the time in which
he lived is considered, it will be allowed by all who are com
petent to judge, that he must have been very busUy occupied.
And if it shall turn out that he was not only unmolested, but
fostered in his undertaking, this he may have accomplished.
Extreme opinions, so wild or wide of the truth, whether on
marble or in print, need not be refuted ; though they show the
necessity for some more feasible and distinct account, if any
evidence can be found.
We have heard of Coverdale before, again and again ; though
to those who have ever paid any attention to the subject,
by this time it may have appeared extraordinary, that we
should seem to have either forgotten him, or omitted frequent
mention of his name. But the truth is, that we have searched
for him aU along, and yet, upon the broad surface of aU these
manuscripts, with the exception of one significant letter, we
have not found a single intelligible allusion, since after meeting
with him in Hamburg, according to Foxe. We supposed that
he had then returned again into England. This he certainly
did, granting our old historian to be correct in thus sending
him abroad ; for the whole story rests upon his sole authority.
But this was above six years ago. Amidst this unbroken

1 Upon a marble tablet erected to his memory, by the parishioners of St.
Magnus in London, • where he used to preach, they have engraved, that he
"spent many years of his life in preparing a translation of the Scriptures;" and
they add — "On the 4th of October mdxxxv. the first complete English
printed version of the Bible was published under his direction." On the other
hand, more recently, in "a historical account of the Enghsh versions of the
Scriptures,'' we have been told that instead of "many years," this translation
of the entire Bible "could not have commenced before November 1534, and,
probably, it was not until the following month ! Thus, the longest time that
Coverdale could have had for the completion, both of the translation and of the
printing, was eleven months ; and if this work did, in any way, result from the
resolutions of tho Convocation, 19th December, 1534, then the whole was exe
cuted in the short space of nine monthi and a half/ The time when he began
was certainly not previous to November, l.r>34."

1537.] MYLES COVERDALE. 283
silence, however, we have this epistle from Coverdale himself,
and but- one, which has effectually prevented him from being
forgotten. It would scarcely have been intelligible much before
the present year, when, wherever he had been, we find him, for
the first time, and then certainly upon English ground.
There is one notable circumstance, connected with Coverdale's
name, which has never been pointed out, not the least curious
in the history of these stormy times. The reader need not here
be told, that a searching controversial war had been going on
in England for years, or that the man who enjoyed the melan
choly eminence of being the grand opponent to the new learn
ing, was Sir Thomas More. But it so happened, that in
opposing the translation of the Scriptures, and their introduction
into his native land, it was a main point with the Lord Chan
ceUor to report names ; and this he did, not only with accuracy,
but emphasis. Hence, not only is Tyndale named, times out of
number, and Fryth very frequently ; but we have " Friar
Barnes, sometime doctor in Cambridge;" "Friar Roye, the
apostate;" "George Constantyne ; " "George Joye, otherwise
caUed Clarke ;" " Bichard Bayfield, both a priest and a monk ;"
"Thomas Bilney;" "John Tewksbury;" "Thomas Hytton ;"
" John Byrte, otherwise calling himself Adrian, otherwise
John Bookbinder, and yet otherwise I cannot teU what." In
short, names were, in the Chancellor's esteem, of first-rate
importance in the controversy ; and, therefore, not only the
Translator himself, by way of eminence, but aU the subordinate
agents, who, in the humblest manner, aided in the importation
of his translation, or even read it, were held up to reprobation,
or to the terror of aU England. What, then, had become of
Coverdale ? Why was he not treated with derision as well as
Tyndale ? How is it, that in the wide compass of More's
voluminous controversy, the name of Coverdale is not exposed
as that of a deUnquent, nay, never once mentioned ? Was he
not engaged ? Must he not have been busUy at work somewhere,
at the same time that Sir Thomas More was so busy in ferret
ing out, and naming, every suspected individual ? We have
seen Coverdale make one narrow escape. His name, in 1528,
when so many men were punished, had been very distinctly
held up before Tunstal, as a noted delinquent. He had been

284 MYLES COVERDALE. [book I.
preaching ; he, as well as Barnes, had approved of Tyndale's
New Testament, and of its dispersion ; but we then quoted his
own letter to Crumwell, in August 1527, as accounting fully
for his safety, and his being then passed over in silence. But if
since that period, and more especially at the very season when
Sir Thomas was continuing to write so furiously against Tyn
dale's version, and all who dared to read it, Coverdale has been
engaged in translating ; and if by the close of 1535, be has
finished at press an impression of the English Bible, he must
have been employed upon it for a considerable time. There
can be now no doubt that he was, and as little that Sir Thomas
More had been perfectly aware of his occupation ; though his
singular silence, maintained throughout, must have always
remained a riddle, not to be solved, but for this one solitary
letter from Coverdale's own pen, which has never been printed
tiU within these few years. It is addressed to Crumwell2 —
" From the Augustine's this May-day." After good wishes in
the style of those times, he begs, —
" For the tender love of God, and for the fervent zeal that you have to virtue
and godly study, cordis genibus provolutus, I humbly desire and beseech your
goodness, of your gracious help. Now I begin to taste of Holy Scriptures;
now, honour be to God, I am set to the most sweet smell of holy letters, with
the godly savour of holy and ancient doctors, unto whose knowledge I cannot
attain, without diversity of books, as is not unknown to your most excellent
wisdom. Nothing in the world I desire, but books as concerning my learning.
They once had, I do not doubt but Almighty God shall perform that in me,
which He, of His most plentiful favour and grace, hath begun. Moreover, as
touching my behaviour, your Mastership's mind once known, with all lowliness I..
offer myself, not only to be ordered in all things, as sliall please your wisdom, but
also as concerning the education and instruction of others, alonly to ensue your
prudent counsel."
This document is important in several respects ; and though
the year in which it was written be not marked, the style
proves that CrumweU had already much in his power, and
that, therefore, he must have been engaged officiaUy near the
King. His Majesty's Commissioners in our day, who first
printed the letter, in 1830, have said — " From the superscrip
tion it was clearly before Crumwell became Secretary of State,
2 MS. CrumweU's Correspondence in the State Paper Office ; and see Gov.
State Papers, i., p. 383.

1537.] COVERDALE'S SITUATION. 285
probably before he was of the Frivy Council," and they have
dated it 1st May, 1532. But the " superscription" is literally
the same which Vaughan and others employed, when address
ing Crumwell in 1531 ; and as time must be allowed for
Coverdale to complete his translation, we are inclined to think
that the letter may have been written on May-day 1531. In
May 1530, the Bishops and Sir Thomas More were mad to fury
against Tyndale ; but by the next year, his influence being more
powerful than ever, CrumweU may have felt that something
must be attempted.
After such a letter, and "books once had," it is natural to
suppose that Coverdale lost no time. He had been set to
"the smeU of holy letters" by no common Patron — a man
rising into great power ; though the spot to which this second
translator retired has never yet been ascertained. But wherever
it was, there he sat down, and amidst aU the war's tumultuous
noise, as well as shielded from the keen arrows of the Lord
ChanceUor of England, he was left, like Luther on his moun
tain ground at Wartburg, to pursue the even tenor of his way.
How striking is the contrast, when we turn for a moment to
the situation of Tyndale, whether in 1531 or 1532 ? Having
had no fixed abode, no certain dweUing-place, but under the
pelting of a pitUess , storm, by May 1531, for more than seven
long years, he had already been doing his best for England.
As far as reproach, denunciation, and persecution, could go, it
might be said, " with many an arrow, deep infixed his panting
side was charged." — " As I now am," said he to Vaughan, in
April of that year, " very death were more pleasant to me than
life." Let the date given in the Government State Papers turn
out to be the correct one : then, at that moment, Sir Thomas
Elyot had been charged by Henry VIII. to seize Tyndale, if
he could ; at home, the Bishops were tormenting Latimer, and
burning Mr. Bainham ; and as Coverdale dates his letter from
St. Augustine's, he could scarcely miss hearing that gentleman,
with Tyndale's Testament in his hand, address the Congregation
there, as he did, with tears ! At aU events, if that letter was
written on May-day 1532, Bainham had been consumed to
ashes in Smithfield, that very morning.
If, however, we now assume the latest date, or that of the

286 coverdale's SITUATION [book I.
Government Commissioners, to be the true time, it is evident
Coverdale had quite enough to do for fully two years to come,
in bringing his manuscript of the entire Scriptures into such a
state, as that he could please his employers, with regard to any
word or any rendering contained in it.
According to his own expression, he was then ready to set
forth this special translation. In other words, he was then
ready for the press. Nor is the time unworthy of notice. It
wiU be remembered that by May in that year, Crumwell had
been appointed Secretary of State, and that his influence was
rising rapidly to its great height. He had, therefore, much
more in his power, whUe Coverdale, as we have seen for years
past, was at his disposal, or entirely subservient to his will.
Now, it was the New Testament, aU along, of which the autho
rities had been most afraid ; the systematic alteration of certain
words in it might be regarded as likely to allay their appre
hensions, and could be very easily done, before the manuscript
was committed to the press. At aU events, Coverdale was then
ready to " set forth " his translation, " according as he was
desired;" and the letter just quoted, indeed, is chiefly valuable
as a key to certain expressions to be found in the preliminary
matter affixed to the Bible of 1535. No fault can ever be
found with Coverdale's amiable temper as a man, while his
expressed humiUty as a scholar shines pre-eminent. Among
his contemporaries he must ever be ranked very high. As a
translator he did weU ; and had he not been encumbered with
patronage, he would have done far better. We must, however,
take the work as it came from his hands, and can now judge of
it only by its merits.
But if the situation of the two men has furnished one con
trast, the origin of the two translations presents another, not
less worthy of remembrance. The origin of Tyndale's must
ever be traced to his own bosom and conscience alone. Before
leaving England, he might have said, — " The word of the
Lord was in mine heart, as a burning fire shut up in my bones,
and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay;" nay,
and with the prophet of old, he might have added — " All my
familiars watched for my halting ; saying, Peradventure he
wUl be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall

1537.] COMPARED WITH TYNDALE'S. 287
take revenge upon him." With Coverdale, it was far otherwise.
It was an undertaking, no doubt, congenial with his taste ; but,
left to himself, if we are to believe his own words, he never
would have attempted it. In his prologue " to the Christian
reader," he styles his work a " special translation," because he
proceeded as he was desired under authority. " But, to say the
truth before God, it was neither my labour, nor my desire to have
this work put into my hands ; nevertheless, when I was instantly
required, though I could not do so weU as I would, I thought it
yet my duty to do my best, and that with a good wUl."
Then, again, as to the expense of this undertaking, Coverdale
was patronised. In Tyndale's case, under the influence of the
power of Christianity and the noblest patriotism, the whole
commenced at his own risk ; and purely for his country's
benefit, we have seen him, again and again, embarrassed in
more ways than one. But Coverdale had no risk whatever to
run. He was employed, and, whether he was to succeed or
not, the work was to involve him in no expense whatever.
He spake as he felt at the moment, and it was intended, no
doubt, as a hint to the King ; but certainly it was by far too
bold to say, that " he trusted, that God would bring his simple
and rude labour to good effect, seeing that others had been
moved by the Holy Ghost to undertake the cost of it." The
glaring truth was, .that the community at large had been even
by that time happUy brought into such a state, by manifold
editions of Tyndale's translation, that the patrons of Qoverdale
were moved by no higher feeUng than that of imperative ex
pediency ; and this feeling forms decidedly one of the strongest
1 testimonies to the effect and power of Tyndale's exertions.
Having proceeded however to the close, Coverdale had now to
approach his Majesty, no doubt under direction, that nothing
might be wanting to secure acceptance ; and therefore he came
with the first of those dedications, which, to say the least, ought
never to have been bound up with the word of the living God.
In the course of his dedication, he compares Henry VIII. to
Moses, to David, to Jehoshaphat, to Hezekiah, "yea, a very
Josias ;" and as if all this had not been too much, he says — " I
thought it my duty, and to belong unto my allegiance, when I
had translated this Bible, not only to dedicate this translation

288 coverdale's DEDICATION. [book I.
unto your Highness, but wholly to commit it unto the same : to
the intent that if any thing therein be translated amiss, it may
stand in your Grace's hands, to correct it, to amend it, to improve,
yea, and clean to reject it, if your godly wisdom shall think it
necessary !"
In the volume which Coverdale thus presented, were these
words, of his own translating, — " He that rebuketh a man, shall
find more favour at the last, than he that flattereth him;"
though, certainly, at the moment, it might seem, that under
such high patronage, and after incense so dense and abundant
as had been offered to his Majesty, he must succeed. And not
only succeed, but overshadow the man who had been so signally
raised up by God, and who, for twelve years, had been God's
own sanctioned instrument, for conveying into Britain His
blessed Word. Often have we marked his labours, as forming
a distinct and independent undertaking, with which Divine Pro
vidence would not permit mere time-serving men, whoever they
were, or worldly politicians, to interfere ; but how wiU it be
possible to draw this distinction now ? And, more especially, as
this is only the first of several distinct attempts, to bestow on
this country, a translation different from that of the first — the
unpatronised Tyndale's ?
Yet in serving man only, and in seeking to please him, there
are many critical moments ; while in serving God, there is not
one : and, therefore, with regard to this attempt, it so happened
that Coverdale had overshot the mark at a most critical period.
This might have well warned any future individual, of the
danger connected with such dedications. The last sheet of this
Bible having been put to press on the 4th of October, 1535,
Coverdale had closed the heading, or title, of his dedication to
Henry, by imploring the Divine blessing on himself, and his
" dearest just wife and most virtuous Princess, Queen Anne.
Any copy of this book, bound, could not have reached this
country before the beginning of 1536, at the soonest. But by
February, if not earlier, the very name of Queen Anne, so far
from being a passport to royal favour, was fatal to anything, to
which it was affixed ! Crumwell, too, as we have already seen,
had fallen in with the King's barbarous intentions, so that till
another Queen arose, in the person of Jane Seymour, the book

1537.] COVERDALE'S BIBLE. 289
must have remained unpresented. After that, it is true, the
Convocation assembled in June ; but, as a body, they appear to
have entertained no favour for the translation, — no, nor even
sympathy for those who, as Coverdale has told us, had been
" moved to pay the cost .'" So far from this, " the Convocation
agreed upon the form of a petition to be presented to the King,"
as already noticed, " That he would graciously indulge unto
his subjects of the laity, the reading of the Bible in the English
tongue, and that a new translation of it might be forthwith made,
for that end and purpose." And, therefore, said Lewis, it
appears that the Clergy did not approve of the translations
already made by Tyndale and Coverdale, and their oicn attempt
to have the royal permission to make a new one had not suc
ceeded. Here, however, was a Bible, completely finished by Coverdale, dated in
1535 ; and before any remarks respecting it, we give the Title and Collation.
"Biblia. The Bible, that is the holy Scripture of the Olde and New Testa
ment, faithfully and truly translated out of Douche and Latyn in to Englishe,
mdxxxv. " The book is in black letter, printed in double columns, in a foreign
secretary-gothic type, with wood-cuts ; but the dedication, prologue, and
contents of Genesis, are in a different letter. Collation. — Wood-cut title ; dedi.
cation to K. Henry VIII. including his "dearest just wife, and most vertuous
pryncesse, Queen Anne," — indicating the powerful influence she possessed in
that year, 5 pages. " A prologue to the reader," 6 pages. " The Bokes of the
hole Byble," 2 pages. "The contentes of the boke of Genesis," 1 page. " The
first book of Moses," fol. i. — xe. ; then a map of the Holy Land. "The second
parte of the Olde Testament," Josua to Hester, fob ii. — cxx. "Job to Solomon's
Balettes," foL i. — Iii. "All the Prophetes in Englishe," fol. ii. — eii. " Apo-
cripha," fob ii. — lxxxiii. falsely numbered lxxxi., a blank leaf. "The Newe
Testamente," fol. ii — cxiii. and on the reverse of the last is, "Pryntedin the
yeare of oure Lorde mdxxxv. and fynished the fourth daye of October. "
The death of Queen Anne in May 1536, having proved fatal to the appear.
ance of this book till after the event, various expedients were then tried to
ensure success. "The interval," says Professor Walter, " between the date on
the title-page and the actual publication, is clearly marked by a curious altera
tion in the dedicatory letter to Henry VIII. which contains these words, —
'your dearest just wife and most vertuous pryncesse Qu, J Ane.' This is not
as it was prmted; for Anne has been altered into JAne by the pen." Thus,
indeed, it stands in the British Museum copy, but there is great variety as to
this appellation. Lambeth Library has one copy with Anne, another with
Jane. The Bodleian has Anne. Sion College has Jane, and in some copies the
name of the Queen had been expunged. None of these expedients, it must be
obvious, could possibly meet the case. The preceding phrase was now as inau
spicious as that of the Queen's name. The epithet just, as intended to mark
U

290 COVERDALE AS A TRANSLATOR. [book I.
both Coverdale's and CrumweU's approbation of Henry's second Queen, had
come too late ; and it was more than awkward when applied to the third
marriage, as it seemed to say that the question of legitimacy would never be
laid to rest. Only one other device remained to be tried, which was that of a
new title, as if it were a different book ; changing the year to the next, or
1536, and leaving out the words "translated out of Douche and Latyn," as
follow, ' ' Biblia. The Byble : that is, the Holy Scrypture of the Olde and
New Testament, faythfuUy translated in Englyshe, mdxxxvi." But all was yet
in vain, and that year expired without leaving one shadow of proof that the
book had obtained the royal approbation. In June, the Prelates virtually
expressed their dissatisfaction with all that had yet been done ; and we have
already seen that there were no injunctions on the subject in 1536.
From all this, it becomes evident, that wherever Coverdale
had superintended the press, whether at Zurich, Frankfort, or
Cologne, for they have all been mentioned, in 1536 he must
have been in London ; and in 1537 we have evidence not only
of his occupation and place of abode, but of his long-continued
confidential communication with CrumweU. We have never
seen him but as his obedient servant for ten years past, or since
August 1527. His return to England therefore, and his con
tinued residence in it till next year, being thus ascertained, all
such assertions as that " Coverdale, assisted by Bogers, who
corrected the press, revised the whole of Tyndale's work before
they reprinted it, not only the published but the unpublished
part of it," as Mr. Whittaker had imagined, are now at an end.
Coverdale was at home in England, aU the time that Rogers
was so busy abroad ; and from the superior manner in which
he executed his task, it is evident that he required no such
assistant. The alliance of Coverdale with Tyndale, at any
time, is a historical fiction, which must now be discarded. No
two undertakings could well be more distinct ; though Rogers,
it will be evident, had sat in judgment on whatever Coverdale
had translated.
With reference, however, to the Bible brought into England
in 1536, of Coverdale's qualifications as a Translator from the
original, there can be little or rather no question, after what
Mr. Whittaker has so ably written respecting his acquaintance
with Hebrew ; though, at the same time, his leaning to the
Vulgate and German versions has been made equally apparent
by Professor Walter ; who goes so far as to insist that the

1537.] HIS TRANSIENT SUCCESS. 291
version cannot be ranked so high as that of a primary one.3
The truth seems to be, that between Coverdale and CrumweU,
expediency had been far too much consulted in the undertaking
throughout. Hence even the first title-page, bearing these
words, " translated out of Douche and Latyn." These terms, as
Whittaker had not seen them, he could scarcely beUeve ;
adding, " if this be the case, the title-page contains a very great
misrepresentation." Hence the withdrawment of the words in
1536 by Coverdale, and this year by Nycolson ; to say nothing
ofthe awkward substitute, "translated in Englyshe." At the
same time, Coverdale himself informs us that he had five different
translations, both Latin and Dutch, that is German, before him,
and " to help him herein ; " and though he certainly does not
appear to have venerated these "interpreters" as authority, be
regarded their translations with " gladness," and therefore
could not upon aU occasions be free from some degree of bias.
But we are now advancing into the year 1537 ; and yet, if
there has been any application to the King respecting this
Bible, there is no reply. Not a single petition from Crumwell
in its favour is to be found. A printer however, and in London
itself, now appeared in furtherance of Coverdale's design —
James Nycolson in St. Thomas' Hospital, Southwark. By this
time he had reprinted Coverdale's Bible, with his dedication to
the King ; and it deserves notice that there were other copies
with a different title, without the dedication. From the spelling,
we presume the latter to have been the first expedient for royal
favour ; but this is immaterial, for the fact is, that they both
succeeded. Both titles bear at the foot of the page these words,
" Set forth with the Kynge's most gracious licence."
But when, or in what month of 1537, could this have been
obtained ? There was, as already hinted, no Convocation ; but
were .the Bishops not consulted ? It should seem not. Their
Vicar-General had thought it unnecessary ; for he it was who
had applied to Henry and obtained his Ucence. Coverdale

1 See "An Historical and Critical Enquiry into the Interpretation of the
Hebrew Scriptures, by John W. Whittaker, M.A., 1819;" and Letter to
Marsh, Bishop of Peterborough, by Henry Walter, B.D., 1823-
U 2

292 REMARKABLY SUDDEN CHANGE. [book I.
himself was now in London ; and though there be not a word
yet found in favour of the first Bible printed in 1535, he now
applied earnestly to his old patron, ior farther favour to Nycol
son, whom he was employing as a printer of several smaller
things. The King's "gracious Ucence" speaks for itself; and
if Crumwell and Cranmer, nay, and his Majesty be gained
over, what hope remained of the smaUest notice being ever
taken of Tyndale's labours ? What hope of any just estimate
being now formed of his merits as a Translator, however supe
rior ? He had not only left the world, but left not one solitary
friend at that court, where his name had been branded with
infamy, from the days of Wolsey until now ; and, therefore,
long before Coverdale had even sat down to his work. Besides
this, the King and CrumweU, and Cranmer, had, for years,
fully committed themselves against Tyndale ; the two former
by the most violent language, and Cranmer, all these years, by
at least bowing to the storm, and winking hard at his martyr
dom. Nor must it be forgotten, that the Primate, in his official
capacity, in company with his brethren, had been striving hard
after some translation by their own authority.
Such was the actual state of matters, down to the beginnmg
of August this year ; when, as far as it is yet known, not one
man in aU England, from the King downwards, said, or even
imagined, that any change was at hand ! But such are the
ways of Him who is the Governor among the nations. That
which He most highly favours — that which, by way of emi
nence, is His own cause, He may allow for a moment to sink
into forgetfulness, or in obUvion die, only that His own hand
may be the more conspicuous.
Waiving therefore all implication of Coverdale, in any sense
whatever, whether as an individual, a translator, or a Christian,
the favour now bestowed upon him by man becomes a part of
English history, by no means the least observable. It was
permitted to take its course. It was permitted to do so, till it j
had reached its utmost height. But what if all this were only |
to render the interposition of Divine Providence more apparent
and striking ? Capricious the King of England might be,
to a proverb; but Henry the Eighth was God's servant, as
entirely as Nebuchadnezzar was of old ; and though aU things,

1537.] REMARKABLY SUDDEN CHANGE. 293
at present, seem to run one way, in a few days only we shaU
see them aU at once take another direction.
We shaU see the translation set aside, which the King had
licensed, and of which even Crumwell, and perhaps some others,
had paid the cost ! No other man than Cranmer shaU be the
moving cause. Nycolson the printer shall, next year, be out of
favour with Coverdale ; nay, Coverdale himself be engaged in
correcting the press of another translation under the sanction
of both Henry and CrumweU ; whUe the Bible, which we have
just reported, shall be not only passed by, but ere long inter
dicted by authority !
But why, it may be inquired, why make such distinction
between the two translations ? To this, at present, we only
reply, that supposing they had been precisely of equal merit,
surely something was due to the memory of him who had
ploughed, and sowed, and toUed so long ; who had first cast
up the high way, and lifted up a standard for the people ;
without one word of encouragement, or one smile of Court
favour, from any of these men. The important distinction,
however, between the two translations, wiU be pointed out,
when once we have recorded the historical facts.
We must, therefore, as we have often done before, look
abroad, but only for a few moments, as we shall soon have occa
sion to return to England again.
In England itseU, by this time, there were many admirers of
Tyndale, who now revered his memory; many who had read
and beheved the truths of Scripture, which he had been import
ing into his native land since the year '1526 ; but they were
hke the seven thousand in Israel, in the days of Elijah. The
printing press at home was fettered in the hands of but a very
few individuals, and there was no man of sufficient nerve in this
country to take up the cause. Tyndale himself, too, has been
also withdrawn ; but all this wUl only render that Providence,
with whom the work had begun, still more conspicuous, when
lending the finishing stroke to all that His chosen servant had
translated. This then appears to have been, and not tiU then,
the proper moment for overruling the men in England : that is,
after aU the three influential individuals, the King, Crumwell,
and Cranmer, had fully committed themselves, again and again ;

294 tyndale's bible. ' [book i.
and before any "injunctions" were issued, which might have
misled the people.
As there was one man to whom Tyndale had been useful,
John Fryth, who had first stood by him as an assistant, and
then preceded him to a better world ; so now, there had been
a second raised up, to do justice to his memory, as a translator.
This was John Bogers, alias Matthew, a native of Warwickshire,
born, it is most probable, about the year 1500. He had been
educated at Cambridge, and having come to Antwerp while
Tyndale resided there, he became a Chaplain to the English
merchant adventurers. By his intimate conversation with our
Translator, he was induced to examine the Scriptures for himself,
and the result was that he embraced, in a great degree, the same
views with this eminent man.
Where Rogers sat down to superintend the press, remains
still only a matter of conjecture : but it must have been soon, if
not immediately after Tyndale was imprisoned at Vilvorde, that
his friend set about his edition of the Bible, in large folio ; as
the work was finished, and ready for importation to England by
the month of July 1537.
That this tribute to Tyndale's memory originated in the indi
vidual zeal of his friends, there can be little or rather no doubt ;
as Bogers had printed more than the half of the entire volume,
before we have any evidence of the men coming forward, who
then took up the work, as a matter of business or trade. These .
were Richard Grafton, and Edward Whitchurch, so well known
afterwards, as printers in London. The former enjoyed the
high honour of embarking almost his all in the undertaking;
for neither Cranmer nor CrumweU, nor the King, ever contri
buted one farthing of the expense. By the time, therefore, that
Bogers had got to the beginning of Isaiah, these two individuals
having embraced the design, on that page the numbers begin
again, with a title, " The prophetes in Englishe," in black and
red letters, surrounded by sixteen wood-cuts ; and on the next
page there is printed in flourished text capitals B.G. at the top,
and E.W. at the bottom, with a large wood-cut between. The
name of Tyndale affixed would have been fatal to its acceptance
with Henry. That of Thomas Matthew, at whose instance
perhaps the undertaking may have commenced, was therefore*

1537.] TYNDALE'S BIBLE. 295
printed in the title-page, and T.M. at the end of the dedication ;
but to mark Bogers' connexion with the book, we have at the
beginning, " An exhortation to the study of the Holy Scripture
gathered out of the Bible," which is subscribed J. B. : and
what is singular, at the end of the Old Testament, we find
W. T. in very large flourished text capitals, evidently intended
for WiUiam Tyndale. Not that he had finished the whole, the
remainder being completed, as we shaU presently describe. The
object that Bogers had in view was to forward the work, and do
justice to the labours of the man he admired. Accordingly,
the whole of the New Testament, and of the Old as far as the
end of 2nd Chronicles, or exactly two-thirds of the entire Scrip
tures, are Tyndale's verbaUy, with an occasional variation only
in the orthography ; and as for the other third, while Rogers
may have taken advantage of Coverdale's printed sheets, he
evidently had sat in judgment on every page, and his method is
not impUcitly foUowed.
When referring to this book, Bale has said that "Bogers
translated the Bible into English, from Genesis to the end of
Bevelation, making use of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German,
and English (that is, Tyndale's) copies." But this is merely a
specimen of those loose and inaccurate statements which have
been made by him, and Johnson, and various other writers.
There is now no question that Tyndale translated his New
Testament from the Greek ; and the Old, as far as he had gone,
from that Hebrew which he so admired. What Bogers did
therefore, was, that he adopted Tyndale as far as he had pro
ceeded in translating ; and as a variety of passages from the Old
Testament had been not only translated, but published before
Coverdale's Bible saw the Ught, so it must be presumed that
there were other chapters in manuscript. i In short, Bogers
had the whole of Tyndale, whether in print or manuscript, as
weU as Coverdale's sheets, for the remainder, before him : and
having now arrived at the close we find these words : "To the
honoure andprayse of God was this Byble prynted, and fynesshed
in the yere ofoure Lorde God, a. mdxxxvii." No month is men-
* In whole or in part, Esther viii. Prov. xxxi. Isaiah i. ii vi. vii. xliv. li.
liii. lvii. Iviii Jer. xxviii. Ezek. i. viii. xxxvi. Joel ii iii. Hosea xi. Amos iv.,
and Zech. ii. viii.

296 EVEN ITS APPROACH ALIKE UNKNOWN [book I.
tioned, but it must have left the press by the middle of July, if
not in the end of June.
Bichard Grafton, therefore, was now ready; but before any
application is made to England, in favour of that Bible which
was providentiaUy to form the prototype of so many miUions, it
becomes of importance, first to ascertain the precise circum
stances under which it came into our native land.
The occupation of Cranmer and his coadjutors — the position of
other men — the actual state of the country, and especially of the
capital, where the plague had again appeared, will explain these.
After long and frequent discussions, Cranmer, Fox, and
Latimer, with " other Bishops and certain learned men," had
brought their labours to a close, and agreed on the terms of
their book, " The Institution of a Christian man," more fre
quently styled the Bishops' Book, in the July of this year. In
the preface they thank the Almighty for sending such a King
to reign over them, which " so earnestly mindeth to set forth
among his subjects the Ught of Holy Scripture, which alone
sheweth the right path to come to God to see Him, to know
Him, to love Him, and so to serve Him, as He most desireth."
Coverdale, as well as CrumweU his patron, could, at this
moment, desire little more. Henry had treated the Bishops'
book with caution ; he would not commit himseU by any formal
gracious reply ; yet has he permitted these words to pass, which
could refer to no other than Coverdale's Bible, if to any Bible
already printed at aU ; but they will acquire double emphasis,
when the course that Cranmer and CrumweU, and even Henry,
pursued in a few days hence, comes to be observed.
There is, in short, another translation of the English Bible
coming from abroad ; and, it is true, that as far as any con
nexion with the Continent was concerned, the reader may he
still haunted by the recoUection, that he has found both Cran
mer and Crumwell in busy confidential communication with
such an unprincipled spy as Theobald ; and not only this year,
but throughout the next. This, however, we can neither help
nor soften. Gross inconsistencies of character must stand as
matter of history ; but, in the present instance, they will only
render it the more apparent, who it was that gave the Bible to
Britain. To the people of this country, it is of infinite moment

1537.] TO CRANMER, CRUMWELL, OR THE KING. 297
now, that they should see more fuUy into the Divine character,
with regard to an event never to be forgotten.
We repeat, however, there is at this hour, another Bible, in
foUo, coming over the sea to old England, one page of which
neither Cranmer the Primate, CrumweU the Vicar-General, or
Henry the King, had ever beheld, and respecting which not
one of them had ever been consulted. Such appears to have
been the exact state of matters, immediately before all that
Tyndale had accomplished in translating the Sacred Volume was
laid before his Majesty.
Grafton therefore having arrived in England, from what has
now been narrated, we can scarcely make any mistake with
regard to Cranmer's state of mind. He had, in truth, been
made as sick of discussion, as he had been afraid of the plague,
and had only made his escape from both ; though had his fellow
commissioners but once suspected at the moment, what effect
this sickness would have upon him, certainly they had argued
less. Like the Jews at Borne, of old, they must have, had
"great reasoning among themselves" over this "Bishops'
Book ; " and, as the Primate hints to CrumweU, in his appre
hension, there would be no end to it.
It may be regretted that there had not been some soUtary
expression of sympathy or admiration in the Translator's Ufe-
time ; but such was the preparation of Thomas Cranmer for the
sight of Tyndale's labours — such the moment when his transla
tion was brought before him ! Grafton had resolved to apply
first to the Archbishop, perhaps as not having been the patron
of Coverdale ; but whatever was the motive, he must have imme
diately foUowed him into Kent. We give the title and cona
tion of the Book which Grafton had brought home with him.

Title. — " The Byble, which is the Holy Scripture ; in which are contayned
the Olde and Newe Testament, truely and purely translated into Englysh — by
Thomas Matthew. — mdxxxvii."
Collation. — This title is in red and black letters, within a wood engraving,
fining the page ; and, at the bottom, in large letters, "Set forth with the
Ktnge's most gracyous licence." A Calendar and Almanac for 18 years,
beginning 1538, 4 pages. An Exhortation to the Study of the Holy Scriptures,
1 page ; having, in large flourished capitals at the bottom, the initials of the
editor, I. Pv. The Summe and content of all the Holy Scripture, 2 pages.
Dedication to Henry VIII., 3 pages, with flourished capitals at the beginning

298 tyndale's BIBLE RECEIVED. [book i.
and end. " To the Christen Readers," and a table of principal matters in the
Bible, 26 pages. "The names of all the bokes of the Bible, and a brief
rehearsal of the years passed since the begynnynge of the worlde, unto this
yeare of our Lord, mdxxxvii.," 1 page. " Genesis to Salomon's Ballet," fol. i. —
ccxlvii. " The Prophetes in English." On the reverse of this title is a large
woodcut, between R.G. and E.W., in flourishing capitals. "Esay to Malachi,"
fol. i. — xciiii. ; and, atthe end of Malachi, W. T. for William Tyndale, in large
flourished text capitals. The Apocripha, put in from Coverdale's Bible. "The
Newe Testament, &c, printed in the yere of our Lorde God, MDXXXvn.," in
red and black, as in the first title. "Matthew to Revelation," fol. h. — cix.
Tables, &c, fol. ex. — cxi. On the last leaf, is "The ende ofthe Newe Testa
ment, and of the whole Byble." — " To the honoure and prayse of God was this
Byble prynted and fynesshed, in ihe yere of our Lorde God, a. MDXXXvn." A
full page contains 60 lines.
No sooner had Cranmer received the volume and inspected it,
than he sent it off to CrumweU with a letter, which indicates his
approbation very strongly. He " Uked it better than any other
translation heretofore made," and prays him to show the book
to the King, and " obtain of his grace, if you can, a licence that
the same may be sold and read of every person, without danger of
any act, proclamation, or ordinance heretofore granted to the
contrary, until such time that we, the Bishops, shaU set forth a
better translation, which I think will not be till a day after dooms
day !" The letter is dated 4th August (1537).
So far then, from Cranmer having the slightest connexion
with this undertaking, or " exerting himself" for this book, as
Mr. Todd has imagined, this letter, in its proper connexion,
clearly shows that it came upon the writer in the way of
delightful surprise} No doubt he had wished for a Bible ; but,
after vainly toiling with his coadjutors as to the New Testament
only, he now very candidly acknowledges that the present pro
duction was literally beyond their power, as a body of men.
Here then, and at last, is that one transaction in Cranmer's
life, which those who must ever disapprove of many other things
in his conduct, should therefore never forget. Considered in
itself and in its consequences, every other good thing he ever
did shrinks into comparative insignificance. For this, aU who
have prized the Word of God, or now do so, stand indebted to
him as an instrument. It would have been gratifying could we
5 CrumweU's Corr., Chapter-House. Original. Gov. State Papers, vol. i,
p. 501.

1587.] TO BE SOLD AND READ. 299
have faUen upon some distinct testimony from his pen, at an
earlier season ; for it is passing strange, if,he had never, till this
late period, expressed his admiration of Tyndale's translation ;
but such, alas ! may have been one effect of that timidity which
annoyed him aU his days. The conjunction of circumstances,
already described, seems to have emboldened him, and better
late than never. But be this as it may, and after aUowing to
this first agent at home all the good he did, the reader, as he
goes on, wili lose sight of man ; and, it is presumed, will not be
6low to recognise, above all, that unseen band, so conspicuously
displayed throughout the whole affair, of which this is nothing
more than the first movement.
Grafton, let it be observed, was not kept long in suspense ;
the entire request of Cranmer was immediately granted ; for,
though all who could avoid London were gone, CrumweU had
remained at his post — went to the King, and succeeded.
Cranmer had heard of this in less than eight days, and ex
presses his gratitude in the strongest manner, too strongly to
admit of the beUef that the general use of the English Scriptures
was already aUowed. There was, no doubt, something in the
translation itself, that at once caught the eye and the approba
tion of Cranmer ; but it was this step in advance, this " general
use," over which he also exulted. His Majesty had, it is true,
acceded, and at CrumweU's request, to Coverdale's Bible, of
Nycolson's printing, having these words upon it — " Set forth by
the King's gracious Ucence ; " and Coverdale had requested,
that this printer might have the monopoly for " certain years,"
— but there was no reply to that application. Whereas now,
the tide has not only changed, but it has begun to flow in
another direction : for this Bible is not only to be stamped —
Set forth, &c, but it is to be sold and read of every person without
danger of any Act, Proclamation, or Ordinance heretofore granted to
the contrary! AU this Cranmer asked, and to all this Henry at
once agreed ! Cranmer, in short, felt Uke a man when every
hindrance has been removed : and escaped, for the present, out
of the paw of his brethren on the Bench, in a way that seemed
quite marveUous to himseU ; so moved was he, that fifteen days
after this, in his very next letter to Crumwell, he writes abso
lutely as if he had not. yet written at aU. Other subjects,

300 GRAFTON THE CHIEF PROPRIETOR. [book 1.
indeed, demanded his attention, but, in the fulness of his heart,
this has the first place.
Grafton seems to have brought only one Bible with him, as a
specimen, and had left his servant to foUow him with other
copies. The first he had presented to Cranmer, who sent him
with it to CrumweU, and he requested six copies to be brought
to him, on their arrival. The very day on which Cranmer was
writing his last letter, the servant had arrived ; and in the
midst of the plague, stiU raging, Grafton sent the volumes to
Crumwell, with a letter in which he begs his Lordship's accep
tance of the Bibles as a gift, for his pains in getting them
Ucensed, and proceeds in a strain of the grossest flattery,
amounting to profanity, whUe his language shows that some
great and unprecedented thing had taken place, so much so as
to seem to many incredible : hence he goes on to ask that the
licence might be under the Privy Seal, as a defence against all
enemies and adversaries of the same.
Crumwell thought the Privy Seal unnecessary, but Grafton,
having embarked his whole fortune in the undertaking, again
pleads for it as a protection against the foreign printers, who
might underseU him with an inferior article from the German
press, and so ruin him, as weU as introduce a corrupt text to
save the expense of correction.
From this earnest appeal of Grafton, it is evident, that as the
volume had come upon Cranmer by surprise, so he had no
concern whatever with the cost incurred ; nay, that no man in
England shared in the expense. It was a gift from abroad, and
the burden lay chiefly on the shoulders of this individual, as a
man in business.
We have no written repLy to this letter, which, however, does
not signify, as it is well known that Grafton succeeded : but as
to the present sudden and most memorable interposition in
favour of Tyndale's exertions, it was an occurrence, the effects
of which reach down to the present hour. The event itself is
only more extraordinary than the fact, that it should never have
been even marked as it ought to have been, and much less dwelt
upon, by any previous writer. But though hitherto buried
among other casual incidents, it would be unpardonable now to
pass on without contemplating an occurrence, in which, without

1537.] RETROSPECT. 301
either presumption or enthusiasm, the overruling hand of God
may be so distinctly traced. There is here no interference with
the free agency of man, but one of the most complete specimens
of the mode in which an allwise Providence governs the world.
Grafton, indeed, and his co-partner Whitchurch, may be easily
disposed of, or regarded throughout the whole affair as re
sembling only the hewers of wood and drawers of water, in
ancient time ; but in looking back to the spring of 1526, when
Tyndale's first efforts were so very keenly felt, as to awaken the
wrath of aU in power ; and foUowing the track, as we have done,
down to the month of August 1537, what a varied scene has
passed before us ! The hand of the Most High has been visible
aU along ; but it was most of aU conspicuous now, for the day
was won ! In the course of the long conflict, not a few of the
enemy have perished. Two Lords ChanceUor, an Archbishop of
Canterbury, besides, at least, four noted Bishops, have faUen ;
to say nothing of other two, sent adrift into Italy. Wolsey and
Warham, West of Ely and Nix of Norwich, Standish of St.
Asaph and Fisher of Bochester, as weU as Dr. Bobert Bidley
and Sir Thomas More, are gone.
But what, it may stiU be said, does aU this signify ? There
are, at least, eight or ten men yet alive ; and, except it be the
King himself transiently, when in some unwonted mood, not one
of them has spoken a word in favour of Tyndale or his exertions,
up to this month of August ; nay, with two or three exceptions,
aU the rest have even raged against him. These men, too,
occupy the Privy CouncU, the Senate, and the Bench ; so that
before such an event as the present could possibly have taken
place, every one of them must have been overruled. And
accordingly now, within the compass of ten days, each day
for a year, and whether pacified or not, they have all been
overruled. Yes, the King himself, and his Prime Minister the Duke
of Norfolk ; Crumwell his Vicegerent, and Cranmer his Arch
bishop ; Tunstal of Durham and Stokesly of London ; Longland
of Lincoln and Gardiner of Winchester ; nay, Coverdale and
his friend Nycolson, have aU alike, or every one of them, been
disposed of.
For where is the individual who can now look so low, as to

302 ALL PARTIES OVERRULED. [book I.
trace this change to Cranmer, and simply say, that he was the
cause ? He was the superintended agent, and let it only be the
more observed, the willing instrument, for certainly he did all,
at this moment, not by constraint, but of hearty good wiU ; and
yet it must be clear as day, that of all others, he was most under
the influence of predominant power. The step he took was a
bold and decided one, and had CrumweU been the man, it would
have been in perfect character : but Cranmer, though withal an
amiable character, was by constitution timid, and according to
his own repeated confession, had lost beyond recovery, in his
youth, every spice of audacity or daring. Yes, and he was
therefore only the more fit to be employed as an instrument, to
overrule or take by surprise, all the rest. After a long and
tedious war, the bitter though fruitless opposition of eleven
years, the opportunity for dealing with crafty opponents, with
stiff-necked and rebelUous enemies to the truth, had arrived;
the time for showing " the weakness of God to be stronger than
men." It was a select hour for choosing a cautious and a timid
man to sway the mighty and the wayward. He himself, indeed,
might be doubtful of success ; for he said to Crumwell, " Obtain
all I ask — if you can;" but what was the result? Take up the
men individuaUy, and see.
In so sanctioning this prototype, which contained the transla
tions of Tyndale, the King himself was overruled. Witness his
violent language for years, employed in public documents — his
interdict of Tyndale's version, and aU his other writings — his1
commissioning men to apprehend him, though in vain — and his
cold indifference at the end, only last year, respecting his very
life. On the same ground stands Crumwell; after having
vilified our Translator, and warned the English Envoy, Vaughan,
if he dared to speak favourably of him ; after having long
patronised Coverdale, contributed to his support, nay, and there
can be no doubt, to the cost of his translation, as well as obtained
the temporary assent of Henry to the reprint of that book. As
for the others, who had been sworn enemies aU along : Tunstal,
notwithstanding his raving in 1526, about the "pestiferous'
poison" that had infected his diocese of London, he is now in
alarm as to other infection. He is now absolutely terrified to
approach the capital, for fear of the plague ; and besides, he is

1537.] ALL PARTIES OVERRULED. 303
under marching orders for Newcastle, as President of the Council
of the North. Stokesly of London, after all his bloody deeds,
must now be quiet, although Grafton be proposing, for his
diocese, such a plentiful supply of that very translation, for the
reading of which, he was wont to doom the party to the flames.
Old Longland of Lincoln, who so exulted over Wolsey's " secret
search, and at one time" in London, Oxford, and Cambridge,
for books to be burnt, must, for the present, also ponder over
the change, but remain neutral ! Gardiner, when at home, of
aU other men, wonderfully contrived to retain the King's ear ;
but that shrewd and far-seeing man, the ablest foe of all, had
been removed to a distance. As Tunstal was out of the way, in
Spain, when the New Testament first came, so was Gardiner in
France, when the Bible arrived. After displeasing the King in
1535, it had been convenient to send him into honourable exile,
as Ambassador to Paris, out of CrumweU's way, and he was not
to be recaUed for a year to come. The Duke of Norfolk too,
Gardiner's dear friend, is down in the North ; and though
panting to return, and pestering Crumwell with letters for this
end, he cannot wend his way to London tiU reUeved by Tunstal,
who, however, is slow to move. But, above aU the rest, no one
was more signaUy overruled than Cranmer, the agent first em
ployed. No individual in England had striven so hard for some
certain translation, to be sanctioned by his feUows. He had got
them to petition his Majesty, in 1534, for such a one. In 1535,
he had attempted the New Testament only, but failed ; and last
year, in Convocation again, he had not only petitioned once
more for the same thing, but acquiesced, with aU the rest, in
the King's Sacrament oi penance ; which the Bible of this year,
over which he now so rejoiced, will not sanction ! And, finally,
as for Myles Coverdale himself, he is shortly to be employed in
correcting the press of a second edition of this very Bible, which
Grafton had thus brought into England.
In short, as this year no Parliament was assembled — no Con
vocation held, so neither the one nor the other was, or could be,
consulted on the subject ! The Bishops, as a body, were now
scattered by tbe plague, "every one to his own;" while
Cranmer, who has just fled from it, and in total despair of aU
dehverance arising from that quarter, boldly affirms, that a

304 ALL PARTIES OVERRULED. [book i.
better translation of the Sacred Scriptures they either could not,
or would not, " set forth, till a day after doomsday ! " To this,
no doubt, the best men in all England then fully responded;
and, in concert, they might aU have said or sung, in the
language of their own Bible —
" 0 ! sing unto the Lord a new song,
For He hath done marvellous things !
With His own right hand, and with His holy arm,
Hath He gotten the victory !
The Lord is King, be the people never so unpatient :
He sitteth upon the Cherubims, be the earth never so unquiet.''
At such a crisis, when the country was in danger of being
deluged with corrupt versions of His own blessed Word, it was
thus shown, in the most striking manner, to every devout and
careful observer, that the God of Providence is the God of the
Sacred Scriptures ; and as He intended the version now given,
to remain in this highly-favoured land for generations then
unborn, it was fit that this interference should take place at the
beginning. In the wide compass of English history, a more
signal interposition of Divine Providence on behalf of His own
Word never occurred since, and that simply for this reason, it
was never demanded ; the present sufficed for all time to come.
This same Monarch, indeed, and some of his wilfuUy bhnd
Prelates, may yet rage and strive, but the version shall never be
banished from the land. It may be corrected and improved, ,
nay, and be burnt again ; and seventy years after this, upwards
of fifty learned men may be engaged for three years, in order
to make it, as they said, " more smooth and easy, and agreeable
to the text;" but the translation now received, shall be the
basis of all future editions. And well it might ; for after all
this labour, and after all due praise to our present version, to
say nothing of particular words, there are still happy turns of
expression which had better have been retained. " In point of
perspicuity, and noble simplicity, propriety of idiom, and purity
of style," it has been said, " no English version has yet sur
passed it ; " and if any one suspect that this is saying too much,
let him first peruse Tyndale for himself, and then observe the
innumerable passages which, after so many revisions, are ver
bally the same as in our present version.

1537.] CONCLUSION. 305
In the detail thus presented to the reader, he cannot fail to
have observed more reasons than one for the distinction drawn
between the translation of Tyndale and that of Coverdale. He h as
seen that the powerful effects of the former had roused Crumwell,
and led him to employ Coverdale " instantly," or in all haste,
to sit down to his task ; and the task performed, before it could
have made any impression on England, he has heard Fox of
Hereford, in Convocation last year, aUow or rather describe the
glorious result of Tyndale's primary version — " The lay people,"
said he, " do now know the Holy Scripture better than many of
us." In one word, the times themselves were the effect of Tyndale's
translation; Coverdale's translation was only one effect of the
times. In conclusion of this present year, all other events sink into
insignificance when compared with the introduction of Tyndale's
Bible to his countrymen; so peacefully, easUy, and effectually
accomplished, after aU the blood and turmoil of the past. The
plague was raging furiously aU the time ; yet the prototype, the
first edition of our English Bible, must be then and so in
troduced. Come it did, at a season so rousing, and fraught with
' solemn warning. Not to increase alarm, even Grafton, who
brought it, was cautious of approach. Official men had fled for
safety from the Metropolis. Not so Crumwell. He stood firm
in the midst of the dying and the dead. It was chiefly to do
what he did in this matter ; while all other men of power and
pretension have appeared before us, only as " clay in the hand
of the potter." To exempt any individual, would be historically
incorrect : they have been overruled to a man.
^ If, therefore, there be any importance in setting an example ;
in exhibiting a pattern after which others may work, or in
laying the foundation-stone of a great enterprise ; if it be easy
to foUow, where one has broken up the way, and smoothed it ;
and if the first individual who strikes out a new and untried
path (in which his country, after having showed great resistance,
at last follows), be aUowed to discover a mind above the common
order, — then, so far as human agency was concerned, all this
must be traced to one man ; and one whom now we need not
name.

306 SECOND YEAR OF TRIUMPH. [book i.

MDXXXV1II.
THE SECOND YEAR OF TRIUMPH — PERSECUTION RESUMED — THE ENGLISH BIBLE
PRINTING IN PARIS — PRESS INTERRUPTED — INQUISITION OVERMATCHED—
THE BIBLE FINISHED IN LONDON — FIRST INJUNCTIONS FOR TYNDALE'S BIBLE
— NEW TESTAMENTS, FRESH EDITIONS — COVERDALE'S TESTAMENTS — THE
DESTITUTE STATE OF ENGLAND — JOY OVER THE SCRIPTURES — RETROSPECT.
otwithstanding what occurred last year, it would be a
great mistake to imagine, because Henry the Eighth
and all around him had been overruled, that any
visible change of character had taken place, either in
him, or in them. On the contrary, they wiU go on in
such a manner, and to such an extent, as to render the
interposition already described, only the more striking. It
must ever stand out in bold relief, among the current events
of the time. Men overruled, in any rank, occupy very humble
ground ; but the higher their station, or the greater their in
fluence, the ground is lower stiU ; and the King himself will
immediately satisfy us that there was no change upon him.
Nor will this be less apparent in the servants of the Crown.
The Sacred Scriptures, however, in the English tongue, had
now been introduced, and in a manner so remarkable as to excite
curiosity with regard to the sequel. The victory already
recorded, great as it was, would not yet suffice. If there was
any spot on the Continent, where opposition to Divine Truth
had been most of aU virulent, that wUl be the proper place in
which to complete the triumph of the EngUsh Bible. Before
the printing of the Sacred Oracles is to become by far the most
conspicuous or distinguishing feature of our own country,
another conquest had been determined. Tyndale had toiled and
died on the Continent, and that must be the seat of this second
achievement. It comes like a double testimony to the work of
his hands ; but the story will appear in its proper colours, after
we have glanced over some subordinate affairs at home.
The present year, deriving all its importance from being that
which immediately followed the public sanction of the Sacred ;
Volume in England, the policy of Crumwell and Cranmer, met

J538.J THE FIRST ARTICLES. 307
and checked by that of Tunstal and Gardiner, first demands our
notice. At that Convocation in 1536, or the first of an unprecedented
character, where Crumwell had presided as Vicegerent, and
with a high hand over the Bishops, Cranmer had introduced
certain articles, informing all present that the Sacraments must
be first settled ; and as the creed, whether framed by himself
or the King, or by both in union, was guarded by sanguinary
penalties, it formed a most convenient instrument for any
persecutor. After this, it is true, by his zeal for the Bible of
1537, Cranmer would seem as though he had either questioned
or undervalued the articles passed and subscribed : but be this
as it may, he had been evidently eager to receive the Germans
to a conference, and as much so to have retained them in dis
cussion. Probably he thought, that as they could defend their
own faith, under safe- conduct, and so boldly question or oppose
some of the royal dogmas, thus some impression might be made
on his obstinate and self-wiUed master. In this, however, he
had now been deeply disappointed, when lo ! Stephen Gardiner
arrived in London.
Gardiner had been uniformly opposed to all this courting of
the German Confederated States. Even when abroad, and two
years ago, he had strongly advised the King against it ; but he
had now an opportunity of renewing his former arguments, and
the crisis was particularly favourable to his adding " many Uke
words." He had been hving for three years on the Continent ;
and as his royal Master, in aU his movements, was governed
solely by political motives, no man was more able than Gardiner
to turn his intimate acquaintance with foreign affairs to some
positive account, in favour of his own views. These, of course,
were diametricaUy opposed to the policy of Crumwell and
Cranmer. Henry, he had insinuated formerly, was a Sovereign,
but these Germans, very inferior princes, the mere subjects of
the Emperor ; and it was below the King's dignity to form any
league with them, except as lord of them aU. He was " Head
ofthe Church" in his own kingdom ; and in aU matters of faith
they, of course, ought to bow to him. Besides, he was an author
of high renown ; and having, by his book against Luther, gained
the title of " Defender of the Faith," it was now of more im-
x 2

308 THE FIRST ARTICLES. [book i.
portance than ever, that he should appear the lord and master
of all sentiments and opinions within his own dominions, and
give distinct intimation to all what his own opinions were.
Pole had charged his Majesty with the crime of changing his
religion ; whereas now, through Tunstal, not only private masses,
involving auricular confession, had been maintained, but all the
wonders of the mass. One of the points in discussion with the
Envoys from Germany had related to the Lord's Supper, and
the denial of the cup to the people at large ; but in tbe final
reply by Tunstal and Henry, the corporal presence and con
comitance had been affirmed to the last degree of incom
prehensibility. Should any man in England, therefore, at this
moment, presume to question that point, a fine opportunity was
presented to Gardiner and Tunstal for using aU their address
and sophistry. The King, it has been said, " valued Gardiner's
abilities for business, saw his meanness, and was not aware that
he himself was sometimes influenced by the fawning subtilty
which he despised." In one word, no moment could be more
favourable for bloody purposes. Henry was chafed by the
policy of the European Sovereigns, enraged at Pole as weh .as
at his pointed charges, if not also irritated by the obstinate
adherence of the Germans to their Augsburg Confession.
The creed of 1536, therefore, (forming the first articles
imposed upon England,) as if framed for the occasion, was now
to be put in operation. The King had entitled it — "Articles
devised to establish Christian quietness among us ;" and Cranmer,
in bringing it before the Convocation, had insisted that the sacra
ments must be first settled ; but in doing this, he probably little
dreamed that two of those very articles would prove the first
occasion of his embruing his own hands in blood. The first
article was baptism, and with it the King began. Henry had
decreed that all his people " ought, and must of necessity, believe
certainly, that baptism was instituted as a thing necessary for
the attaining of everlasting life" — " that by this they shall have
remission of sins, and the grace and favour of God" — "that this
promise of grace and life, which is adjoined unto baptism, per-
taineth not only to such as have the use of reason, but also to
infants, who, by this sacrament, be made thereby the very sons
and children of God — that infants must needs be christened,

1538.] BITTER PERSECUTION. 309
because they be born in original sin, which sin cannot be
remitted, but by the sacrament of baptism."
It has been affirmed that there were many in England who
denied the gross errors here propounded; and the list of
"dogmata" presented to the Convocation in 1536, as prevailing
throughout the country, might be referred to as proving this ;
but the parties seized, at this moment, were not Henry's people
— not his own subjects. They were foreigners, Germans, who
had fled from their own country to avoid persecution there.
They might therefore have at least been first warned to leave the
kingdom. But no — the King must speak out, in no unequivocal
terms, as to his orthodoxy ; and both Cranmer and Crumwell,
as weU as others, now fall in with the stream of blood.
On the first of October, a commission, in the King's name,
was given out to Cranmer, Stokesly, and Samson, as Bishops,
including Heath, Skip, Thirlby, Gwent, Robert Barnes, and
Edward Crome, to try these people " lately come into this realm,
where they lurk secretly in divers corners and places." There
is no evidence of any crime whatever, save the denial of this
article, or the doctrine contained in it ; and we have no record
of their trial. Nor is this surprising ; it was not to be expected ;
as by the commission itself, the commissioners had authority to
execute the premises, notwithstanding part of them might be con
trary to the customary course and forms of law ! This most
humiliating document for Cranmer, was subscribed by CrumweU.
The result was, that three men and one woman bore fagots
at Paul's Cross, and two other®, a man and a woman, were con
signed to the flames in Smithfield.
But another article of the creed imposed, furnished ground
for a far more conspicuous triumph to the Bishop of Winchester ;
when a more miserable spectacle of a royal tyrant taunting and
worrying his victim, Westminster HaU probably never wit
nessed, before nor since. John Lambert, a convert of Bilney's,
who is said to have associated with Tyndale and Fryth when
abroad, had, in the reign of Sir Thomas More, been brought to
England; and before Warham, in 1532, had answered to not
fewer than forty-five articles laid against him. Warham, how
ever, died that year, and Lambert was discharged. To avoid
the fury of persecution, he then changed his name to Nicholson ;

310 BITTER PERSECUTION [book I.
and being a man of learning, he had, since that period, earned
an honourable subsistence, by teaching Latin and Greek. This
year, Dr. John Tailour, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, had been
preaching at St. Peter's, Cornhill, on " transubstantiation."
Lambert or Nicholson, after hearing him, had offered civilly to
argue the point, but TaUour required him to commit his thoughts
to writing ; a very dangerous thing in those times, and that
which had proved fatal to the immortal Fryth. On showing
the paper to Bobert Barnes, of whom we have just heard, as a
member in commission with Cranmer, he advised Tailour to lay
it before the Archbishop, now so rigidly observed by all his
brethren of " the old learning." Lambert, once brought into
Court, appealed from the Bishops to the King ; when Gardiner
suggested that a fine opportunity was now presented to his
Majesty, for putting an end to all insinuations, foreign or
domestic, and of vindicating himself before the world, from the
charge of favouring heretics. The King, in perfect character,
taking up the appeal with a high hand, convoked his Nobles
and Prelates immediately to repair to London, and assist at the
triumph. Upon the day fixed Henry arrived, with a numerous
guard, all clothed in white, and a cushion of white cloth of tissue
was laid before his Majesty. On his right sat the Bishops, and
behind them the lawyers, in purple. On his left the Peers,
in their order, with the gentlemen of the Privy Chamber
behind. The King, once seated on his throne, Samson, Bishop
of Chichester, by command, declared to the people the cause of
this assembly : —
"The King," he said, " was resolved to keep constant to the Catholic faith
and customs. That he was very desirous the prisoner would retract his errors,
and return to the Catholic communion : That for this purpose, and to prevent
the extremities which would otherwise follow, he had ordered the appearance of
these grave and learned men, the Bishops ; hoping that by the advantage of
their character, and force of their reasoning, they would recover him to the
Church, and wrest his unfortunate opinion from him. But in case he was not
to be removed from his obstinacy, he (the King) was resolved to make him an
example; and by a precedent, of his oivn setting, acquaint his judges and the
Magistracy, how they ought to manage heresy, and behave themselves upon such
occasions !"
Henry then commenced, and with "brows bent unto severity;"
but Lambert at once denying the corporal presence, he com
manded Cranmer to answer him. With his characteristic mild-

1538.] RESUMED ONCE MORE. 311
ness the Archbishop began ; but very soon it appeared as if
Lambert would triumph in argument. " The King," says
Foxe, " seemed greatly moved — the Bishop himself that disputed
to be entangled, and aU the people amazed ; " when Gardiner,
whose cause it truly was, before Cranmer had finished, and who,
according to previous arrangement, ought not to have spoken
one word, tiU four others had finished, kneeled down for per
mission to break silence. Henry assenting, he began — Tunstal,
Stokesly, and two others, foUowed, occupying the solitary
prisoner for five hours, or from twelve to five o'clock, when
torches were lighted. Lambert maintained his opinions in
answer to them all ; but observing that there was no hope of
being fairly heard, towards the close had become silent. At
last, Henry inquired, whether he would live or die ? Lambert
threw himseU upon the King's mercy — that King who, in his
anger, never spared any man. He replied, that he would be no
patron of heretics ; and then commanded Crumicell, as Vicar-
General, to read the sentence of death ! Such was the pitiful
display on Friday the 16th of November ; and on Tuesday
foUowing, the 20th, Lambert was burnt to ashes, with circum
stances of peculiar barbarity. His last words were — " None but
Christ — none but Christ ! "
On Saturday foUowing, the foreigners suffered ; and by
Wednesday the 28th we have melancholy proof of the basest
sycophancy on the part of Crumwell, now striving in vain to
retain his influence and power, in the face of Gardiner, the
Duke of Norfolk, and others. Writing to Sir Thomas Wj^att,
then ambassador in Spain, he describes the scenes in which he
took the sad part of reading the burning sentence, justifies the
execution, and in flattering words eulogizes the royal murderer ;
so that his having been said to have asked forgiveness of
Lambert before death, if not a mere gratuitous assumption, or
embeUishment of Foxe, was adding insult to injury. And as
for CrumweU's motive in so writing to the Continent, at this
juncture, if it was the pitiful time-serving idea, that he might
thus raise his cruel master in the estimation of the Spanish
Court, and so, in some degree, retain his own popularity or
power, he entirely faUed. With regard to the mock trial itself ;
such an array, to browbeat and overawe a poor solitary school-

312 CRliM WELL'S BEHAVIOUR. [book I.
master, was sufficiently contemptible. The thing was evidently
got up to serve some purpose at the moment, while, like many
other bloody steps, it proved an entire failure ; though, after ah,
in the page of history, the event is not without its value. Henry
had assembled all his authorities round him, and thus fully
displayed what was actually their existing spirit or character, as
well as his own. The firm faith and fortitude of Lambert
cleared the moral atmosphere, and served to show the entire
assembly in its true colours. The right of private judgment,
and the unfettered freedom of religious worship, were not under
stood, of course, by a single individual there present ; but, on
the other hand, if the Sacred Scriptures be actually now print
ing, and at the instance of CrumweU, one of these very courtiers,
then their introduction into England, or diffusion there, is a
cause just as distinct from these men, except as mere instru
ments, as it had ever been. And should another edition of the
Sacred Volume, and that a larger impression, be thus advancing
at press, it becomes doubly interesting to inquire, how such a
thing could be accomplished. The Most High is ever ruling,
not in the armies of heaven alone, but " in the midst of his
enemies;" only at such a time as this, His overruling power
becomes evident to demonstration, and demands special praise.
We turn therefore to what, in one sense, is the only important
view of the present year.

The two cities in the west of Europe, or indeed anywhere
else, which, as cities, had discovered the fiercest opposition to
Divine Truth, were London and Paris. The former, after a
siege of eleven years' duration, had now been taken. A succes
sion of sappers and miners, by means of the New Testament,
had fully prepared the way. The same gracious Providence,
whicli had been so conspicuous from the beginnmg, at last, and
most unexpectedly, brought the Bible entire, when, through the
straitness of the siege, and the force of overruling local circum
stances, all at once, Henry, and the men around him, without
one breath of hostility, struck their flag of defiance, and received
the vilified and long-rejected version. The latter city, Paris,
though assailed as long as London had been, was, alas ! never so
to yield. Francis, though the attached brother of a pious sister,

1538.] LONDON AND PARIS. 313
would never bow, as Henry had been obliged to do. Of the two
cities it might be said — " one was taken, the other left."
By the favour of God, Britain was to become the land of
Bibles ; and yet the next edition, after the imported one, was
not to be commenced in her metropolis. A tribute higher still
must be paid to the disinterested patriotism and Christian pity
of our first Translator. London did not then afford such excel
lent materials for printing as Paris. It would therefore be a
higher display of Almighty power, amidst the burning hatred of
the Parisians, of the King himself, and even in the face of that
Inquisition, which had obtained no footing in England, if the
next English folio Bible should be printed by Frenchmen, and
in Paris itself ! It wiU not only be so, but under the eye of
the same man who had embarked his all in printing the first
edition !
Such, in truth, turns out to be the pecuUar feature of the year
1538. There the work must now proceed ; and not only so, but
this shaU lead to consequences, very memorable, down to the
close of 1541. The Bible commenced at Paris in 1538, and
finished in London by April 1539, is a curiosity equally remark
able in its way with that of 1537, if not more so. It was like
going forth "from conquering, to conquer."
Such an event indeed might seem impossible, look where we
may, at home or abroad. Henry himself, in eager correspond
ence with both Spain and France, is observed to have been
engrossed with Continental politics, and not only in keen pursuit
after a fourth Queen, but busy in proposing matrimonial alliances
for his children, or, as after this, in sanctioning bitter persecu
tion. Cranmer, in communication with Germany, is employed
in discussion for months with Envoys from that country ; while
CrumweU, between them both, though he might seem to have
had enough to do, is also pursuing vigorously his own course, in
the visitation of Monasteries and Abbeys, Images, Crosses and
Shrines, with a view to their common overthrow. The harvest
months are marked by cruel preparations, and those of winter,
by the shedding of blood, both foreign and domestic.
Where then was any room left ? Where any time for atten
tion to subjects so widely different, or far apart, as that of the
printing of the Scriptures, and their diffusion throughout

314 THE ENGLISH BIBLE [book I.
England ? StUl, both time and attention must be given to
both. Last year CrumweU had been overruled, Gardiner's
return was well fitted to quicken his pace, and this year he has
become a determined and energetic agent. His eye had been
directed to Paris, where for the last five years especiaUy, the
greatest hostility to the Scriptures had been most cruelly dis
played ; but this will only lend greater singularity to the next
edition of the English Bible. The hand of Britain's God will
once again be pressed upon our notice, as if to show, that all
places, as weU as persons, or that Francis I. and Henry VIII.,
the highest regal opponents, were aUke before Him.
Grafton's edition, so singularly introduced last year, was soon
found to be but a poor supply, and a second, of 2,500 copies, was
now intended. Grafton may have suggested Paris as the best
place for printing it, as well as for superior paper ; and here
now stood Coverdale, at CrumweU's command, ready to accom
pany him, as corrector of the press ; but how was it possible for
the work to be executed there ? In the commencement of the
year; owing to the feeling then existing between Henry and
Francis, such a proposal was out of the question. The latter
had given great offence, by refusing Mary of Guise to the
English monarch, and by not bowing to his request as to her
sisters. Both the Emperor and Francis, however, in order to
gain time, were alike deceiving the King of England ; and by
the end of February, one of the French King's strokes of policy
was, to assent to Henry becoming the mediator between the
Emperor and himself; nay, before the end of April, he had
offered his son, the Duke of Orleans, to Mary of England.
CrumweU's policy, it has been affirmed, was to cultivate friend
ship with France, and, through that power, link Henry with
the German States : but be that as it may, here was now an
opening with Paris. At this moment, therefore, Crumwell must
have succeeded in getting his royal Master to communicate with
Francis; as it was expressly in consequence of this that a
licence was then actually granted by the King of France to
Bichard Grafton and George Whitchurch, to print the Scrip
tures. Now, as Francis left his capital about the 1st of June,
and considerable progress had been made by the 23rd of that
month, it may be safely presumed that both Grafton and

1538.J PRINTING IN PARIS. 315
Coverdale had arrived in Paris some time in May. It is worthy
of remark, that the first step taken was by a direct communi
cation between these two monarchs, Henry and Francis; for
CrumweU would not stoop to any intercourse through Gardiner,
though the English ambassador there, who was a noted opponent.
Granting the request, too, might, and probably did, serve the
purpose of Francis in prolonging delusion, who was just then
setting off for Nice, where, at last, the mask of friendship was to
be thrown off. The French King, therefore, after issuing the
Ucence, leaves Paris, and Gardiner officiaUy folloics him ; but it
was three months before either the one or the other returned;
and thus the printing of this Bible for England rapidly pro
ceeded during their absence ! When the English Scriptures
were to be introduced into our native land, the Bishop of
Winchester was taken out of the way ; and so it happened when
they were to be printed in Paris. He may return for a few
days in September, but not as ambassador : his influence was
gone ; it was merely to make certain arrangements before taking
his departure for England.
Less than two years ago, when the Doctors of Louvain were
wrangling with Tyndale, and thirsting for his blood, certainly
there was nothing within the range of possibihty so improbable,
as that his translation of the Scriptures should be re-printing at
a Parisian press, by the request of his own Sovereign, and with
the sanction of the persecuting French King himseU ; but so it
was ! For whUe the common enemies of such a measure were
all assembled at Nice, only to make bad worse; Grafton and
Coverdale were busily at work ! In their letters to Crumwell
they speak of the undertaking as " your work of the Bible," and
send him specimens of it as they proceed, craving " help at this
present," and some means of " defence from the Papists, by your
Lordship's favourable letters." They report progress from time
to time, informing him of the marks and marginal notes they
were adding for the elucidation of the text. A person attached
to CrumweU's household was with them and occasionally con
veyed portions of the impression over to England with letters
for his master. The Bishop elect of Hereford, the weU-known
Bonner of London, of the following reign, but now paying court
to Crumwell, was also partiaUy engaged in this business, and

316 THE ENGLISH BIBLE PRINTING IN PARIS. [book i.
was, say they, " so good unto us as to convey this much of the
Bible to your good Lordship, to the intent that if these men pro
ceed in their cruelness against us, and confiscate the rest, yet
this at the least may be safe, by the means of your Lordship,
whom God, the Almighty, evermore preserve to His good
pleasure." 1
The Bible itself, however, was to be its own interpreter ; and
of annotations there were to be none ; a circumstance far too
remarkable to pass unnoticed, for they were never added. But
there stand the pointing hands, both in the text and in the
margin, by which the edition may be easily distinguished.
It was only four days after this letter, that the press was
arrested in its progress. An order from the Inquisition, dated
the 17th of December, 1538, and subscribed " Le TeUier," was
the instrument ; citing " Begnault, and aU other that it might
concern," to appear and answer — inhibiting at once the printing
of the Bible, and concealment of the sheets already finished.2
As this body acted under royal authority, as weU as that of the
Pontiff, some change must have taken place in the mind of
Francis, before such a proceeding could have been winked at ;
and for this change it is not difficult to account. Bonner's
appointment was far from an acceptable one to the French King.
Coming as he did, it was impossible to regard him in any other
light than that of a spy, and as a spy he had been acting most
vigilantly. In October he was at St. Quentin, near Cambray,
watching and reporting a suspicious interview of Francis with
the reigning Princess of the Netherlands, the sister of Charles ;
and at Paris, so recently as the last day of November, he writes
to Crumwell — "I shall, by God's grace, give vigilant eye to
their doings here, and advertise you. Hitherto I have been
strangely and very unkindly used in my lodging, having no
kind of friendship showed me in manner that was worthy— how
it will be hereafter I cannot tell." 3 Among other points which
Bonner had in charge, there was an annual pension by Francis
to Henry, in terms of a treaty between them, which was now in
arrear for four years ; and the zealous Envoy had begun to

1 Harleian MS., No. 604, p. 'J8 ; dated 1539 in the Catalogue, instead of 1538.
2 Clcop., E. v., fol. 320. s Cotton MS., Calig. E. iv., fol. 8, 10.

1538.] THE PRESS INTERRUPTED. 317
press payment in a style which finally occasioned his recall, next
year. But happUy, after all, the Inquisitor seems to have been more
than a day too late. The entire impression of the Bible,
amounting to 2,500 copies, could not have faUen into his hands.
We have read Coverdale's information of the 13th of December,
and as the present citation was the second, and is dated the 17th,
there can be no doubt, that, impeUed by the first, he was then
conveying away " so much of the Bible " as had been ready for
removal. Even with regard to the sheets seized, there was con
siderable recovery ; for having been condemned to be burnt in
Maubert Place, " four great dry-fats of them" were regained by
purchase. This was owing to the cupidity of the Lieutenant
Criminal of the Inquisition, who, instead of obeying orders, had
sold them to a haberdasher.
Old John Foxe, therefore, though others have followed him,
was mistaken in supposing that these books were lost, and so
was Lewis. The evidence now presented looks quite the other '
way, and the copies even stiU remaining in existence confirm
it. " I am incUned to think," says Todd, " that the proprietors
lost few copies of the impression." And who were these pro
prietors ? For the affair was by no means to end here.
Henry VIII. himself, by CrumweU's request, and Crumwell
much more deeply, were parties concerned. Whether, there
fore, the alarm soon subsided or not, or any means were taken
to appease the Inquisitors, it must have been dangerous and
impolitic at the moment to thwart even the Vicegerent, stiU in
possession of great power, to say nothing of his imperious
master. Crumwell had been assisting the undertaking by
pecuniary supplies ; the King himself had written to Francis,
and he had fully committed himself before leaving Paris for
Nice. Since then the Inquisitors had chosen to interfere in his
absence— the King of France, nay, and the Inquisition to boot,
must now be overruled to help, instead of hindering the work.
Persons commissioned by CrumweU soon returned to Paris, and
they brought away with them the printing presses, the types, and
even the workmen. In short, scarcely six weeks could have been
lost, and scarcely a sheet could have been missing, as in two
months more the Bible entire was completed in London. On

318 THE INQUISITION OVERMATCHED. [book 1.
the last leaf they printed, " The ende of the New Testament,
and of the whole Byble, fynished in Apryll anno 1539. A Dho
factu est istud" — emphaticaUy acknowledging Him, whose cause
it was ; they did well to add, A Domino factum est istud.
It will certainly be very observable, if this interruption
actuaUy promoted the design, and to a, far greater extent than
if there had been none whatever. Had there been none, Cover-
dale and Grafton had finished their task in Paris, leaving the
types and workmen on the spot. Meanwhile, a hint had thus
been given that they had better let aU annotations alone, for
they were never prmted ; leaving the Sacred text to speak for
itself. But above aU, it will appear that the Parisian types had
come in far larger quantity, and even the French workmen in
greater number, than has ever been before observed. In the
editions of the Bible from this time to the close of 1541, we wait
to discover the proof of this. At this crisis, certainly no gift,
or God-send, to old England, could have been of more value than
these types and printers. Very different employment must have
awaited both, had they remained in Paris. Tunstal had been
jocularly advised to buy the press and types out of Tyndale's
way, to prevent the New Testament from coming into England !
Now, the authorities are importing both men and types, to print
the version : and by and by, Henry himself will command
Tunstal, to sanction the translation he had so denounced. This
too will be after CrumweU is dead, and the influence of Cranmer '
was on the decline.
Grafton, as we have seen, had laid down at the press two
copies of this Bible in vellum, one for the King and another for
Crumwell. The sheets of both had been saved, as both are
understood to be in preservation. The copy once belonging to
Crumwell is in St. John's College, Cambridge, and has been
described long ago, as "printed on veUum, and embelhshed
with cuts, illuminated, the leaves gilt, and the cover embossed
with brass, fynished in Apryll, anno 1539." The frontispiece
has CrumweU's arms in colours.
The second vellum copy of 1539 is stiU understood to be in
existence, in the possession of a private individual. Of the
copies printed on paper, there are not fewer than twelve to be
found in different collections.

1538.] THE BIBLE FINISHED IN LONDON. 319
Such is the edition, which, on the authority of Coverdale's
and Grafton's own words, ought to have been all along asso
ciated with the name of Crumwell, and never with that of
Cranmer, as it has too frequently been. It was CrumweU's
undertaking from beginning to end ; and without his importa
tion of types and men, Cranmer afterwards had never been able
to have proceeded as he did. Throughout 1538, Cranmer was
otherwise engrossed with the German commissioners, besides
other business ; in tbe whole of his correspondence with Crum
weU, throughout 1538, there is not one aUusion to the Bible ;
and although Cranmer's future prologue or preface has been
bound up with some copies of this Bible, it does not belong to
the book. The first Bible in which Cranmer took an interest
personaUy, was the next which wiU come before us ; but stUl,
the materials and men now imported, and the impetus now
given by Crumwell, wiU be found to prevail throughout the
Bibles of 1540, and extend to those of 1541, after his death.
To the Vicegerent must be conceded his own place in history,
whatever afterwards may become of his general character. But
for CrumweU's exertions at this period, it is next to certain that
no such Bibles could have appeared in 1540 and 1541.
We have now returned to England, and ever after this deci
sive triumph, shaU have much less occasion to look abroad.
Ever since Tyndale left London the undertaking has been a
foreign one; but after a noble and uninterrupted struggle of
fifteen years' duration, the English Bible may be considered as
having now taken up its settled abode in our native land. The
cause indeed wiU be thwarted stiU, even at home, and by Henry
himseU as weU as his eldest daughter ; though, ultimately, even
she wiU be found to have advanced it. At subsequent periods
too, thousands of Bibles will be printed on the Continent for
EngUsh use, but aU this will only serve to keep us in remem
brance, that, as from the beginning, so ever afterwards, this
undertaking had been conducted, not by human authority, but
by the gracious hand of the Almighty.
Meanwhile, we have had one Bible, wholly imported in 1537,
and a second, redeemed from destruction, finished in London ;
and notwithstanding the political frenzy, as well as all the
cruelties perpetrating at home, the cause of Truth throughout

320 crumwell's INJUNCTIONS. [book I.
the year had been steadily advancing. Grafton, on proceeding
to Paris, had left his first impression of 1537 to be disposed of,
without any risk of loss or delay ; and Crumwell in September
put forth his first injunctions, in immediate reference to that
Bible. This he did, as " Vicegerent unto the King's Highness,"
— " for the discharge of the King's Majesty," and most provi
dentially, he had issued his orders before the arrival of Gardiner
from France. What a mighty advance had been made, since he
left for Paris in October 1535 ! Or, more properly speaking,
since he had been sent out of the way, as Tunstal had been
before, and Bonner will be, after him. Gardiner might depart,
rejoicing that Tyndale was at last in prison, and then, as
perhaps he anticipated, to be put to death. But now, Gardiner
had been removed once more out of the way, even from Paris ;
the Bible had been there printed before Bonner's own eye, and
it was no other than Tyndale's long-traduced version of the
Sacred Volume, which was held up to public view, by injunc
tions, to be " observed and kept, upon pain of deprivation."
"Item — That ye shall provide, on this side of the feast of N. (Natalis,
Nativity of our Lord, 25th December, ) next coming, one book of the whole
Bible, of the largest volume in English, and the same set up in some convenient
place within the said church, that ye have cure of, where your parishioners may
most commodiously resort to the same and read it ; the charges of which book
shall be rateably borne between you, the parson and parishioners aforesaid, that
is to say, the one half by you, and the other half by them.
"Item — That ye shall discourarge no man, privily or apertly, from the reading
or the hearing of the said Bible, but shall expressly provoke, stir, and exhort,
every person to read the same, as that which is the very lively word of God,
that every Christian person is bound to embrace, believe, and follow, if they
look to be saved ; admonishing them, nevertheless, to avoid all contention and
altercation therein, but to use an honest sobriety in their inquisition of the true
sense of the same, and to refer the explication of the obscure places to men of
higher judgment in Scripture."1
These pointed injunctions to the country at large bore solely
upon the Bible of the largest volume, the very first time this
phrase was employed, and as yet there was but one such edition,
so that there could be no mistake. They may have been ren
dered more imperative from the rumour of which Grafton had
forewarned Crumwell, viz. that they would reprint Matthew's
* Wilkins' Cone, Mag. Brit., p. 815.

1588.] COVERDALE'S NEW TESTAMENT. 321
Bible of 1537 in the Low Countries, so early as 1538. But this
was only a rumour ; they never did ; as the Bible marked 1538
in our lists, from Lewis down to Cotton and Lowndes, is a
mistake. At home however, now, Tyndale was not forgotten. There
were two editions of his New Testament in quarto ; one printed
in Southwark by Peter Treveres ; the other, which seems to
have been finished by the beginning of summer, was printed by
Robert Redman, next door to St. Dunstan's, where Tyndale
used to preach, " set forth under the King's most gracious
licence, — cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum." It is in
paraUel columns of Latin and English ; the former, be it
observed, not the Vulgate, but the Latin of Erasmus, and the
latter that of Tyndale or of the EngUsh Bible, now enforced.
These books appear to be a set off in contrast to the Testaments
of Coverdale, and they explain the injunctions of Cranmer, pre
ceding those of CrumweU, already mentioned.
This year an edition of Coverdale's New Testament appeared,
printed at Antwerp, in smaU black letter, by Matthew Cromer,
with numerous wood-cuts, marginal references and glosses.
Tyndale's prologues were prefixed. Next year, another edition
in larger type came out, but, like the former, abounding in typo
graphical errors. This was unfortunate for Coverdale, who
does not seem to have been aware of Cromer's intention till the
volume appeared. But he was aware of his friend Nycolson's
design to print his New Testament in paraUel columns with the
Vulgate. He was then in Paris. This work was executed so
badly, that Coverdale had to disown it as his, and free himself
from the responsibility of it, though it bore his name.
In his letters to Crumwell, Coverdale submits his translation
so entirely to the " disposal" of his patron, that one cannot but
observe the contrast his obsequiousness presents to the firmness
and consistency of the first noble and independent Translator,
who would not yield the conscientious rendering of a word to
the highest earthly authority. Coverdale's reprobation of
Nycolson's Testament did not prevent that pubUsher from
' putting forth another impression, to which he affixed the name
of Johan HoUybushe. The copies which bore Coverdale's name
were caUed in, which accounts for their rarity. Y

322 DESTITUTION OF ENGLAND. [book I.
In conclusion of this year, as a striking Ulustration of the
times, and as one proof that we have not been magnifying the
importance of the labours of our first Translator of the Sacred
Volume, the miserably destitute state of England, with regard
to oral instruction by preaching, so far as men nominally called
to it were concerned, now deserves to be speciaUy observed.
The " ministry of the Word of God," so clearly enjoined in
Scripture, was a subject not comprehended by men in official
power ; and though it had, the men who were in charge of what
were termed benefices, or cures, glaringly did not understand it ;
nay, they were the determined adherents of a system, diametri-
caUy at variance with that imperative commission which the
Saviour at His ascension left to be obeyed. Instead of taking up
Christianity, therefore, as a system of beUef, to be drawn fresh
from the Oracles of God alone, and received into the heart of
man — instead of recognising the absolute necessity of heartfelt
repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus
Christ, in the first instance, and in aU cases, but above all, in
men denominated Ministers of Christ : to enforce the reading of
what was not beloved, and the preaching (if they could preach)
what was not believed, the Vicegerent of Henry had conceived
to be the only expedient. It was not the public sanction of the
Scriptures last year, that would ever have induced these official
underlings throughout the Counties of England, even to have
looked into the Sacred Volume. To pray with the spirit and
with the understanding also, was beyond their power ; and to
preach that Gospel which they did not themselves beheve or
comprehend, might have seemed a hopeless task to enjoin.
Such, however, was the actual condition of the country, with
regard to the governors and the governed, generaUy speaking ;
and had there not been now, as we have traced all along, a
sacred cause independent altogether of both parties, nay, in spite
of them, there woidd have been no reason whatever, in the year
1538, for any exultation over the progress of events.
Meanwhile, the injunctions of CrumweU, already quoted, as to
the Bible itself, (p. 320,) had been thought necessary, on account
of the indifference of these official men to the sanction of the
Sacred Volume ; but how many there were who were qualified to
obey them, it is impossible to say. Few they must have been,

1538.] JOY IN RECEIVING THE SCRIPTURES. 323
and far between. But supposing that the orders had been
literally fulfilled, how far did the injunction itself reach ? Only
to the minimum of having " for every cure, one sermon every
quarter of the year, at least, wherein ye shall purely and sin
cerely declare the very gospel of Christ ! "
Such was the deplorable state of tbe people at large, and such
the miserable provision proposed for their instruction, when
addressing those Bishops ; among whom we have seen the
deadliest enemies of a cause, which they could not destroy, nor
even retard in its progress.
Happily, however, there had long been certain other men in
the country, and readers not a few, besides these slumberers
whom Crumwell was now striving to rouse ; nay, and other
listeners too, who, far from looking to official men, who could not
teach, and would not learn, had tarried not for Henry the
Eighth, nor waited for his Vicegerent. No sooner do we turn
to them, though long despised, than a very different prospect
rises to view ; the vivid contrast to four sermons in the course of
a year ! The free permission of the Scriptures now rendered
this scene more visible and striking. It is from a contemporary
document that Strype has drawn it.
"It was wonderful to see with what joy this book of God was
received, not only among the learnecler sort, but generally all England
over, among all the vulgar and common people; and with what
greediness God's Word was read, and what resort to places where
the reading of it was ! Every body that could, bought the book, or
busily read it, or got others to read it to them, if they could not
themselves. Divers more elderly people learned to read on purpose ;
and even little boys flocked, among the rest, to hear portions of the
Holy Scripture read."
The modern reader may now once more very naturally
exclaim — " Oh, could these men in power then have only been
persuaded to have let such people alone ! Could they have only
understood the doctrine of non-interference ! " Yes, and instead
of encumbering a wiUing people with help, or tormenting them
by interposition, have stood aloof in silence, and permitted these
groups or gatherings to have heard the unambiguous voice of
their God, and to have gazed upon the majesty and the meaning
of Divine Truth !
y 2

324 RETROSPECT AT THIS ERA. [book I.
The Sacred Scriptures, however, were now to be printed in
England ; nor was there to be another foreign edition of the
volume entire for more than twenty years, or tiU the year 1560.
We have come, therefore, to a memorable epoch or point of
time. The time when the line of distinction is to be drawn
between foreign books and those printed at home ; between the
Scriptures printed beyond seas for importation, and those to be
prepared within our own shores ; and in that metropohs, which,
fifteen years ago, Tyndale had left in a state of general and
burning hostility to any thing of the kind.
But in glancing over all that we have witnessed, and before
entering upon a new era, with regard to the Bible itself, who
can forbear looking back, for a moment, to the dining-hall in
the mansion-house of Little Sodbury, in Gloucestershire ? To
the eager conversation or discussions there held, below a roof
still standing ? And to the deep-seated feeling of one man at
the table, when the mitred Abbots of Winchcombe and Tewks
bury were near at hand ? And the Chancellor of Worcester
"reviled him, as though he had been a dog?" And the
hierarchy reigned triumphant, and Wolsey was in all his glory P
And not one such printed page of inspiration was to be found in
aU England over ? The unbending resolution, however, had
been formed, and the memorable words in which, on one occa
sion, it was expressed, will bear to be repeated at such a time as
this — " If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy
that drives the plough to know more ofthe Scriptures than you do."
Thus, before ever this Sacred Volume entire came to he
printed upon EngUsh ground, Tyndale's energetic efforts had
been signally crowned with success. His " labour in the Lord"
had not been in vain. That labour, indeed, once involved
nothing more than the solitary purpose of a single Christian;
and viewed only in its bud, or budding, it has had little else
than a bitter taste ; but whether the flower has been sweet,
millions can testify.
It becomes, therefore, not unworthy of remark, that without j
straining, this cause actuaUy admits of a survey on the widest .
scale. The three great monarchs of the day were Henry VIII.,
Francis I., and Charles V. ; never forgetting the Pontiff at
Rome ; but certainly they have not played their several parts,

1538.] RETROSPECT AT THIS ERA. 325
beyond the verge of God's providence, in His determined pur
pose towards this favoured Island. The licentious and in
domitable monarch, for whom Tyndale prayed with his dying
breath, though stiU wilfuUy bUnd, has been overruled. His
Vicegerent or Vicar- General, guided only by expediency, and
clothed with more power than Wolsey ever possessed, must lend
aU his constitutional energy, and go along with the stream of the
Divine purpose. Cranmer, however timid and cautious, though
too long sUent, must speak out at last. On the other hand, we
have Cuthbert Tunstal, after denouncing the translation at
Paul's Cross, and tormenting aU who possessed it, as far as he
could reach them, who being constitutionaUy silent, must be
sUent now. As for Stokesly, the Bishop of London, the Uon
was bearded in his own den ; for they have finished one Bible,
and are preparing to print many more in London itself, nay, in
London alone. And last, though not least, we have Stephen
Gardiner, perhaps the ablest poUtician of the age, completely
outwitted, but now come home, and just in time to see the final
triumph; though, as Foxe says, he " mightily did stomach and
malign the printing of this Bible." But then Scotland, as weU
as England, had been invaded, and from the beginning ; nor
was the triumph confined to the shores of Britain. Even
Charles V., by the way, had met with his greatest personal
humiliation; and as for the King of France, that inveterate
enemy, and ally of Borne, he has been overruled in his own
capital, and the Inquisition itself is thwarted ; for now, when
the Bible is about to be printed in the English metropolis, we
have printing presses from Paris, besides types in store from the
same city, nay, and Frenchmen, who " became printers in
London, which before," says John Foxe truly, " they never
intended." In England, indeed, they may tamper injuriously, to a limited
degree, with the first translation imported; and there are
battles stiU, which remain to be fought upon English ground ;
though after Henry VIII. has left the stage, the version wiU be
reprinted again and again, many times, and precisely as Tyndale
gave it to his country.
But at present, that is to say, in 1538, if the Emperor Charles,
and the French King, and the Pontiff himself, with Cardinal

326 EVENTFUL YEAR. [book i.
Pole in his train, were all grouped together at Nice, intending,
among other business, to alarm or overreach the King of
England ; then it was fit, that aU the while, certam men from
London should be busy in printing the EngUsh Bible in the
capital of France ; and after bringing over the materials and
Parisian workmen to England, proceed on their way, and in far
better style, than they could otherwise have done. Such was
the crowning achievement, in a series of conquests, in favour of
aU that Tyndale had accomplished ! A man, in regard to whose
character and exertions, the British Christian especially may
now weU exclaim —
Thine is a fragrance which can never waste,
Though left for ages to the charter'd wind.

MDXXX1X.

EVENTFUL YEAR — STATE OF PARTIES — PARLIAMENT AND CONVOCATION— ROYAL
MESSAGE — NEW ARTICLES — BILLS OF ATTAINDER — THE SIX ARTICLES APPLIED
— FRUSTRATED — CRANMER SAFE — LATIMER IMPRISONED — ALES ESCAPES—
CONSTANTYNE IN DANGER — THE SCRIPTURES PRINTING IN VARIOUS EDITIONS
— CRUMWELl's REMARKABLE ENERGY IN THIS DEPARTMENT — THE KING
SWAYED ONCE MORE — THE CAUSE IN PROGRESS — CRANMER BUSY Ef PROSPECT
OF HIS FIRST EDITION, NEXT SPRING — DISTINCTLY SANCTIONED BY HENRY-
SINGULAR PROCLAMATION — HENRY NOW COMMANDING ALL HIS SUBJECTS TO
USE THE SCRIPTURES IN ENGLISH.
s if it had been to render the triumph of last year still
more conspicuous, the present stands distinguished in
Henry's reign, for the number of editions of the Sacred
, Volume entire. Not fewer than four editions of the
Bible issued from the press, and a fifth was almost
ready ; besides three editions of the New Testament
separately. The compositors and printers in London
had never before been so engaged, nor so hard at work in any
department, since the invention of printing had been introduced
into England.
All this too is the more worthy of notice, as Cranmer, how
ever busy with his first edition, did not make his appearance

1539.J STATE OF PARTIES. 327
before the public tiU next spring, or AprU 1540. Before
proceeding, however, to any detaU, the state of England, and
in its connexion with foreign parts, must first be understood,
as the account wiU then be read with that interest which
belongs to it.
Of this eventful year, we can scarcely fail to have one
luminous view, however painful ; if we now place CrumweU,
Cranmer, and Latimer, on the one side ; the Duke of Norfolk,
Gardiner, and Tunstal, on the other; with Henry standing
between them, to hold the balance. Troubled about many
things, the wayward monarch was but UI at ease, and we shall
see him make either scale preponderate, just as his fear or his
fancy suggested at the moment. CrumweU, it has been affirmed,
had some presentiment of his downfaU, for nearly two years
before his death, and made provision for his dependants, which
Wolsey had not. If this be correct, the time harmonises with
the return of Gardiner from France. But, at aU events, the
last and deadly struggle for pre-eminence and power, on the
part of Crumwell, has now commenced, though he had stUl a
year and a half to live. We shaU see -him trembling for the
ground on which he stood, as weU as for all his honours. At
his outset, he had said to Cavendish, his neighbour servant in
Wolsey's household, that, in going to Henry, he would either
make or mar aU ; and the truth is, that, in one sense, he did
both; first the one, and then the other. In many points,
Wolsey and CrumweU were extremely different characters, but
in both may be seen, as a warning to posterity, the rise and faU
of poUtical expediency. With regard to Hugh Latimer, the
only man who ever dared to speak out before the King and his
courtiers, he is about to retire from the tempestuous scene ; and
to say nothing of cruelty, Henry, acting in the meanest style
imaginable, to the very end of his reign, wiU accommodate
him — with a prison ! Like Festus of old, wiUing to show his
courtiers a pleasure, he wiU leave Latimer bound. Cranmer
wiU this year, in one instance, discover more fortitude than
perhaps he ever did in the course of his whole life. And as for
the able triumvirate in opposition, dexterously they wrought to
each other's hands against their three opponents.
After not less than three years of prorogation, Henry had

328 PARLIAMENT AND [book I,
now resolved to hold a meeting of ParUament and Convocation.
The subserviency of both to his will was notorious, and in this
it appears that CrumweU cordiaUy sympathised with him,
"Amongst other for your Grace's Parliament," says he on the
17th of March, "I have appointed your Majesty's servant,
Mr. Morisson, to be one of them. No doubt he shaU be ready
to answer, and take up such as would crack, or face with
literature of learning, or by undirected ways, if any such shall
be, as I think there wiU be few or none ; forasmuch as I, and
other your dedicate counseUors, be about to bring all things so to
pass, that your Majesty had never more tractable Parliament!"
As for the Convocation, since it had been summoned on the 12th
of March, it is evident that whatever articles shaU be issued, by
that time they had been contemplated ; and CrumweU, at least,
is either preparing to swaUow them, or, what is very improbable,
must have been profoundly ignorant of what was before him.
At aU events, for these three years past, as there had been no
such assembUes under our despotic monarch, they were always
ominous of some strong measures.
On the 30th of March, Tunstal, usuaUy calm and still,
preached his flaming sermon before the King ; Gardiner was
preparing for Parliament and the Convocation ; Norfolk was
returning from the north ; and to announce his approach, by
way of firing the first gun, only about one fortnight after
his strange letter of the 29th of March, he had quarrelled
with Crumwell on a subject of inferior moment. But
by this time Crumwell had been taken unwell, and had
become so seriously. It was an attack of the ague. On the
23rd of April, or the Wednesday before Parhament was to sit,
he had made himself ready to wait on the King, when a fit
came on, "and held him in great heat about ten hours." "The
pain of the disease," said he, " grieveth me nothing so much as
that doth, that I cannot be as I should there present, and
employ my power to your Grace's affairs and service, as my
heart desireth to do." l On the eve of such a battle, it was a
great and bitter disappointment, and, no doubt, his enemies
were improving every hour of his absence. Next day, however,

1 Gov. State Papers, i., p. 613.

1639.] CONVOCATION OPENED. 329
he strove to do aU he could, by addressing a long letter to his
Majesty ; and stiU lamenting over his state of health. In this
communication it is observable, that whUe he goes over all the
points respecting foreign policy, he says not one word now of
what is projected to be done in ParUament.2 Poor man ! It is
true that he wiU raUy again as to health ; the King, to serve
his own selfish ends, wiU assume a kindly aspect, and he has yet
fourteen months to Uve ; but his frequent and direct, or familiar
correspondence with Henry is now near a close.
MeanwhUe, and at the moment when CrumweU was writing,
Mount and PayneU arrived from Germany, accompanied by
Burghart, who had been dismissed in September last. The
Emperor, it was said, had now deprecated, above all things, the
German Confederates receiving any others into their league ;
when CrumweU did not faU to suggest, that "if his Majesty
would only join them, the other party, in his judgment, would
be half in despair." But what was Henry to do ? He was now
falling in with the counsels of Norfolk, Gardiner, and Tunstal ;
ParUament must sit in five days hence, and CrumweU, in poor
health, is but UI able to attend !
Accordingly, on Monday, the 28th of AprU, ParUament sat
down, and the Convocation opened on the 2nd of May. The
Duke of Norfolk, as Prime Minister, had been commissioned to
conduct the business in the House of Peers ; and CrumweU's
precedency as Vicar-General was recognised, but he could no
longer brandish his rod of authority over the Bishops, as he had
done at their last sitting, three years ago ; and much less send a
deputy to claim his seat, above them aU. Not only were the
majority his opponents, but the Head of their Church had
changed his mind. For three years had Crumwell and Cranmer
enjoyed ample sway ; but Gardiner and Tunstal's day had now
come. They must aim at retahation for aU the past, and no
time was lost before the strength of parties was ascertained.
On Monday the 5th of May, a royal message to the House
was announced by Audley as Lord Chancellor. His Majesty,
being greatly desirous of putting an end to aU controversies in
religion, ordered a committee to examine the diversities of
2 Cleop. E. v., fol. 172, or Strype, Records, civ.

330 THE NEW ARTICLES. [book I.
opinion — to draw up articles for an agreement, and report!
Nine individuals were appointed, viz. CrumweU as Vicar-
General, and Archbishop Cranmer, with Latimer of Worcester,
and Goodrich of Ely, on the one side ; and Archbishop Lee,
with Tunstal of Durham, Aldrich of Carlisle, Clerk of Bath, and
Salcot of Bangor on the other. But however bent his Majesty
now was, upon what he chose to style unanimity of opinion, it
was soon manifest that this committee of Bishops could never
agree. In a similar perplexity, just three years ago, his
Majesty and Cranmer in union had, for the first time, framed
certain articles for the people of England to believe, enforcing
them on aU men by the Sovereign's authority ; so that con
sistently, the Archbishop cannot now object, should a similar
course be foUowed. In 1536 it was no doubt deemed a fortunate .
circumstance, that Gardiner was out of the way ; but he has now
returned, and H he and his party can foUow the precedent set
them, and Henry should condescend to be on that side, then he
wiU stiU be equally flattered, as the Lord of aU opinions upon
English ground. His Majesty's subjects were not to think for
themselves before, and the right to do so was not to be conceded
now. At this moment, he imagined that his personal circum
stances demanded a very different class of opinions, and they
were now to be enforced on pain of death. The former, that is,.
the first articles, were to insure peace and contentation ; but
those about to be proposed, though directly in the teeth of the
former, were, according to the precious roval announcement, to
" establish unanimity and terminate all religious controversies among
his people!" This, it must be conceded, was giving to both
parties a fair opportunity of testing the effect of "articles" as
bearing upon public opinion ; and as Cranmer had first led the
way, he must now abide the consequences, whether they should
first lead to the destruction of his own domestic happiness, or,
seventeen years afterwards, to his death. In other words, the
artiUery which had been first framed by Cranmer, was about to
be seized, and planted against himself.
It was, as we have stated, on the 5th of May that this Com
mittee of nine had been appointed. On every point, they
divided regularly, as five to four, Cranmer and Crumwell being
in the minority. Henry's patience was very soon exhausted,

1539.] THE SIX ARTICLES. 331
and by Friday the 16th, Norfolk was ready with the intended
remedy for diversity of opinions. The King, and Winchester
no doubt, had been preparing it, for the mouth of that Premier ;
who, on the 30th of March last, had told CrumweU that he had
been " praying to God, that He would give the King of Scotland
grace to do, as Henry had already done 1 " The Duke having
therefore informed the House that no progress had been made,
or could be, by the Committee, proposed six questions for their
consideration. They referred to 1. The Mass. 2. Communion
under one kind, or the bread without the cup. 3. Private
masses. 4. The ceUbacy of the Clergy. 5. Auricular confes
sion, and, 6. Vows of chastity. Neither Audley nor Crumwell
now took any part in the debate, nor indeed any layman ; but
Cranmer did, and with all his powers : for it is certainly going
much too far, for any historian, upon a single loose anonymous
authority, to deny him the credit of as much heroism as he then
displayed.3 For three days the discussion continued, and though
Henry himself had the effrontery to come down unconsti-
tutionaUy, and join in the debate, and afterwards requested
Cranmer not to appear and vote, he appears to have resisted to
the utmost limits of his personal safety, and never gave his
formal consent. True, he did not act, as Latimer did afterwards,
for that was not in the man ; but the only wonder has been that,
going as far as he did, the King was not mightily offended.
This, however, wiU be accounted for presently.
It has been remarked that six questions were tabled, and they
ended in one act : frequently denominated afterwards " the
bloody statute," and at other times, " the whip with six cords."
Such was the remedy of Henry VIII. for diversity of opinions ;
for now, as he aUowed his subjects no title to any opinion of
their own, they must aU believe, or profess to beUeve in —
1. Transubstantiation. 2. That communion under both kinds is
not necessary to salvation. 3. That Priests may not marry by
the law of God. 4. That vows of chastity are binding. 5. That
private masses ought to be retained; and 6. That the use of
auricular confession is expedient and necessary : whUe the penalties
annexed illustrated the growing brutahty of the Sovereign.
3 Cleop. E. v. , p. 128, as quoted by Lingard.

332 BILLS OF ATTAINDER. [book I.
Denial of the first profane absurdity subjected the mdividual to
death by the flames, for an authoritative stop was now put to
abjuration. That could now save no man's life ; and as for the
other five points, for the denial of any one of them, the party
was to die as a felon, or be imprisoned during his Majesty's
pleasure. After the Parliament resumed on the 30th of May,
this bill was introduced, though it was not read for the first time
till the 7th of June, the second time on Monday the 9th, and
passed next day. On the foUowing Saturday it passed the
Lower House, and receiving the royal assent on the 28th,
its pains and penalties were to be inflicted from and after the
12th of July.
This, however, is not the fuU amount of the baseness of this
Parliament. At its opening, instructions had been given to
pass biUs of attainder against Margaret, Countess of Salisbury,
the mother of Cardinal Pole, now 70 years of age ; Gertrude,
widow of the Marquis of Exeter ; and a young boy, son of
Lord Montacute; Sir Adrian Fortescue, and Sir Thomas
Dingley. Exeter and Montacute had already suffered; but
great difficulty was felt in proceeding with these two ladies,
and especiaUy the old Countess. After others had tried,
CrumweU, who evidently thought himself skilful at cross-
examination, " assayed the uttermost of his power." But he
was still baffled by the Countess, who is said to have been
" more like a strong and constant man, than a woman ; " ' after
which, so eager was the sinking courtier to please his Master,
that he actually called up the judges and inquired— " Whether
Parliament might condemn persons accused of treason, without
any previous trial or confession !" These servile and unprincipled
men replied, "that it was a nice question, and one that no
inferior tribunal could entertain, but there was no doubt that the
Court of Parliament was supreme ; and that any attainder by
Parliament, (and of course by the present,) would be good in
law !" Such a biU, therefore, they immediately passed, con
demning to death all the parties, without any trial whatever!
What became of the child no one knows. Fortescue and
Dingley were executed on the 10th of July ; the Marchioness
was pardoned about six months hence, but the aged Countess
was retained in prison nearly two years, till another frenzy

1539.] THE RESULTS. 333
having seized the monarch, she was dragged from her dungeon ;
but pleading innocence, and boldly resisting her very execu
tioner to the last, till her grey hairs were covered with blood,
the head was severed from the body on the 27th of May, 1541.
CrumweU, in ambitious pursuit of his own standing, had now,
with a witness, entered into the field of temptation, and it
becomes difficult to hold the pen ; but impartiality forbids that
he should, at such a moment, be the only man in view. Among
those significant "Remembrances," so strangely left behind for
the verdict of posterity, and to which we have before referred,
there is one item of awful import, suggesting the idea that
Henry, far from unconnected with this tragedy, had been the
director behind the scenes. " Item," says Crumwell, in his own
handwriting, "to remember specially the Lady of Sarum"—
Salisbury : but then a Uttle afterwards, " Item — what the King
will have done icith the Lady of Sarum." This, it may be
presumed, must have been written before the judges were
called ; and such a Minister ! such a Monarch ! it may weU be
exclaimed. But we forbear aU comment, and more especially
as, before the year concludes, the reader has to witness other, if
not greater, abominations. It should, however, be observed
that the step thus taken by CrumweU very strongly reminds
one of the gallows prepared by Haman for Mordecai ; as next
year, and therefore before his victim, the aged Countess, he
himself was the first who fell under the axe, in strict accordance
with the precedent he had now introduced !
In conclusion of these miserable proceedings, the Lower as
well as the Upper House seem to have been willing to comply
with any thing which might occur to the caprice or passion of
the reigning King. His Majesty had taken offence at the
manner in which some of his proceedings, and particularly his
proclamations, had been treated, since the last Parliament in
1536. An Act was, therefore, now passed, which sets forth in the
preamble, "the contempt and disobedience of the King's pro
clamations by some, who did not consider what a King by his
royal power might do ; which if it continued would lead to the
disobedience of the laws of God ! and the dishonour of the
King's Majesty, who may full iU bear it. Considering also
that many occasions might require speedy remedies, and that

334 the stx articles applied. [hook i.
delaying these might occasion great prejudices to the realm —
therefore it is enacted, that the King for the time being, with
advice of his Council, might set forth proclamations with pains
and penalties in them, which were to be obeyed, as if they were
made by an Act of Parliament ! " If any now so offended, and
in further contempt went out of the kingdom, they were to be
adjudged as traitors. To this biU, indeed, some opposition was
evinced, but it passed as weU as all the others.
After doings so notable as these, and affecting so many
parties, Parliament rose on the 28th of June, amidst feelings of
exultation on one side, and indignation on the other ; but, as far
as "the six articles" were concerned, the pet measure of the
Premier and his friends, backed as they were by the bloody
statute, they were not slow in proceeding to action. This
statute was not to remain a dead letter. Commissioners were
instantly appointed to act upon it ; that is, to seek out victims ;
and in the various jurisdictions, a Bishop was invariably to be
one of the commissioners. To witness the commencement of
operations, we require to proceed no farther than the metropohs.
The inquisitors, selected with satanic discrimination, ignorant,
headlong, and bloodthirsty, were " such as had read no part of
Scripture in English, or in anywise favoured such as had, or
loved the preachers of it." The commissioners sat in Mercer's
Chapel, close by the Old Jewry, Cheapside; and in fourteen
days, there was not a preacher or noted individual in London,
known or suspected to have spoken in any way derogatory to
one of the six articles, who had not been harassed ; nay, over
stepping their commission, they inquired not only who came
seldom to the church, but who read the Bible in it ; so that more
than five hundred persons had been indicted, and it became
evident that the prisons of the city could not contain all those
whom they thought must be brought to trial.
Thus, if the character of Henry, of his Bishops, and his
nobility had been evolved in Westminster Hall, last November,
at the trial of Lambert ; so we have now at least five hundred
witnesses to the tenets for which Lambert died. But, besides
these, it must be remembered that many a man who could do so,
had found it convenient at least to leave the city ; though as the
facts stand, we have here one of the clearest testimonies to the

1539.] THE SIX ARTICLES APPLIED. 335
strength of that cause, to which the reigning authorities had
been at heart opposed from the beginning. The Bishop of the
diocese, Stokesly, was here setting an example to the country at
large, worthy of his character in past years. He was now
indeed actually descending to his grave, for he died on the 8th
of September ; but the busy scene, and the prospect of the
moment, must have proved like a reviving cordial to his droop
ing spirits. Beside the Bishops, we know that the Premier,
Norfolk, who had introduced the questions, was in the highest
spirits, because the Act had passed. In short, the preparations
were finished, and could have left not the shadow of a doubt
that England was about to become a field of woe, if not of blood.
The whole scene is worthy of record and particular notice, were
it for no other purpose than to show how remarkably a gracious
Providence interposed, and, overruling as before, "made the
storm a calm, so that the waves thereof were stilled."
Blind zeal has been compared to the haste of a man in the
dark, who knows not when or where to stop ; and shrewd as
were the leaders of the old learning, they had gone at least one
step too far. Both Tunstal and Gardiner had distinctly over
shot themselves ; for pride of understanding, and abundance of
caprice, had rendered the monarch one of the most ticklish of all
leaders. In the course of the discussions in Parliament, it so
happened that on one single point the King agreed with Cranmer.
It was in reference to "auricular confession," — that notable
device, for not only enslaving the human mind, but preventing
aU sense of direct responsibility to God alone. Cranmer had
maintained that it was unnecessary, by any Divine precept, and
in this Henry chose to support him. Nettled at only one point
out of six being controverted, Tunstal, Gardiner, and Lee,
urged, that the resolution of the House should declare auricular
confession to be "a command of Christ, and part of the Sacra
ment of penance ; " but the monarch would not allow one jot
more than the simple declaration, that such confession was
expedient, and necessary to be retained. With this, they might
well have rested satisfied ; but no. Tunstal had the temerity to
write to the King afterwards, when he received a thorough set
down for his presumption. In reply, Henry expressed no little
astonishment at his writing now, after having been overthrown

336 FRUSTRATED AND [book I.
in the House by Cranmer and himself, and here simply sending
to him a few texts, which " make smaUy or nothing to your in
tended purpose." His Majesty closed with the foUowing sen
tence — " I think that I have more cause to think you obstinate,
than you me, seeing your authors and allegations make so little
to your purpose — And thus fare you well."
The same parties must have been guilty of stiU greater preci
pitation in proposing their " Book of Ceremonies to be used in
the Church of England." They had pressed this strange and
superstitious farrago to be received and passed as the act of Con
vocation ; but the project completely faUed, and the book was
afterwards replied to by Cranmer.
But even though neither Tunstal or Gardiner had ruffled his
Majesty's temper in the slightest degree, perhaps neither of
them foresaw that there was one point stiU, where their whole
procedure might be arrested, and prove a failure. Nor let
it pass unobserved that if relief be obtained, it must, in part at
least, be traced to the noble stand made by the immortal Fryth.
Hence the benefits which may ensue, long after, from only one
faithful martyr " resisting unto blood, striving against sin."
As he was the first man certainly known to have died upon
English ground, without abjuration, (which was not now to be
admitted,) so he was the last that had fallen under the sovereign
power of the Bishops ; and it may be remembered that in the
very next session of Parliament after his death, that biU was
passed, which took all reputed heretics, ever after, out of the ¦¦
hands of these merciless men. That Act had passed in Gardiner's
absence, and was now in force. All the parties now apprehended, |
therefore, must be proceeded against forthwith, by two wit
nesses, and in open court. A Bishop, indeed, must be one
of the Commissioners ; but then every man accused is entitled
to a trial by jury, and even if found guUty, the King's writ
must be obtained, before any sentence can be executed. The
case, in short, was so far a civil one ; and since these London .
Commissioners have run after the prey, as if the Act passed had
been positively a retrospective one, in the midst of their dilemma
application must be made to the Lord Chancellor. Audley, in
the House of Lords, and before the royal disputant, had been
sUent ; but now that it came to his turn to speak, perhaps view-

1539.] IN WHAT MANNER. 337
ing any selection as difficult, if not unjust, and the punishment
of aU to be inhuman if not hazardous, so it was that he advised
the reputed criminals should be pardoned. Cranmer and Crum
weU and the Duke of Suffolk (Norfolk's opponent) concurred,
and not one man was brought up to trial ! Though, therefore,
these six articles remained as a source of great misery, and
were employed afterwards, by stretch of law, as the occasion of
much bloodshed, at this momentous crisis " the wise were taken
in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the froward was
carried headlong." The five hundred indictments fell to the
ground, and there was nothing more left for Stokesly, just
before going to render his account, than to reflect on his past
cruelties. He was to be far exceeded by Bonner, his successor ;
and yet, if Foxe be correct, " at the point of death, he rejoiced,
boasting that in the course of his Ufetime he had burned fifty
heretics." Hugh Latimer in his day had the honour to stand alone.
Though not a faultless character, at this period there was none
like him in aU England, more especiaUy on the bench of
Bishops ; and he seems to have been literally the only man who
ever had the courage to face Henry VIII. Cranmer had found
it very convenient to employ him in 1536, to speak out before
that Convocation, as he had boldly done ; but he could not, or
dared not, foUow him in 1539. Latimer, it is to be observed,
had not by any argumentation opposed the King, as Cranmer
had ; but after the bloody Act was passed, he resigned his
bishopric, on the first of July. Laying aside his robes, he
leaped for joy, and said — " I am now rid of a great burden, and
never felt my shoulders so light before." Soon after, a bishop,
supposed to be Gardiner, sent for him, and expressed his surprise
that Latimer should object to the traditions then enjoined by
the CouncU, as matters of belief; when he nobly answered —
" .Z" will be guided by God's book ; and rather than dissent one jot
from it, I would be torn by wild horses." He then retired to the
country, intending to lead a quiet life ; but soon after, by the
falling of a tree, he was bruised so severely, that he was under
the necessity of returning to London for surgical assistance.
It was not difficult to vamp up a case against Latimer ; for
certainly he had said many things, which to all that party must

338 ALEXANDER ALES ESCAPES. [book I.
have been like gaU and wormwood. There is no record of his
examination extant, but there is reason to think that it took
place in the royal presence. However, whether it did or not;
the King well knew, and ultimately sanctioned, nay, directed
all that foUowed : for Latimer was committed to the Tower thus
unceremoniously, and there he lay tiU the accession of Edward
VI. The conscience of Henry had constrained him, on different
occasions, to mark, if not revere the fidelity of this man, whom
he now unwittingly promoted to be a prisoner of Jesus Christ ;
but he could manage to get on weU enough without a Bishop
Latimer, though not without his own Archbishop of Canter- .
bury. It was now the month of August, when a lurid gloom rested
on the minds of many. In London itself, there was a pause :
the commissions under the persecuting act had not been issued
for the country at large, and they never were ; but at present
their issue was eagerly anticipated by some, and dreaded by
others ; but stUl the needle of the beam, in Henry's hands,
oscillated in suspense, and no man could teU which scale would
rise. Various individuals had been escaping, some to the Con
tinent, and others out into the country. We notice two of such
already known to the reader, — Alexander Ales and George
Constantyne. Ales, it wiU be remembered, had excited the wrath of
Stokesly to the highest degree, three years ago ; when no man
foresaw, or perhaps imagined, that the very next Convocation
would be of an opposite character. Since 1536, having studied
physic under an eminent physician weU known, Dr. Nicholas,
Ales had begun to practise in London for himself, and not
without success ; but for him, above aU men, it was no longer
safe to remain within Stokesly's jurisdiction. Anticipating
what foUowed, he embarked for Germany once more. Soon
after his arrival, he wrote to Crumwell a letter of thanks for all
his kindness, and from which we learn, that the recent doings
in England were weU known to all abroad.
Of George Constantyne, we know that he was in London at
the time of Queen Anne's execution. Shortly after this he had
entered the Church of England, having obtained the vicarage
of Lawhaden, or Llanhuadaine, three miles north-west of

1539.] THE SACRED SCRIPTURES PRINTING. 339
Narberth, in Pembrokeshire, under WiUiam Barlow, Bishop of
St. David's. His character, to the end, was at best ambiguous.
He returned and held his preferments tiU 1555, when Ferrar,
Bishop of St. David's, being burnt at Carmarthen, he escaped
to the Continent, where he is supposed to have died soon after.
His son*in-law Thomas Young was afterwards Archbishop of
York, and President of the CouncU of the North, under
Elizabeth. He died in 1568.
With regard to the express history of the English Bible, the
year 1539 is now to be added to aU the past. But let the
movements of the time ; the tyrannical procedure of the reigning
Monarch ; the obsequious deeds of both Houses of Parliament,
lying prostrate at his feet; the notorious complexion of his
CouncU, in hostUe array against the progress of Divine Truth ;
the tottering influence of CrumweU, once so resolute, with his
sad and bloody footsteps as a Privy CouncUlor, — let all these be
surveyed in succession, and then the general aspect of the year,
with regard to the printing and circulation of the Sacred
Volume, must appear so extraordinary, as to be almost unac
countable. The months seem to have been so crowded with
agitating occurrences, that one might have imagined there had
been not a day left for another, and much less for a separate
design — a design, too, however unnoticed by some, or hated by
others, which had been proceeding, step by step, to successive
triumphs. StiU, amidst aU other national affairs, time must be
found for this.
But at such a season, who shaU, or who can, nay dare to press
forward, the printing of the Scriptures ? Above aU other men,
CrumweU is the last, on which any one would fix, as the urgent
mover in such a course. He seems to have had not one moment
in reserve ; and had he not been truly denominated " an iron
man," in regard to business transactions, certainly he had not
found one. Instead of this, however, the sequel wiU show, that
though he had been but in poor health, and though he had
winked hard, bowing assent to the six articles, and stood ready
to execute the King's pleasure even unto death, nay and could
order men to be " tried and executed" in the same breath ; yes,
even amidst aU this, it comes out, that he had been resolutely
z 2

340 THE ENERGY OF CRUMWELL [book I.
bent on multiplying copies of the Bible ! Strange conjunction
of pursuits, as probably ever met in the person of the same
human being ! For however many were the subordinate agents,
not one of them dared to have so proceeded, at least in London,
without his fullest sanction.
It must now then be first observed, that in 1539 both Crum
well and Cranmer stand before us, in the character of thwarted
and disappointed men ; severely disappointed, for above six
months of the year. Three years before, in conjunction with
the momentary humour of the King, Gardiner being abroad,
they had introduced what were denominated " Articles of Re
ligion" to the notice of the EngUsh people ; but now they
found, to their bitter mortification, that this was assuredly not
the road to either "peace or contentation," or " unity of opinion."
On the contrary, the mode which they had introduced in 1536,
furnished the precedent which their opponents now foUowed ; or
the ground on which they stood, and tried to overawe the human
mind. In the first Convocation, with CrumweU as Vicar-
General, so far as the King and Cranmer had professedly
meddled with Christianity at aU, they had made it technical and
disputative. It was not the voice of God, as contained in His
Word, with which they began, for neither Cranmer nor Crum
well could get those Bishops to assent to any translation of the
Scriptures. Thus before the authority of Divine Truth in the
language of the people was recognised, by these first articles a
certain vocabulary had been introduced ; and in the prospect of
the present Convocation, Gardiner and his party were by far too
shrewd, not to take advantage of the precedent set. They
fought and baffled the Archbishop with his own weapons, while
my Lord Privy Seal, Crumwell, like a perfect pohtician, had
bowed to the storm. So now when the tug of battle came, and
Crumwell found that, as an expedient in his hands, " articles of
religion" must be given to the winds ; then it was that the
Bible, and the Bible alone, afforded him the only prospect of
turning the tide upon his political opponents. Thus singularly
shut up to this one object, he was not slow to improve his
powers ; for though he could no longer shake his rod over the
Bench of Bishops, his authority and precedence or rank as
Vicar-General had been distinctly recognised ; and this he could

1539.] MAY BE INTERPRETED. 341
exercise stiU, very powerfully, without the doors of the Convo
cation, though not within them ; while the dissolution and con
sequent dispersion of that body, was analogous to the breaking
up of a combination against him.
The operation of the bloody statute being now also stayed,
and no commissions issued for the country at large ; Henry too
having been fully apprised of how odious that statute was to his
intended matrimonial connexions, here was a favourable crisis.
To the printing of the Bible, therefore, amidst his multifarious
engagements, CrumweU lent aU his energy, so that not fewer
than four editions of the entire Scriptures, with which his
personal influence was connected, now issued from the press.
There is no conceaUng it now ; for by a comparison of dates,
it wiU be manifest, that the character of CrumweU, when sink
ing, and so near his end, presents to the reflective mind one of
the most painful contemplation, and, in truth, one of a far more
melancholy hue than even that of Wolsey himself. Wolsey,
the " man of pleasure," not to say boundless ambition, sinking
under disgrace into his grave, yet breathing out persecution
against the Lutherans, and leaving this as his dying advice to
the King, was a spectacle sad enough : yet is it scarcely to be
compared to that of CrumweU, the energetic " man of business,"
himself stepping into blood, to please his Master, or retain his
favour ; and at the same moment pushing forward editions of
the Scriptures, nay enforcing on his countrymen the perusal of
the sacred page ! Who can deny after this, that the heart is
" deceitful above aU things," and reckless beyond expression ?
To proceed, however, with the proof. The Bible, described
last year as commenced in Paris, and snatched from the flames
of the Inquisition, was finished in London by the month of
April, and ready for circulation under the foUowing title, before
the meetings of Parliament and Convocation : —
" The Byble in E-nglyshe, that is to saye, the content of all the Holy Scripture,
bothe of the olde and. Newe Testament, truly translated after the veryte of the
Hebrue and Greke textes, by the dylygent studye of diuerse excellent learned
men, expert in the f orsayde tonges. II Printed by Bychard Grafton and Edward
Whitchurch. Cum Priuilegio ad imprimendiun solum." The Colophon is —
"The ende of the new Testamett and of the whole Byble, Fynisshed in Apryll,
Anno Mcccccxxxrx. A dfio factum est istud."
This title, as weU as the representation round it, ascribed to

342 OTHER EDITIONS OF THE BIBLE. [book I.
the pencil of Hans Holbein, it is now abundantly evident, were
alike in the teeth of history ; to say nothing of the profanity
involved, in which the Almighty is represented as saying of the
King — " I have found a man according to my own heart, which
shall fulfil all my wUl ! " But this served to answer the purpose
of CrumweU at the moment, in his gross flattery of the reigning
monarch. CrumweU himself, as weU as the King and Cranmer,
at fuU length, are here distinguished also by their respective
shields, or coats of arms ; and this same engraving, finely cut in
wood, wiU be employed in subsequent editions, though the arms
of Crumwell, after his faU, will then be found erased.
This Bible, it is true, exhibits aU the marks of a signal
triumph, as already described ; but let the men in ParUament
or the Convocation be busy with what they might, this one
edition or reprint wiU not suffice to meet the zeal of the Vicar-
General. In chronological order, the next Bibles that were
ready for circulation, were two, if not three editions of the
entire Bible, by other printers, as weU as a new superintendent
of the press.
And here it is not a little remarkable, that immediately before
entering upon those editions of the Scriptures, afterwards set
forth by Cranmer, we are summoned to look back ; and back to
the very commencement of this long and tedious warfare. Just
as though it had been intended to lend unity to the entire pro
cedure since the year 1526, we are to be reminded forcibly, of
the deep and noisome dungeon under Cardinal CoUege, Oxford,
and of the interesting young men there immured, at the first
burst of opposition, after the arrival of Tyndale's Testaments in
England. One of those youths, it may be remembered, was
named Richard Taverner. The son of an ancient famUy, born at
North Elmham, in the parish of Brisley, Norfolk ; he was one
of those canons chosen by Wolsey, whom he had intended to
employ in opposing the " new learning." He had been selected
from Benet CoUege, Cambridge, and brought to Oxford. Though
deeply implicated in 1526, as already mentioned, hewas more
gently dealt with by the Cardinal on account of his voice, or
skill in music. He was then a layman, studying law, and abode
by his profession through life ; which renders his superintend
ence of the Scriptures, and his subsequently being licensed by
Edward the Sixth to preach throughout England, the more

1539.] BY RICHARD TAVERNER. 343
remarkable. Having taken his degree of A.B. at Oxford in
1527, and that of A.M. at Cambridge in 1530, he removed to
the metropolis ; and after passing through an Inn of Chancery,
then said to be near London, (or on the site of the present
Somerset House in the Strand,) he entered the Inner Temple.
To the Greek language he had paid great attention, it being
" his humour to quote the law in Greek, when he read anything
thereof." He had become known to CrumweU, and in 1534,
after he was chosen principal Secretary of State, and Chancellor
of Cambridge University, Taverner came into attendance upon
him. In 1537, CrumweU had recommended him to the King,
when he was advanced to be one of the clerks of the signet in
ordinary ; and the clerk had now, in 1539, turned his learning
to the best of aU accounts. For a considerable time past, he
must have been working under orders, and very busily engaged,
as the proof sheets of two, if not three editions, had been passing
through his hands. Taverner prefixed a dedication to the King,
telling him, that " he never did anything more acceptable to
God, more profitable to the advancement of true Christianity,
more displeasant to the enemies of the same, and also to his
Grace's enemies, than when his Majesty Ucensed and wiUed the
most sacred Bible, containing the unspotted and lively Word of
God, to be in the EngUsh tongue set forth to his Highness'
subjects." But to all this he had been encouraged by his master,
Lord CrumweU, as it wUl appear presently, that no man could
pubUsh the Bible at this period, without his approving sanction.
His first edition, in folio, and entitled — " The most Sacred
Bible," &c, was "printed at London in Fleet Street, at the
sign of the Sun, by John ByddeU, for Thomas Barthlett,"
or Berthelet, the King's printer ; " Cum privUegio ad impri-
mendum solum." The next edition, in quarto, was executed by
the same printer ; but there seems to have been a third, printed
by Nycolson, also in quarto. These Bibles were a correction of
Matthew's, in which Taverner adopted a large proportion of the
marginal notes, and inserted others of his own ; yet so eager
was CrumweU, that they were " aUowed to be publicly read in
churches." In addition to these, that the effort now made was a bold and
determined one, appears from another printer still having his
hands filled, by two editions of the New Testament by Taverner.

344 ENERGY OF CRUMWELL. [book 1.
This was Thomas Petit, who also printed for Berthelet, one in
quarto, the other in octavo.
Now in the earlier part of this year, though the poUtical
atmosphere seemed to portend nothing whatever save tempes
tuous opposition to measures such as these ; preparatory work,
it is evident, had been proceeding with great vigour within
doors ; and by the autumn, that same Monarch, who had hurried
the "bloody Statute" through Parliament, professed to be all
zeal for the printing of the Scriptures, and even their perusal !
The prospect of connexion with Germany had wrought won-
drously, and a change had come over the spirit of the man.
And as for Crumwell, though he still stood upon slippery
ground, he could scarcely now think so, when, so far from
frowning upon him, the King, on the 20th of September, had
expressed himself as so solicitous about the state of his health.
At aU events, while he was in the act of carrying through the
negociation respecting Lady Anne of Cleves, almost anything
he might request would then be granted. Apply to his
Majesty therefore he did, and successfuUy ; although still it is
no hypothesis to say that both the one and the other, as it
regarded the Scriptures, were nothing more than overruled men.
The King, by his conduct in Parliament, had appeared in his
real character ; whUe CrumweU, by his conduct elsewhere, has
positively forced us to place him on the very lowest ground of
political expediency. The foUowing document, however, will
show that there was no hazard, at present, of any of these Bibles
not getting into circulation : —
"Henry the Eighth, &c. — To all and singular, Printers and sellers of books,
within this our realm, and all other Officers, Ministers, and Subjects, these our
letters, hearing or seeing, greeting : We let you to wit, that being desirous to
have our people at times convenient, give themselves to the attaining the know
ledge of God's Word, whereby they will the better honour Him, and observe
and keep His commandments ; and also do their duty better to us, being their
Prince and Sovereign Lord : And considering, that as this our zeal and desire
cannot, by any mean, take so good effect, as by the granting to them the free
and liberal use of the Bible in our own maternal English tongue : so unless it be
foreseen, that the same pass at the beginning by one translation to be perused
and considered ; the frailty of man is such, that the diversity thereof may
breed and bring forth manifold inconveniences ; as when wilful and heady folks
shall confer upon the diversity of the said translations. We have therefore
appointed our right trusty and well-beloved Counsellor, the Lord Crumwell,
Keeper of our Privy Seal, to take for us, and in our name, special care and

15S9.] THE KING SWAYED. 345
charge, that no manner of person, or persons, within this our realm, shall en
terprise, attempt, or set in hand, to print any Bible in the English tongue, of
any manner of volume, during the space of five years next ensuing after the
date hereof, but only all such as shall be deputed, assigned, and admitted by the
said Lord Crumwell. Willing and commanding all Mayors, Sheriffs, Bailiffs,
Constables, and all other our officers, ministers, and subjects, to be aiding to
our said Counsellor, in the execution of this our pleasure, and to be conformable
in the accomplishment of the same, as shall appertain. In witness whereof —
Witness ourself at Westminster, the fourteenth day of November, 1539. — Per
ipsum Begem."*
The style of this public document, and at such a time, is
pointed and very observable. The reader cannot faU to be
struck with the absence of aU reference to Henry's Church or
Convocation. The Sacred Volume, first printed abroad, it wUl
be remembered, had been sanctioned without any consultation of
that body ; and even now, after a flaming Convocation, they are
to be passed over once more. Above two years ago, the King
had been overruled to bow to the translation, and last year,
CrumweU as Vicegerent had enjoined the Bishops, on pain of
deprivation, to see to its circulation ; but after the miserable
display they had recently given of their characters, they are to
be addressed by him no more. No notice whatever is therefore
now taken of Bishop or Archbishop, Priest or Parson ; unless the
ambiguous term "minister" at the very end, be aUowed, by
courtesy, to include them all. But it was the civil authorities on
whom CrumweU now caUed ; it was the Mayors, the Sheriffs,
the Bailiffs, the Constables, who were so pointedly enjoined, and
by the King himself, to aid him ! After having been so treated
by the Bench, of which he was the Vicar-General ; as long as
he remains Lord Privy Seal, he was not to be insulted with
impunity : the hour for retaliation had come ; and as he had
given up " Articles of Beligion" in despair, so it is now evident,
that he had also, as a body, given up the Bishops.
Nor was such a document, " per ipsum Begem," now to be
treated with impunity. Little had they dreamt in Parliament,
which would be the very first statute brought to bear upon his
Majesty's subjects; for "the bloody statute" had been stayed in
its operation ; but they had gone so far as to pass a bill, show
ing "what a King by his royal power might do;" and " con-
4 Rymer's Foed., voL xiv., p. 649. Herbert's Ames, iii., p. 1550.

346 THE CAUSE [book I.
sidering that many occasions might require speedy remedies,"
they enacted that the King's proclamation, writ, or letters-
patent, were to be obeyed "as if they were made by an Act of
Parliament ; " nay, and if any after that offended, they were to
be judged as traitors. If, therefore, the men of the new learning
had been terror-struck in April, the men of the old might now
weU stare with amazement, but there was no remedy ; they must
all stand aghast for the time being, and make way for the Lord
Privy Seal.
It is curious also to observe the efforts now made to place
Henry, if it had been possible, in a fair way, once more, or to
face him out, as the same man — notwithstanding his recent
aberration, or natural leaning to his beloved associates of the
old school. At this period, a long and strange justification of
his proceedings was written out. It is to be found in the State
Paper Office, and has been printed entire by Collier. There it
is asserted perhaps too strongly that " Englishmen have now in
every church and place, almost every man, the Holy Bible and
Testament, in their mother tongue ; " that they stick fast to the
doctrine of God in the New Testament, and esteem it as " Fons
aquae salientis in vitam eternam."
In short, the same ardour which had been displayed in
printing, seems to have been followed by a kindred zeal for
distribution and perusal ; and after such doings in Parhament,
the opposite party, and all who loved the truth, had notable
reasons for improving their time. CrumweU had yet eight
months to live before his arrestment, so that here was a fine
opportunity presented for vigorous exertion, to every man who
estimated the value of the Scriptures. How very unlikely was
such a season to have arrived, only a few months ago !
Here, then, terminated that class of sacred volumes, which,
with considerable propriety, may be denominated the first series:
reaching from Wolsey's " secret search at one time," in London,
Oxford, and Cambridge; or from the dungeon of Cardinal
CoUege, down to one of its inmates publishing three editions of
the Bible, and two of the New Testament, in one year ; when
the long hostile Monarch had been made to declare, that the free
and liberal use of the Bible in our own maternal English tongue was
the only mean by which his subjects could comprehend their duty to

1539.] IN PROGRESS. 347
God or man ; and when his counsellor, the successor of Wolsey,
to save his popularity and retain his place, was so evidently
urging the prmters to speed ! The series referred to now
included above thirty editions of the New Testament, and five
of the entire Bible, which for fourteen years had formed the
spiritual nourishment of all those in this kingdom who had been
convinced by their own experience, that "man liveth not by
bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God."
What a contrast, therefore, is now presented between WiUiam
Tyndale and aU his contemporaries, who have generally figured
in the page of history, and so filled it, as to prevent posterity
from duly estimating, nay, almost seeing, by far the most
eminent benefactor of his country !
It is not here, however, that the year 1539 terminates.
Tyndale's translation, or the Bible of 1537, had now been
taken up, personaUy, by another individual, who has perhaps
been expected to appear before this time ; and certainly for
some months before Henry's letters-patent (of the 14th of
November) this year, he had been engaged in his sphere,
behind the curtain, perhaps as busily as any of CrumweU's
printers had been. This, it may be anticipated, was Thomas
Cranmer ; but, although it has been often done, with no
previous edition can his name, with historical propriety, be
associated. The joy expressed by him, at the reception of the Bible in
1537, may have prepared the reader ; but when he first met
with Cranmer on the Continent, seven years ago, in company
with Sir Thomas Elyot, then charged by his Sovereign to
seize Tyndale, and next year beheld him with pain, when
sitting in judgment on the Translator's bosom friend, Fryth ;
he certainly could not have imagined that, six years afterwards,
the Primate himself would have been so busUy employed,
in superintending an edition of Tyndale's translation. But
so it was. Cranmer, as well as CrumweU, had now given up
the Bishops in despair, though his chief opponent, Gardiner,
wiU not faU to cross his path presently, and try to sway the
King. It is singular enough that it should have been on this same

348 cranmer's edition [book i.
Thursday, the 14th of November, to which we have repeatedly
alluded, that Cranmer first certainly appears to have been thus
engaged. The edition he had been bringing forward was a
very fine one, and now nearly, if not entirely finished ; but he
had resolved, at this peculiar crisis, after being foUed by the
Bench, to prefix a preface to the reader, of his own composition.
This he had submitted for his Majesty's approbation, and was
now anxiously waiting its return : and no wonder. Preferring
the words of Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen to his own, he
not only pled, in this preface, through these Fathers, for the
most unrestrained Uberty to aU to read the Scriptures, but also
asserted the sufficiency of the Word to instruct every class
of men.
"Here may all manner of persons : men, women ; young, old ; learned, un
learned ; rich, poor ; priests, laymen ; lords, ladies ; officers, tenants, and mean
men ; virgins, wives, widows ; lawyers, mercliants, artificers, husbandmen, and all
manner of persons, of what estate or condition soever they be ; may in this
Book learn all things, what they ought to believe, what they ought to do, and
what they should not do, as well concerning Almighty God, as also concerning
themselves, and all others." " This one place of John Chrysostom," said
Cranmer, ' ' is enough, and sufficient to persuade all them that be not f rowardly,
and perversely, set in their own wilful opinion."
These were sentiments certainly by far too strong to pass in
high places, in those days, without murmuring and disputation ;
nor in aU probability would they have been allowed to pass, but
for the conjunction of circumstances, already so far explained.
Henry, as we have seen, had softened even towards Crumwell,
and he was more likely to have done so towards Cranmer. He
had thwarted him in the Convocation, but then his official
situation, as Primate, was not to be trampled on ; and the King
had therefore set him up again, by commanding his highest
counseUors afterwards to go and dine with him. The wind,
in short, had changed in the fall of the year. Henry is now on
the tip- toe of expectation as to his intended Queen, and the
Archbishop, of course, must perform the intended marriage
ceremony. No moment could be more favourable for Cranmer .
asking any favour.
But then it so happened, that not only this preface, but the
Bible itself, had been brought before his Majesty, and hence
still farther delay ; for though Cranmer be almost ready, and is

1539.] DISTINCTLY SANCTIONED BY THE KING. 349
now, in November, pressing the return of the preface for the
press, the volume did not appear tiU April following. The fact
was, that Henry had consulted certain Bishops, not forgetting
Mr. Stephen Gardiner ; but as they confessed they could find no
heresies maintained in the volume, " Then if there be no
heresies," said the King in his own profane and impatient
manner, " in God's name, let it go abroad among our people."
Only six months ago the gentlemen of " the old learning,"
with the Duke of Norfolk at their head, had been in high glee ;
but of late it had come to their turn, to feel no smaU disappoint
ment, if not alarm : and Gardiner is understood to have exerted
aU his powers to influence the King, by persuading him that it
must be his duty not to aUow the people to read the Bible by
their own firesides, or, as Cranmer expressed it, at home. One
day these two men met in the presence of his Majesty, when he
engaged them in discussion. After descanting on the danger of
aUowing the people at large to read the Scriptures, Gardiner
chose to affirm that what were called the Apostolic Canons were
of equal authority with the Sacred Scriptures, and chaUenged
Cranmer to disprove this. Cranmer did so, and to Henry's
satisfaction. The disputation is said to have lasted for some
time, when the King abruptly addressed Gardiner, — "Such a
novice as you had better not meddle with an old experienced
Captain, Uke my Lord of Canterbury;" and then remarked,
that " Cranmer was too experienced a leader, to be defeated by
a novice." The translation had been sanctioned, as we have seen, above
two years ago, in Gardiner's absence, but it was a double
mortification, and one which he richly deserved, to hear it thus
defended and approved, while he was standing by, and rated for
a novice. As for Cranmer's first edition therefore, since it did not
appear till April next year, it will come before us in due time.
But in the meanwhile, and independently of aU such skirmish
ing before the King, the other editions which had been sanc
tioned by Crumwell, without any formal reference to his
Majesty, must not be forgotten, nor the New Testaments which
had been printed at home, nor the numerous foreign editions.
This is a period noted by Strype, as one in which " the people

350 PROGRESS MADE BY [book I.
greedily bought up and read the Holy Scriptures." The truth
is that, however other matters might proceed, whether in Court
or Parliament, the people had been aU along reading, without
asking his Majesty's leave. He Uttle thought that he was led
on by a current far too strong for his resistance. Yet in the
course of such a year as the present, in which the King was so
surrounded by hostUe parties ever whispering in hi3 ear ; who
would have imagined that he should have so sanctioned the
reading of the Scriptures ? This, however, he had actually
done, and done more emphaticaUy than ever before ! Some
complaints having reached him through the enemy, that the
reading of the Bible or New Testament in pubUc, was often in a
voice so loud that it threatened to drown if not expel the mass ;
Henry by proclamation ordered a lower tone, and that, while
mass was going on, reading should be suspended ; as weU as
that no man should " teach or preach the Bible," except such as
were admitted by himself, or CrumweU, or a Bishop. But then
he added, what was of far greater moment, though it must have
been like an additional dose of wormwood to the gentlemen of
" the old learning" —
" Notwithstanding his Highness is pleased and contented, that such as can
and will in the EngUsh tongue, shall and may quietly and reverently read the
Bible and New Testament by themselves secretly at all times and places con
venient, for their own instruction and edification, to increase thereby godliness
and virtuous learning." 5
The hand of CrumweU is very visible in all this ; and if the
proclamation " came out about May, being now equal with the
law," as Strype has told us, it shows what confusion had been
shed into the CouncU of his Majesty ; but foUowed as it was, in
the close of the year, by the decided approval of Cranmer's
preface, we have only one proof more of the truth of Solomon's
proverb — " The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the
rivers of water ; He turneth it whithersoever He wiU."
In conclusion, therefore, as already stated, we come to the
end of what may be styled the first series of Bibles and
Testaments. Last year, indeed, we looked at them as divided
into books printed abroad, and then begun to be printed at
" Cotton MS., Cleop. E. v., fol. 303.

1539.] THE CLOSE OF THIS YEAR. 351
home. But at present we aUude to aU that had issued from
the press before the first edition by Cranmer was put forth.
Of the whole array the reader may form a distinct idea, on
consulting our list of Bibles and Testaments at the end of this
volume. Now, if it be observed that even by this early period, such a
number of editions of the New Testament, of all descriptions, as
weU as of the Sacred Volume entire, had passed through the
press ; and that Divine Truth had obtained a footing in our
land, from the moment of its entrance in 1526 ; he will allow
that in these fourteen years, a great work had been accom
plished ; and greater stiU, when he comes to see all that had
been going on in Scotland, as weU as in England. The full
effects, though no historian can ever detaU them, must have
been far greater than has hitherto been supposed. Yet is it but
little more than two years since the adversary lowered his
colours, and gave in. Dp to August 1537 in England, we have
witnessed only one uninterrupted battle, without a solitary
truce; and since then, as far as CrumweU was concerned, we
have seen him, in his ardour, officially pushing on the work.
When once on a time, writing so bitterly against Tyndale, he
httle thought that, in the very height of his career, though
loaded with the affairs of the nation, he would tax himself, and
strain every nerve, in the very direction which the Translator
had so long pointed out ; no object appearing to himself, even
as a pohtician, of greater importance. He is now, however,
soon to be called away from the field of action, leaving the
cause to that unseen hand which had guided it from the begin
ning, and which wiU employ or overrule others, as it had done
himself. CrumweU's energetic influence is not, however, yet
paralysed. He has six months to live, and the Bible, printed
still more magnificently, wiU be in circulation before then. In
common justice, therefore, to the only Vicegerent that Henry
ever had, and with regard to any of those volumes already
published on English ground, including the Bible which was
nearly finished in Paris, it should be observed, that when
Cranmer's name has been associated with them, in any degree,
whether as to preparation or printing, this appears to have been
historicaUy incorrect. We have seen him, for the first time,

352 CRUMWELL. [book i.
engrossed with one book, but the publication of it belongs to
next year.

MDXL.
CRUMWELL — HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER — RETROSPECT — COMMON MISTAKE A3
TO THE CROWN — THE LARGE POLIO BIBLES, IN SIX EDITIONS — THE FIRST OF
CRANMER'S — A DIFFERENT EDITION — THE SECOND OF CRANMER'S — THE THIRD
PREPARING, TO BE ISSUED NEXT TEAR, BUT WITH A DIFFERENT TITLE— ONE
IN FTVE VOLUMES, SMALL SIZE — QUARTO NEW TESTAMENT.
jhe second series of Bibles and Testaments, commencing
with the first of Cranmer's editions, wiU reach to the
end of the reign of Edward the Sixth, embracing the
next twelve years and a half, to July 1553. At the
best, it wiU be a strange and varied scene ; but at pre
sent our attention must be confined to the first of those
eventful years. It was the year of the downfall and
death of Crumwell, who feU a victim to the hatred of the old
learning party, to the insatiable avarice of his Boyal Master,
and, in a measure, to his own ambition. He was beheaded in
the Tower, and buried within its walls in the Chapel of St. Peter
ad Vincula, where so many victims had preceded him, and to
which so many followed.
Upon a survey of his extraordinary course, it must be evident
that he was a man possessed of very superior natural parts, and
that they were employed with extraordinary diligence and
industry. As to worldly affairs, his judgment is said to have
been methodical and solid, his memory strong and retentive,
and that no one was more dexterous in finding out the designs
of men and courts, nor any man more reserved in keeping a
secret. He has been represented as mindful of favours bestowed
upon him in earlier life, as considerate of the poor in their suits,
and bountiful to those who were in greater need ; but if all this
be granted, it only lends additional regret to the positive trans
actions which have been here recorded.
With regard to his state of mind, or whether he had any

1540.] HIS CHARACTER. 353
fixed sentiments at the moment of death, we are shut up to the
necessity of simply saying — to his own just and unerring Judge,
he then stood or feU. To draw any rash or positive conclusion
respecting the dead, in such a case as the present, from what
was uttered in the last moments of existence, is not merely
presumptuous ; it may injure the living, and damage the
improvement to be drawn by survivors, from tbe contemplation
oi the entire character. Historians have differed in opinion, it
is true, respecting CrumweU's exit, but they had not sufficiently
investigated his previous character, which can be understood
only by the leading transactions of his administration, and his
own letters. In tracing the one, and perusing the other, though
predisposed in his favour on the whole, we have been compelled
at an early period of his public career, to rank him as a man but
very low : and sinee he has been so frequently held up as
favourable to the cause of Truth, we have anxiously watched,
and waited for a ehange to the better, but have waited for this
in vain. His progress, even unto death, must ever be painful to
every reflecting mind, and his fall, as before observed, when
duly considered, is far more affecting than even that of Wolsey.
A man's ambition, indeed, is generally in proportion to his
capacity, and that of both men was confessedly very great ; but
then CrumweU knew much more of the theory of Christianity
than his predecessor, and had enjoyed far better opportunities of
witnessing its influence. Unhappy man! at the close of his
transient career, and because ambitious, at last infatuated, it
almost seems as though he had determined to wade through
contempt, into posthumous disgrace, and confound the judg
ment of posterity as to his real character. Hence the different
views which have been given of the same individual ; yet the
course pursued by him admits of explanation, though it be one
awfuUy Ulustrative of poor human nature.

For the first five months of this year, the most powerful
subject in the kingdom had been rising to the top of his
ambition. It was CrumweU, with all his honours thick upon
him, and crowned with an Earldom — an Earldom of a hundred
days, or by far the most miserable period of his existence.
He is now dead, and buried in that Tower, to which he had
A A

354 THE SCRIPTURES  RETROSPECT. [book I.
often sent others. But as he had finaUy shown himself ardent
in favour of the Scriptures being printed, we are now furnished
with one of the strongest proofs as to whether the progress
of this cause depended on the life of any such man, or was
at all affected by the death of the Vicegerent and last Vicar-
General. The cause of Divine Truth, properly so called, it has been our
imperative duty to preserve from being injured or mistaken, by
identifying it with any doubtful or disputable human character,
however conspicuous on the page of English history. Let every
man occupy the place belonging to him, but that cause, correctly
speaking, can be associated only with the consistent and sincere.
In no other in this country has the Almighty so reigned, and so
conspicuously, as an Overruler. Even historically, therefore, to
drag in any man, as though it depended at all upon him, simply
because he, at some moment, happened to be in office or in
power as a political agent, is only betraying the cause to the
common enemy of Divine Bevelation. This is an error which
has been committed too long, and by too many historians.
In reference to Crumwell, the noble warfare which has been
already detailed, had not only commenced long before he was
even heard of, but it had proceeded in spite of him, after he was
known and in power. Indeed, after the year 1537, he, or any
such man, be he who he may, cannot appear in any higher
character, than that of " one who had tarried at home, and now
divided the spoil." CrumweU's warmth in sanctioning, at the
decline of his career, or even pressing forward the printing of
the Scriptures, has been sufficiently accounted for, as resulting
from political expediency. Acting, as he has been proved to
have done in other respects, it could proceed from no higher
motive ; and when John Foxe, in his first edition, compares his
zeal to that of Jehu, in the days of old, he is far more accurate
than in many expressions which he substituted afterwards, in
his long and confused eulogy or defence. He Uved too near the
time indeed, to know as much as we do ; but it would have been
wiser had he, and others after him, said little more than he did
at first. This zeal, too, does not appear to have involved
CrumweU in any personal expense, except in the case of
Coverdale's Bible, which, as we have seen, did not succeed,

1540.] GROSS MISTAKE AS TO THE CROWN. 355
If there was any in the affair at Paris, which is not likely, as
he was acting under Henry's application to the French King, it
could be but trifling ; since the books were afterwards sold, the
parson paying one-half, and the people the other.
The truth is, that the events of the day, if fairly reported,
disentangle this glorious cause, and place it altogether out of
the way of being confounded, either with the state of England
in other respects, or the men who governed the country. On
the part of man, assuredly, it was neither by might or power
that Divine Bevelation, in the language of the people, found its
way into our native land, or afterwards spread ; for his might
and power were leagued against it. Of this, from year to year,
we have already had proof aU- sufficient. Yet so egregiously
inaccurate have been the representations of subsequent his
torians, that mere official characters have been brought forward,
so as to overshadow those of humbler name. The latter sus
tained the brunt of the battle ; they bore all the burden and
heat of the day ; they sustained the entire expense ; they ran
aU the risk, and they must no longer stand concealed behind
any man. The former, and not untU they could no longer resist
the tide, tardily lent official sanction at one time, and then
capriciously, or rather wickedly, withdrew it at another, although
that sanction, when offered, literally cost them nothing, or
nothing worthy of any notice.
But not only have historians erred egregiously, and led their
readers astray : men who ought to have searched more deeply,
and been fuUy informed, have, very boldly, founded arguments,
in our highest courts of law, upon assertions which were grossly
incorrect in point of fact ; and this, too, when pleading on
behalf of the Crown. Let one instance suffice for the present,
as the subject must afterwards be more fully explained. Two
hundred years certainly had afforded time sufficient to have
known and established the truth ; yet more than two hundred
years after this period, in 1758, when the Solicitor- General of
England was pleading before Lord Mansfield and other judges,
and talking wUdly of the King having by prerogative several
copyrights, he actually stated in open Court, as his third
ground for so pleading, that " the translation of the Great
English Bible under Grafton was performed at tlie King's expense !"
A a 2

356 GROSS MISTAKE CORRECTED. [book I.
Although this was too bad, there was no person present who was
able historically to confront him.
Henry's character, no doubt, involved the most singular
contradictions. He was avaricious and prodigal, at different
moments, in nearly equal extremes. He has been said to have
diced away the bells of suppressed houses, and to have lost
thousands of the spoU at play, but he certainly never spent his
money in printing Bibles. From aU we have seen already, of
course it was impossible that the King could possess any heart
felt interest in the Word of God. As far as he was concerned,
upon every hand sin abounded, and thus the high favour of God
to this country became the more conspicuous ; but so distant
was Mr. SoUcitor-General Yorke from the truth, that no evi
dence whatever has yet been adduced of Henry the Eighth
having ever been at any expense whatever, in printing one
soUtary copy of the Sacred Volume. Hitherto, we may aver,
we have made this sufficiently plain ; and as for the future, we
shall see presently who was at the expense, when even the
editions with Cranmer's or Tunstal's name on the title-page
came to be issued. But with regard to poor Grafton, so
unceremoniously robbed of aU due credit and honour, after
having, at the very beginning, personaUy embarked so large a
sum in the undertaking, it may here be observed, that he had
received as yet no more than a fair remuneration for his outlay
of capital ; and that, ere long, he found himself safely lodged in
the Fleet prison ; from whence the zealous Bishops, ever true to
their character, and under this self-same Henry VIII., would by
no means reUeve him till he had given his bond for £100 (equal
to £1500 now), that he would print no more Bibles, nor sell any
more, until a certain period — and when was that ? Not until
the King and the clergy should agree upon a translation, which,
as we have seen, and shaU see, they never did. Here, however,
we have at least one proof that as far as Grafton and Whitchurch
had been concerned in printing, these were undertakings in
which no part of the royal money, or that of the Exchequer,
had ever been involved. Had this been the case, had one
farthing of Henry's property been embarked, it would have
been at the peril of these Bishops to have so proceeded, and
they never would.

1540.] THE LARGE FOUO BIBLES. 357
We turn, therefore, to the real state of things, and take up
the second series of Bibles, or the result of Tyndale's exertions,
as stiU more visible in his native land, and in the Scriptures
which were printed and pubUshed before the face of the notorious
Bonner. It should not be forgotten that we now, in fact, see
the Bible of 1537, as aUeady described, with nothing more than
certain verbal alterations here and there ; some of which were
not improvements, and others, though now attempted, in the end
did not prevaU ; whUe, at the same time, the first introduced
Bible, and verbaUy, as first imported, is to be reprinted again
and again.
But, first, and with regard to those large Bibles of different
dates, to which the name of Cranmer was affixed in the title-
page, or four in number, and other two editions, with the names
of Tunstal and Heath, and not Cranmer's, or six distinct editions
in aU ; such has been the confusion, that they have hitherto
baffled the research of aU our bibliographers. Preceding authors
having faUed, Dibdin happens to be the last who attempted an
explanation, and he fairly gives up the subject in despair.
" After aU," says he in conclusion, " there seems to be some
puzzle, or unaccountable variety, in the editions of the Bible in
1540 and 1541. The confusion itself, indeed, may be accounted
for. All those largest black-letter Bibles are most interesting
rehcs, for such was the ordeal through which they passed, first
in Henry's reign, and then under his daughter Mary : such the
havoc to which they were exposed from the enemy, or, in other
words, such the enmity evinced by official men, that the only
wonder is, that any of them remain. Yet, upon the whole, the
number left, or surviving, is by no means the least remarkable
feature in their history. The consequence, however, has been,
that, before an experienced eye, many of them are found to be
copies made up."
This remark appUes generaUy to aU coUections, whether in
our universities, our public libraries, or in the hands of private
gentlemen. Such, therefore, is the value of a perfect copy
throughout, of these Bibles, or so highly have they been
estimated by posterity, above those who first read them, that
they have been sold for above forty, if not fifty pounds sterling.
The original price was ten shillings in sheets, or twelve, when

358 THE FOLIO BIBLES. [book I.
bound with bullions, clasps, or ornaments ; that is, about seven
pounds ten shillings, or nine pounds, of the present day.
In this state of things, the first step which required to be
taken, was to obtain perfect copies of all these six large black-
letter Bibles, with their genuine titles and last leaves ; as all
the editions to which we now refer happen to be very distinctly
dated, first on the title-page, and then more fully in the colo
phon. Even after this, at first sight, it might be presumed,
and it has been, when the books were viewed separately, that
there were here probably not more than two or three editions,
with different titles, and another date in conclusion. Such a
thing, however dishonest, though it has often been done with
certain books since, seems to have been then unknown ; for upon
farther examination, aU the editions are distinct. On observing,
however, that the catchword at the bottom of the page, and at
the top of the next, are in so many instances the same, the next
supposition may be, that as there might not be types in sufficient
quantity, after the first impression was thrown off, the forms,
in succession, may have been transferred to another press ; and
thus, like the ploughman overtaking the reaper, copies might
foUow each other at the distance of only three or four months.
But even this supposition wiU not solve the phenomena ; for
upon examining the body of the page, so numerous, or rather
innumerable, are the differences in point of spelling, contractions,
and even pointing, that no alternative is left but that of com
paring the six volumes page by page. The reason for our
being thus particular will appear presently ; but who, it may be
asked, wUl ever be at the pains to do aU this ? He must possess
the perfect copies, or have the genuine leaves of aU the six
Bibles before him, and these were not to be found in any pubhc
collection in the kingdom ; nor was this sufficient, for the very
pages of each and all must be patiently examined to mark their
curious and minute distinctions. But the fact is that, at last,
all this has been accomplished, through the indefatigable per
severance of one gentleman, though we must not say at what
expense. Yet he himself, thus carefully coUating them, the
result is, that of these large Bibles, speciaUy intended for pubhc
worship or public reading, there were six distinct editions, three
dated in 1540 and three in 1541 ; two of which were issued

1540.] IN SIX EDITIONS. 359
this year, and four in the next. In all such labour, however,
there is profit, though it may not appear at first ; for, even at
this stage, there was stiU some degree of mystery in every one
of these Bibles being dated from London.
One day, in the metropoUs, a gentleman, no inferior judge,
remarked to the present writer — " I cannot believe that these
Bibles were actually printed in London." "Where then," it
was asked, " do you suppose ?" He rephed, " I think most
probably in Paris" " But why so ?" " Because of the type ; for
at that time the London types, as used in aU other books,
were inferior to that fine bold letter." Certainly they were, it
may now be added, and these, there can be Uttle or no doubt,
were Parisian types. But as for their being so employed in that
city, after the violent interruption in the end of 1538 ; when
once the wrath of the Sorbonne against Bobert Estienne, that
is Stephens the printer, is observed, and stiU more, the state of
feeUng between the French and EngUsh Kings, throughout
1540 and 1541 ; such employment of these types, and to such
extent in Paris, must appear to have been altogether impossible.
Thus then, in the end, are we brought back to admire the
energy of poor Crumwell's character, in a step hitherto but
very shghtly noticed in history. In bringing over the very
presses, the Parisian types and even French workmen, he had
done his business thoroughly, after his own manner. Types to
a greater extent certainly, if not workmen more numerous, had
arrived, than has ever been before imagined. He had seen that
the Bible being speedily multipUed, and generaUy read, was his
best, his only mainstay, against the insidious and powerful
opposition of "the old learning" party. So that but for what
he had done, we are now led to infer, that Cranmer would never
have had it in his power, to have put forth at least such and so
many Bibles as these. It was something for CrumweU to have
drawn such spoU, if not from the " Fonderie du Boy," yet from
its immediate vicinity, for it certainly appears now to be far
more than probable, that an English foUo Bible printing in
Paris, once interrupted, had ended in six others being printed in
London ! The history of the books themselves wiU afford some
farther curious information, and the more so when taken in the
order of their dates.

3.60 FIRST BIBLE OF CRANMER. [book I.
The first of these Bibles, which was finished in AprU with
Cranmer's name, we have referred to under 1539, as preparing.
We have seen that it had been subjected by Henry to the in
spection of certain Bishops, though merely as individuals, but
belonging to that body, which had aU along shown such hostility
to any translation whatever. The determined aspect and im
perative tones of the Monarch had very soon made these enemies
yield their feigned obedience ; and his heart, however capricious,
being in the hand of God, here is the book entire, and with
Cranmer's prefaee attached, enforcing " high and low, male and
female, rich and poor, master and servant," to read it, at home:
in their own houses, and ponder over it 1 This, the first Bible,
is entitled —
" The Byble in Englishe, that is to saye the contet ofal the holy Scripture, both
of the Olde and New Testamet, with a prologe thereinto made by the reverende-
father in God, Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury. U Tliis is the Byble apoynted
to the use of the Churches. IT Printed by Edward whytchurche. Cum privi-
legio ad imprimendum solum mdxl." The Colophon is — "The ende of the
new Testamet : and oi the whole Bible fynisshed in Apryll, Anno mcocccxl.
A dfio factii est istud."
Of this first edition printed on English ground, there is a
splendid copy on Vellum, with the cuts and blooming letters,
curiously illuminated, in the British Museum. It has, for some
reason, recently been rebound, in three volumes ; but splendidly
in morocco. This fine book, once actuaUy possessed by Henry
VIII., is valuable as one key to the party concerned in the expense
of the impression ; for so far from this being the King himself,
this copy was given to him as a present. The first leaf bears
the foUowing inscription in legible characters : — " This book »
presented unto your most excellent Highness, by your loving faithful
and obedient subject and dayly oratour, Anthony Marler of London,
haberdasher." "Who this haberdasher was," said Baker, "I
wish to know. He must have been a considerable man that
could make such a present to a prince, and seems to have been a
sharer in the charge of the impression." Bespecting this London
gentleman, nothing more has been ascertained except that he
was a member of this Livery Company, whose records were
almost whoUy destroyed in the great fire of 1666 ; but that he
was. more than a sharer in the expense of this, and other im
pressions, wiU appear presently, and before the Privy Council.

1540.] ANOTHER BIBLE, BESIDES CRANMER'S SECOND. 361
No sooner were copies of this large volume ready, than the
King's brief for setting up the Bible of the greater volume
was issued, ordering now that the decree should not only be
"solemnly pubUshed and read," but "set up upon every
church door — that it may more largely appear unto our subjects.
Witness myseU, at Westminster, the seventh day of May, in
the thirty-second year of our reign," i. e. Friday, 7th of May,
1540. It is curious enough, however, that there was another Bible
in foUo, also dated in April of this year. It has been frequently
mis-stated as being Cranmer's, as if it were the same as the
last. There are various distinctions. It is not only without
Cranmer's prologue, and differs from his translation in the
psalms and elsewhere, but the New Testament is said to be after
. the last recognition of Erasmus : that is, it is the same version
as that which accompanied the Latin and English Testament
prmted by Bedman in 1538. The book, therefore, is to be classed
with Matthew's or Tyndale's translation. It is on a smaUer
type and paper than the last, and seems to have been intended
for the use of families, — Entitled,
" The Byble in Englishe, that is to saye the content of all the holye scripture,
both of the old and Newe Testament, truely translated after the veryte of the
Hebrew and Greke textes. Prmted at London by Thomas Petyt and Bobert
Bedman for Thomas Berthelet, printer unto the Kynge's grace, 1540." The
Colophon is — "The end of the New Testament, and of the whole Byble,
finisshed in Apryll, Anno mcccccxl."
This book had been submitted neither to the King, nor any
Bishop, even though it was executed for his Majesty's printer.
It was warranted by CrumweU, according to the privilege given
to him on the 14th of November last. By the month of July,
however, another of the great Bibles was ready.
U " The Byble in Englyshe, that is to saye the contet of al the holy Scripture,
loth of the olde and newe Testamet, with a prologe thereinto made by the
feverende father in God, Thomas Archbishop of Cantorbary. 1 This is the
Byble apoynted to the use of the churches. II Printed by Bichard Grafton,
cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum, mdxl." The Colophon is — "The
ende of the newe Testament and of the whole Byble, fynished in July, Anno
mcccccxl. "
TrembUng for his life, and imploring mercy from his inhuman

362 TUNSTAL BOWS, AND SANCTIONS IT. [book i.
master for a month past, this Bible is remarkable for its being
finished at the very time of CrumweU's execution, and the
more so from its having still on the engraved frontispiece, his
shield or coat of arms ! This had first appeared last year, or
1539, and now a third time in this book ; but CrumweU is dead,
nay, was put to death on the 28th of this very month, and any
other undertaking must have suffered, in which he, or any other
disgraced minister, had taken such a prominent interest. It
has been asserted, indeed, that after his fall, the Bible was
complained of, as being heretical and erroneous ; nay, that
means were taken to persuade the King that the free use of the
Scriptures, which Cranmer had so strongly urged in his preface,
was injurious to the peace of the country. But a crisis had
come, for here, by the month of November, a third foUo Bible is
ready for pubUcation. Two editions with Cranmer's name on
the title, and marked as appointed for pubUc worship, were
already out, and what was now to be done ? CrumweU is gone,
and Cranmer bad not power sufficient to command the Bishops ;
but there is one aUve who in a moment can command them all,
or any one whom he is pleased to select. This book, then, must
not be lost, nor even suppressed, though the Vicar- General be
no more. Nay, an expedient must be adopted not only to silen^'
aU calumny, but push the sale of the work, to which, it will
appear in due time, neither the King nor the Bishops had con
tributed any pecuniary aid. Here, then, was Tunstal standing
by, who of all the rest had been so conspicuous as an opponent
since 1526, and it was fit that the unbending heterodoxy of this
original enemy should now be put to the test ; and here was
Heath, who had recently gone over to Tunstal's party. Henry,
therefore, did what seemed to him the best thing that could
have been thought of in these circumstances. He commanded
these two men to sit down, and say what they thought of the
Bible now ready. The book was printed by November : mean-
whUe Gardiner is sent out of the way to the Emperor's court,
and Tunstal and Heath must apply to their task. As Gardiner
and others had delayed Cranmer's first edition, and then declared
in the end that there were " no heresies in it," why examine the
translation again ? We may reply, because of CrumweU's
execution, and because it was much better, by way of con-

1540.] FIVE EDITIONS THIS YEAR. 363
founding the enemy, to make these opponents speak out. They
took time, till the year to which the book belongs was ended, or
the 25th of March, and then out it came with a title stUl more
pompous, declaring the fact as now stated.
" The Byble in Englishe of the largest and greatest volume, auctoryed and
apoynted by the commandemente of our moost redoubted Prynce and soueraygne
Lorde Kynge Henry the VIII. , supreme heade of this his churche and realme of
Englande : to be frequented and used in every churche in this his sayd realme,
accordynge to the tenour of his former /^junctions giuen in that behalfe.
If Oversene and perused at the commaundmet of the Kynge's Hyghnes, by ihe
ryghte reverende fathers in God Cuthbert Bysshop of Duresme, and Nicolas
Bisshop of Bochester. Printed by Edward Whitchurch. Cum priuilegio. ad
imprimendmn solum. 1541." The Colophon — "The end of the New Testa
ment and of the whole Byble Fynisshed in November 1540," though not pub
lished till 1541.
This was in truth another triumph over the enemy, one of
most grievous annoyance to Master Gardiner ; and this he will
not faU to discover on the first occasion in which he can find his
brethren assembled, after his return from abroad. Some poor
petty spite was indeed already discoverable. The reader wiU
recoUect of the homage falsely imputed to Henry, by an en
graved frontispiece to the three last Bibles ; in which CrumweU
and Cranmer are represented at fuU length, above, as receiving
the Bible from the King, and below, as giving it to the people.
At the feet of each figure, it wiU be remembered, was his shield
or coat of arms. The frontispiece, esteemed a treasure of its
kind, must not be thrown away. But the arms of CrumweU
were now erased ! StiU there stands the figure intended for
him, and so it continued to do, throughout seven editions ! That
is, three of them with his shield and four without. But if this
was the first with the shield erased, it was the first also with
Tunstal's name, and the figure of Crumwell, now so well known,
standing by. And is Saul also among the Prophets ? might not
the people have exclaimed, and perhaps did ; though we have
yet to hear again of Tunstal and Heath's feigned obedience.
There had been no time left for them to alter the translation.
The book was laid before them, no doubt, as it had come from
the press. A title was wanting to suit the moment, and Henry
now, his own Vicar- General, commanded the present one. It
will make way for two other editions from Cranmer.

364 THIRD AND FOURTH LARGE BIBLES. [book I.
In addition to these four Bibles, it is said that there was a
fifth, and in five volumes as smaU as sexto-decimo, printed by
Bedman; but, at aU events, there was a New Testament in
quarto, with Erasmus and Tyndale in paraUel columns. Thus
amidst aU the turmoU, and in spite of foes, the cause went
forward, and stUl from conquering to conquer.

MDXLI.
THE THIRD LARGE BIBLE, WITH TUNSTAL'S NAME, BV COMMAND — THE FOURTH,
IN MAY, WITH CRANMER'S NAME — EXPENSE OF THESE LARGE UNDERTAKINGS
¦ — THE MEMORABLE PROPRIETOR, ANTHONY MARLER — BONNER'S FEIGNED ZEAL
— EARNEST READING AND LISTENING — THE FIFTH GREAT BIBLE, WITH
TUNSTAL'S NAME — THE SIXTH, WITH CRANMER'S NAME — GARDINER RETURNED,
TO WITNESS THE PROGRESS NOW MADE DURING HIS ABSENCE.
fter the faU of Crumwell, after the royal marriage of
last year, and some degree of amicable intercourse
commenced between the Emperor and Henry, the
Norfolk, Gardiner, and Tunstal party may be con
sidered as at the height of their power ; so that what
ever shaU take place with regard to the printing or
pubUcation of the Sacred Volume, becomes the more
remarkable. This year is the last in which Bibles were printed
under the present reign, even though Henry had stiU five years
to live. By his "commandment" we have seen both Tunstal
and Heath giving in their adherence to the translation, and in
an edition certainly finished in November last. It may there
fore be presumed that the order to look over it, had come after
the book was finished at press, since it did not appear before
the 25th of March this year. But this would not suffice
for 1541.
By the end of May another edition was ready by Cranmer,
thus proving that, for aU practical purposes, the version was
precisely the same throughout, whether his name, or that of its
ancient foe, Tunstal, was affixed. This edition, as if marked out
for observation, is particularly dated in red on the title page, as
weU as in black at the end.

1541.] THE MEMORABLE PROPRIETOR. 365
" The Byble in Englysh, that is to saye the content of all the holy Scrypture,
both of the olde and newe Testament, with a prologe thereinto, made by the re-
uerende father in God, Tliomas arohebyshop of Canterbury. H This is tlie Byble
appoynted to the use of the Churches. Printed by Edwarde Whitchurch.
Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum. Finislied the xxviii daye of Maye,
Anno domini mdxli." The Colophon is — "The ende of the newe Testament :
and of the whole Byble, Fynysshed in May mcccccxli. a dflo factu est istud. "
Here then was not less than the fifth folio Bible completed,
in the short space of less than two years. Nay, four have been
completed in thirteen months ! We have before us, therefore,
unquestionably, a magnificent undertaking. Means must be
taken for the disposal of these volumes, and provision for this
end may weU be made by those who had been at no expense,
should they possess any influence. We dismiss, at present, the
expense of all other editions, and taking up those only in which
we find the names of Grafton or Whitchurch, partners in
business as the printers ; from that first edition which was
imported by them in 1537 down to only the present moment,
we have six editions. The impressions thrown off have been
rated at from 1500 to 2,500 copies ; so that if we take the
medium, here were twelve thousand volumes. We now know,
from Grafton himself, that £500 had been embarked by him in
the first edition, given to Britain ; but those that foUowed after
were stiU finer books. Granting therefore that there had been
here a sum of no more than £3000 incurred, though there must
have been more, this, according to the value of money in our
day, was equal to forty, if not forty-five thousand pounds!
"History, though warm on meaner themes," has hitherto
" been cold on this ; " and the reader of the present hour, except
the transactions be explained, may pass without notice, the
most memorable feature of the times. In the midst of the
preceding still nobler struggle, respecting the New Testament
only, Sir Thomas More had expressed his astonishment, on
account of the expense incurred, and so much the more that he
could never fathom from whence the money came. But what
would he have said to this cause now, not seven years after his
death ? Ah, and what would he have said to his friend
Tunstal, who so led him on the ice, by granting him Ucence to
"play the Demosthenes," in opposition to Tyndale ; and who
now, by the command of their common Sovereign, is openly

366 THE MEMORABLE PROPRIETOR. [book 1.
mixed up in the whole concern, though not in one farthing of
the expense ?
The memorable edition of 1537, and that chiefly printed in
Paris and finished in London in 1539, are not to be forgotten ;
but we now only look to those volumes to which the brief of the
King on the 7th of May last year, and the names of Cranmer
and Tunstal on the title-page, direct us, or four editions. These,
according to our very moderate calculation, involved £2000 in
advance, or equal to thirty thousand pounds now.
Here, then, was a work of magnitude, to which it would have
been quite worthy of any king, or of any government, to have
contributed. But if neither the one, nor the other, bore the
burden ; if neither had even advanced any funds in the mean
while ; then from, this time forth, and ever after, " let honour be
given to whom honour is due," — and posterity venerate the
memory of the man, or the men, who so befriended their
countrymen and our forefathers.
The sale, therefore, of these large volumes, so long loosely
styled " Cranmer's Bibles," must now no longer be neglected,
lest the noble proprietor, though to us hitherto little more than
an unknown private gentleman, should be, as he said himself,
undone for ever. It was a crisis, in the finest keeping with our
entire history. There was no application about to be made by
him to Government, for any pecuniary aid, and far less to
Henry VIII. personally; but it was at least proper that his
Privy CouncU should be reminded of their royal Master's
imperative injunctions of May 1540 ; and so they were in
prospect of Cranmer's last impression.
After the death of CrumweU, Henry's CouncU was divided
into two separate sections; of which one sat in London, the
other was with the King ; and, what is curious enough, then,
for the first time, we have regular minutes of his Privy Council.
It is from this source, the most authentic of all others, that we
hear more particularly of that worthy citizen, Anthony Marler.
Strange ! that for three hundred years he should have been
overshadowed, by the King on the one hand, and the Primate
on the other ; but they are now both certainly here present, to
witness for themselves, and to be overshadowed in their turn.
Thus it is that " time unveils truth."

1541.] ANTHONY MARLER. 367
Minutes of the Privy Council : at Greenwich 25 April, 33 of Henry VIII. ,
that is 1541, "It was agreed that Anthony Marler of London, merchant,
might sell the bibles of the Great Bible unbound for x s. sterling (equal to
£7 10s.), and bound, being trimmed with bullyons, for xii. s. sterling" (or
equal to £9).
And on a complaint of the same Anthony Marler to the fore
said Council, that the parish churches throughout the kingdom
had not generaUy complied with the royal injunction, that each
should be provided with a copy of the Bible of the largest
volume, in dependence on which the last edition had been
printed, the King in Council issued another injunction to the
same effect as the former, but affixing a definite penalty to the
neglect of the order, beyond a certain time, viz. 1st Nov., the
date ofthe proclamation being 6th May, 1541. The King presided,
and Cranmer was present at both of these meetings of CouncU.1
This must have so far brightened the prospect of our patriotic
proprietor, as we shall find another edition of the Great Bible
soon ready for pubUcation, proceeding from the same quarter,
nay, and another stUl, before the year is done ! But in the
meanwhile it is now evident, that so far from Henry VIII.
being at any expense for the Bibles already printed by Grafton
and Whitchurch, as our SoUcitor-General told Lord Mansfield,
and as others, both before and after him, have unwarrantably
affirmed, the King was now rather in the way of making a little
money, by pubUcations in which he had no pecuniary concern !
At least every fine would bring him £1, for a book which would
have cost no more than 10s. ; or in other words, the value of
£15, for an article at £7 10s. But if the purchase had been
neglected two months, then his Majesty would have £30 ; if
three, £45 ! WhUe, on the other hand, for every overcharge he
was to receive two shiUings, or equal to thirty.
But besides this proclamation, in five days more, or
Wednesday, 11th May, came a letter from no other than
Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, (stUl obsequiously so far
playing the hypocrite,) for the execution of the King's orders,
addressed to his Archdeacon ; and so eager must he appear to
secure the royal favour, that in September he also put forth an
" Admonition to all readers of this Bible in the Enghsh tongue"
1 Cotton MS., Cleop., E. v., foL 337.

368 bonner's feigned zeal. f

BOOK I.

— " Evermore forseeing that no exposition be made thereupon,
otherwise than it is declared in the book itself — that no reading
be used in the time of Divine service — or, finally, that no man
justly may reckon himself to be offended thereby, or take
occasion to grudge or malign thereat."
The reading of the Sacred Scriptures, however, it must ever
be borne in mind, had now been a practice, not in London
merely, but throughout England, and for fifteen years ; to what
extent, indeed, it is impossible to say. But as we have long
seen, many of Henry's subjects had truly not waited for his poor
permission, whether to read or to hear : and in many a corner,
far and near, there were those who knew far more of Chris
tianity, and to better purpose, than did any of the members of
Government. Even five years ago, the late Edward Fox of
Hereford, a rara avis among the Bishops, had boldly told his
brethren as much, and it was certainly no more than the truth.
On the return of Bonner from Paris, where he had pretended
great zeal for the Scriptures, to please CrumweU ; and imme
diately after the King's brief in 1540, to please both, this
consummate hypocrite had set up six Bibles in St. Paul's for
pubUc reading. The result at once proved, how far the people
were a-head of these official men. They came instantly and
generally to hear the Scriptures read. Such as could read with a
clear voice often had great numbers round them. Many sent their
children to school, and carried them to St. Paul's to hear. It was,
however, not long before the language of our Saviour himself—
" Drink ye all of it," struck them, and very naturally led to
discussion. The complaints of some, in lack of argument, of
which the adverse party took care to avail themselves, were
dexterously conveyed to the King. In their eyes, this reading
of the Scriptures by the people, and hearing them read in
public, was a sore evil ; and an opportunity must be sought and
seized for putting it down. CrumweU, the terror of the Bishops,
was gone ; and Gardiner is out of the country ; but Bonner,
though always false at heart, must still dissemble ; nay, more
over, here actually come Tunstal and Heath once more, and
with another edition of the great Bible, in November !
" The Byble in Englyshe of the largest and greatest volume, auctorysed and
apoynted by the oommandemente of our moost redoubted Prynce and soueraygne

I54J.] FIFTH GREAT BIBLE. 369
Lorde, Kynge Henrye the VIII., supreme heade of this his Church and realme
of Englande : to be frequented and used in every Churche win ihis his sayd
realme, accordyng to the tenour of his former /njunctiens giuen in that behalfe.
If Oversene and perused at the commaundmet of the Kynges Highnes, by tlie
ryghte reverende fathers in God, Cuthbert bysshop of Duresme, and Nicolas
bysshop of Rochester. Printed by Bychard Grafton, 1541." The Colophon is
— " The ende of the newe Testament and of the whole Byble. Fynyshed in
November, Anno mcccccxl j."
Nor would even this suffice. Anthony Marler, the only pay
master as yet named, or to be named, is stiU ready to proceed ;
and a final edition was completed before this year was done.
It had been going on at press with other editions ; and, it
is curious enough, from last year, but it was not finished till
the close of the present ; at the same time, it may have been
only nine months in the press, as their year extended to the
25th of March. Cranmer was not to be outdone by these two
Bishops, and, therefore, as in May last, so he now foUows them
up immediately with his usual title, and an emphatic colophon,
as if he had been in wonder at the compUance of Tunstal and
Heath. " The Byble in Englisne, that is to saye, the content of all the holy scrypture
both of the olde and newe testament, with a prologe thereinto, made by the re
verende father in God, Thomas archebisshop of Cantorhnry. IT This is tlie
Byble appoynted to the use of the Churches. If Printed by Rycharde Grafton.
Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum. An. do. mdxl." The Colophon is —
"The ende of the Newe Testament, and of the whole Bible, Finysshed in
December mcccccxli. t A Domino factum est istud. This is the Lordes
ge."

And thus ended the year : so that we have four of these
large fohos dated in 1541. It was certainly a strange move
ment on the part of Henry VIII., and one which must have
taken many by surprise, for him first to send Gardiner off
to Germany, and then, as soon as he was gone, command his
friends, Tunstal and Heath, to give in their adhesion to the
Bible, to which Cranmer had bowed; and then also to place
their names in the title-page, in token of their fuU approbation
— a translation almost verbally the same in the New Testament,
which the King himself and Wolsey had first denounced, and
Tunstal after them, consigned again and again to the flames !
Such, however, was the fact. The undertaking was not to be
denounced, even though CrumweU, now rated as a heretic and a
B B

370 SIXTH GREAT BIBLE. [book I.
traitor, had imported the types, and pushed forward the printing,
not only of these, but of other editions.
But lo ! here is Stephen Gardiner, returned in October, and
gone direct to the King from Charles V. With what surprise
must he have beheld the progress made ! On going abroad, his
party reigned triumphant ; it was now in disgrace, and the
Queen, whose marriage he had fostered, is about to ascend the
scaffold! But, especially, if he had not been informed, with
what feelings must he have gazed on the names of Tunstal and
Heath in the very title-page of these Bibles !
Tunstal was now in his sixty-eighth year, and appears to
have been in some degree softened with his years ; Gardiner
never was ; and now, though of these volumes there were eight
editions in regular series, to say nothing of others, which had
received Henry's approval, and two of these carried the
obsequious, but weU-known attestation of Tunstal and Heath ;
stiU this Bishop of Winchester stood resolved to put forth all
his strength, in the way of cunning sophistry, against the
translation thus acknowledged, and now reading in pubhc, in so
many places. Certainly he had owned to the King before, that
there were "no heresies in it." But another Parhament is
summoned, and another Convocation, where Gardiner anticipated
that he might even yet work wondrously. Let him try ; that
he himself and his brethren may come to their greatest humilia
tion, and to their final discomfiture as a Convocation.

1542.] THE ENEMY ON THE RACK. 371

MDXLII.
CONVOCATION MET — THE BIBLE INTRODUCED THERE FOR DISCUSSION AT LAST —
SINGULAR DISPLAY — GARDINER'S GRAND EFFORT IN OPPOSITION — CRANMER
INFORMS THE KING  THEY ARE ALL DISCOMFITED, THOUGH YET SITTING —
PROGRESS OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND.
y this year, such had been the progress made in the cause
of Divine Truth, that the imaginations of its enemies
were Uterally put to the rack. Oppose they must ; but
how to proceed, was a problem not of easy solution.
Upon his second return from the Continent, in Octo
ber last, Gardiner had found far greater occasion for
regret, than he had done even before, in September
1538. Then, he could step into his fiery chariot, and bring
Lambert to the stake ; he and Norfolk had been worming them
selves into royal favour ever after ; and upon setting off for the
imperial Court, in November 1540, whether he should there
fully succeed or not, everything at home seemed to promise
other, and, as he thought, better days ; now that CrumweU was
gone, and his Majesty so delighted with the Queen which had
been furnished to him by the old learning party. She was their
first and only choice, on whose sway depended anticipations not
a few. But now, that mainstay had faUen ; Gardiner's friend,
the Duke of Norfolk, had been trembling for bis personal
honours, if not his life; while, to crown aU, that piUar of
strength, Cuthbert Tunstal, had not merely given way, but his
name had been employed, by royal authority, as though he had
personaUy gone over to the other side. Still, the party must
rally once more. By this time, it might have been supposed
that their arrows would have been expended and their quiver
empty ; but, subtle, and ingenious in the extreme, their sophis
try prevailed once more. If the peculiar situation of the King
be taken into account, it must appear surprising that they should
have been successful in swaying his mind now ; though, in the
end, we shall leave it to the judgment of the reader, whether
the whole proceeding, on the part of Henry, does not carry very
much of the appearance of a snare, in which, when caught, the
Bishop of Winchester, from being the most conspicuous cha-
B b 2

372 DISCUSSING THE TRANSLATION. [book I.
racter, became the most ridiculous. Be this as it may, these
men will not stop till they have exposed themselves to the
derision of posterity.
A new Parliament having assembled, on the foUowing Friday,
or the 20th, the Convocation also met ; and as it sat tiU the 29th
of March, of course it proved, as usual, though only apparently,
a critical period for the Sacred Scriptures. After so many
storms, as all along there had been no real danger, so there will
not be any now. At the opening, Bichard Cox, Archdeacon of
Ely, had preached to the House, of course in Latin ; and if he
had intended his text to be satirical, he could not have been
more severe. It was " Vos estis sal terrce," — " ye are the salt of
the earth ! ! " — and no doubt a very different sermon from that
of Latimer six years ago.
After being detained for some time by the King's personal
unhappy affairs in Parhament, these men proceeded to business
in the Convocation ; and at their third session, on Friday the
17th of February, the Translation of the Scriptures, so often
discussed there without any result, must once more come before
them. The reader cannot have forgotten their former abortive
attempts, and may be the more curious to observe what hap
pened now. They appear ever to have been afraid to look any
farther than the New Testament, and it was of this they felt
most apprehension. Upon this day, therefore, Cranmer required
the bishops and clergy to revise the translation of the New
Testament ; and so successful had been the votaries of the " old
learning," that this was done in the King's name. It must have
been no welcome proposal to the Archbishop, after he had so
fully committed himself. However, as usual, he must obey ; and
therefore, having divided the volume into fourteen parts, he
allotted them to fifteen Bishops, as follow : —

Matthew .

. to himself, Cranmer of Canterbury.

Mark

. to Longland of Lincoln.

Luke

. to Gardiner of Winchester.

John

. to Goodrich of Ely.

The Acts .

. to Heath of Bochester.

Bomans .

to Sampson of Chichester.

Corinthians,

1 and 2 to Capon of Salisbury.

Galatians to Ephesians to Barlow of St. David's.
Thessalonians, 1 and 2 to Bell of Worcester.

1543. J DISCUSSING THE TRANSLATION. 373
Timothy to Philemon to Parfew of St. Asaph.
Peter, 1 and 2 . .to Holgate of Llandaff.
Hebrews . . .to Skip of Hereford.
James to Jude . . to Thirlby of Westminster.
Bevelation . . to Wakeman of Gloster and Cliamber of Peterboro'.
Here, let it be observed, were two notable and curious omis
sions. What had become of Tunstal and Bonner — the former
once so outrageously zealous against the Scriptures in London ;
the latter as much so for them while in Paris ? Tunstal having
but recently committed himself to two editions of the Bible, by
express commandment from the King, must have either decUned ;
or with his characteristic " stillness," perhaps expected to
"oversee" once more the wished-for revisal. Bonner, though
a canonist and wUy poUtician, was very probably no scholar ; or,
hke his predecessor, John Stokesly, would have no connexion
with the affair.
At their sixth meeting Gardiner came forward, therefore,
with the fruit of his own counsel, and made a proposal perfectly
characteristic, which he was sure to carry triumphantly within
the Convocation. It was at best a puerile design, and to us now,
a most contemptible one, with a view to keep the people of
England in their ancient ignorance. He then read a Ust of not
fewer than one hundred and two Latin words, that " for their
genuine and native meaning, and for the majesty of the matter
in them contained," might be retained in the EngUsh transla
tion, or be fitly Englished with the least alteration. For the
sake of illustration, only a sUght specimen wiU be sufficient.
Ecclesia, pcenitentia, pontifex, olacausta (so in the record), idiota, baptizare,
sacramentum, simulacrum, confiteor tibi Pater, panis, prcepositionis, benedictio,
satisfactio, peccator, episcopus, cisera, zizania, confessio, pasclra, hostia.
The bearing of the entire list is very apparent. Gardiner,
indeed, had talked of "majesty" in the words, but there was
something else than majesty in view. " Witness," says old
Fuller, " the word ' penance,' which, according to the vulgar
sound, contrary to the original sense thereof, was a magazine of
wiU worship, and brought in much gain to the priests, who were
desirous to keep that word, because that ivord kept them."
Cranmer, however, being now at his post, and retaining influ
ence with his Majesty, although he had once more dealt out the
books of the New Testament among his fellows, soon observed

374 THE CONVOCATION OVERRULED. [book I.
from their discussions, what would be the result ; and therefore
determined to wait upon Henry, and inform him how matters
went. The Bishops, therefore, were now relieved from their
several tasks, and they were, moreover, no more to be consulted
on the subject ! They must be overruled, to a man, though in
Convocation assembled. After entering the House, on Friday
the 10th of March, Cranmer informed his brethren " that it was
the King's wiU and pleasure, that the translation both of the
Old and the New Testament should be examined by both Uni
versities ! " In vain did the House oppose, and in vain protest ;
for all the Bishops present did so, with only two exceptions, viz.
Goodrich of Ely, and Barlow of St. David's. Cranmer, who saw
that his brethren only desired to get rid of the translation alto
gether, then finally told them that he " would stick close to the
will and pleasure of the King his Master, and that the Univer
sities should examine the translation." This, however, after all
turned out as though it had been simply an expedient adopted
for putting an end to the foolish proposal of submitting the
Word of God to the revision of any such men ; for even the
Universities never were consulted ! !
To have ruined Marler, the worthy member of the Haber
dashers' Company, in the eyes of the Convocation, would have
been quite an achievement; but Anthony's precious property
was now safe, and it seems that something more must instantly
be said respecting it. It is singular that forty-eight hours were
not allowed to pass away ! Cranmer must have immediately
informed the King of his final reply ; and now, so far from
looking to any University, out came the following authori
tative communication, dated on (Sunday) the 12th of March,
1542; thus verifying the old proverb— "the better day, the'
better deed."
"Henry the Eighth, &c— To all Printers of books within this realm, to all
our Officers, Ministers, and Subjects, these our Letters, hearing or seeing, greet
ing. We let you wit, that we, for certain causes convenient, of our Grace
special, have given and granted to our well-beloved subject, Anthony Marler,
citizen and Haberdasher of our city of London, only to print the Bible in our
English tongue, authorized by us, himself or his assigns. And we command that
no manner of persons within these our dominions shall print the said Bible, or
any part thereof, within the space of four years next ensuing Hie printing of
the said book, by our said subject or his assigns. And further, we will and com
mand our true subjects, and all strangers, that none presume to print the said

1542.] THE CONVOCATION OVERRULED. 375
work, or break this our commandment and privilege as they intend eschewe our
punishment and high displeasure. Witness ourself at Westminster the xii
day of March. Per breve de privato sigillo. 1542."
But why could not his Majesty have shown a little more
delicacy ? Why could he not wait, but a Uttle while, till the
Convocation was dissolved, and the Bishops had left the capital P
They were stiU sitting, and continued to do so for more than
a fortnight, or tiU the 29th of the month ! Did his Majesty
intend to pour contempt upon them, and hold them up to
derision even whUe thus assembled ? Whatever was his motive,
certainly no mortification could be greater — no humiliation
more complete. Their indignation, however, they must suppress
for the present ; though it wiU not be surprising should it
burst out with great violence, as soon as they meet again. But
let them do what they please, the sacred text wiU never again be
submitted to their consideration. They may rave about Tyndale,
execrate his name, wreak their vengeance upon his writings, and
thus unwittingly, once more hold up to posterity the man to
whom the nation stood most of aU indebted ; but his work will
abide and prosper, and long after they have gone down to the
grave. As there were no more foUo Bibles printed in Henry's reign,
it has often been supposed that this was owing to the strength
of the opposing party ; but the fact has now been accounted for
in a manner more satisfactory. Let it only be observed that by
the end of last year, or only four years and four months from
August 1537, of Tyndale's translation, and based on Tyndale's,
there had issued from the press, not fewer than twelve editions of
the entire Bible, ten in folio, and two in quarto. And it was
weU they had ; they were laid up in store, like Joseph's corn in
Egypt, for the next four years. The impression of each of those
Bibles has been calculated as ranging from 1,500 to 2,500 copies :
but say that there were 2000 copies on an average, here were
more than twenty thousand Bibles, a most memorable fact, under
aU the circumstances. Many of the copies which had been
printed since 1539 may have been yet for sale ; and Marler, it
is evident, was so overstocked, that he was afraid of ruin by his
outlay. The King's letters in his favour now extended his pri
vilege to December 1545, immediately after which we shall find

376 THOMAS BECON. [book I.
that Grafton was at work again, with an edition of the New
Testament. But independently of this ample supply in folio and quarto,
it must ever be remembered that there were many thousands of
the New Testament long circulated, and reading far and wide
throughout the country. We shall take the proof from one of
the best of witnesses, and as it came from the press in London,
this very year. An admirer of Latimer, who, in 1526, when
only sixteen years of age, used to hear him preach, and George
Stafford read lectures, at Cambridge, had then received certain
impressions which were never to be erased from his mind. After-
mentioning Latimer's discourses, both in English and Latin,
he then adds — " at aU of which, for the most part, I was
present ; and although at the time I was but a ehUd of sixteen
years old, (anno 1526,) yet I noted his doctrine as well as I
could, partly reposing it in my memory, and partly committing
it to writing. I was present, when with manifest authorities of
God's Word, and invincible arguments, he proved in his sermons
that the Holy Scriptures ought to be read in the English tongue
by all Christian people? whether priests or laymen, as they are
called." " Neither was I absent when he inveighed against
empty works.''' "He so laboured earnestly, both in word and
deed, to win and aUure others into the love of Christ's doctrine,
and His holy religion, that there is a common saying, which
remains unto this day : when Master Stafford read and Master
Latimer preached, then was Cambridge blessed." Stafford, of
whom we heard before in 1526, had died soon after; but
Latimer was stiU in the Tower, where he wiU remain tiU after
the death of his ungrateful Monarch..
This youth was Thomas Becon. Born about 1510, he was
now thirty-two, and proved, throughout life, one of the most
laborious and useful men of his time. Last year, as weU as this,
he had been busy at the press, even in London, and had pub
Ushed three small pieces, two of which had, next year, already-
reached a second edition. In one of these he says, —
"I think there is no realm throughout Christendom, that hath so many
urgent and necessary causes to give thanks to God, as we Englishmen have at
this present. What ignorance and blindness was in this realm concerning the
true and Christian knowledge ! But now— Christ's death is believed to be a
sufficient sacrifice for them that are sanctified. The most Sacred Bible is

1343. J PARLIAMENT OPENED. 377
FREELY PERMITTED TO BE READ OF EVERY MAN IN THE ENGLISH TONGUE.
Many savour Christ aright, and daily the number increaseth, thanks be to God.
Christ is believed to be the alone Saviour. Christ is believed to be our sufficient
Mediator and Advocate. The true and Christian faith, which worketh by
charity, and is plenteous in good works, is now received to justify."
Notwithstanding this attestation, however, let there be no
surprise, though the clouds should stiU be gathering, and
another storm await ns soon.

MDXLIII.
PARLIAMENT OPENED — THE CONVOCATION BAFFLED, ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR IN
ABILITY TO STAY THE PROGRESS OF DIVINE TRUTH BY APPLYING NOW TO
PARLIAMENT — PARLIAMENT DISGRACES ITSELF BY VAIN OPPOSITION — BONNER
SENT ABROAD. parliament was assembled this year on the 22nd of
January, and sat tUl the 12th of May. The long-suf
fering of Heaven with such a Government, was, by this
time, eminently conspicuous ; but as the King on the
throne had been overruled, and the cause of Divine
Truth had hitherto not only baffled the Convocation,
but laid it prostrate ; so if there were any remaining
branch of authority about to prove so infatuated as to interfere,
it was fit that it should be left to expose both its foUy and weak
ness to posterity, by so doing. Its interference, however, may
be traced to the infatuation and enmity of the Convocation ; for
these being once infused into Parliament, there was nothing so
foolish and. contemptible which they might not entertain and
even enact. The Convocation as such could not, of course,
cross the threshold of the Senate ; but its leading members the
Bishops might, being members also of the Upper House, or
Lords of Parliament. Hence the consequences.
In opposing the Sacred Scriptures in the vernacular tongue,
the Convocation having so repeatedly discovered itself to be a
powerless body, and more especially since the scene, or uncere
monious treatment of last year ; it had now seemed to the
Bishops that only one mode of attack remained. It was their

378 VAIN OR FRUITLESS [book I.
forlorn hope. They must admit, and now in effect acknow
ledged, their own inefficiency, as a body, by introducing the
subject into Parliament ; but they wiU try what could be accom
plished there. ProvidentiaUy, however, by this time Tyndale's
translation had been printed under other names, such as Matthew,
Taverner, Cranmer, Tunstal and Heath ; for this translation
having been retained in all the EngUsh Bibles, with very little
variation, it was now impossible to reach it. It so happened, too,
that there were, by this time, various editions of the Bible,
printed without note or comment. Marler's editions, as weU as
others, were of this character, and, backed by the stern autho
rity of the King, there was no possibUity of touching any of
them. To show, however, to what a low pitch the miserable
spite of the enemy was now reduced, as well as to display the
serviUty of Parliament, now become proverbial, an Act was
introduced which was actually entitled — " An Act for the
advancement of true Religion !" — and what were its provisions,
nearly ten years after Henry had declared himself Head of the
Church of England, and seventeen years after the New Testa
ment had been introduced into our native land ?
The name of Tyndale was the rallying-point, and, in effect,
the English Parliament must now furnish their tribute to his
memory and talents. Upon setting off, by this Act his transla
tion was branded and condemned as " crafty, false, and untrue ; "
although the translation actuaUy reading in the churches!
though the translation which Tunstal had been constrained to
sanction ! though the translation which had been read with
avidity since 1526, and that to which the people had discovered
such attachment as to perish at the stake sooner than abandon
it ! ParUament durst not condemn the Bibles to which the
names of Taverner or Cranmer or Tunstal had been affixed, nor
even that of Matthew by name : because this last had been so
pointedly sanctioned by his Majesty, and it had prepared the
way for all that followed ! But, once more roused by the name
of Tyndale, it was then enacted, —
" That all manner of books of the Old and New Testament in Enghsh, of
this translation, should, by authority of this Act, clearly and utterly be abo
lished and extinguished, and forbidden to be kept and used in this realm, or
elsewhere, in any of the King's dominions." But it was provided, "that the

1548.] OPPOSITION OF PARLIAMENT. 379
Bibles and New Testaments in Enghsh, not being of Tyndale's translations,
should stand in force, and not be comprised in this abolition or act"
It was farther enacted, — "That the Chancellor of England ! Captains of the
Wars ! the King's Justices ! the Recorders of any city, borough, or town ! and
the Speaker of Parliament ! may use any part of the holy Scripture as they have
been wont!" And " every nobleman or gentlewoman, being a householder,
may read or cause to be read, by any of hisffamily servants in his house, orchard,
or garden, to his own family, any text of the Bible ; and also every merchant
man, being a householder, and any other persons, other iluan women, ap
prentices, &c. , might read to themselves privately the Bible. But no women,
except noblewomen and gentlewomen, might read to themselves alone ; and no
artificers, apprentices, journeymen, serving-men of the degrees of yeomen (officers
in the King's family, between sergeants and grooms), husbandmen or labourers,
were to read the Bible or New Testament lo themselves or to any other, privately
or openly, on pain of one month's imprisonment. "
The burning of the Alexandrian Library, and heating its
baths with the books, has been often reprobated as barbarous
¦''but the aim of Parliament was impious in the extreme. As
¦\ far as they durst venture, they intended to take the bread of life
out of the mouths of the common people. The Act has been
described as " a net contrived, to catch or let go, whomsoever
they pleased;" but still it may weU be inquired, where was
"the >wisdom of their wise men, or the understanding of the
prudent," when they contrived it ; as the foUy displayed was in
equal 'proportion to the malignity. It might have been com
pared to an act framed to bind the wind, or intercept the light
of day ; and whatever may have been its vexatious consequences,
it was by far too late in being framed.
Observe its contents. It denounced the translation of Tyndale,
and -enforced it almost in the same breath ; for not only was it
his translation, under another name, which was to stand in
force, but many of his New Testaments had no such name
attached to them. But the foUy of the statute is still more
glaring, when both the manner and the degree oi reading comes
to be regulated by an Act of Parhament. While reading in the
parish church seems to be in part abridged, the reading at home,
in thousands of instances, is legalised if not enforced; and
reading in the house, as being more deliberate and more retired,
was better than reading in the church. Every one knows with
what avidity men read, and wUl read, an interdicted book ; but
this was only half interdicted ! — half in numerous families, and
halfm it regarded the .community at large. This was better

380 FRUITLESS OPPOSITION OF PARLIAMENT. [book I.
stUl. Thus, in the former case, as any family servant was
authorized to read the Scriptures to Master or Mistress, of
course he might not only repeat what he read, but could the
other servants be effectually prevented from snatching a perusal
in the morning or evening, or at midnight ? And if every
nobleman and gentlewoman, every merchant, or any other,
being a householder, were fully authorized to possess, and
read the Bible, how were the women of the household, how
were the apprentices, and journeymen, or other domestics, to
be guarded and prevented from looking between the sacred
leaves ?
But besides these absurdities, there were certain clauses
introduced, in mitigation of severity, not unworthy of notice.
Offenders, if ecclesiastics, were not to suffer death tiU the third
offence ; and the punishment of any others was never to extendi
beyond the forfeiture of goods, and imprisonment for life. The
party accused also might bring witnesses, and the accused must
be tried within a year after the indictment, whUe the Parha
ment, as usual, had to leave the Act in the King's power, to
annul or alter it at his pleasure ! The bloody statute of six
articles was in fact thus invaded and softened.
Such a mixture of folly and contradiction demands some
explanation. Had Gardiner and his party obtained all their
wishes, the Scriptures had been suppressed, and whoUy inter
dicted : but it is curious enough that it was Cranmer who had
introduced this Act, with the view no doubt of legalising what
he had enforced in his prologue to the Bible— the perusal ofthe
Sacred Volume at home, and hence the mystery of its title is
explained. But once introduced into Parliament, and thwarted
in his endeavours, it had, in passing through the House, assumed
such a grotesque appearance, as to carry in its various clauses,
the evidence of two hostile parties fighting with each other. To
Cranmer, therefore, may be ascribed the credit of obtaining as
much as might be, and of then stultifying the Act, to disappoint
the devices of the crafty, or carry the counsel of the froward
headlong. In short, the passing of this Act has been repre
sented by Bapin, as a "mortification" to the adverse party,
which "checked their hopes." That its vexatious operation
was at least impeded, there can be but little doubt, from what

1544.] BONNER SENT OUT OF THE WAY. 381
was taking place at the very moment, as weU as what soon
foUowed. With regard to the time when ParUament was thus acting ;
it cannot have escaped recollection that we have been caUed
again and again to observe, at certain critical periods, either
formerly, when the Scriptures were to be imported from abroad,
or since then, when those who prized them were in danger of
being molested, that one or more of the bitterest persecutors
were either put in check, or sent out oi the kingdom, in the
character of ambassadors to foreign parts. So it had happened
with Tunstal and Gardiner, and so it happened now. The focus
of persecution had ever been in London, just as it was in
Jerusalem of old ; and of aU men living, Bonner at this moment
was most bloodthirsty. He had been very busy for more than
a year in his favourite employment of persecution, and would
have been so now. But no sooner had they begun to wrangle in
Parliament, than he was sent off the ground by the Supreme
Buler. Henry having been induced by the Emperor Charles to
form a league with him against Francis, Bonner was sent as
Ambassador to bear it to Charles, who swore to it in Bonner's
presence at Barcelona on the 8th of AprU. Thus the absence of
one who would have offered serious opposition was secured.

MDXLIV.

GARDINER — CRANMER — HENRY'S CONFESSION OF IMPOTENCE IN ALL HIS IN
JUNCTIONS TO HIS BISHOPS — HIS INCONSISTENCY — NEW TESTAMENT OF
TYNDALE, A FOREIGN PRINT.
jjhat cause to which these pages have been speciaUy
devoted, had, as we have seen, been dragged into
ParUament last year, but we shaU have the evidence
before us presently, that it continued to stand, as it
had always stood, independently of frown or favour.
Parliament had disgraced itself, it is true, as well as
earned the contempt of posterity, by its interference ;
but as for any fury involved in its proceedings, it could not this

382 CRANMER ACCUSED OF HERESY. [book r.
year be of much force, in either burning, or blotting, or cutting
the Sacred Volume. A variety of circumstances, involved in
the state of the country, renders this apparent, and prepares us
for whatever may have occurred in the cause itself ; while a
remarkable confession of impotence, on the part of his Majesty,
as far as his proclamations respecting religion were concerned,
will also come before us. So little had Royal authority to
do with the progress of Truth, and that by its own recorded
confession. Several of the movements of Government this year naturally
lead to the conclusion that there could not be much, if any time
left, to attend to the business of persecution for the Truth's
sake ; although in the spring, while Parliament was sitting, the
House discovered, as usual, the discordant materials of which it
was composed.
Their very first bUl, involving as it did the prospect of
Princess Mary's possible succession to the throne, seems to have
inspirited the gentlemen of "the old learning;" for although
Cranmer had triumphed over his accusers last year, it was
during this Parliament that the minion of Norfolk and Gar
diner, Sir John Gostwyck, ventured to accuse the Archbishop of
heresy, openly in the House of Commons ; but the knight, whom
his Majesty instantly denounced as a varlet, had to repair forth
with to Lambeth, to humble himself there, and crave forgive
ness. On the other hand, Gardiner was about this time placed
in very awkward, if not critical circumstances, by his kinsman,
some have said nephew, and secretary, Germain Gardiner.
Once the feeble opponent of John Fryth, having been appre
hended for denying the King's supremacy, he suffered the
penalty of death as a traitor on the 7th of March. However,
the Bishop contrived, as usual, to make his peace with the
King, and happily he was soon to be despatched upon foreign
affairs ; though stUl, if Gardiner failed in any way, he sunk ;
while Cranmer remained or rather advanced in royal favour.
To the latter, therefore, the present moment appeared to be a
favourable one for the farther mitigation of the bloody statute,
which had been already somewhat softened last year; and
Cranmer succeeded in carrying a new Act this session. By
this, in future, no individual was to be brought to trial under

1544.] HENRY'S CONFESSION OF IMPOTENCE. 383
that statute, till after he had been legaUy presented, on the
oaths of twelve men, before such commissioners as are mentioned
in this Act, and referred to in another ; nor was he, till then, to
be imprisoned. No reputed offence of an older date than one
year was to be actionable ; nor was any preacher to be indicted,
if forty days had elapsed after any sentiment he had uttered in
the pulpit. The accused might also challenge any juryman.
These provisions formed so many very important aUeviations in
the fury of persecution; though two years hence, as in the
cases of Anne Askew and others, they were most scandalously
disregarded. By the time that Henry departed for France, not only were
Norfolk and Gardiner withdrawn from the country, but the new
Queen, Catherine Parr, was Begent; and with Cranmer at
the head of her CouncU, the chief man bent upon cruelty and
mischief, or Bonner of London, must have been under certain
restraint. Nor was this aU. Just before his Majesty left, it
deserves notice that prayers in the English tongue were directed
to be generaUy used. This fact in itself was important ; but in
reference to past times, and royal influence, not so much so as
another, which now comes out incidentaUy —
"We have sent unto you,'' says the King to all the Bishops of his realm,
"We have sent unto you these suffrages, not to be for a month or two observed,
and after slenderly considered, as other our injunctions, to our no little marvel,
have been used, but to the intent that as well the same, as other our injunctions,
may be earnestly set forth," &c.
Thus it was officiaUy acknowledged that the King's former
injunctions had carried no powerful or prolonged influence.
Before this we have frequently had occasion to observe, that
the cause of God and His truth had been so peculiarly con
ducted,' as to have no leaning or dependence on him whatever.
We have seen, by many striking proofs, that it went on in its
course, first in defiance, and then independently of royal inter
ference. But now, towards the close of his reign, lest posterity
should mistake, or not observe it ; as far as his own name and
authority had been employed, here is an artless and very frank
confession of impotence, on the part of his Majesty, if not also of
Cranmer, who is supposed to have drawn up the injunction.

34 NEW TESTAMENT OF TYNDALE. [book i.
So far, indeed, from being a consistent friend to the progress
? Divine Truth amongst his subjects, only last year Henry had
nt his authority to the reprobation of the original translator,
; whose death he had winked so hard ; and frowned upon the
ior for reading the Sacred Volume. His injunctions, like him-
If, staggering from side to side, must have confounded the
iblic mind ; and considering what had passed in Parhament
st year, in reprobating the name and writings of Tyndale, it
as not wonderful that the indignity should be resented.
yndale's very name had become precious to many, and his
anslations of Scripture were now carefully preserved or hoarded
. many a corner throughout England, far beyond the ken of
ishop, or King, or any underling.
Meanwhile, there seems to be no account whatever upon
cord of the seizure or burning of the New Testament, though
Lere might have been, had foreign politics and preparations for
ar not engrossed attention ; but Lewis and some others have
me too far when they have stated that Day and Seres printed
ie Pentateuch this year. Day had not yet begun to print at
1, and the volume must belong to a subsequent impression, or
at of 1549. It is, however, curious, and more to the purpose,
Lat a foreign press was at work even this year, and with an
Lition of Tyndale's New Testament. This must have been in
Le face of the recent anathema. A copy, once in the posses-
jn of the Earl of Oxford, is mentioned in the Harleian
italogue, with this remark — " It seems to be a foreign print."
ideed it must have been so ; and it may be put down in these
oublous days, as a serenade from Antwerp or elsewhere, in
iswer to the contemptible brawl in ParUament last year.

1545.] PLOT AGAINST CRANMER. 385

MDXLV.
UNDERMINING CRANMER — HIS ENEMIES COVERED WITH SHAME — HENRY ADDRESS
ING HIS PRIVY COUNCIL — HIS OPINION OF IT — ADDRESSING HIS PARLIAMENT
FOR THE LAST TIME.
e are now within two years of the King's death, and
the entire period was fraught with great misery to his
subjects, though, generally speaking, not after the
fashion in which they had been tormented in past
times. His Majesty and the government, with all
the strength of the kingdom, were at present fuUy
occupied in preparing for self-defence against a French
invasion. It was a year pregnant with misery and confusion to
the country : and it might appear difficult to imagine where a
moment was left for the gentlemen of the "old learning" to
display their hostility ; but in fhe autumn, after the King's
return from Portsmouth, such a moment was found.
Cranmer had not faUed to improve the absence of Gardiner
and Norfolk. Last year, as we have seen, the former had been
in Germany or Flanders, the latter in France ; and up to this
period the Duke had been very busy at home, surveying the
sea-coast, and harassed by the war of defence. But now in
September or October, a select number of the Privy Council had
found a Uttle space to breathe and look round, when an oppor
tunity seemed to present itself, for trying their skill once more.
It was to be concentrated on the Archbishop, and for the last
time. The incidents are important, not in reference to the
accusers only, but as giving farther insight to the character of
the King himself, in connexion with his precious Council.
In the afternoon of the 22nd of August, Charles Brandon,
Duke of Suffolk, died ; perhaps the most powerful friend that
Cranmer now had. The companion of the King from his earliest
youth, and possessing throughout life considerable influence over
him ; Henry was sitting in Council when first informed of his
decease, and could not suppress his feelings. He then declared
that, during the whole course of their friendship, the Duke had
never made one attempt to injure an adversary, nor had ever
whispered a word to the disadvantage of any person. " Is there
c c

386 CRANMER ACCUSED. [book i.
any of you, my Lords, who can say as much?" When his
Majesty had uttered these words, he looked round in all their
faces, and saw them confused with the consciousness of secret guilt.
Thus so emphaticaUy checked, one might have supposed that
they would have been careful not to verify the character which
their Sovereign had seemed to insinuate : but no ; it was but
shortly after the Duke's remains were interred with splendour
at Windsor, that certain Privy CouncUlors had resolved to move.
When the King gave his significant look round the Council,
there can be Uttle or no doubt that his Grace of Norfolk,
Wriothesly the Lord ChanceUor, and even Stephen Gardiner,
were present ; for the latter had returned in spring, and been
ever since actively engaged. The fears of the party must have
led them to exaggerate ; but from the expressions employed, the
reader wiU at least learn what was their estimate of the progress
now made, in a cause which they denounced as heretical, and so
detested. Another mistake they made, not unwilUngly, was
their ascribing so much to one man, and that one man the
Archbishop ; but he was near to them, and a perpetual eye- sore ;
they hated him from the heart fervently, and must play their
last game, under Henry, with a view to his ruin.
Being, as they imagined, now fully prepared to carry their
purpose into effect, the Privy Councillors waited on his Majesty,
when they grievously accused Cranmer ; saying, " that he, with
his learned men, had so infected the whole realm with their
unsavoury doctrines, that three parts of the land were become
abominable heretics ; and that this might prove dangerous to
the King, as Ukely to produce such commotions and uproars as
had sprung up in Germany." They, therefore, " requested that
the Archbishop might be committed to the Tower, tiU he might
be examined." To their mode of procedure the King at once
objected, when they told him, "that the Archbishop being one
of the Privy Council, no man dared to object matter against
him, unless he were first committed to durance ; but that if this
were done, men would be bold to teU the truth, and deliver their
consciences !" Yet Henry still would proceed no farther than
this — that Cranmer should appear next day before the Council,
to be examined by themselves, and should they then judge it to
be advisable, so commit him to the Tower.

1545.] HENRY'S OPINION OF HIS OWN COUNCIL. 387
His Majesty, however, knowing the men weU, and reflecting
on what he had done, about midnight ordered Sir Anthony
Denny to cross the river to Lambeth, and command Cranmer's
immediate attendance at Whitehall. The Archbishop was in
bed, but, of course, instantly rose, and presented himself before
his royal Master, whom he found in the gallery of the palace.
Henry very frankly told him the whole, and what he had done
in granting their request ; but concluded by saying — " Whether
I have done weU or no, what say you, my Lord ?" Cranmer,
having first thanked his Majesty for the information, went on
to say, that he was weU content to be committed to the Tower
for the trial of his doctrine, if he might be fairly heard, not
doubting but that his Majesty would see that he was so treated..
Upon hearing these words Henry, with a profane exclamation,
in his own characteristic manner, rallied him on his simplicity ;
for once in prison, every secret enemy, now sUent, would open
upon him, and false witness be easily obtained to condemn him-
Determined that things should not go this length, he advised
him to attend the CouncU on the morrow, if summoned ; but if
there his enemies should insist on his going to the Tower, before
trial, with his accusers face to face, he was to appeal from them
to the King. " Take this ring," said Henry, " by the which
they shall weU understand that I have taken your cause from
them into mine own hand. This ring they well know I
use for no other purpose but to caU matters from the CouncU;
into mine own hands, to be ordered and determined." Cranmer
having received the ring, humbly thanked his Majesty, and.
withdrew for the night.
Next morning, and by eight o'clock, a message arrived from
the Privy Council requiring Cranmer's attendance. It was
immediately obeyed, but when the Primate made his appearance
in the ante-room, he was not permitted to proceed any farther.
There he was kept waiting, among servants and ushers, nearly
an hour, while other members of the CouncU were, in the mean
time, passing both in and out. Fortunately, Balph Morrice,
the Archbishop's secretary, was with him ; and indignant at this-
treatment, he slipped off, and informed a warm friend of his master,.
Dr. William Butts, the King's physician. He first came, and,.
once witness to the fact, proceeded to the royal presence.,
c c 2

388 HIS ENEMIES COVERED WITH SHAME. [book
Having informed his Majesty what a strange thing he had see
"What is that ?" said Henry. " My Lord of Canterbury," repli
the physician, "if it please your Grace, is weU promoted ; f
now he has become a lackey or a serving man ; for yonder '.
hath stood this half hour at the CouncU Chamber door amoi
them." — " It is not so," said Henry ; " the Council hath not
Uttle discretion as to use the metropolitan of the realm aft
that sort ! But let them alone ; it is weU enough — I shaU ta
with them by and by."
At length Cranmer was called in. Their Lordships th<
informed him that great complaints were made of him, both
the King and to them ; that he, and others by his permissio
had fiUed the land with heresy ; and, therefore, it was the roy
pleasure that he should stand committed to the Tower, there
await his trial and examination. As a Privy Councillor, tl
Primate first demanded that his accusers should be immediate
caUed before him, using many arguments against their pr
ceeding to such extremity ; but aU was in vain — he must go
the Tower. " Then," said Cranmer, " I am sorry, my Lord
that you drive me to this exigent, to appeal from you to tl
King's Majesty, who by this token (holding up the ring) hal
resumed this matter into his own hand, and dischargeth yc
thereof." The royal signet once delivered, produced more ths
its usual effect ; the Council were amazed, and the first man wl
broke sUence was Lord John BusseU, afterwards Earl of Bedfon
— " When you first began this matter, my Lords, I told y(
what would become of it. Do you think that the King wi
suffer this man's finger to ache ? Much more, I warrant yo
will he defend his life against brabbling varlets ! Vou do bi
cumber yourselves to hear tales and fables against him. I knoi
right well, that the King would never permit my Lord i
Canterbury to have such a blemish, as to be imprisoned, unle
it were for high treason."
This, however, was no time for confabulation. The Com
eillors, to a man, must rise instantly, and carry both the riu
and the cause into the royal presence. Henry, of course, wi
now fully ready for them. He rated them severely for the
malice and discourtesy to the Archbishop, whom he considers
most faithful to him, and to whom he was " many ways b

1545.] HENRY ADDRESSING HIS PRIVY COUNCIL. 389
holden," and as such would have him regarded. Some poor
apology must be made, but Henry was not to be befooled, but
dismissing them gave them to understand that he knew their
designs, and advised them to desist from such.
His Majesty immediately departed, when all the accusing
gentlemen, so stern of late, are said to have shaken hands,
hypocriticaUy enough, with Cranmer, who was to be troubled
no more, after this fashion, for above seven years to come.
It has been thought difficult to say whether Henry, over-
persuaded by this junto, was at first in earnest, and afterwards
changed his resolution; or whether he took this method to
check the forwardness of the Archbishop's enemies ; but let
this have been as it may, who does not see, and in the King's
own language, a hideous picture of the past ? Here was the
base manner in which many precious Uves had been sacrificed.
The Council, stripped of its disguise by its own Sovereign,
exhibits a shocking spectacle ; but above all, what can be said,
as to the character of the Monarch himself, who, in amazement
at Cranmer's simphcity, was perfectly familiar with the un
principled cruelty of his own Ministers ? " Do you not know,"
said Henry, " that when they have you once in prison, three or
four false knaves wiU soon be procured to witness against you ?"
' Such, no doubt, on many a melancholy occasion, had been the
tender mercies of both King and Council.
Having thus schooled his Privy Council, by the close of the
year his Majesty felt no less disposed to lecture his Parliament.
The Lord ChanceUor himself had informed the House of the
miserable state of Henry's finances ; Parliament had strained
every nerve, and even exceeded its powers, in trying to improve
them; and as there was no subject which made its way so
directly to the royal heart, as that of pecuniary supplies, the
King professed to be uncommonly pleased with his most com
pliant House. He had, indeed, no idea of blotting out from his
style, the monosyUable "France;" but by this time, there is
not only no more lofty pretensions to that crown, but he very
frankly characterises the adverse turn which the war had taken
— " not for our pleasure, but your defence ; not for our gain,
but to our great cost." StiU the whole House had done its
utmost, and since they had laid at his feet aU the Universities,

390 HENRY ADDRESSING HIS PARLIAMENT. [book I.
as Henry had no intention of levelling to the dust either
Cambridge or Oxford ; after taking full credit to himseU for
being a " trusty friend," a " charitable man," a " lover of the
public wealth," and " one that feared God," he proceeds with
assurances of love and favour, and promises of the " expenditure
of his treasure, and adventure of his person," in their defence,
if necessity should require.
The way being thus smoothed, his Majesty proceeds to repri
mand the whole House, and nothing wUl satisfy him short of
exposing to the public eye what he thought of them all, as a
body. If any benefit was to accrue to posterity, from Henry's
own opinion before quitting the stage, he now gives it ; and the
pith of his address must not be withheld.
He commences with quoting Scripture, and his text is "Charity
is gentle, charity is not envious, charity is not proud, and so forth
in that chapter." But he had seen maUce in his Privy Council,
and now saw it in Parliament, whether Lords or Commons,
Clergy or Laity.
"Behold, then, what love and charity there is amongst you — I see and hear
daily that you of the Clergy preach one against another, teach one contrary to
another, inveigh one against another, without charity or discretion — Alas ! how
can the poor souls live in concord when you preachers sow among them, in
your sermons, strife and discord ? They look for light, and you bring them
into darkness. Amend these crimes, I exhort you, and set forth God's Word,
both by true preaching and good example giving ; or else I, whom God hath
appointed his Vicar and high minister here, will see these divisions extinct, and
these enormities corrected, according to my very duty !
"Yet you of the temporality be not clean and unspotted of malice and envy
— And although you be permitted to read Holy Scripture, and to have the Word
of God in your mother tongue, you must understand it is licensed you so to do,
only to inform your own consciences, and to instruct your children and family.
I am very sorry to know and hear how unreverently that most precious jewel,
the "Word of God, is disputed, rhymed, sung, and jangled, in every ale-house
and tavern, contrary to the true meaning and doctrme of the same."
Parliament, of course, durst not reply— " Physician, heal
thyself;" but such language from such lips has seldom if ever
been equalled. Some may conjectnre that Cranmer must have
helped his Majesty to several of his expressions ; but if this
was indeed Henry's own unaided production, as he himself
distinctly intimates, could we obliterate from our minds all the
cruelty and wrong, all the reckless and unprincipled despotism
of the past, then might we suppose that this was merely the last

1546.] FOR THE LAST TIME. 391
exchange of civiUties on the part of a benignant monarch, con-
eluding the whole with his final and faithful counsel. But as
the past cannot be forgotten, and the speaker has yet another
year to live, then does the language afford a display of the
superlative deceitfulness of the human heart, equal to any in
English history. There was evidently as much need as ever for
the dying prayer of Tyndale — "Lord! open the eyes of the
King of England ;" for this exhorter of other men to " gentle
charity," was himseU not yet done with the shedding of blood !
not yet done with breathing after the blood of the living, nor
with expressing his enmity towards the original translator of
what he now had styled " that most precious jewel, the Word of
God !" Such blindness in any man as to himseU is deeply in
structive, and forcibly reininds one of the language of another
King — " His own iniquities shaU take the wicked himself, and
he shaU be holden with the cords of his sins. He shaU die
without instruction, and in the greatness of his foUy he shaU go
astray." To aU this, the last year of Henry's Ufe wiU lend but
too ample illustration.

MDXLVI.

PERSECUTION REVIVED — ANNE ASKEW — HER MARTYRDOM, ALONG WITH THREE
OTHER INDIVIDUALS — LATIMER STILL IN PRISON — ENMITY TO ENGLISH BOOKS
— THE SUPPLICATION OF THE POOR COMMONS — WRIOTHESLY, GARDINER, AND
NORFOLK IN TROUBLE — DEATH OF THE KING — RETROSPECT.
,Y this, the evening of his life, it might seem that
nothing was now wanting to complete the character
of Henry the Eighth ; a character which, notwith
standing all the past, it was customary to eulogise
at the moment, and strange to say, by far too common,
to soften down, or even eulogise, since. Some excuse
may be pled for such writers as Becon, and Udal, and
Foxe, who stood, as it were, too near the object, to be able to
distinguish and define it : but the confounding of vice and virtue
in human character, which is not a venial offence against histo-

392 PERSECUTION REVIVED. [book I.
rical narrative, should certainly be corrected as the truth comes
out, so that some fixed opinion may be at last obtained. Accord
ingly, the character of this Monarch is far more correctly esti
mated now, than it has been at any former period ; for, not
withstanding aU the verbiage, not to say unconscious errors,
which have been printed by some historians respecting him, the
stubborn facts of his reign preserve a uniform and awful consis
tency to his dying hour. It is idle to listen to what men may
have said, now that we have gained access to the Monarch's own
language, and almost all that he did or sanctioned, until he
breathed his last in blood.
Before that Henry was gratified by the death of Beaton, the
assassination of whom he was secretly compassing, there had been
misery contemplated, of a darker hue ; and after it, blood was
shed of far greater value, in which the Crown and certain
courtiers were immediately concerned. Wriothesly and Gardiner
had sat at the CouncU table, advising as to the murder of the
Scottish Cardinal ; but they, with Bonner and Bichard Bich,
had since then been busy with several victims nearer hand, and
under their own eye.
One of these suggests the idea that there must be a cUmax in
human depravity. The first female martyr of rank or family,
tormented and burnt to ashes, for no alleged crime save stedfast
adherence to the truth of Scripture, is here referred to ; and if
justice be done to the entire narrative, she occupies a place aU
her own. Among recorded martyrs in London, she had but one
predecessor, and this was John Fryth. As in his case there
was to be no abjuration, no recantation of the faith, nor any fear
of the enemy ; so it was with the devout and determined Anne
Askew. In noticing this unprecedented instance of female faith and
fortitude, it must be remembered that for about twelve years
past, the reputed heretic had been, by Parliament, taken out of
the hands of the Bishops as such, or the Archbishop's Court, so
that the case could not now resemble the course pursued with
Fryth. The accused party, by this time, if any regard were to
be paid to legal enactments, must be presented on the oaths of
twelve men, before any imprisonment could ensue. There was
indeed an Inquest in London, probably a standing one, for the

1546.] ANNE ASKEW. 393
examination of the accused ; but the last year of Henry's reign
was to carry with it the highest possible degree of illegality,
and of Satanic rage against the Truth.
Anne Askew, a young lady of high family in Lincolnshire,
and of superior natural abilities, improved by education, having
perused with avidity the English Scriptures, embraced the
truth contained in them. Having come to London to seek
redress from the brutal treatment of her husband, who adhered
to the " old learning," and to whom she had been married only
in obedience to her father, one so ardent in the faith was soon
exposed to the snares of the Bloody Statute, or Act of Six
Articles. Her examinations began in March, and continued at
intervals till her martyrdom in July. By Bonner, Bishop of
London, and his ChanceUor and Archdeacon, — by the Privy
CouncU at Greenwich, composed .of Lord Chancellor Wriothesly,
the Lord Master of the King's household ; Bich, Paget, Sadler,
Bishops Gardiner and Tunstal, and six others, — were these ha
rassing examinations carried on, often for several hours together,
but her quick repUes and sound reasoning from the Scriptures
silenced them aU. She was, nevertheless, condemned on the 28th
of June, without a trial by jury, to which, by law, she was
entitled. This was bad enough, but the brutality of these
servants of the Crown reached its climax when, fifteen days
after her sentence to the flames, they resumed their examinations
ly torture, in order to discover and ensnare some noble ladies
whom they suspected of sympathising with her doctrine and
ministering to her necessities in prison. That men sustaining
the offices of Lord ChanceUor of England and Privy Councillor
could personaUy examine by torture, after sentence, a high-born
female of twenty-four years of age, seems incredible ; but with
their own hands, Wriothesly and Bich worked the rack, tUl the
Lieutenant of the Tower interposed. But aU in vain ; stedfast
in the faith, and resolute in naming no one who might be
brought into trouble by her disclosures, she endured as seeing
Him who is invisible. Three days afterwards, unable to walk,
from the torturing rack, she was carried to the stake. There,
on an elevated bench, sat her ignoble tormentors, with the Duke
of Norfolk, to feast their eyes on her agonies again ; while she,
with three others, led out to die for their faith, had first to hear

394 MARTYRDOM OF ANNE ASKEW AND OTHERS. [book I.
from the Ups of the wretched apostate Shaxton, a lecture on their
heresy. Then followed Wriothesly's last act, that of present
ing the King's pardon if she would recant. " I came not
hither," said Anne, " to deny my Lord and Master." Her
fellow-sufferers, encouraged by her fortitude, would not look
on the paper. " Fiat justitia," cried the ignorant and brutal
Mayor, Bowes, and the flames were kindled.
A scene more disgraceful to the persecutors of the human
mind had never before occurred, nor one in which the power
of Divine Truth was more conspicuous. A weak and unpro
tected female, abandoned to aU the fury of the enemy, stood,
like a piUar of brass, whUe other men were proving traitors to
the cause, and faUing around her. On the day before her trial,
Crome was reading his recantation in pubUc, and White, tried
on the same day with herseU, had also failed and foUowed his
example. As for Shaxton, so refuted by her, only a few
moments before she went to the immediate presence of God, he
lived for ten years longer, but proved a miserable character
ever after. LasceUes, who suffered with her, having before that
night expressed some anxiety respecting her constancy — "0
friend," she rephed in writing, " most dearly beloved in God —
I marvel not a Uttle what should move you to judge in me so
slender a faith as to fear death, which is the end of all misery.
In the Lord, I desire you not to beheve in me such wickedness."
The fact was, that Anne Askew was in such perfect seU-posses-
sion, as even to become poetical in the prison, amidst all the
rage of her persecutors. It has been said that she actuaUy
sang her stanzas at her death ; but be this as it might, to say
nothing of the simple beauty and sublimity of the sentiment,
when compared with the rhyme of more than a century later,
even in point of euphony, they appear extraordinary. The fol
lowing specimen, in which Henry and his Council occupy no
enviable place, wiU speak for itself : —
On Thee my care I cast, / saw a Boyal throne,
For all their cruel spite ; Where justice should have sit,
I set not by their haste, But in her stead was one
For Thou art my delight. Of moody cruel wit :
I am not she that list Absorpt was righteousness,
My anchor to let fall As by the raging flood ;
For every drizzling mist ; Satan, in his excess,
My ship's substantial. .Suck'd up the guiltless blood.

1646.] THE LAST MARTYRS UNDER HENRY. 395
Then thought I, Jesus Lord ! Yet Lord I thee desire,
When Thou shalt judge us all, For that t/iey do to me,
Hard is it to record, Let them not taste the hire
On these men what will fall — Of their iniquity.
Before the flames of persecution for the Truth's sake were
kindled for the last time, under this reign, the only thing now
to be desired was the testimony of some noble martyr to the all-
sufficiency of the Sacred Volume. And here it is from the pen of
Anne Askew, before she suffered.
"Finally, I believe all those Scriptures to be true, which He hath confirmed
with His most precious blood. Yea, and as St. Paul saith, those Scriptures are
sufficient for our learning and salvation, that Christ hath left here with us ; so that
I beheve we need no unwritten verities to rule His Church with. Therefore,
look, what He hath said unto me with His own mouth in His Holy Gospel, that
have L, with God's grace, closed up in my heart ; and my full trust is, as David
saith, that it shall be a lantern to my footsteps. "
As far as fire and fagot were employed, so ended that war of
opinion under Henry the Eighth, which, from the arrival of
Tyndale's New Testament in England, had now lasted for
twenty years.
The hardened cruelties of the monarch are, it is true, not
even yet at an end ; but these were the last martyrs under his
reign. The termination is very observable. To these men it
had seemed a most grievous offence, that even women, and those
of good families, had begun to have any fixed opinions gathered
out of Scripture ; and it was therefore worthy of the majesty of
Divine Truth, that, before the tempest ceased, the savage fury
of this final storm should be braved by a female mind and
frame. It was an eminent instance of the Almighty choosing
the feeble things of the world to confound the things that were
mighty ; and that also, just before His blessed Word was on the
eve of being more generaUy circulated and read, than it had
ever yet been.
Although these four were the principal individuals now put
to death for opinions held, those gentlemen of the Privy CouncU
had been extremely busy with various other examinations.
Besides Crome, who recanted openly, on the 1 3th of May, say
they, " we look for Latimer ; for the Vicar of St. Bride's, (i. e.
John Taylor, who, eight years after, suffered at the stake,) and
some others of those that have specially comforted Crome in his

396 HUGH LATIMER [book i.
foUy."^ When the first, or by far the most illustrious of these,
appeared, they put him on his oath, as to his intercourse with
Crome, and presented a string of questions, which he was
to answer in writing. Latimer retired, and began to reply ; but
he had not proceeded beyond two or three queries, when the
Council were informed, that, without an interview, he could not
go on. Tunstal of Durham, and Sir John Gage, the Comptroller,
were then deputed to converse with him. In his own frank
manner, he told them it was dangerous to answer to such
questions, and that the course pursued was more extreme than
it would have been, if he had lived under the Turk. Besides, " he
doubted whether it were his Majesty's pleasure, that he should
be thus called and examined." He wished to speak with the
King himself, before he made farther answer, as he had been
once deceived in that way, when he left his bishopric. It
had been intimated to him, by Crumwell, "that it was his
Majesty's pleasure he should resign it, which his Majesty after
denied, and pitied his condition." In fine, "he thought there
were some who had procured this against him for mahce;" and
then he named Master Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester;
specifying two instances of his Ul-wUl in former days : the first
occurred in a conversation they had held, in Henry's presence ;
and the second was evident, in that he had written to Crumwell
against his (memorable) sermon in the Convocation ! On the
latter he dwelt, as a grievous proof of malice. By this time
Latimer had been again introduced before the Council, when
Gardiner immediately repUed, and in a style worthy of his deep
hypocrisy. " I declared plainly," says he, " how much I had
loved, favoured, and done for his person, and that he had no
cause to be offended with me ! though I were not content with
his doctrine." They then repeated Latimer's ahusion to Turkey
— said that the interrogatories were not captious ; and told him
that he spoke " as though no credit or estimation should, now-
a-days, be given to his Highness's Council or his Highness's
Ministers." But aU was to no effect. Latimer, indeed, finished
the writing he had commenced ; but they were then obliged to
report — "for the purpose, we be as wise almost, as we were
before ! " In the afternoon of the day, they remitted him to
1 Gov. State Papers, i. p. 846.

1546.] UNDER EXAMINATION. 397
Henry Holbeach, then Bishop of Worcester, (originaUy recom
mended to the King by Latimer himself,) who, with the rest of
the doctors, and in the elegant language of the Privy Council,
were "to fish out the bottom of his stomach." But as far as aU
the official records go, they had fished in vain. No more
mention is made of Latimer ; and although Lingard has chosen
to say that he now recanted, tit is but a groundless assumption.
Once indeed, it is to be regretted, he did subscribe certain
articles, and crave forgiveness ; but this was fourteen years ago,
and the days of recantation were with him long since past.
Crome had faUen a second time, but Latimer never again ; on
the contrary, he was left in prison nine months longer. Like
one of old, who, " to do the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound ; "
so perhaps to please others, Henry left this, the most faithful
subject of his realm, in the Tower. At least this much is certain,
that to the man whom he had so courageously warned in 1530,
Latimer was not to be indebted for deUver ance from durance
vile ; so that everything conspired to tinge with a darker shade
the evening of that monarch's life. On Sunday the 20th of
February, 1547, or the day on which Edward was crowned, a
general pardon was granted to aU prisoners, except Norfolk,
Pole, and Courtney, the eldest son of the Marquis of Exeter, at
home ; and Throgmorton and Pate abroad. It was then that
Latimer, released from his honourable imprisonment of more
than six years, went to Lambeth, to Uve for some time privately,
under Cranmer's roof.
In the very midst of all this fixed enmity to moral worth,
there was stUl time found for Henry to vent his final malice to
the dead, as weU as the living ; and among them all, special
reference must be made to by far the greatest benefactor of his
reign — WiUiam Tyndale. It seems to have been for the express
purpose of lending additional terror to the night in which Anne
Askew and her companions were to iUuminate Smithfield, by
being consumed in the flames, that a proclamation had been
devised and issued against books. Authorised by the King's
name, it was dated the 8th of July, just eight days before the
martyrs were burnt.
By this proclamation, persons of every estate and condition
were forbidden, under the heaviest penalties, to receive, or have,

398 ENMITY TO ENGLISH BOOKS. [book 1.
or keep in possession, after the 31st August next, " the text of the
New Testament of Tyndale's or Coverdale's, nor any other than
is permitted by the Act of Parliament, passed in the 34th and
35th year of his Majesty's reign." The books " printed or written
in the English tongue set forth in the names of Fryth, Tyndale,
WicUffe, Joye, Boye, Basil (i. e. Becon), Bale, Barnes, Coverdale,
Turner, Tracy, or by any of them," are put under the same
ban, and ordered to be delivered up to the authorities, "that
they may be openly burnt." This proclamation is, in itself,
a proof of the impotence of aU former denunciations, while its
closing sentence is a confession of weakness. It pardons those
who have read or retained these books hitherto, and enjoins the
Bishops, Chancellors, Mayors, Sheriffs, and others to be "not
curious to mark who brought forth such books, but only order
and burn them openly, as in this proclamation ordered."
With this proclamation, or immediately after it, there was
published a long list of the books interdicted. It was the last,
and is only to be found in the first edition of Foxe's Acts and
Monuments, where, with his too frequent indifference to the
order of time, he has inserted it under 1539 ! From the books
mentioned he might have seen that it could not have been issued
before the preceding proclamation.
Already sinking under the weight of mortal disease, such
was the last public manifestation of the monarch's malicious
folly. Not that the proclamation could have much effect, if
indeed any, beyond the precincts of London. The only reported
notice of books having been consumed at this period is confined
to that city, and this was probably to give some eclat to the
vain and expiring effort. A copy of the different publications
having been obtained, " soon after this proclamation," says
Collier, "the books of the authors mentioned were burnt at
Paul's Cross, by the order of (Bonner) the Bishop of London."
Thus Henry, at the very close of life, and his Council, as
such, were drawing afresh the line of demarcation between
themselves and all the good that had been effected. As much
as to say, " Let no future historian confound our names with
it ; or, above all, ascribe to us the commencement and progress,
of a cause against which we fought to our dying day! The
Bible of Tyndale had, indeed, been sanctioned ; " but in this,"'

1546.] THE OPPOSITION REPROBATED. 399
might his Majesty have added, "I was little else than a passive
instrument — I was superintended — I was, to all intents and
purposes, only a man overruled."
The enmity now shown was not, however, suffered to pass
without notice, and that in a style and manner confirmatory of
that marked distinction which we have seen to prevail through
out. So far from confounding the Government, or the King
and his advisers, with the progress of Divine Truth, that cause
appears to be now, as it had ever done, an entirely separate
concern. Accordingly, by one contemporary writer, and in the
name of many other individuals, the Government, in its widest
sense, of which Henry was the determined head, was then
placed in contrast or opposition to the Sacred Scriptures, and
their unfettered perusal by the people at large.
The reader cannot have forgotten what a commotion was
excited in 1526, just at the moment when the New Testament
of Tyndale had been introduced into England, by a very small
publication, entitled The Supplication of Beggars, which Sir
Thomas More laboured to answer. But it is curious enough
that, as the commotion at first was thus distinguished, so its
close was marked by a second supplication, entitled " The Sup
plication of the poor Commons to the King." The author of this
last has never been ascertained, but both supplications were now
published in one book, being alike distinguished for the same
boldness of style.
His Majesty well knew, having read for himself the former
pubUcation — whether he ever saw the latter is uncertain — but,
in conjunction with the Government State Papers, it finishes
the picture of his times. WhUe from these papers it has
appeared that the Lord ChanceUor was "crying" to the Lord
Mayor and Aldermen for money, that the Mint was " drawn
dry," the Exchequer shut, the other courts of revenue able to
afford but Uttle, " that the conduits being nearly run dry, his
Majesty's servants were tarrying for the water ; " from this last
SuppUcation it is no less evident that the " Commons," and
especiaUy the inhabitants of the metropolis, were groaning
under certain burdens, and greatly exasperated by one measure
relating to tythes in London, sanctioned by Henry's final Par
hament in November last. As the House had been so liberal to

400 SUPPLICATION OF THE POOR COMMONS. [book I.
his Majesty, perhaps he had winked at this bill, if he did not
intend it as a compliment in return to the Convocation, and
especially to the clergy then Uving in the immediate vicinity of
the throne.
This " Supplication," says the industrious Strype, " is a
notable piece, and it gives such a light into the affairs of those
days, that a better history can scarce be given thereof, being
writ in those very times." It was printed and published this
year, 1546 ; but in Strype's time, hardly to be met with. After
showing in a clear and forcible style the fines and exactions to
which they were subjected by the clergy, the "poor Commons"
go on to show the loss to the Crown and ruin to the subject
involved in the late " grant of enhanced tenths," which would
soon sweep the property of the nation into the hands of the
spirituality, strangely so caUed, — men mostly of immoral conduct
— men who would not "bury a dead corpse, unless they had
their duty, as they call it." They close with the following
appeal : —
"Help, merciful Prince, in this extremity. Suffer not the hope of so noble
a realm utterly to perish, through the insatiable desire of the possessionem
Remember that you shall not leave this kingdom to a stranger, but to a child of
great towardness, our most natural prince Edward. Employ your study to leave
him a commonweal to govern, and not an island of brute beasts, among whom the
stronger devour ihe weaker. If you suffer Christ's members to be thus oppressed,
look for none other than the rightful judgment of God, for your negligence in your
office and ministry. Be merciful, tlierefore, to yourself and us, your most obeisanl
subjects. Endanger not your soul by ihe suffering of us, your poor Commons, to
be brought all to ihe names of beggars, and most miserable wretches. Let us be
unto your Highness, as ihe inferior members of Hie body unto their head. Re
member that your hoar hairs are a token that nature maketh haste to absolve.&e
course of your life."
These pointed warnings were rendered much more so, from
the petitioners having laid before his Majesty their grievances
and complaints in reference to the Scriptures. Indeed it was
with this subject they had began; and we have reversed the
order, simply to show, that these were not the mere ebullitions
of discontented or worldly men, who did not know their value ;
or of men who cared nothing about the recent base attempts to
take the Sacred Volume out of the hands of the useful orders of
society. This they placed in front of all their complaints.
Hear what they said to Henry on this subjects •

1546.] GRIEVANCES OF THE POOR COMMONS. 401
" The remnant of the sturdy beggars not yet weeded out tells us, that vice,
uncharitableness, lack of mercy, diversity of opinions, and other like enormities,
have reigned ever since men had the Scriptures in English. And what is this
other, than to cause men's consciences to abhor the same, as the only cause and
original of all this ? They say, it sufficeth a layman to believe, as they teach ;
and not to meddle with the interpretation of Scripture. And what meaneth
that, but that they would have us as blind again as we were ?" — " They have
procured a law, that none shall be so hardy as to have the Scripture in his house,
unless he may spend £10 by the year," (i.e. equal to £150 now.) " And what
meaneth this, but that they would famish the souls of the residue, withholding
their food from them ? — Hath God put immortal souls in none other but such
as be possessioners in this world ? Did not Christ send word to John the Baptist,
that thepoor received the gospel ? Why do these men disable them from reading
the Scriptures, that are not endued with the possessions of this world 1 Un
doubtedly, most gracious Sovereign, because they are the very same that shut
the kingdom of heaven before men. They enter not in themselves ; nor suffer
they them to enter that would.
" When your Highness gave commandment that the Bishops and Clergy
should see that there were in every parish one Bible, at the least, set at liberty ;
so that every man might freely come to it and read therein — many of this wicked
generation, as well priests as others, their faithful adherents, would pluck it,
either into the choir, or into some pew, where poor men durst not presume to
come ; yea, there is no small number of churches, that hath no Bible at all.
And yet not sufficed with the withholding it from the poor of their own parishes,
they never rested till they had a commandment from your Highness, that no
man, of what degree soever, should read the Bible in the time of God's service,
as they call it. As though the hearing of their Latin hes, and conjuring of
water and salt, were rather the service of God, than the study of His most holy
Word. This was their diligence in setting forth the Bible. But when your
Highness had devised a proclamation, for the burning of certain translations of
the New Testament, they were so bold as to burn the whole Bible, because
they were of those men's, Tyndale's or Coverdale's translation ; and not the
New Testament only. ''
The outrageous advisers of Henry the Eighth, taking every
advantage of his failing strength, having run riot with the
body and blood of his subjects, were now hastening to that
righteous retribution, which, even in this life, so often falls on
the head of the wicked. Too long had they walked after the
lusts and devices of their own hearts. Neither Wriothesly nor
Gardiner, nor their ducal leader his Grace of Norfolk, must be
permitted to escape. The long-suffering of God was now very
nearly exhausted. These men had walked in pride, and they
must be abased. As the enemies of light and of all moral
exceUence, but especiaUy of the Sacred Scriptures in the vernacu
lar tongue, and of all who prized them, having now vented their
mahce, it was time that there should be some reaction ; and what
D D

402 EXECUTION OF SURREY. [book I.
must have rendered it peculiarly gaUing, was the quarter from
whence that reaction came. Instead of committing other people
to the flames, they must now look after their own personal
safety ; and, instead of hunting after books to burn them, the
question will be, what is to be the term of their own official, or
even actual existence.
As is well known to every reader of English history, these
men, one after another, fell under the displeasure of Henry in
his last hours. Watching an opportunity favourable for their
purpose, a moment of irritation with his Queen, they pressed
the propriety of some investigation into the opinions of her
Majesty, and actuaUy obtained a warrant for her examination.
But the very promptitude of Wriothesly in laying hands on
Catherine, whom he would fain have treated as he did the noble
Anne Askew, brought him, as well as Gardiner and Norfolk, to
the brink of a precipice. The Chancellor arriving with forty
guards to convey the Queen to the Tower, was driven from the
royal presence with a burst of fury, and deprived of many of his
emoluments by the estabUshment of the new Court of Augmen
tations. Gardiner was excluded from the number of the King's
Executors, and never aUowed to approach the person of royalty
again. A harder fate awaited Norfolk. He and his son, the
Earl of Surrey, now obnoxious to the rising famUy of the
Seymours, the relatives of young Prince Edward's mother, were
apprehended unknown to each other, and sent to the Tower on
the charge of treason. Wriothesly, Norfolk's best friend, was
obliged to make out the indictment. It was of no avail, that
the charge was unfounded and could not be proved. The death
of both father and son had been determined on, and the
impetuous and accomplished Surrey suffered on the 21st of
January, 1547.
Throughout life, Henry had been always very punctilious
respecting forms of his own devising ; and Norfolk, a peer,
could not be despatched after the same fashion with his son.
Parliament had met for one day on the 4th of November, and
before the close of that month the various parts of this bloody
tragedy were nearly cast. At all events, the House had been
prorogued, and was now to meet, very opportunely, on tbe 14th
of January ; or the day after Wriothesly had pronounced sen-

1548.] NORFOLK DOOMED TO DIE. 403
tence on Surrey. On the foUowing Tuesday, the 18th, a bUl of
attainder against the Duke was brought in, and, next day, it
was read the second time. It was on this day, or within two
days after, that the fallen Minister was writing his letter to the
King ; a most earnestly imploring one for mercy. This had
been preceded by one to the Privy Council, begging for allevia
tions in his imprisonment, and presenting four separate confes
sions with an eye to mercy. As another precaution against his
vast possessions being scattered among his rivals, he conveyed
them entire to Prince Edward, and this perhaps with a view to
mollify the King. But all was in vain ; it was blood that was
wanted, and that once shed, every shilling must come to the
Crown. On the 20th, the bill passed the Lords. The Commons
were no less expeditious : a Sabbath interrupted them, but on
Monday the 24th they returned the bill to the Upper House.
Thus the very man who had made himself so busy in hurrying
through ParUament the proceedings against CrumweU, was
served by the House as he had served others. Not a moment
was now to be lost ; but the custom hitherto had been to reserve
aU such bills to the close of the session, and so it had been done
with the Lord Privy Seal. Yet if the King is to have his last
dying wishes, and if the Seymours are to gain their end, wonted
forms must be disregarded. Accordingly so they were. The
royal assent was given on Thursday the 27th ; Norfolk was
ordered for execution next morning, and left to count the hours
till break of day. Such was the last act of power on the part of
Henry the Eighth !
But " there is no man," subject or sovereign, " that hath
power over the Spirit, to retain the Spirit ; neither hath he
power in the day of death, and there is no discharge in that
war." By that God, who had borne with him so long, Henry's
own hour of caU was already fixed, and " about two of the clock
in the morning of Friday," the 28th of January, 1547, he had
been summoned to a higher tribunal, there to answer for his
long and weighty catalogue of cruelty and crime.
To die, as it were, in the very act of embruing his hands in
blood, was the close of the King's existence on earth ; whUe no
subject had been so unwelcome to himself, as that of his own
dissolution. No man dared even to hint such a prospect, till
d d 2

404 THE DEATH OF THE KING. [book i.
within a few hours of his ceasing to breathe. Even then, some
degree of courage was required, and it was Sir Anthony Denny
who told the dying man, in so many words, " that the hope of
human help was vain." These were terms which betrayed an
eager clinging to life still. Henry, "visibly disquieted," had to
be informed that the intimation was founded upon the judgment
of the physicians. He was then asked whether he wished to
confer with any one. "With no other," said he, "but the
Archbishop Cranmer, and not with him as yet ; I wiU first
repose myself a little, and as I then find myself, wiU determine
accordingly." Determine, however, he did not for nearly two
hours, when it was of Uttle or no moment who should come.
Cranmer was sent for in aU haste, but he arrived only in time
to receive one fixed look, when Henry grasped his hand and
expired ! He was in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and within
three months of completing the thirty-eighth of his reign.
Thus narrowly, or by a space of about six hours, did the Duke
of Norfolk escape with his life, though he must no more preside
at the public and disgraceful execution of his feUow-men. On
the contrary he, as weU as Gardiner afterwards, must remain in
durance for years.
To the close of this monarch's existence, we have toiled
through the record of human depravity, certainly not on its own
account ; but because of the moral lesson it now affords, as well
as its bearing on the main object of these pages. If it be one of
those laws by which God appears to govern the world, that,
" men engaged in an evil cause, however harmonious they may be in
the outset, shall, sooner or later, be at variance;" here we have an
illustration of that law, well wortlry of remembrance. Gardiner
and Tunstal, Norfolk and Wriothesly, had been the leading and
uniform opponents of the progress of Divine truth among the
people, and often had they played into each other's hands;
while the King, to say nothing of his habitual depravity, having
but one fixed principle, or the love of power, had died as he had
lived. Before that event, however, he scowls on these men, by
whose advice he had been so often swayed. They were, to a
man, his oldest counsellors, the ablest men around him, and the
very pith of "the old learning" party. These recent events,'
therefore, cannot loosely, or with propriety, be consigned to the

1546.] RETROSPECT. 405
gulf of human passion alone, and there left. This was the
breaking up of an old confederacy, by its own leader, or, at least,
the inan on whom it depended, and then he himself died. It
was Providence, by degradation, and imprisonment, and death,
" putting down the mighty from their seats, scattering the proud
in the imagination of their hearts," and preparing the way for a
very different scene in the reign of Edward, especially so far
as the printing and free perusal of the Sacred Volume was
concerned. With reference to the history of the English Bible, as far as
we have come, and after such a detaU as the past, with all its
imperfections, what, for example, can any reader think when he
finds one writer, in summing up the reign of Henry the Eighth,
express himseU in such terms as the following ? " His largest
claim to our gratitude is, that he at last permitted the great
fountain of religions truth and of intellectual piety to be opened
to the people, by sanctioning the translation and circulation of
the Scriptures in the national language ; thus making free to
every one what millions have blessed him for !" This is even
exceeded by another modern historian. "He resolutely main
tained to the end of his Ufe the exclusive right of God's
undoubted Word to be the rehgious instructor of the rational
creation. The assertion of this fundamental principle is the
brightest distinction of Henry's reign ! ! "
AU this, and much more to the same effect, has been actually
reported of a man who, above ten years after the Scriptures of
the New Testament had been introduced into this kingdom, in
spite of all his power, and the hostUity of his associates — a man
who, after he had been signaUy overruled to sanction the very
translation he had condemned, to say nothing of his share in
the guilt of leaving the Translator to the flames — did indeed at
last inform his subjects that " it had pleased him to permit and
command the Bible, being translated into their mother tongue,
to be openly laid forth in every parish church." But then this
is the same man who, in less than six years after, enjoined that
"no women but noble women, no artificers, apprentices, journey
men, serving-men, husbandmen, nor labourers, were to read the
Bible or New Testament in English, to themselves or to any
other, privately or openly ! " And who, in three years after

406 RETROSPECT. [book i,
this, told all England, " It ought to be deemed certain that the
reading of the Old and New Testament is not necessary for all
those folks that of duty ought to be bound to read it, but as the
Prince and the policy of the realm shaU think convenient to le
tolerated or taken from it ! Consonant whereto, the politic law
of our realm hath now restrained it from a great many !" This
daring profanity was crowned by Henry's last public act, within
six months of his dissolution — his endeavour, by proclamation,
to consign to the flames above thirty editions of the New Testa
ment by Tyndale — denouncing the translation as " crafty, false,
and untrue," though it was the very same with that which was
included in the Bible he had sanctioned in 1537 !
AU this contemptible spleen and fury, it is true, had been held
in derision, and most remarkably thwarted and counter- wrought,
tiU at last God began to deal with the man in the way of disease
and death. Now if historians, at the distance of three hundred
years, will thus write of his Majesty the reigning King, it may
abate the surprise of some at the language of his courtiers when
crouching before him ; but, in the name of truth, and of all that
is honest in historical narrative, why should we, in this age, be
directed to a source of gratitude such as this? Man praises
man, indeed ; and if a king, however profane, or however hostile,
is to enjoy the posthumous fame or personal credit of aU the
good that was done during the days of his mortal Ufe, then, of
course, no room is left for any other individual ; but,
" Thus idly some men waste the breath of praise,
And dedicate a tribute, in its use
And just direction sacred, to a thing
Doom'd to the dust, or lodged already there."
The worst effect of such language is, not that of its spoiling
one of the most deeply interesting and instructive chapters in
the history of our country, or its turning away the eye from
her real human benefactors. There is a far higher considera
tion. For if man only is to be regarded here, when or where,
in the whole compass of EngUsh history, is God, by himself
alone, to be speciaUy adored ? After aU that we have read,
may it not now, with reverence, be said of Him, that He had

1346.] RETROSPECT. 407
trodden an uncommon, nay, unprecedented path ? Other nations,
it is granted, received the Scriptures, and by the kind provi
dence of heaven, but not after the same singular manner. There
is no passage in the history of Germany or in that of any other
nation, of a simUar character ; though, strange to say, this has
never yet been distinctly explained, nor at any time sufficiently
observed. But enough, and more than enough, of Henry the Eighth
and his courtiers in general. The heart now cannot but in
stinctively recoil from looking in that direction. Other his
torians, however, have directed the gratitude of their country to
other individuals. The renown of the contest has been ascribed
to certain men whom we have seen wait on the times, till the
battle was actually fought and won ; and the credit of all that
foUowed has been given to such as, led by political motives,
were overruled to lend the cause, since it must advance, that
countenance, which Uterally cost them nothing. Our preceding
history may be referred to in explanation ; and whether his
Majesty, as far as he was a patron, did not even then " encumber
them with help," we leave the reader to judge.
We only repeat, as not the least remarkable fact in the entire
narrative, that the able, though unpretending man, so evidently
raised up by God to commence and carry forward the war of
truth and righteousness unto victory, has been hitherto left in
the background. With this never-to-be-forgotten period, other
names have been associated, so as almost to overshadow him ;
these have been repeated a thousand times, and become famiUar
as household words ; whUe there are not wanting those who
still inquire — And who was Tyndale ? But if we mean to speak
of the first personal and determined preparations for this great
contest — of the man who, by first applying the art of printing
to the Sacred Volume in our native tongue, effectually placed
the "leaven" of Divine truth in the heart of this kingdom ; if
we intend to refer to the first victories gained upon English
ground, to the brunt of the battle, or to the burden and heat
of the day, these were not the men. Tyndale, with Fryth by
his side, occupy a place in the foreground of the picture, from
which they never can be moved by any impartial historian.

408 RETROSPECT'. [book i.
But we have not yet done with the influence of our martyred
Translator. The providence of God, under the reign of Edward,
wiU interpret how much more we owe to his memory, and
whether the people of England did not testify their grati
tude and veneration, as soon as they were let alone to act for
themselves.

BOOK II.
jFrom lEtiiwarti Uff. to tfje Commontoealtfj.

BEIGN OF EDWABD.
MDXLVII.  MDLIII.

A REIGN, HOWEVER BRIEF, DISTINGUISHED IN BRITISH HISTORY, WITH REGARD
TO THE PRINTING AND PUBLICATION OE THE SACRED SCRIPTURES IN THE
LANGUAGE OE THE PEOPLE.
mE storm has changed into a calm ; so that in reviewing
the Christianity of England from the sixteenth century
there have been those, as there are still, who prefer to
begin with the reign of Edward the Sixth ; while
others repudiate every event before the reign of
EUzabeth. But whatever may be the inducement to
either preference, such parties must not expect to be
acknowledged as possessing much, if any, energy of purpose in
tracing effects to their cause ; or any measure of that disposition
which cannot be satisfied without accounting fuUy for circum
stances, stiU existing before every eye. The reign of Henry
the Eighth, whatever had been his personal character, was, in
many respects, not only initial but germinant. Every day since
has so testified; and the broad surface of the kingdom still
bears witness to the weight and pressure of his sceptre. He left
behind him certain marks, which are stUl acknowledged as
memorials of his power.
It, therefore, becomes only so much the more observable, that
the genuine or correct history of the EngUsh Bible has never
allowed us, as it never aUowed him, to come down and confound

410 THE REIGN OF EDWARD. [book ii.
the Sacred Volume, either with the ecclesiastical arrangements,
so called, of his time, or with the faUible interpretations of
erring men. No historical Une could be more distinctly drawn,
whether while the King and his advisers were arrayed against
the Scriptures, or after they were overruled to admit them into
England. Then, indeed, his Majesty himself became the re
markable instrument in not permitting the English Bible to be
at aU identified with the ecclesiastical body he had set up and
sanctioned. Not only did he not consult it on this subject, but
frowned upon his Bishops, when once presuming to sit in
judgment upon the translation.
And now that the King is dead ; now that the New Testa
ment Scriptures have been reading for twenty years, and the
Bible entire for nearly ten, not unfrequently in the face of the
flames ; now that we have escaped from what may be regarded
as the grand tempest, we no longer require to proceed only year
by year, as we have done ; nor is it any longer necessary to
notice the editions of the Scriptures in regular succession. We
have, it is true, aU this time been only laying the foundation,
and in so doing feel perfectly conscious that we may have
trespassed on the patience of certain readers ; but more especiaUy
on that of any who have never been before aware of what a
superstructure has been reared upon it. They have now before
them the groundwork of infinitely the largest undertaking which
Britain has to show, whether to her own people, or those of
surrounding nations. When compared with it, everything else
without exception, throughout this kingdom, is but local and
limited. With regard to the various editions issued from the press in
the brief reign of King Edward, we have already hinted that no
justice has ever been done to the subject. To say nothing of
older historians, even so recently as the year 1792, his readers
were informed by Newcome, Archbishop of Armagh, — nay, and
as a proof of " earnest endeavour that the Word of the Lord
might have free course and be glorified," — that "during the
course of this reign, that is," said the author, "in less than
seven years and six months, eleven impressions of the whole
English Bible were published, and six of the New Testament;
to which may be added, an English translation of the whole

1547—1653.] NUMBER OF EDITIONS PUBLISHED. 411
New Testament, paraphrased by Erasmus."1 This only shows
how Uttle attention has been paid to the subject, when a period
so heart-stirring could be thus reported ; but that the blunder
ing statement should have been literally repeated up to this
hour, and in our best introductions to the study, or the transla
tions, of the Scriptures, is more surprising stUl.
We need not remind the reader that, instead of seven years
and a haU, Edward did not reign quite six and a half ; but how
stand the facts under this brief period ? Why, that so far from
only six editions of the New Testament, there were nearly [thirty
more ; instead of eleven editions of the Bible entire, there were
at least fourteen ; and all these within the space of less than six
years and a haU, for Edward reigned no longer. In other
words, instead of only nineteen distinct issues of the Scriptures,
including Erasmus, as often so erroneously reported, we have
ascertained about fifty ; and as for the Bibles, all these editions
issued from the press in less than four • years, or from August
1549 to July 1553.
Such a period, therefore, weU deserves a better survey, fur
nishing, as it does, several instructive and memorable results.
With regard to the printing and circulation of the Sacred
Volume in the days of Henry the Eighth, we have seen that it
was throughout, at best, but a troubled scene, and distinguished
for bitter persecution ; the days of Edward the Sixth, when
properly examined, stand altogether unrivaUed, even by any
subsequent reign, for non-interference with the Scriptures. Nay,
the truth is, that in the history of England, it so happens that
we have not another reign of a similar character to exhibit ; it
stands alone. It is, however, curious enough, that the reign of
the most youthful sovereign that has ever since reigned in
Britain, should have made the nearest approach, and promises
before long to equal, and, it may be, far excel it. Meanwhile,
even the present age would do weU to look back and acquire a
Uttle wisdom from this early period ; for, although a strict
regard to impartiaUty has left us no choice but to record other
things of Cranmer, which must ever be condemned, he wiU now
be entitled to a meed of praise, which his most partial admirers
1 Newcome's Historical View of English Biblical Translations, p. 64.

412 A PERIOD DISTINGUISHED [book ii.
have either never observed, or, at least, never marked, as they
might have done.
As there was none of that arrogance and impiety on the part
of the Crown, with which Henry was ever insulting his subjects ;
talking to them, at one moment, as if they were children,
or were to have no mind of their own ; and at another, as if
they had no right to form any opinion whatever for themselves ;
so, on the contrary, great liberty now prevailed in printing any
one translation already made. No change for the better could
then be greater. The last act of the father was to brand the
name and memory of Tyndale : in the first ParUament held by
his son, that act was repealed, and' declared to be "utterly void
and of none effect ; " nay, the portrait of Edward wiU soon be
seen and sold, in immediate conjunction with the name and
translation of Tyndale.
Possessed of such power of control as Cranmer now enjoyed,
one might have imagined that he would have pressed forward
his ovm correction of Tyndale's version, and in superiority to all
others. But there is no such personal leaning to be discovered
— quite the reverse. The people had been left freely to make
their choice, or declare their preference, and we shaU soon see
the result. Here, then, was one trait in Cranmer's character,
and one which has never been pointed out, even by those who
have sought to justify other steps which cannot be defended.
True, it may be said that he was altogether engrossed with
his Book of Homilies and his Catechism, with King Edward's
Service Book, his Book of Articles, and the Beformatio Legum,
to say nothing of his parliamentary and official engagements.
This is granted, for such indeed was the course he chose to
pursue ; but still, had Cranmer been disposed to have interfered
with the printing of the Scriptures, he certainly could have
found time to have both discovered and exerted his power. On
the contrary, with his name at the head of the Begency, and on
such a subject possessing great sway, he appears to have acted
with a degree of candour and liberaUty which has never been
surpassed, nay, never equaUed by any man in power ever since.
One important consequence has been, that we are able now to
see at once what was the popular taste. Twenty-one years after
the New Testament of Tyndale had been sent into England, an

1547  1553.] FOR NON-INTERFERENCE. 413
opportunity had at last presented itself, for the people as such
to speak out, and say what they wanted. The printers were
ready to print, and the stationers, as they were called, to sell ;
but, of course, they would not press any one translation except
that which they knew beforehand was most likely to remunerate
them. As aU the editions were individual undertakings by men
engaged in business, they, it must be evident, would print
chiefly that book which was most frequently and eagerly sought
after. That zeal for the art of printing which burst forth instan
taneously after Henry's death, will prepare us for the numerous
editions of the Scriptures which immediately foUowed. This
noble art had been introduced into England under Edward IV.,
when there were three or four printers; under Henry VII.
there were five ;- and four of these survived to print under his
son : but during his long reign of nearly thirty-eight years, not
fewer than forty- one printers had commenced business in
London, or forty-five in all. Now, the first importation of
Tyndale's New Testament into England had taken place, not
till more than eighty years after the invention of printing, and
about fifty-eight after the art had been introduced into the
country ; but it is worthy of notice, that from that period,
of these forty-five printers not fewer than thirty-three had
started in business, and that eight of them were ultimately
connected with printing the Sacred Volume.
Let us then now observe what ensued, as soon as Henry had
" ceased from troubling," and Gardiner, Bonner, and Tunstal
were bereft of the power. Of the forty-five printers under
Henry, fourteen survived when Edward came to the throne.
While his father was sinking into the grave, and in less than
twelve months after his death, as many as eight new men had
started in business as printers. Next year, however, there were
not fewer than eleven more, and in the next two, eighteen,
besides six others in 1551 and 1552, or forty- three in all;
raising the number of printers under this youthful monarch to
not fewer than fifty-seven, in the brief space of six years ! Now
if it be inquired, what connexion had all this with the diffusion
of the Divine Becord? it was no less than this — that out of
these fifty-seven printers, more than the half, or not fewer than

414 VERY OBSERVABLE CONTRAST. [book II.
thirty-one, and these the most respectable, were engaged either in
printing or publishing the Sacred Scriptures.
But the editions of the Scriptures themselves will now fur
nish us with another view of this memorable period. For
Bibles "in folio, there may have been not so much need as yet,
considering the number which had been printed in 1540 and
1541 ; for although Henry had licensed Anthony Marler to
print for five years longer, he was then over-stocked, and the
sale must have flagged, as the wayward monarch only frowned
on the undertaking ever after. New Testaments, however, were
in great request, and the people soon discovered which transla
tion they preferred.
Tyndale's Bibles were published under the name of Matthew ;
but as for the New Testament separately, the name of William
Tyndale was now inserted in the front titles of fifteen editions,
if not more. At the same time it may be observed, in farther
proof of the freedom of the press, and of the absence of all
jealousy or interference on the part of Cranmer, that the im
pressions of Matthew's Bible took precedence of his own in point
of time. That of the former, by Day and Seres, was finished in
August 1549, and that by Beynolde and Hill in October; but
Cranmer's, by Grafton and Whitchurch, not tiU December of
that year.
Thus, if a version ever received distinguished marks of pubhe
approbation, it was that of our first Translator. There had been
certain verbal alterations in the text, whether by Cranmer, ;
Coverdale, or Taverner — some of which were no improvements j
and so it now appears the people at large had thought through
out the days of Edward the Sixth. They had said, in a manner
not to be mistaken, " We decidedly prefer the version of our
original Translator, as he gave it to his country."
It is now, however, of importance to observe, that the pre
ceding remarkable course of events with regard to Divine Truth,
so interesting in itself, becomes still more so, as proving that,
when the people were let alone, they could act with vigour for
themselves; and that they were acting well and nobly, in a
direction from which nothing but good could ensue. But our
interest is greatly increased upon observing two of its peculiar
features, namely, the dissimilarity of this course to every other,

1047 — 1558.J edward's personal example. 415
and its marked independence of the reigning power. There was
actually no other train of things of a similar character under
Edward VI., but, on the contrary, quite the reverse. In every
thing else, instead of reason, argument and the exposition of
Divine Truth being left with God to their own effects, the only
ultimate result was personal restraint, and even unto death.
But the Scriptures were let alone. No Act of Parliament or
Convocation was passed, for or against them ; no injunction was
issued ; no new translation proposed ; no new false title-pages
prefixed ; but there was something of far different and better
effect, and more congenial with God's own glorious purpose and
design — Edward's own visible and marked veneration for the Sacred
Record itself.
The cause, therefore, continues to stand out before us, as the
spontaneous act of individual enterprise, in reply to the volun
tary and urgent calls of the people themselves, and especially
for the New Testament Scriptures. They were anxious to pro
ceed according to the good old French maxim, " Laissez nous
faire" — Leave us to act; and the Government was, provi
dentially, strong enough to comply. For many years, it is true,
the votes or voice of ParUament could have formed no index
whatever to the consent or non-consent of the people at large.
From the way in which members were summoned, or both
Houses constituted, this was impossible ; but then, at the same
time, both Houses were most obsequious, and had wavered with
the Crown. Now, in these circumstances, it is only the more
observable, that the Parliament of Edward should become
conspicuous for non-interference, when the King himself was a
sincere and ardent admirer of the Scriptures. Thus, though
unconsciously, the House was witnessing to posterity the benefits
which ensue from not touching with this subject. Of these
benefits, we have already given substantial evidence ; and the
reader wiU be stUl more struck, when he turns to the particular
statement of all these precious volumes, in our Ust at the close of
this work. Meanwhile, no one could desire more evident proofs,
in long succession, of a " separated cause," a sacred under
taking; and these, too, present themselves at a period, when
the unprincipled changes perpetually occurring, whether in the
Privy Council or the Parliament, were loudly saying of every

416 THE DEATH OF EDWARD. [book II.
other department — " It is but the cause of men, of faUible and
changing men."
Here, then, was the distinguishing feature of this brief, but
memorable reign ; and it certainly becomes the more worthy of
notice from the facts already stated ; for in this one point of
view, there has been no reign, of a similar character, ever since.
In contrast, too, with Edward's immediate predecessor, far from
anything to repel in the young Prince, there is much to invite
our love and admiration. Whatever was objectionable during
his sway — of which there were more steps than one or two — an
enlightened judgment wiU ever ascribe to his Ministers ; for, in
the age in which he flourished and faded so soon, he stood hke
an apple tree among the trees of the wood, if not as a Uly among
thorns. To say nothing of the precocity of his talents, which,
no doubt, has been exaggerated, though he must have been
more than usuaUy inteUigent, there was his strong aversion to
the shedding of blood, which so painfully places Goodrich, and
Cranmer, and even Bidley, before us ; but, above aU, his pro
found and often expressed veneration for the Sacred Volume
itself. It was this that brought him so near to the character of
Josiah of old, though even yet so much younger than the
Jewish monarch, when the Book of the Law was found, and
read before him.
But, lo ! the clouds are gathering ; the young King, to the
grief of many, and these certainly the best in the land, is seen
to be slowly descending to the grave ; and all the enemies of
Divine Truth in the vulgar tongue begin to raUy and look up.
A lurid gloom begins to settle on the realm. A time of trouble
and vexation, of banishment and blood, is at hand. But there
was no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel, against Him by
whom all things were foreseen. We must enter the storm, and
there, even there, delight to trace once more, the peculiar care
of the Most High, over His own Word.
It was upon the evening of Thursday, the 6th of July, 1553,
that Edward died of consumption. His favourite and inse
parable friend, Sir Henry Sidney, had him in his arms, when he
suddenly exclaimed — " I am faint ; Lord, have mercy upon me,
and take my spirit ! " He instantly expired, at the early age of
fifteen years, eight months, and twenty-two days. Few kings

1547 — 1558.] A SEPARATE PEOPLE. 417
have faUen so soon ; far fewer stUl, as safe ; and perhaps none
in EngUsh history more sincerely lamented, by discerning sur
vivors. Under such counseUors he might have been corrupted.
He was taken away from the evU to come.
We have witnessed a very remarkable progress in the diffusion
of Divine Truth ; but we have also seen that this was effected,
not by the encouragement or sanction of Parliament, nor, of
course, with the consent of the nation as such in any form ; — no :
the cause itseU, though in the kingdom, was not of the kingdom ;
since no rulers in Europe had discovered greater hostiUty to
Divine Bevelation. The convulsion, therefore, which took place
after the death of Edward, though only the commencement of a
storm, served at once to clear the moral atmosphere, and forcibly
distinguish between the passions of men and the cause of God.
It enables us, even now, to see, with far greater precision, the
actual state of things.
As there had been a separate undertaking, which we have
descried aU along, so it now appeared, as the consequence, that
there had existed a separate people, not to be identified or
mingled up with any intrigue of the times. So far as the
human mind was concerned, the changes which had ensued,
from the first step taken by Henry VIII. until now, were not
national changes. The nation, as such, though so long and
singularly visited by Divine Truth, cared not for it ; and still
clinging to its old ceremonies and habits, leaped at the prospect
of falling back into its long repose under the shade of Borne.
As a warning to the age, therefore, and especially to posterity,
to distinguish things that differ, some fearful lesson of instruction
was demanded, and this must no longer be withheld.
Meanwhile, what the Almighty had so mercifully done for
England was analogous to that which, to use the words of
Scripture itself, was done by Him, " at the first," when He did
" visit the nations, to take out of them, a people for His name."
Such a people, however despised and trampled on, we have
beheld in England, in the days of John Fryth, and before then.
Some of the best among them we have seen by the light of those
fires which the enemy had kindled ; and they had been increas
ing in numbers all along. Under Henry VIII. the war had
commenced against the Sacred Volume itself, without even

E E

418 REIGN OF MARY. [book II.
knowing the translator ; and it went on against all who im
ported, received, or retained it. Under the reign of his son, it
had been plentifuUy printed, purchased, and read ; and it will
now become a decided proof of progress, however heart-rending
in detail, that the persecution about to commence was to be
against aU who had believed its contents, and held its sacred
truths to be more precious than life itself. This, however,
in the end, will materially further the cause of Divine Truth,
not retard it.

BEIGN OF QUEEN MABY.
MDLIII.  MDLVIII.
A REIGN, HOWEVER PAINFUL IN ITS DETAILS, WHICH SO PAR PROM RETARDING
THE PROGRESS OE DIVINE TRUTH, ONLY DEEPENED THE IMPRESSION OP ITS
VALUE ; AND APPORDED THE OPPORTUNITY FOR THE SACRED SORIPTUKES
BEING GIVEN AFRESH TO ENGLAND, CAREFULLY REVISED — THE EXILES FROM
THE KINGDOM PROVING, ONCE MORE, ITS GREATEST BENEFACTORS.
pon the 6th of July, 1553, at the age of thirty-six,
Mary, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII., succeeded
to the throne, and reigned as Sovereign alone for one
year. Afterwards, allied by marriage to Philip of
Spain, the Queen died in less than four years and
four months, on the 17th of November, 1558. This
reign throughout has been aU along, and generaUy
regarded as a portion of English history distinguished by little
else than the shedding of blood. Few, however, have suffi
ciently observed, that this blood-shedding for 'opinions held, did
not commence till Februarj' 1555, or more than a year and a
half after Mary held the sceptre. And if this fact has been
but slightly regarded, fewer still have ever noticed its bearing
on the Sacred Volume, and those who prized it.
That Volume, printed for a period of fully ten years on the
Continent, had been very strangely introduced into England; or
in a manner which must ever distinguish it, historically, among

1553 — 1558.] PROVIDENTIAL CARE OVER THE SCRIPTURES. 419
aU other European versions. Yet now, as if to fix the eye upon
it stUl more intensely, it was about to be carried abroad, or back
to that same Continent from whence it first came, and by aU
such as valued the boon, above their necessary food. Yes, now,
when the first edition of the New Testament was already twenty-
seven years old, and the first Bible printed on English ground
had left the press fourteen years ago, as many copies as could
be must be carefully concealed at home, and even built up, as
they actuaUy were, and the rest must be carried abroad ! For
years that were past, the people had read those Oracles of God
on EngUsh ground, which had been prepared for them on the
Continent : they must now, scattered aU over that Continent
itself, read the volumes which had been printed in the metro
polis of their native island ! Formerly, they perused at home,
what came from abroad ; they must now read beyond seas, what
had been prepared for them at home. No doubt, also, copies
which had been printed on the Continent were then carried
back to it. StiU, however, time must be afforded for escape.
The wind of persecution being restrained, that it should not
blow on the land for fully a year and a half, those who valued
the truth of God, carrying with them the Sacred Volume as
their highest treasure, soon departed by hundreds, as best they
could. The clouds were gathering over England : a time of
trouble and rebuke to a nation which, as such, had too long
" despised the Word of the Lord," was at hand ; yet could those
who fled have seen only a few years before them, they might
have sung in concert over the result, as they were sailing to the
different seaports to which they fled for shelter.
Upon leaving the Tower for her palace at Bichmond, but a
few days had elapsed before Mary issued her "Inhibition"
against preaching, reading or teaching any Scriptures in the
churches, and printing any books ! The Word of God in the
vulgar tongue, and the printing-press, being the objects of
special dread. But even two days before this, there were
certain men at large, who must be so no longer. On the 16th
of August, Bradford, Vernon, and Becon were committed to the
Tower ; whUe no other than John Rogers, alias Matthew, the
editor of the Bible received by Henry in 1537, was commanded
to keep himself within his own house, and to have no communi-
E E 2

420 IMPRISONMENTS IN ENGLAND. [book II.
cation with any persons except those of his own family. They
had already taken certain steps, if not commenced proceedings
against many persons ; and by the 15th of September, Latimer
and Hooper, as well as Cranmer, were safe in the Tower. As
for Ridley, having preached at Paul's Cross in favour of Queen
Jane, he had chosen, however strangely, to proceed to Fram-
lingham to salute Mary, where he was instantly despoiled of his
dignities, and sent back to the Tower, by the 26th of July, or
only ten days after he had preached his sermon. But still
there were as yet no tortures, no murder, nor any threatened
martyrdom. Most providentiaUy, the Queen, though only thirty-six
years of age,' was to reign no longer than five years and four
months ; but those fires which never ceased to blaze for three
years and nine months, were not kindled till a year and a half
after she had come to the throne. Gardiner and Bonner, as the
leading dogs of war, had not only been let loose, but reinstated
as Bishops, and there was the most cordial feeling in harmony
with Borne ; but still the arm of the oppressor was stayed, nor
must one stake be prepared, or fire lighted up, for more than
sixteen months after these imprisonments. Cardinal Pole, also,
must first come from Italy to England before the kingdom
could be formally reconciled to Borne ; while Gardiner, now
raised to be Lord Chancellor, was, from personal ambition, not
a little anxious to retard his return, and, in the meanwhile,
seeking greater things, if possible, for himself. Bonner, it is
true, at once brutal and rash, was ready, at a moment's warning,
to plunge into his favourite occupation with fury ; but a
compass must be fetched ; and Gardiner was there to guide it.
Cautious, as well as vindictive, he will steadily watch the time,
and not fail to end in blood ; when both he and Bonner will be
in at the death of the best men in all England.
It must, however, have very soon, and thus mercifully,
appeared, that good faith and clemency were out of the ques
tion. Conscientious men, in considerable numbers, were bent
upon escape to the Continent, and facilities shall not be want
ing. All foreigners were to be allowed to depart without hin
drance. There were not only Germans and Frenchmen, but
Italians and Spaniards, Poles and Scotsmen, harbouring not in

1558 — 1558.] EXILES TO THE CONTINENT. 421
London alone, but elsewhere, and enjoying a degree of freedom
from molestation, unknown at the moment in any other part of
the world ! They must now seek safety by flight. Early in
the month of September, that interesting Polish nobleman,
John A-Lasco, the uncle of the King of Poland, embarked from
London, carrying a considerable number of his congregation
with him. About the same time many French, and other
foreigners, left England. Orders were sent down to Bye and
Dover, that no impediments should be placed in their way ; and
to these orders, not a few of the English, the salt of the land,
were indebted for their escape. Many went under the character
of servants, and others, by what means they could, till at last it
has been computed that there were from eight hundred to a
thousand learned Englishmen, beside those in other conditions,
who were now to sustain the honourable character of exUes from
their native land, on account of their attachment to Divine
Truth. There can be no question that, as far as they could,
they took their most valued treasure, their books, with them,
but, above all, their copies of the Scriptures ; and thus it was
that the volume which had been originally translated for
England, upon the European continent, was now to be read by
more than a thousand of her sons and daughters, and aU over
these countries, from Emden to Geneva !
These exiles, of whom their native land at the moment was
not worthy, found refuge at Emden in Friesland, as A-Lasco
and his flock had done ; at Wesel on the Bhine in Prussia ; at
Duisburg, a town of Guelderland in Holland ; at Strasburg in
France ; at Zurich and Berne, Basle, Geneva, and Aran in Switz
erland ; at Frankfort in Germany, and a few fled to Worms,
the spot where the first English New Testaments had been
completed at press. Many of these people had, in the end, no
great occasion to regret the storm that had driven them from
home, so far as they themselves were personally concerned.
The improvement and enlargement of their minds was the
result, in many instances ; while their being all alike sufferers
from one common calamity, gave occasion to a far finer display
of Christian sympathy and bounty, both abroad and at home,
than they ever could have experienced in other circumstances,
or ever left for posterity to admire. There wore at least three

422 THE MARTYRS [book II.
Ladies of title, at least six Knights, besides other persons of
property, among the number who had fled, and they regarded
all the rest as brethren in adversity. Many pious individuals
too, chiefly in London, contributed freely to their rehef, by
sending money, clothes, and provisions. Strype gives a list of
twenty-six as the most eminent. Abroad, the King of Den
mark, Henry, Prince Palatine, the Duke of Wurtemberg, and
Wolfgang, Duke of Bipont, with aU the states and free cities
where the English sojourned, were very bountiful to them. So
were foreign divines, especially those of Zurich, whose small
stipends scarcely served to maintain themselves. Peter Martyr's
house at Strasburg was filled, where the inmates, Uving at one
common table, paid, if anything, easy charges for their diet.
Several of the learned exUes subsisted partly by their own
exertions. John Foxe had now leisure to compose and publish
the first edition of his history in Latin, and Grafton the printer
had time to write his Chronicle, to say nothing of other works ;
but we shall hear of labours infinitely more valuable, for which
this temporary banishment from their native land was to prove
the time appointed.
These may be regarded as an army of confessors ; but there
were many who could not, whUe others would not, avaU them
selves of safety by flight, and these formed a distinguished
portion of the noble army of martyrs. England, as we have
witnessed, under Edward VI. had proved an asylum for the
oppressed among other nations : it was ere long to become an
Aceldama, or field of blood. In the first Parliament under Mary
at the close of 1553, the statutes of the preceding reign, as well
as some of Henry VIII., had been repealed. The state machine
was rolled back to its old position, and the kingdom in 1554 was
once more placed under the protection of Borne. Her Majesty,
though not at aU times a quiescent votary of the Pontiff, was,
both from principle and past circumstances, a persecutor ; while
she could not have found in all England two spirits more conge
nial with her intentions than those of Stephen Gardiner and
Edmund Bonner. If they led, others on the bench, and many
unprincipled underlings, were ready to follow. AU statutes
which stood in the way being entirely removed, as there was
"a clear fiold," so there was to be "no favour." Men and

1553 — 1558.J UNDER THIS REIGN. 423
women, of whatever character, office, or condition, even the
lame and the blind, and from the child to the aged man, all who
had any conscientious opinions not in harmony with the " old
learning," aU were appointed unto death.
From the 4th of February, 1555, to within only seven days of
the Queen's exit, on the 17th of November, 1558, a period of
only three years, nine months and six days, the number burnt
to ashes, and who died by starvation, slow torture, and noisome
confinement in prison, can never be given with accuracy by any
human pen. In reading through the details, as the heart grows
sick, so every one must come to the same conclusion — that there
is but one list, and that one accurate and indelible — but it is one
above. The highest point of human guilt is to be found in
persecution for the truth's sake, or in violence done to conscience;
and when at last inquisition is made for blood, the Judge of all
wiU remember every drop that has been shed, for " the Word
of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."
The different calculations, however, which have been made by
Foxe and Burnet, by Strype and Speed, as well as an account
by Cecil Lord Burghley, have been carefully collated : and we
have thus made out a distinct Ust of three hundred and
eighteen individuals. Of these, two hundred and eighty-eight
were consumed in the flames, eight or ten were positively
famished, and twenty more pined and expired in their dungeons.
Of almost aU these we have the names, as well as the time and
place of their last triumphs ; but the number of deaths, without
doubt, must have been greater, especially from imprisonment.
In a treatise often ascribed to Lord Burghley himself, but
certainly sanctioned by him, and coming from authority, in
1583, the number is estimated at " almost four hundred ; " and
a testimony borne to the source from which these martyrs had
derived their faith and principles ; a testimony to the power of
the Sacred Oracles as read by the youth of the kingdom ; for as
to preaching the truth, this had, with a few exceptions, ever been
at the lowest ebb.
If, therefore, the number who lost their Uves by every species
of cruelty be stated at 375, this gives an average of one hundred
deaths annually, in three years and nine months. Of the
counties in England, 21 suffered, and 2 in Wales ; but the

424 THE MARTYRS [book II.
persecution lay heaviest upon those parts where the Scriptures
were best known. In Essex and Middlesex the victims were at
least 114; in Kent and Sussex, 88; in Suffolk and Norfolk,
32 ; in Gloucester and Warwick, 18 ; so that in these eight
counties alone, two hundred and fifty-two had triumphed at the
stake. Nothing could exceed the more than savage barbarity
by which these, the most valuable subjects in the kingdom,
were put to torture and death. Of the entire number, more
than one hundred and fifty had been consigned, in groups, to
one common fire ! Thus we find of such companies, that there
were six instances of three individuals, at different times ; five
oifonr, and four of five ; six instances of six, and four of seven !
There were two dreadful cases of ten the same day ; the first at
Lewis in Kent of six men and four women, including the
master and servant, the mother and her son, in one common
conflagration ! The second was at Colchester of five men and
five women, six of whom were martyred in the morning, and
four in the afternoon. Several of these must have been ad
vanced in life, as their united ages amounted to about 406
years. But the most horrible scene of all, in point of number, was at
Bow, near London, when not fewer than thirteen, eleven men
and two women, were consumed in one pile, on Tuesday the
27th of June, 1556. The number of persons present was esti
mated at twenty thousand; "whose ends generaUy in coming
there," says Strype, "and to such like executions, were to
strengthen themselves in the profession ofthe Gospel, and to exhort
and comfort those who were to die." Yes, and notwithstanding
all the fury of the enemy, this disposition on the part of the
people went on to increase throughout the years 1557 and 1558,
tiU upon this very day of the week, two years hence, we shall
see what happened. When the present martyrs appeared at
the stake, a few words were all-sufficient to secure an echo.
The short expressive ejaculation on the part of only one
bystander, was replied to by an Amen, which came upon the
ears of their murderers with a voice of thunder ; and such
a voice had made them quail. These noble confessors indeed
actually triumphed at last, so far as to paralyse the arm of
Bonner, and banish the fire nt least from Smithfield, nearly five

1553 — 1559.] UNDER THIS REIGN. 425
months before Mary was called away by her final Judge ! The
very last time, when seven martyrs were there consumed, on the
28th of June, 1558, was a memorable one ; and as it has never
been sufficiently pointed out by aity historian, must not pass
unnoticed here.
They belonged to a " Congregation" in London, that had assembled in secret
for many years ; the same that had been addressed by Bainham in 1531, and by
Fryth in 1533. Changing their place of meeting from time to time to avoid the
vigilance of the spies sent out by Bonner, they escaped, as a body, for some
time. One of their pastors, John Rough, a native of Scotland, and Cuthbert
Symson, one of their deacons, were taken by spies, and suffered, the former in
December 1557, and the latter, with two other members of the same body, in
March following. These all witnessed a good confession. The congregation
still met and chose another pastor, when, within a month after the last fiery
trial, having met in a field near Islington for prayer and meditation, they were
discovered by the searchers, and twenty-two of them apprehended and lodged
in Newgate. Of these, seven escaped with their lives, two died in prison, and thir
teen were condemned by Bonner to the flames. Seven of these were brought up
for sentence on the 17th of June, when one of them, Roger Holland, a person
above the common rank, was interceded for by some persons of distinction who
were present. But the Martyr stood so firmly to his confession that Bonner
would show no mercy, and read the sentence. To this Holland rephed, ' ' Even
now I told you that your authority was from God, and by His sufferance. And
now I tell you God hath heard the prayer of His servants, which hath been
poured forth with tears by His afflicted saints, which daily you persecute, as now
you do us. But this I dare be bold in God to speak, which by His Spirit I am
moved to say, that God will shorten your hand of cruelty, that for a time you
shall not molest His Church. And (turning to his friends) this shall you in sliort
lime well perceive, my dear brethren, to be most true; for after this day, in this
place, shall there not be any by Hisiput to the trial of fire and faggot."
When he was led out to suffer with his six companions on the 28th June,
proclamation in the name of Philip and Mary was made — That "no man should
either pray for, or speak to the prisoners;" but the multitude could not
be restrained. The whole " Congregation, " with their pastor, was there, and
rushing forward they embraced their brethren before they were made fast to the
stake. When proclamation was again made enjoining profound silence, one
with a loud voice cried out, " Almighty God, for Christ's sake, strengthen
them!" Immediately the whole multitude at once responded, ''Amen ! Amen !"
Embracing the stake, Holland then blessed the Lord for his call, once to
hght, and now to glory ; and the whole seven died in joyful constancy with
prayer and praise.
Such a triumph well deserved to be traced, for it was a
decisive one. Mary had yet nearly five months to reign, but she
must no more burn a single martyr at the wonted place, nor at
any other, within her own capital. Bonner's occupation, too,
was gone ; for, as far as we know, he never personally sentenced
one individual to the flames, in any place, after being thus

426 THE SCRIPTURES UNDER MARY. [book II.
addressed by Roger Holland. Six men, indeed, out of the-
twenty-two seized, still remained to be disposed of, and, a few
days after Holland, they had been examined : but aU this the
Bishop had prudently left to Thomas Darbyshire, his nephew,
the Chancellor ; nor were they put to death till the 13th or
14th of July. But even then they cannot be burnt in London;
they must be sent down to Brentford, and the writ to execute
come from the Lord ChanceUor's office. All this is distinctly
stated to have been done in " post-haste," and at night, either
from fear or craft on the part of Bonner ; but never again must
the fire blaze in Smithfield. Such was " the Congregation ofthe
Faithful," assembling for worship in the days of Queen Mary ;
and, with all its imperfections, there certainly never was in
England a body of Christians more highly honoured by God, in
" resisting unto blood, striving against sin."
On the whole, the reader can now easily distinguish between
the people at large, and those who had been so shockingly
persecuted ; nor need he imagine that the English as a nation
had all of a sudden become more distinguished for cruelty than
the neighbouring nations on the Continent. They had indeed,
at first, asked for such a Queen as Mary, and obtained their
desire ; they had unwiUingly submitted to such a King as
Philip, and to such Ministers ; and under their united sway
that salutary horror was implanted in the nation, which was not
to leave it for generations to come ; but it was the leaders of
this people who destroyed them, but more especiall)', as a body,
the Bishops, who were now fighting with fury for "their king
dom of this world," as they so manifestly had done, ever since
the Scriptures were introduced in 1526. For these five years
past they had been powerfully backed, and occasionally goaded
on, by both the King and Queen ; nor had the diocese of
Canterbury under Cardinal Pole formed any exception to the
raging cruelty.
A far different subject, or the history of the English Bible
during this reign, now claims our attention ; although it is
probable that not a few may be disposed to inquire, — " And
what can possibly be said at such a time as this ?" That " aU
things went backward," is an expression which has been often
employed, it is true, in reference to the days of Mary the First ;

1568 — 1558.] ROGERS AND COVEKDALE. 427
but it is one, strictly, speaking, far from being correct. There
was, to a certainty, one exception, and that one was worth aU
other things put together ; so that for every feeling excited, or
rather harrowed up, by the recital of martyrdoms, cruelty and
banishment, there is yet balm in reserve ; and as that is to be
found nowhere else, except in the positive progress of Divine
Truth, it only renders the history of the Sacred Volume one of
deeper interest.
It is true that all the authorities, styled civil and ecclesiastical,
were up in arms against it ; and now, banded together as the
soul of one man, they could officially alter or destroy every
thing else of human appointment or device : but they might as
weU have expected to succeed in rooting out the violet or the rose
from the soU of England, as in banishing the Word of Life
from the country, or in snatching it from all the people who had
aheady received and prized it, as their only and all-sufficient
guide to a better world.
No sooner, indeed, had January 1555 arrived, than it seemed
as if something of this kind had been meditated, by their hasty
attempt to brand certain persons with odium. There were twro
individuals still remaining in England to whom the country
had stood indebted for the Scriptures — John Rogers and Miles
Coverdale; and these were among the earUest victims seized
by Government. With both characters the reader is already
intimately acquainted ; the first as the original editor of Tyndale's
Bible, which, after so many editions, was now in use ; and the
second, not only as a translator, but the diligent corrector at the
press of several of these editions.
When Queen Mary entered London, and had reached the
Tower, on Thursday, the 3rd of August, 1553, it is well known
that on the second day after, she released Gardiner, and Bonner,
and Tunstal, from imprisonment, styUng them "her own
Bishops." The first of these she immediately appointed to be
Lord ChanceUor. He had been distinguished as one of the
most eminent enemies of the vernacular Scriptures. In the
year 1537, when the Bible edited by John Bogers was intro
duced into England by Grafton, and with such success, Gardiner
was in France ; but after his return in September 1538, he did
all in his power to thwart the circulation of the Scriptures
in the English tongue. Bogers, then on the Continent, had

428 THE CRUEL TREATMENT [book II.
remained for twelve years longer, ministering to a German con
gregation. During the reign of Edward, either attracted by
the state of the country, or personally invited, he had returned
to England by the year 1550, and afforded occasion for one of
those singular scenes, which had not unfrequently taken place
under the roof of St. Paul's. The reader cannot have forgotten
one in 1536, while Latimer was preaching his noted sermon to
" the children of light and the children of darkness." Both
classes Avere congregated here still ; but perhaps no discordancy
had ever exceeded the foUowing. At the risk of a Uttle repeti
tion we present the picture entire. In September 1549, Bonner
had been deprived of his office as Bishop of London, and who
should be officiating in his room for the following half year, but
Gabriel Dunne, as residentiary prebend ! — the man who, with
Phillips, had ensnared Tyndale at Antwerp, and at Brussels did
his best to secure his death. Dunne's official services, as bishop
pro tempore, had ended by the appointment of Nicholas Bidley
to the See of London in AprU 1550, and it is the very next
month that we have certain evidence of Bogers being in London.
He may have come earlier, but we are told that "when he
returned to England he was admitted Rector of St. Margaret
Moyses, and after that, Vicar of St. Sepulchre's, London, on the
10th of May, 1550." The Rectory, however, he resigned next
year, on the 10th of September, having been appointed by
Ridley, one of the Prebendaries of St. Paul's, on the 24th of
August preceding. Here then, we have Dunne, as prebend,
sitting in the twelfth staU on the right side of the choir, and
Rogers, as Pancras prebend, in the sixth on the left ; but this
is rendered still more remarkable from its being the very stall
which had been occupied by Robert Ridley, the uncle of
Nicholas, once so furious in opposition to Tyndale and his
translation !
Any person can now clearly perceive, with what good will
both Gardiner and Bonner must have welcomed the day when
they should be able to triumph over both the Bishop and his
Prebend, Ridley and Rogers, and wreak their vengeance on
them both. But John Rogers had done nothing to call for
any interference. He had occasion, it is true, to preach, in
his turn, at Paul's Cross, and then he warned the people against

1558 — 1558.] OF THE PROTO-MARTYR. 429
idolatry and superstition. This was after the Queen's arrival
in London. He was immediately charged with preaching
erroneously, but he so defended himself before the Council, that
he was freely dismissed. At this moment, had he felt disposed,
he might have escaped abroad, and he had strong inducements
so to do. He had a wife and ten children, and in Germany he
must have been secure of a living ; but he would not depart.
By the 18th of August, 1553, a proclamation was issued, for
bidding all preaching ; after which, Bogers was ordered to
remain, as a prisoner, in his own house, and communicate with
no one, save his own family. He happened to live not far from
Bonner himseU, who, with the sanction of Gardiner, as Chan
ceUor, at last got him sent to Newgate, the worst of aU the
prisons ; where, among thieves and murderers, he remained
throughout the whole of 1554, and there he is said to have been
of use to the prisoners. " My Lord," said Bogers to the Chan
ceUor, " ye have dealt with me most cruelly ; for ye have put
me in prison without law, and kept me there now almost a year
and a haU. For I was almost half a year in my house, where
I was obedient to you, God knoweth, and spake with no man.
And now have I been a fuU year in Newgate, at great cost and
charges, having a wife and ten chUdren to find ; and I had
never a penny of my Uvings, which was against the law."
They had, in short, left him to pine or perish in prison, and
there having been no specific charge, the whole course was
illegal. At last, however, Bogers was called up for examination.
The year 1555 was to be distinguished for persecution, and on
the first of January they had commenced in good earnest, by
the apprehension of thirty individuals. On the 22nd, both
Bogers and Hooper were before Gardiner, and other members
of CouncU, as the Queen's Commissioners. The parties present
were perfectly characteristic. Besides Gardiner, there was Tunstal,
Heath, and Thirlby, Sir Bichard South weU, Sir John Bourne,
Secretary of State, and others, evidently eager to sit in judg
ment on such a man as this ; and as if it had been to point out
to posterity the precise animus or spirit of the persecutors, as
well as give still greater prominence to the history of the Sacred
Volume, Bogers must die first of all. He must now lead the

430 THE CRUEL TREATMENT [book II.
van in the army of martyrs, and obtain ever after the honour
able appellation of Proto-Martyr in Queen Mary's reign.
Towards this good man, it is evident that Lord Chancellor
Gardiner had behaved with peculiar harshness and cruelty.
He had, in fact, owed him a grudge for eighteen years, and now
illegally had imprisoned him, for nearly eighteen months, though
the martyr had frequentlY implored his release. Bogers had mar
ried when abroad, and presuming that a female, and a foreigner,
and she not far from the time of her confinement, might have
some influence, he had sent her to Gardiner, with certain female
companions, so long ago as Christmas 1553, and as far as Eich
mond, "humbly craving that he might be set at liberty," there
being nothing laid to his charge. The only answer to this was .
his being committed by Bonner to Newgate ! From Newgate,
Mr. Rogers had not only sent two petitions to the ChanceUor,
but his wife many times, without any effect. A Mr. Gosnold,
and other benevolent gentlemen, had also petitioned on his
behalf, but all was in vain ; and now that the prisoner is brought
up for examination, it seemed as if, in the first instance, it had
been only to gratify Gardiner's spleen and passion.
He was called up once more, before a far more formidable
array of persecutors, on the 28th, and finally the next day, at
nine o'clock, when Gardiner read his sentence condemnatory,
giving him over to the tender mercies of Bonner and the Sheriff.
Not one word had been said respecting his publication of the
Sacred Scriptures, but the ChanceUor, in condemning him, had
thought this far too fine an opportunity not to cast a slur upon
the Bible, and thus hold up Bogers to the terror of all its
readers, at the very commencement of this fiery day. In his
sentence, when naming Rogers, three times he took special care
not to omit, " otherwise called Matthew." We have no proof that
this was the intention, but it served such a purpose for the
moment. Gardiner having finished, gratuitously told him that
he was now " in the great curse," and that no man was to
speak to him. Rogers, who throughout had spoken with great
boldness as well as ability, and, as we shall see presently, to
Gardiner's utter confusion, if not dismay, then replied —
" Well, my Lord, here I stand before God and you, and all this honourable
audience, and take Him to witness, that I never wittingly nor willingly taught

1558 — 1558.J OF THE PROTO-MARTYR. 431
any false doctrine ; and therefore have I good conscience before God and all
good men. I am sure that you and I shall come before a Judge that is righteous,
before whom I shall be as good a man as you ; and I nothing doubt but that I
shall be found there a true member of the true Catholic Church of Christ, and
everlastingly saved. And as for your false Church, ye need not to excommuni
cate me forth of it. I have not been in it these twenty years — the Lord be
thanked therefore ! But now ye have done what ye can, my Lord, I pray you
yet grant me one thing !"

t>

" What is that ?" said Gardiner. " That my poor wife, being
a stranger (a foreigner), may come and speak with me, so long as
I Uve — for she hath ten children, that are hers and mine, and
somewhat I would counsel her, what were best for her to do."
WiU it be believed, that, at once discovering a mind of the
vilest character, the solitary request, and so touchingly put, was
with disgusting barbarity denied ! And Rogers, though he
had told the ChanceUor that he had been married eighteen
years, saw the man no more. The amount of such wickedness
it is not for us to describe.
Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, his honourable companion, had
been also condemned the same day, and both were to be con
veyed to Newgate. There was now, however, some cowardly
fear of the people. The sentence had not only been pronounced
with closed doors, but they waited tiU night, before their victims
were sent off. Even then, they conducted them from the
Clink Prison to Winchester's house, close by, and passing
through it, along London bridge, officers had been sent before
them, ordering the costermongers, who sat at stalls in the
street, to put out their Ughts ! Why all this caution, if there
was no apprehension of a rescue ? Their coming, however, had
been anticipated, and pious householders appeared on both sides
of the streets, with candles. On their part, as the prisoners
passed along, there was nothing but salutations of affectionate
sympathy, thanksgiving for their constancy, and earnest prayers
for its continuance.
This was on Tuesday the 29th, and Rogers had only to live
tiU Monday foUowing. Early that morning, the 4th of Feb
ruary, not aware of what awaited him, like Peter of old, he was
sound asleep. The jailer's wife went and had some difficulty in
awaking him. She then warned him to make haste, and prepare
himself for the fire ! " If it be so," said the good man, " I

432 MARTYRDOM OF ROGERS. [book II.
need not tie my points." Bonner was already in waiting.
Both Hooper and he were then, what they chose to call
degraded, by being bereaved of their ecclesiastical trappings ; a
process which necessarUy occupied some time, as they had first
to be arrayed, and then the several parts were torn from them
piecemeal. Hooper was to be sent off next day to Gloucester ;
but the stake was already prepared for Bogers. Then once
more, to Bonner he tendered the same solitary request he had
done to Gardiner ; but it was now reduced to this — " that before
going to the stake, he might be permitted to speak a few words
to his wife." But this, like his fellow, the inhuman monster
denied ! Foxe supposes that it was chiefly to inform her of his
examinations and answers, in his own handwriting, which he
had left behind him, concealed in the prison. But U it was,
the Bishop's denial went for nothing, as they were afterwards
found. Upon being delivered up to the Sheriff, Woodroff, before they
left the prison, urged Bogers to revoke his opinions. " That,"
replied the martyr, " which I have preached, I will seal with
my blood." — "Then," said Woodroff, "thou art an heretic."—
" That," replied Bogers, "will be seen at the day of judgment."
— " Well then," said the Sheriff, " I will never pray for thee."
—"But," said Bogers, mUdly, "I wiU pray for thee." Thus
they proceeded to the stake.
Upon entering the street, they found an immense crowd
awaiting them. In walking towards Smithfield, Bogers was
repeating a portion of that blessed book he had given to his
country — the 51st Psalm. The people were giving thanks for
his constancy ; but there among the crowd, there met him the
wife, whom neither Gardiner nor Bonner would permit him to
see. His wife, the foreigner, with all her children— one of
these, a youth named Daniel, if the eldest, now nearly seven
teen years of age; the youngest, or the eleventh child, an
unconscious babe, now hanging at the mother's breast! In
the midst of this overwhelming scene, the husband and father
stood firm, and having got through it, the bitterness of death
was past !
At the stake they brought him a pardon, upon condition that
he would recant. This, of course, he pointedly refused to do,

1853 — 1658.] ESCAPE OF COVERDALE. 433
and at last, washing his hands, as it were, in the flames, he cried
with his final breath, " Lord, receive my spirit."
We have referred to his examinations and answers, as they
were afterwards printed in fuU, from the copies left behind ; and
by John Foxe, who knew the martyr weU. It so happened that
Mrs. Bogers, with her son Daniel, had gained access to the
prison, and after looking in vain for these manuscripts, they
were about to depart, when the youth, looking round once more,
spied his father's papers, deposited in a corner under the stair.
John Bogers appears to have been the son of a father of the
same name, and born, not in Lancashire, as it has sometimes
been stated, but in Warwickshire, at Deritend, in the immediate
vicinity of Birmingham. Bogers had been married in 1537, or
the same year in which he had completed the Bible, to Adriana
Pratt, alias de Weyden. She now returned with her children
to Germany, and the lad who had found his father's papers was
afterwards better known, as an Ambassador from Queen Eliza
beth to different countries.
With regard to Miles Coverdale, without farther explana
tion it must appear almost incredible that, only fourteen days
after the death of Rogers, or on the 18th of February, Queen
Mary was writing a letter, of which he was to be the bearer, to
the King of Denmark. He also had been in trouble, as well as
Rogers, since 1553, though not confined to prison. This letter
was written only on Monday week after the scene at Smithfield,
and the same day on which a splendid embassy was leaving
London for Rome ; and yet the very next day Coverdale had
his passport, " for himself and two servants," by which was most
probably meant his wife and one servant ; and so he left
England for Denmark. Thus, if the one man connected with
the Scriptures must lead the van of martyrdom, the other can
easily be extricated from the grasp of Government by the over
ruling providence of God.
The deliverance has been ascribed solely to the repeated and
very earnest interposition of his Danish Majesty ; and but for
this, humanly speaking, he might not have survived : but there
was a very curious concurrence of circumstances in favour of
Coverdale's deliverance at this moment, for King Christian's
second letter to Mary on his behalf was nearly five months old.
F F

434 SINGULAR CIRCUMSTANCES CONNECTED [book ii.
Why, then, should Coverdale, a married Bishop, and an old
offender in their opinion, be suffered to escape, and that immedi
ately after the fire had been kindled for Rogers ? It will certainly
prove to have been a memorable fact if the examination and
martyrdom of the one man should have contributed to the escape
of the other, and more especially as Rogers could have had
nothing of the kind in view.
The circumstances, therefore, now referred to are the more
worthy of notice, as they not only stand in immediate con
nexion with the examination of the Proto-Martyr, but discover
not a Uttle of the true character of these unprincipled men in
power. Taken all in all, they form the richest scene in the
reign of Mary, though scarcely, if at all, before observed.
The martyrdom of John Rogers, in February 1555, connects
itself with that of the heroic female, Anne Askew, in March
1546. There had been no fires in Smithfield since the memo
rable night on which she suffered, almost nine years ago. Con
sidering the progress which had been made during the reign of
Edward, through the medium of the Scriptures, the death of
Rogers must have been regarded by many in London with
unmingled horror ; but, beside this, a large and promiscuous
assembly had been present at his notable examination on the
28th of January, when he caught Gardiner and his bishops in a
snare, and the people marked it. The language of Gardiner
could not fail to have been in the mouth of thousands ever since,
and the excitement in a few days was such as to frighten for a
moment aU these men of blood, from King Philip downwards.
The present juncture, embracing a space of less than three
weeks, will explain this.
It was on Tuesday the 22nd of January that Rogers was first
examined. This was before Gardiner, as Lord Chancellor, and
other members of the Council, such as Lords Howard and Paget,
Sir Bichard Southwell and Sir Jolm Bourne, as Commissioners
from the Queen. But on Monday the 28th, to Wednesday the
30th, Gardiner and many more sat by commission from Cardinal
Pole ; and yet only the next week, when six other men
were examined and condemned, they were not brought before
the same tribunal, but merely before Bonner and his Consistory,
with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London. Here were

1558 — 1558.] WITH COVERDALE'S ESCAPE. 435
three distinct forms of proceeding, within the short compass of
eighteen days. Then, to crown all, the very next day, or
Sunday the 10th of February, we have a sermon preaching
before King Philip, and by a Spaniard ; but upon what subject ?
The sin of persecution for conscience' sake ! Now, why this erratic
course on the part of the persecutors ? Why could they not go
straight forward? And if this sermon was a base artifice, of
which there is now no doubt, why was it resorted to at the
present moment ? The true character of all the parties in power
is here involved.
Stephen Gardiner, who plumed himself on his sagacity or
cunning, had, no doubt, imagined that if he once proceeded
against certain leading men ; or, in the cant phrase of the day,
if the head deer were only brought to the ground, the common
people would shrink with terror, and succumb to their autho
rity. It was fuU of this- idea that he commenced, in a high
tone, with John Rogers on the 22nd of January ; but the very
man with whom he thus began, proved to be more than a match
for his proud and imperious temper. On the 28th, as soon as
Bogers entered, nothing daunted, we know from himseU that
he remarked the change on the Court. Gardiner was there, of
course, as ChanceUor and Bishop, and chief persecutor ; but
" there were," says Rogers, " a great sort of new men, his fellow
bishops, of whom I knew few" — after eighteen months' confine
ment. There were, in fact, not fewer than thirteen in all, six
on each side of the Chancellor, besides three notaries, three
noblemen, eleven knights, and a very great multitude.
Gardiner perhaps never forgot himself so far as he did this
day ; hut he could not stand the replies or remarks of his
prisoner, and found it not so easy to examine these men as he
had anticipated. In his wrath he actuaUy called King Edward
an usurper, and then tried clumsUy to recall the term; but
another expression, in reference to the reigning Queen, turned
out to be vastly more awkward for him and all his order.
Rogers had intimated his persuasion that " her Majesty would
have done well enough but for his (Gardiner's) counsel." When,
in his haste, in reference to the persecution now commenced, he
replied — " The Queen went before me, and it was her own
motion !" Thus affording another instance of persecutors wish-
F F 2

436 THE PERSECUTORS THROWN [book 11.
ing to shift the blame from themselves ; though certainly, at
such a time as this, the assertion was very hazardous, whether
it was true or false. But Bogers replied — "Without fail, I
neither can, nor will I ever, believe it ! " Aldrich of Carlisle,
in name of himself and all his brethren, immediately said—
" They would bear Gardiner witness." " Yea," said Bogers,
" that I believe well." On which the laugh went round among
the crowd assembled. Upon this, even Sir Bichard Southwell,
the Master- Comptroller of the Boyal Household, and Sir John
Bourne, Principal Secretary of State, stood up to confirm the
Chancellor's assertion. Never had men more fuUy committed
themselves. Bogers then said — " It was no great matter ; but
I think that they," the Bishops, " were good helpers thereunto
themselves." Such a dialogue was easily carried away, and every
word must have told upon the people throughout the metropolis ;
but the assertion first made, in open' court, and before such a
crowd, for " the thousandth man could not get in," was felt, in
the cool of the day, to have been no light matter. If it was
true, they had betrayed a state secret ! Accordingly, next
morning, when Bogers and Hooper were brought up for con
demnation, it was found convenient to do so, as aUeady hinted,
with closed doors.
Gardiner, however, both this day and the next, was equally
nettled in the examinations of TaUour, Bradford, and Saunders.
From Bogers, to the last man examined, he had had his own
book, — " De Vera Obedientia," or " True Obedience," — quoted
against himself, and his present conduct. To this book, Bonner
had affixed a preface, or high eulogium ; and both having been
translated into English, and printed abroad, many had it in
their hands, many more in their mouths, and it was now quoted,
or referred to, before both the authors, by men who had been
long familiar with the original publication in Latin. Tunstal
also was forcibly reminded of his famous sermon before
Henry VIII., printed by Berthelet in 1539, or sixteen years
ago. It, therefore, could not fail to be no small mortification,
after his furious attack on the head deer, when my Lord Chan
cellor found that here were six more men waiting to be examined ;
one of them, indeed, a gentleman, Mr. Hawkes, but the other
five precisely of that humbler class on whose boldness and

1553—1558.] INTO SINGULAR CONFUSION. 437
principle poor Gardiner had not calculated. Hence, when
these individuals came to be examined and condemned, neither
the Chancellor nor eleven of his Bishops were there ! The
whole process was despatched, and that speedily, by Bonner
alone, as Ordinary, who had called the Lord Mayor, Sir
John Lyon, and certain Aldermen, to sit writh him and his
underUngs. Bonner had examined the whole number on Friday, and
condemned them aU to the flames on Saturday the 9th of
February, or the fifth day after the Proto-Martyr had been
consumed to ashes ; and what, then, could the reader expect to
follow only next day ? If it was a sermon — which, in these
times, was a great rarity, and therefore the more to be observed —
must it not have been a sermon in praise of the Bishops, for
their burning zeal on behalf of "the old learning?" It was
quite the reverse. The blundering assertion of Gardiner to
Bogers, only thirteen days since, confirmed as it had been by all
the Bishops present, and even two official laymen, had neither
been forgotten nor unfelt. It had certainly placed her Majesty
before the country in one of the most critical of all positions, as
the sole and imperative persecutor ; and there can be no doubt,
from what foUowed, had made her tremble, not only for herself,
but the husband on whom, at this moment, she doated. The
truth is, that public feeling stiU ran very high against the
Queen's marriage. She had aUied herself to a Spanish prince,
and the people had been foretold that, to a certainty, he would
introduce the Court of Inquisition into England. Nothing,
therefore, could have been more dangerous to the Queen than
the positive affirmation -of Gardiner, before a large and pro
miscuous audience. So, at least, it had been felt, but more
especiaUy by King Philip ; and what was the miserable artifice
to which he resorted ? He had brought with him into England,
as his confessor, Francis Alphonso di Castro, a Spanish divine,
himself an author against heretics; and this was the man
appointed by the King to preach before the Court, on the 10 th
of February, and against religious persecution.
We regret not being able to find out his text ; but in tho
course of his sermon he enlarged on the sin of taking away
the lives of any for their religion— reprobated the practice of

438 THE PANIC CONTRIBUTES [book ii.
burning men on account of their opinions — and affirmed that
the Bishops would search the Scriptures in vain for any autho
rity to spiU the blood of their flocks. The Scriptures, he in
sisted, taught Bishops, in the spirit of meekness, to instruct
those who opposed them, and not to burn them for their con
scientious opinions !
But the Lord Chancellor of England, at the moment, was a
Bishop, and President of the Court for burning ; Tunstal, who,
in former days, led the van of persecution, had sat on his left
hand, and Bonner on his right, who, only the day before, at one
sweep, had appointed not fewer than six men to the flames.
By the authority of these men, and ten others of the same order,
on Monday before, Rogers had been consumed to ashes; on
Friday, at Coventry, Saunders had foUowed ; and only twenty-
four hours before the sermon, Hooper was in the flames at
Gloucester, and Dr. Tailour at Hadley !
As an exhibition, therefore, next day, nothing could have
exceeded this. A Spanish priest upon English ground, preach
ing before the Court, and against the Bishops of England,
especially those in power ! Arraigning, nay denouncing them
in public, for having embrued their hands in blood ! While
there sat Philip to sanction the sermon, not without some fear
for his personal safety or favour ; and, Uke Pilate of old, he
seemed " to take water and wash his hands before the multi
tude," saying, " I am innocent of the blood of these just men."
The occurrence was a remarkable one ; and the more so, since it
is evident, that nothing less than apprehension of some sort in
the breast of the Monarch, could have been the impelling motive.
" It was believed," says CoUier, "that the Queen was overruled
since her marriage, and that these fires had been kindled by
Philip : however, the King, it seems, had no mind to Ue under
this imputation."
Where Gardiner and Tunstal were, or how engaged, at the
moment when the Spaniard was preaching, we are not informed;
but certainly our exulting Lord ChanceUor had but httle
imagined, that the Editor of Tyndale's Bible would live to come
to England, and lead him, in the last year of his life, so to
expose the Bench and the Court, at one stroke ! Still less could
he have supposed that the same man would so hit the mark, as

1553 — 1558.] TO COVERDALE'S ESCAPE. 439
to cause him eventuaUy to shrink behind the curtain, and retire
from playing at the game of persecution ever after ! ! Such at
least was the fact, for "he never afterwards," says Lingard,
" took his seat on the bench," — " whether it was," says the same
author, " that Gardiner disapproved of the measure, or that he
was called away by more important duties ! !" The latter
alternative is, to say the least, strangely expressed ; but neither
the one nor the other will now serve the purpose of history, in
accounting for the Chancellor's non-appearance. " Gardiner,"
says Soames, " having kindled the fires of persecution, left to
others the hateful office of supplying them with a succession of
victims : " but we have no evidence whatever of any change
of disposition in the man. The circumstances now related,
alone and perfectly account for that change of tactics which
ultimately ensued. At present, however, there was a dead
pause; the execution even of the condemned prisoners was
suspended ; and the crisis occasioned farther debate in the
CouncU itself.
Now, it was precisely at this moment that Coverdale was re
leased, and sent out of the country. On Monday week after this
sermon, it had been thought advisable for the Queen at last to
write her letter. It might very conveniently seem almost to
contradict what Gardiner had said in open court, that day three
weeks before, and on Tuesday the passport was also ready. It
wiU, perhaps, therefore now be conceded, that there was at least
some connexion, between the examination of Bogers and the
escape of Coverdale : though the interference of his Danish
Majesty must not pass unexplained.
It so happened that Coverdale, as weU as Rogers, was a
married man ; and strange as it may appear, that which had
formed a source of such agonizing distress to the one man,
became one of relief and safety to the other ; a circumstance the
more remarkable, as marriage, though " honourable in all," was
alone sufficient, after the accession of Queen Mary, to ensure the
bitterest mockery, as well as privation and punishment. So
Rogers had felt, especially during the last ten days of his life.
It was to an excellent woman, Elizabeth Macheson, that
Coverdale had been alUed for a number of years, and they were
both at Exeter when he was summoned to appear before the

440 KING OF DENMARK INTERPOSES. [book ii,
Council at Richmond, in August 1553. From that time he had
been committed, though as a prisoner at large. But then he
and an exile from Scotland had married two sisters, knowm
from monumental inscription, to be of Scottish extraction,
though they might have been born abroad. This exile, who
had passed through England to the Continent, was John Macbee,
named in his own country Macalpine, and known abroad as
Dr. Maccabseus. Having retired to Denmark, he had been of
great use to Christian II. ; was not only one of his Chaplains,
and professor of Theology in the University of Copenhagen,
founded by the King, but had been one of the translators of the
Danish Bible, first printed in 1550. It was through his inter
cession for his brother-in-law, Coverdale, that the King inter
fered, and himself wrote a letter to Mary, so early as the
seventh calends of May, or 25th April, 1554. This drew forth
a tardy and evasive reply, as if the only cause of displeasure
with Coverdale had been, that he was in debt to the Treasury,
or in arrears with his tenths. Taking advantage of this admis
sion, his Majesty wrote a stiU more urgent letter — " It was only
a debt, and the bishopric had not been enjoyed long enough to
afford to pay anything — he would not trouble her Majesty by
¦repeating the petition ;" but "we plainly hope for such an end,
that Coverdale himself shaU shortly, in our presence, make
declaration concerning the benefit of his welfare obtained of
your Majesty." In this letter, dated from " our city of Otton
(Odensee) the 24th of September, 1554," the case was actuaUy
so put, as if a refusal might affect the good understanding
between the two kingdoms ; and yet we have seen that four
months passed away, till at last they came to the examination
of Bogers and its consequences. It may therefore be said,
in conclusion, that to the influence of two men, Maccabseus
and Rogers, both of whom had been connected with the transla
tion of the Scriptures, the third, Coverdale, was indebted for his
deliverance !
That the sermon of the Spanish friar was not merely a
shallow artifice, but a piece of profane mockery, appeared but
too soon. Only five short weeks had passed away, when Philip
and Mary, and the Bishops by their authority, and that of
Cardinal Pole, were once more fairly started on their pursuit

1553 — 1558.] THE PANIC SOON OVER. 441
after blood. Six individuals, it wiU be remembered, were under
condemnation at the moment when di Castro was denouncing all
cruelty. Five of these it was found expedient to send to the
country, and put to death in different places ; one of whom,
Mr. Hawkes, did not suffer tiU so late as the 10th of June : but
even so early as the 16th of March, the fire was first kindled for
one of the six, Tonikins, and in Smithfield itself. Only ten
days after this step, an order was sent to the Justices of Norfolk,
in which they had special instructions to look after aU preachers
of heresy and private meetings ; and this order, let it be
observed, was by no other than the King and Queen.1 Nay,
before the 24th of May they had sent their " Letters unto the
Justices within every of the counties of this our realm," and
even Bonner himself must be roused and urged to proceed to
extremities ; their Majesties at the same time actuaUy expressing
"no Uttle marvel" that there had been such relaxation on the
part of certain Justices.2 Paulet, Marquess of Winchester, " the
willow tree and not an oak," who bent with every blast, was
speciaUy vigUant in the CouncU, and Richard Lord Rich, a
persecutor from the days of Sir Thomas More, was no less active
down in the country ; but stiU, even to the close of this year,
1555, it was found necessary to proceed with caution in London.
Out of above eighty martyrs before the 18th of December, not
more than seven appear to have suffered in the capital.
It was in January the next year, 1556, that the persecutors
set off in fuU vigour, when seven individuals were committed to
the flames at Smithfield, in one fire, and five at Canterbury, in
another ! In short, Gardiner, unchanged, must go the way of
aU the earth, and Cardinal Pole succeed as the adviser ; when,
what with his official authority, administered with characteristic
pohcy, and that of the King and Queen, at certain convenient
moments, Bonner, as "the chief slaughterman of England,"
powerfully aided by his Satanic assistants, and other persecuting
prelates, contrived to perpetrate aU the cruelties, or the sickening
enumeration, which has been already given.
As for Latimer and Ridley, they died triumphantly at Oxford,
on the 16th of October, twenty-seven days before the unhappy

i Cotton MS. Titus, B. ii., 116. * Regist. Bonn. fol. 363.

442 MARTYRDOM OF CRANMER. [book ii.
death of Gardiner. Cranmer followed on Saturday the 21st of
March, 1556, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, and after the
manner which has been so plentifully described elsewhere, by
conflicting authorities. Whatever imperfections were to be
found in his character, the virulence with which it has occa-
sionaUy been attacked, only proves, that for the part he acted as
a whole, he is never, by certain parties, to be forgiven. In a
history such as the present, however, the character of Cranmer
now comes before us, under an aspect altogether different from
that which it may have done in any other history. The present
writer is not only relieved from entering farther into its merits
or demerits, but that there is high, because sacred ground, for
his abstaining. The translation of the Sacred Volume was the
work of another. So far as Cranmer foUowed up the subject,
under Henry's reign, in conjunction with CrumweU, we have
endeavoured to do him ample justice. Under Edward he never
appears to have personaUy returned to the work ; but his
abstaining from aU interference with any others so engaged,
ought never to be forgotten.
Upon the accession of Henry's eldest daughter, and with
immediate reference to the Scriptures, the country at large was
in a very different state from what it had been less than thirty
years ago, when there was neither a printed Bible, nor even a
New Testament in print, within its borders. Just before Mary
assumed the Crown, England seemed to be fairly on the way for
becoming a land as distinguished for the possession of the
Sacred Volume, as God had appointed it should be, in the end.
About sixty-five editions of the New Testament, and thirty of
the entire Bible, had passed through the press : but here now
was an opposing party, not only in Ml power, but determined
to exercise it. Resolved to carry everything before them, it
might naturally have been supposed, that one of the very first
movements must have been a systematic attempt to destroy all
these volumes. Could the burning of the sacred books have been
a more obnoxious measure, than the burning of men and women,
old and young ? Was the seizing of the Scriptures, and at once
burning them in open day, not as easy as the seizure and
imprisonment of men ? And yet, however much blood was1 shed
ultimately, and however much cruelty inflicted, on the part of

1553 — 1558.] NO OFFICIAL DENUNCIATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 443
Government there was, on the whole, a most mysterious silence
maintained, with regard to the EngUsh Bible, which has never
been sufficiently observed.
In the days of Henry the Eighth, it was the book by way of
eminence, the "pestiferous poison," as Tunstal profanely styled
it ; the " heretical fountain of all novel and dangerous opinions ; "
or, the Sacred Volume, under various abusive epithets, against
which they gave forth their loudest thunder, and after which,
under orders, they daily hunted. The very possession of it, or
its distribution, whether by gift or sale, were crimes denounced
and punished. There were a thousand copies in England now,
for one at that period ; and yet, under Queen Mary the great
hue and cry had almost entirely changed. Justification by
faith, as a tenet of Scripture, but, above all, transubstantiation,
as a chief corner-stone of " the old learning," were the engross
ing topics ; mixed up with an endless measure of low and even
obscene abuse on the part of the examinators. But throughout
these tedious and repeated cross-examinations, the cautious
abstinence from reference to the Bible, as a book, or to the
possession of it, is very remarkable. The examinators never
appear to have been enjoined to abstain, and yet they did.
Throughout the entire reign there were three proclamations,
and in the second only were any books whatever specified by
name. The first of these, 18th August, 1553, already men
tioned, merely forbade the public reading of the Scriptures.
The second was not issued tiU twenty- two months after, on the
13th of June, 1555. In this, twenty-five authors are distinctly
denounced by name, or thirteen foreigners, and twelve English
men ; thus hinting, by the way, a continued and powerful
importation of books from abroad, but nothing is enjoined as to
burning the Scriptures aUeady printed and possessed. The
injunction related solely to the books specified being imported
from henceforth. The last proclamation was certainly the most
dreadful. It referred to books, in general terms, wicked and
seditious, to be delivered up on pain of death, without delay, by
martial law ! But this was not issued till three years after the
former, on the 6th June, 1558, or only five months before
Mary's death; and stiU no mention is made of the Bible,
or New Testament, separately. It was a proclamation against

444 COPIES BURNT, BUT [book ii.
books of human composition only, not the Sacred Scrip
tures. Copies of the Scriptures no doubt were consigned to the
flames, though we can fix upon no more than three occasions.
The first is mentioned, three years after Mary had been on the
throne, when at least one foreign author, Cabrera, has told us
that " many of the Bibles, chained to desks in churches, were
burnt about this time;" and again, in the opening of 1557,
when the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were visited
by Ormaneto, a furious Italian, datar}^ of the Pontiff, or chief
officer of the Court of Rome. When the bones of Bucer and
Fagius were actually dug up and burned at the former, Bibles
as well as other books were also consumed ; and the same course
is said to have been pursued at Oxford, when the dead body of
Peter Martyr's wife was treated with such indignity. But still,
in the midst of so much Satanic opposition, and the royal
denunciation of other books and human authors, perhaps there
has never been a more striking line of distinction drawn, in
reference to the Sacred Volume. What renders the fact already
stated still more observable is — that the translations of the
Bible by Tyndale and Coverdale had been once pointed out, or
referred to, at least by the priests or clergy, and for destruction.
In an address by the Loiver to the Upper House, these were
their words — " We the clergy of the province of Canterbury do
humbly pray" — " that all suspect translations of the Old and
New Testament, the authors whereof \_not however here named/]
are recited in a statute made year of Henry VIII. &c.
may be destroyed and burnt throughout this realm."3 These few
words are buried among twenty-eight other items, and the
reference made must be to the Act of 34th of Henry ; but still
no express law followed, nor was there a single proclamation in
compliance, or one in which the Sacred Volume was pointed out
for destruction, either by royal authority or that of the Convo
cation, or that of Cardinal Pole. Why then not acknowledge
the Overruler ? " He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him,,
and the remainder thereof he restrains."
Nor was this the only point worthy of observation under this
;* Parker MS. Col. Cor. Chr. Cant.

1558  1558.] OTHERS SINGULARLY PRESERVED. 445
reign. ProvidentiaUy, time was afforded for the preservation
of the Scriptures, and by two distinct methods. One was by
their being carried abroad, beyond the reach of danger. The
pause at the commencement of Mary's reign was not unimproved
as to personal safety, and the exiles unquestionably availed
themselves of the opportunity as to that which they valued
above most fine gold. A single copy, if more could be carried
away, would not satisfy anj>- one among them ; and it was far
more easy for them to carry books away at the time they went,
than it was afterwards for some of these exiles to import their
own writings. This, however, they afterwards did, and to such
extent, as to provoke the royal inhibition of June 1555, which,
after all, could not stem the influx. The stern proclamation of
death by martial law, three years after, was a proof of failure ;
and the Queen was thus, in effect, only declaring — what her
father before his death had done — that royal edicts, in certain
circumstances, if not nearly impotent, possess no sovereign power.
But the other mode of preservation was by concealment ; and
this was practised to no small extent, whether in the crowded
city or the hamlets of England. This course, however, from its
very nature, did not admit of its being put on record, and yet
we are not without evidence of the fact. The highly-prized
treasure, read often in the dead of the night, was concealed
under the bed, in hay-lofts, or in out-houses ; and we have one
notable instance of another mode. Mary had not dismissed
from her immediate service all who had any value for the
• Scriptures ; on the contrary, Strype assures us, from manuscript,
that the Gentlemen Ushers of the Queen were "almost all
favourers of the Gospel." These had been in the service of
Edward, her brother, with the exception of others that she had
appointed. Of one of them the same laborious author gives a
long account in his " Memorials," — Mr. Underhill, a gentleman,
who, though imprisoned and molested, after all continued to
receive his pension, and outlived the present reign. At one
period, "a diligent search being made for all suspicious
books," he was then living in Wood Street, Cheapside. Under
hill forthwith " sent for a bricklayer, and built up a waU in his
chamber, against the place where all his books were, and so
inclosed them in security from the danger of being taken,

446 THE NEW TESTAMENT REVISING. [book ii.
preserving them for himself against better times." Similar
precautions were, no doubt, taken by others ; and it is impossible
to say how many precious volumes, if not also printing materials,
were built up until Mary should draw her last breath.
It may now, however, be observed that, of all the other books
printed up to this period in England, there are not a few
of which not a vestige remains ; while, in reference to the
Scriptures', of which so many editions had been printed, nay,
and innumerable editions since, it is a most singular fact, that
there are very few, perhaps not above three or four, of which
we have not a copy, and of the great majority several copies,
either in England or Scotland. In this point of view, our list
of editions at the end of this work becomes one of the most
remarkable in the entire range of English literature.
Returning, however, to the reign of Mary, Rogers has been
martyred, and Coverdale banished ; Grafton and Whitchurch,
though imprisoned, and excepted in the general pardon granted
at Mary's accession, have escaped to the Continent ; John Day,
the spirited printer, and above twenty more beside, can act no
more as they were wont to do, up to July 1553, when Edward
died. Was there then absolutely nothing to be done, under this
Queen's reign, in the way of farther progress ? With regard to
printing the Scriptures, however humbling to national vanity,
we are obliged to answer — in England absolutely nothing. The
press was fettered or suppressed, and not a leaf could be issued.
The text of the translation also required to be reviewed with far
more leisure and superior skill than it had ever yet been upon
English ground, or since the first edition by Rogers ; but this
cannot be done, or rather, as Providence had determined, must
not, in any corner of our native land. The Government has
fallen back into very much the same condition in which it was
in 1523, when Tyndale found at the last, that there was " not
only no room in my Lord of London's house to translate the
New Testament, but that there was no place to do it in all
England." But what did all this signify ? Providence had at the first
spoken to this Island, in a way not common to the other nations
of Europe, and there was nothing now to prevent a repetition of
the same singular mode. An exile from his native country first

1553 — 1558.] THE GENEVA REVISION ALREADY IN ENGLAND. 447
accomplished the translation, and somehow or other got the
book introduced into the kingdom, in spite of Henry VIII., and
his Cardinal Wolsey. Then, an exile shall do the same thing
once more ; by correcting and printing the New Testament, and
sending it into England in spite of either Philip or Mary, or
their Cardinal Pole. In every point of view this was no other
than a simUar triumph ; and in both instances at a moment
when there was nothing but opposition from the Crown and the
bench of Bishops, as well as a Cardinal, by authority from
Rome, triumphantly presiding in the country. It also deserves
remark, that, in both cases, the Testament was published
anonymously, without ostentation, or a dedication to any official
individual whatever. In the first instance, the name of the
translator was not known, nor till Tyndale was compelled by
circumstances to disclose it. In the second instance, nothing
having occurred to compel the improver of this version to
disclose his name, it has been overlooked to the present hour.
Both books were prepared, and sent into England, when perse
cution was the order of the day, and every seaport seemed
to be shut against them. No analogy could be more striking,
or complete.
But was this second triumph effected while Mary was yet on
the throne ? It was. The recension of the text must have
commenced not long after the time when the stake was first
prepared ; the book left the press on the 10th of June, 1557, one
of the most awful months in the record of persecution, when at
least twenty-seven martyrs perished in the flames ; and it was
perusing in England, for some time before the Queen's death.
By how many indeed, it is impossible to say ; one authentic
instance we find in a victim of Bonner's cruelty, John Living, a
priest of some learning, who complains that on being conveyed
to prison, the jaUer carried him first to his own house in
Paternoster Bow, and "there," says he, "robbed me of my
purse, my girdle, my Psalter, and a New Testament of Geneva."
But what was this Testament of which he spake ? It was
the book to which we have referred ; a very beautiful one, and
now of rare occurrence, printed with a sUver type, and on the
best paper ; by far the best review of the Sacred text that had
yet been made, "dUigently revised by the most approved Greek

448 WILLIAM WHITTINGHAM. [book ii.
examples, and conference of translations in other tongues." It
is the first English New Testament, divided into verses, and
formed an important preUminary step to the revision of the
whole Bible.
Few mistakes have been more common, and even up to the
present day, than that of ascribing the translation of the Scrip
tures into English to a number of individuals. Thus the name
of Tyndale has frequently been associated with various other
men. The same confusion has prevailed, when referring to this
" Testament of Geneva." " This translation," it has been said,
" was made by many of the principal English Beformers."* The
translation, correctly speaking, is an improvement of Tyndale's,
on comparing it with the Greek original, once more : but so far
from many being engaged, the address to the reader af the
beginning incontestably proves it to have been the work of only
one man ; and we now offer some interesting particulars respect
ing one, which will probably leave no hesitation as to his being
the person to whom his country stood indebted.
William Whittingham, the branch of a famUy, not extinct in
the male line, tUl so recently as 1758, was born in the year
1524 at Holmeset, afterwards caUed Holmeside HaU, six miles
from Durham, in the parish of Lanchester. His father, William
Whittingham, Esq., of Holmeset, had sent him to Oxford,
where he became a commoner in Brazen-nose College about
1540, and made such proficiency in learning, that in 1545 he
was elected a Fellow of AU-Souls. Anthony Wood affirms that
he was after this chosen one of the senior students in Christ
Church, formerly Cardinal College ; " Henry VIII. endeavour
ing to replenish it with the choicest scholars in the University,"
precisely as, the reader may remember, Wolsey at first attempted. >
This is curious enough, as Whittingham was thus following in
the same path by which John Fryth had been led, twenty years
ago. Whittingham, however, so far from being, Uke his pre
decessor, confined in the dungeon below, in May 1550 had leave
granted him, by the dean and canons, to travel for three years.
He embarked for France, intending to go into Italy ; but being

11 Lewis, Newcome, Home, Lowndes, and others.

1558  1558.] OBLIGED TO LEAVE ENGLAND. 4-U>
taken unwell at Lyon, he proceeded first to Paris, and then to
Orleans University, spending at least a year and a half between
these two cities. After having visited several parts of Germany,
his travels terminated at Geneva, where he remained till about
May 1553, when his three years had expired. But what a
change awaited him on his return ! Edward died on the 6th
of July. Christ Church now must soon have proved as
dangerous to him, as Cardinal College, or the same spot, had
done to Fryth. Whittingham, with a mind now enlightened,
had no idea of waiting till another Cardinal should bear sway,
and his agents at Oxford burn Bibles, as Wolsey had treated
the New Testament Scriptures. Instead, therefore, of " leave
granted" a second time, just as if to make the parallel more
complete, like Fryth or Tyndale before that, he must now fly to
the Continent, where he arrived in safety, and at Frankfort, on
the 27th of June, 1554, with the first exiles who there took up
their abode.
In March, next year, arose the well-known " troubles of
Frankfort," where the exiles differing in nothing that respected
the great essential principles • of Divine Truth, plunged into a
vortex of angry strife respecting the mere external forms of
social worship. Neither party had sufficient light to take the
high and safe ground, the all-sufficiency of the Sacred Record
itself ; and the contention became so sharp, that soon they were
divided into two hostile bands ! One party retired to Basle and
Geneva, and the other, who had conquered, remained at Frank
fort, but were never united among themselves. Whittingham
was one of the retiring party ; in retiring with him we shall
now have occasion to mark the watchful care of the Almighty
over His own Word ; once more about to be given to a country,
which was once more fighting against it. He immediately after
this found out for this confessedly eminent scholar, far different
and nobler occupation than that of fighting at Frankfort, about
the words which man's wisdom teacheth. Whittingham had
hitherto sustained only the character of a Christian and a scholar.
Having had no official, that is, no ministerial character in the
Church, he bore stiU nearer resemblance to John Fryth ; and in
his own apprehension, we know, that, " from his former travels
and observations, and his acquisition of several languages," he
G G

450 THE GENEVA NEW TESTAMENT. [book ii.
imagined " he had fitted himself more for civil or state employ
ment than any other." No matter ; this, we presume, is the
individual now selected to sit down, with greater skiU and more
composure, to the New Testament, than any man since Tyndale
himself ; and, like him also, happily now unfettered by any human
authority whatever. Hitherto Whittingham had lived a single
life, but after retiring to Geneva, where he had arrived in the
autumn of 1555, he was married to Catherine, the sister of
John Calvin. Whatever may have been the date of his mar
riage, this was the time in which he .must have applied assidu
ously to the English New Testament, with " the most approved
Greek examples" before him. To his recension of Tyndale's
version, he prefixed two things. First, " an Epistle declaring
that Christ is the end of the Law, by John Calvin," his brother-
in-law ; and then his own address, of three leaves, " To the
Header." In this, he speaks throughout in the singular number,
taking the entire responsibUity upon himself; and after the
broil in which he had previously been involved at Frankfort,
his language becomes the more impressive. Adverting to three
distinct classes of men, he says —
' ' The third sort are the simple lambs, which partly are already in the fold
of Christ, and so hear willingly their Shepherd's voice, and partly wandering
astray by ignorance, tarry the time till the Shepherd find them, and bring them
unto His flock. To this kind of people, in this translation, i" chiefly had respect,
as moved with zeal, counselled by the godly, and drawn by occasion, both of
the place where God hath appointed us to dwell, and also of the store of heavenly
learning and judgment, which so aboundeth in this city of Geneva 
To these, therefore, who are of the flock of Christ, which know their Father's
will, and are affectioned to the truth, / render a reason of my doing in few
lines," &e.
" Counselled," as he tells us, by others, it is evident that the
writer had obtained the palm for scholarship among his brethren :
now as Whittingham will come before us, presently as the chief
person engaged with the entire Scriptures, or the Geneva Bible
of 1560, there can remain little or no doubt that he is the man
now speaking in this preface. Afterwards he wiU appear to
have availed himself of the learning of some other individuals,
though by no means to the extent which has been all along so
vaguely reported.

1553 — 1558.] DEATH OF QUEEN MARY. 451
This New Testament, in duodecimo, neatly printed in Roman and Italic
types, consists of 456 leaves, including the title — " The Newe Testament of our
Lord Jesus Christ, conferred diligently with the Greke and best approued
translations. With the arguments as wel before the chapters as for eveiy Boke
and Epistle ; also diversities of readings, and moste proffitable annotations of all
harde places ; whereunto is added a copious table. — At Geneva, printed by Con
rad Badius, M. D. lvii. " And at the end, " Printed by Conrad Badius, M. D. lvii.
this x day of June." The date is worth notice on one account, that Whitting
ham died only six miles from the spot where he was born, or at Durham, on the
very same day, twenty-two years afterwards, the 10th of June, 1579. A copy
of this book, at public sale, has brought as much as £11 5s.
Here, then, was one set-off for the reign of Queen Mary,
which she and her husband would have gladly dispensed with.
LiteraUy, in the time of "blood and fire, and vapour of smoke,"
in a dark and cloudy day for England, that was accomphshed
which had never been overtaken aU the time of King Edward.
The New Testament did require revision, but it must be done
by an exile upon foreign ground, and be printed much nearer
to Borne than London, whUe the book, as we have seen, was
already in the kingdom. More than this, the entire Bible, stiU
more improved by a careful comparison of the original Hebrew
and Greek, was already commenced ; nay, during the last year
of this Queen's reign, the revisers at Geneva were engaged with
it UteraUy night and day. Whatever, therefore, had been over
turned or trodden down in England, this cause had sensibly
advanced. The storm had only enlivened its progress, and
actuaUy brought it into a far better state than it was before.
We have yet to see how it fared with "the Exiles' " Bible, and
what a blessing it proved to the families of our native land, for
a period equal to ten times the duration of Queen Mary's reign.
The Queen expiring on the 17th of November, 1558, she was
succeeded by her sister Elizabeth.

G O 'i

452 ELIZABETH ASCENDS THE THRONE. [book ii.
BEIGN OF ELIZABETH.
MDLVI1I. — MDCIII.
A REIGN, HOWEVER POWERFUL IN EVERY OTHER DEPARTMENT, HAVING NO
ACTUAL CONTROL OVER THE CHOICE OR PREFERENCE OP THE PEOPLE OF
ENGLAND, WITH REGARD TO THE SACRED SCRIPTURES IN THEIR NATIVE
TONGUE, AND THUS PRESENTING THE ONLY EXCEPTION TO UNLIMITED SWAY.
,)HE second daughter and only surviving child of Henry
VIII., or the last branch of the Tudor family, now
ascended the throne, at the age of twenty-five. Born
with the finest natural capacity, the education of
Elizabeth, foUowed by the discipline through which she
had passed, enabled her to hold the sceptre with a firmer
grasp than that of any of her family who had preceded
her ; and throughout the long period of above forty-four years,
England had no occasion to complain for want of a strong
government. The preservation of the Queen to the present hour
was very remarkable, and it proves, in the most striking manner,
that a nation can no more judge of what may contribute to its
stability, than any single man can tell what is good for him all
the days of his vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow. Thus,
the English people, when Mary was proclaimed, had drowned
with joy the voice of the heralds ; but their hearts revolted at
the very prospect of her marriage to a Spanish prince, and the
step once taken was never forgiven. Yet that prince must come
into the country, and enjoying, as he did, entire sway over his
English Queen, thus prove one instrument, and in no inferior
degree, of preserving her sister from the block. The life of no
heir to a throne was ever worth less than that of Elizabeth at
one period ; and had Mary only remained single, with Stephen
Gardiner for her adviser, humanly speaking, her sister might
have ended her days on the scaffold. One providential purpose
for which Philip had come to England being answered, he may
live abroad, and another day, with his Armada, seem to be bent
on the ruin of the princess he had saved ; but she will out
live him, as well as every storm that shall be raised against
her.

1558 — 1603.] SHE PROCEEDS WITH CAUTION. 453
The first months of this able monarch were distinguished by
caution, a caution which extended to her treatment of the Sacred
Volume. It is true that when presented with an elegant Eng
hsh Bible, on her first progress through London, she kissed it,
and said that she would ofttimes read that holy book ; but that
did not imply her approbation of its being printed and circulated
freely. Even at her coronation, when there was to be an
opening of the prison doors to them that were bound, and one
besought her to set free four or five others who had long been
shut up, meaning the four Evangelists and the Apostle Paul,
she replied with more shrewdness than grace, " That it were
better first to inquire of themselves whether they would be
released or no."
There was now to be no ParUament or Convocation for three
years, but at last, and without therefore having consulted either
the one or the other, about midsummer or the autumn of this
year we hear something respecting the Scriptures ; and by
virtue of Elizabeth's authority, certain injunctions were issued.
Among these were the foUowing, left with every parish visited : —
"To provide within three months after this visitation, at the charges of the
parish, one book of the wliole Bible of the largest volume in Enghsh, and within
one twelve months the paraphrases of Erasmus, also in Enghsh, and the same to
be set up in some convenient place within the said Church, where the parish
ioners may most conveniently resort and read the same. All parsons under the
degree of A. M. shall buy for their own use the New Testament in Latin and
English with paraphrases, within three months. Inquiry was to be made
whether any Parsons, Vicars, or Curates, did discourage any person from reading
any part of the Bible, either in Latin or English. "
No intimation was given here, or anywhere else, as to how or
where such volumes were to be found, and hence it has been
inferred by Lewis, that under the late reign they had not been
destroyed or burnt to any very great extent. At the same time,
it may be observed that this was nothing more than a royal in
junction ; buried too among not fewer than fifty others, some of
which are strange enough ; and if the effects resembled those
which resulted from Henry's voice, then there would, in many
instances, be a reluctant, in others, only a tardy compliance.
As for the preparation of more copies, Elizabeth said not one
word, while the printing press, as we shall see presently, far
from approaching its freedom in the days of Edward, has become

454 REVISION OF THE BIBLE [book ji.
more fettered than it had ever been, since the art was first
introduced into England !
All this, however, will only render the progress in printing
of the Sacred Volume still more remarkable. This was a cause
in which neither the reigning Prince nor the Privy Council,
the Parliament or Convocation, had ever been much consulted,
and never with a view to its essential progress. It had com
menced contrary to the will of all these parties, and as certainly
proceeded without taking orders from them. For the progress
therefore, at this crisis, as we were accustomed to do in the days
of Elizabeth's father, we must now look abroad. From thence
the Queen requires to be put on her ivay, and in a manner not
unlike to Henry's reception and sanction of the Bible at first, in
1537. While Elizabeth was yet in jeopardy of her life, and under
the guardianship of Sir Thomas Pope, we have aUeady seen
that an edition of the New Testament had been printed at
Geneva, — that copies were finding their way into England, in
despite of aU opposition, — and that an edition of the entire
Scriptures was already commenced, in the same city. The
exiles themselves inform us when this was begun. It was when
"the time was dangerous, and the persecution, in England,
sharp and furious." The fact is, that no sooner had the New
Testament left the press, than Whittingham, with one or two
others, were preparing for their larger undertaking, and, at the
latest, by January 1S58 they had commenced. These men tell
us that "they thought they could bestow their labours and study
in nothing more acceptable to God, and comfortable to His
Church;" and they add, — "God knoweth with what fear and
trembling we have been for the space of two years and more, day
and night, occupied herein." The space referred to, therefore,
was from January 1558 to the 10th of April, 1560, when the
last sheet -was put to press.
Considering the high character of this version, and the
number of editions through which it passed, it would have been
gratifying could we have fixed, with more positive certainty, on
the individuals to whom the nation stood indebted. They
were most probably not more than three in number, or four at
the most ; but whether it arose from modesty or motives of

1558  1803.] PROCEEDING AT GENEVA. 455
prudence, we are left, to find out the real parties. The revision
has been often, it is true, and very loosely ascribed, to six,
and even nine, individuals, as though engaged in one body : —
viz. William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, Miles Coverdale,
Thomas Sampson, Christopher Goodman, Thomas Cole, John
Knox, John Bodleigh, and John Pullain. This, however, is
doing nothing else than numbering up certain men possessed
of learning, who happened to be then living in Geneva. It
requires but a little investigation to reduce the number to one-
third, and then, we presume, the great burden, if not the entire
responsibility, wiU appear to have fallen upon three of these
scholars. It is true that aU these men, with many others, were
intimately and affectionately connected with each other. They
were members of the same Christian church, and a church, be it
observed, which as a body felt deeply interested in this edition
of the Sacred Volume. The entire expense not only of this
Bible, but of an edition of the Psalms by itself, was defrayed by
" such as were of most ability in that congregation." There
was no apphcation to their native country, no soUcitation of
one farthing from without. Amidst the storm that raged against
the truth, they had been driven into a corner, and thus the
Church was employed. In the fulness of their hearts, the
sound learning of certain members, and the pecuniary substance
of others, being devoted to the cause of their common Saviour,
nothing could be a finer exhibition of Christian zeal for the
highest interests of their native land. Thus, as the first trans
lation of the Sacred Word, commenced in 1524, had sprung
from the devoted zeal of a soUtary Christian exile, whose heart
had bled with pity for his country ; so the next thorough re
vision of the entire Sacred Text must come from the bosom of
a small Christian community, also in exile, " ior the Word of
God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."
The accession of Queen Elizabeth, however, in November
1558, naturally filled this entire circle with joy, and the men
we have named, as well as others, were as naturally separated ;
but then this was with the exception oi those who had devoted
themselves to the revision and printing of the Bible. The good
news had reached Geneva in December, and at that moment, we
are informed, that the greater part oi the book was not finished ;

456 THE GENEVA BIBLE AND ITS [book II.
but " Whittingham, with one or tico more, did tarry at Geneva
a year and a half after Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown,
being resolved to go through with the work."1 Le Long has affirmed
that "the chief and most learned" of the men already men
tioned, were Coverdale, Whittingham, and Gilby; but Coverdale,
now seventy years of age, cannot be traced as at Geneva sooner
than December 1558, and it is certain that he returned in
1559 ; how early we cannot tell. He was preaching at Paul's
Cross on the 12th of November. In short, Knox had left
Geneva as early as January 1559 ; Goodman foUowed him to
Scotland, where we find him in September ; whUe it is as certain
that Coverdale and Cole, Pullain and Bodleigh, returned to Eng
land in the same year. The only three left, therefore, were
Whittingham, GUby, and Sampson, and with their names only
the translation should have been associated ; since the men who
completed " the greater part," must have been those by whom it
had been begun. Many of their brethren, indeed, they tell us,
"put them on this work by their earnest desire and exhortation;"
while others encouraged them " not to spare any charge for the
furtherance of such a benefit and favour of God toward His
Church." Although we cannot now notice every edition here, but refer
to our list, yet as the only English Bible distinctly pointed out
in any patent, from Elizabeth downwards, and especially as the
basis of so many editions for above eighty years to come, this
demands some farther notice.
Title. — " The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe
Testament. Translated according to the Ebrue and Greke, and conferred with
the best translations in divers langages. With moste profitable annotations
upon all the harde places, and other thinges of great importance as may appeal's
in the Epistle to the Reader. " Beneath is a wood-cut, of the Israehtes passing
through the Red Sea. "At Geneva. Printed by Rouland Hall, mdlx." Colla
tion. — After a dedication to the Queen, and an Epistle to the Readers, about to
be noticed, we have the text from Genesis to 2nd Maccabees, fol. i., 474. " The
Newe Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ," &c, with the same wood-cut and
imprint as before. "The Holy Gospel," &c., fol. ii., exxii. A table of inter
pretation of proper names — of principal things — the years from Adam to Christ
—and the years from Paul's conversion. There is no Colophon. The Sacred
text is in Roman, the contents of chapters in Italic type. A full page contains
63 lines.

Wood's Athona"1,. 4to, i., p. 147.

1558  1603.] MOST ARDENT PROMOTER. 457
Not at aU aware, perhaps, of the cautious expediency by
which the Queen of England was now guided, they subjoined a
dedication to her Majesty, remarkably free from that fulsome
adulation, which had been far too common, and expressing with
great frankness their zeal for further progress in the cause of
truth and righteousness. But there was a second address or
" Epistle," stUl more worthy of notice. In what they had done,
the translators now fixed an eye of sympathy and love, not upon
England alone, but, taking a nobler flight, upon aU those to
whom the EngUsh language was vernacular. Such was the
happy effect of adversity and travel; the one softening, the other
enlarging their minds. Their epistle of explanation, therefore,
as to this version, is addressed to no particular party ; but, — " To
OUR BELOVED IN THE LoRD ; THE BRETHREN OF ENGLAND,
Scotlaxd, and Ireland." A most judicious title, and if there
must be any Epistle to the Christian Header at aU, it would
have been weU for the interests of the United Kingdom had the
words been preserved inviolate from that day to this. Amidst
all that has occurred since, it is the only one to which no objec
tion worth notice, could, or can, be brought ; to say nothing of
its being so akin to the simple majesty of the Divine Becord,
and to that only light in which God has regarded the entire
number of His people, in this highly favoured country, all
along. The last sheet of this Bible having been committed to the
press on the 10th of April, 1560, Whittingham, Gilby, and
Sampson returned home immediately; but of aU the men
already mentioned, there was one, who had not only fostered the
translation when proceeding at Geneva, but was specially in
terested in its circulation throughout England, immediately
afterwards, and he must not now be passed over. Bodleigh or
Bodley is a name that one should have imagined would not have
escaped notice, as it has generaUy done.3

John Bodley, Esq., a native of Exeter, was one of the many exiles for
conscience' sake, in Mary's reign. He wandered over a part of Germany, and
having at last settled at Geneva, he joined the English Church there. His son
Thomas, afterwards the founder of the famous Bodleian Library at Oxford,
here received his education under the best teachers. On returning to England,
he entered Magdalene College, and, at the age of twenty-one, was reading Greek

458 PATENT OE ELIZABETH [book ii.
Although, however, these exUes had completed their trans
lation of the Bible, and borne the charge, it by no means
followed that the book should be forthwith admitted into
England, and more especially by authority. They had laboured
"night and day," indeed; but though so zealous, this was a
point yet to be ascertained. The New Testament of 1557 had
been secretly introduced, but it was then an interdicted book — it
had not since been recognised as lawful, and already we have
witnessed the extreme caution of the reigning Queen. Besides,
there was a translation under the name of Matthew, and, above
all, of Cranmer, both of whom had been once, or already
sanctioned ; while this new version had been accomplished by
men, who, like Tyndale of old, had been obliged to fly the
kingdom. But, notwithstanding, the time had come for the
Geneva book to be admitted, and this was as soon as it was
finished ; only all these circumstances render its reception at the
moment more worthy of notice. On returning to our native
land, while not one wrord has yet been said as to any reprint of
Cranmer, and in the face of John Cawood and Bichard Jugge
having been already appointed her Majesty's printers, the first
distinct notice of the Geneva Bible having arrived in England
is by no less than a patent from the Queen, granted in favour of
John Bodleigh already mentioned.
" Elizabeth, &c. — To all manner of printers, booksellers, &c. — We do you to
understand, that of our grace special, we have granted and given privilege and
licence, and by these presents for us, our heirs, and successors, do grant, and
give privilege and licence, unto our well-beloved subject John Bodeleigh, and to
his assignes, for the term of seven years next ensuing the date hereof, to imprint,
or cause to be imprinted, the English Bible, with Annotations, faithfully translated
a ml finished in this present year of our Lard God, a thousand, five hundred and
three score, and dedicated to us ; straitly forbidding and commanding, as well
printers and booksellers as other persons, within our realms and dominions, in
any manner of wise, to imprint, or cause to be imprinted, any of the foresaid
English Bibles, that the said John Bodeleigh shall, by the authority of this our
licence, imprint, or cause to be imprinted, or any part of them, but only the
said John Bodeleigh and his assignes ; and that every offender shall forfeit to
our use forty shillings, of lawful money of England, for every such Bible at any
time so printed, and all such books to be forfeited, &c. In witness whereof, &c.
8th Jan. 1560-1561."

Lectures in Morton Hall, Wickliffe's College. Much as England owes to the son
for the magnificent Library that bears his name, she is under a deeper, though
less acknowledged debt to the father for his zeal in the cause of Divine Truth.

1558 — 1603.] FOR THE GENEVA VERSION. 459
Whether this patent was of much advantage to the patentee
is at present of secondary moment ; but it forcibly reminds us
of Henry VIII., in the year 1537. It presents Elizabeth before
us, now at the first call from abroad, and without any hesitation,
herself opening the way for the general circulation of this
Bible throughout her dominions, for seven years to come.
Little did the exUes imagine, when flying abroad for their
Uves, that one grand intended purpose was the improvement of
the Book of Life itself, and that no sooner should that be finished,
than it should be at once, and so received ! Both Philip and
Mary had thus, unconsciously, been pushing forward the cause
they wished to destroy, and EUzabeth, however imperative
at other moments, or however cautious, must not now stand in
the way.
But is this the selfsame Queen who spake so warily before aU
her courtiers, less than a year ago ? It is the same. Her
reign was the commencement of a new era, in many respects ;
but, in the present case, one is forcibly reminded of another, in
the reign of her father, twenty-four years ago, and the analogy
is not faint. As only eleven months had elapsed between Henry's
winking at the martyrdom of Tyndale and the royal sanction of
his translation, so only eleven months had now passed between
the evasive or cautious reply of his daughter and her royal
patent. Both volumes had been prepared upon foreign ground,
and both in the face of clouds and darkness, or the frown of the
reigning government ; yet the second is now come into England,
as did the first, by the declared consent of the Sovereign.
Henry had not read the Bible he sanctioned, nor had his
daughter assuredly examined the present volume. In this
second instance, however, there is equal, if not superior, emphasis.
The present Sovereign, no less arbitrary and inflexible, was far
more quick-sighted and vigilant than her father. It has been
said that " her eye was everywhere," and as far as free inquiry
through the medium of the press was concerned, never since the
introduction of the art into England had it been so guarded.
Every book, on whatever subject, or in whatever language,
required to be licensed by her Majesty in express writing, or by
six cf her Privy CouncUlors. Under these circumstances, the
patent granted to Bodley is the more remarkable.

460 CRANMER'S BIBLE BY HARRISON. [book ii.
Such was the commencement of those numerous editions of
the Geneva version which followed, not only during the long
reign of Elizabeth, but down to nearly the middle of the next
century. As for the present moment, placed in circumstances
the most critical, but surrounded by men of high renown as
politicians, a Prince more potent had never swayed the sceptre
of England ; only we have yet to see whether Elizabeth had
power sufficient, either to control, or in the slightest degree
regulate, the stream of Divine Truth which in a few years
flowed over the land ; or, in other words, whether the public
opinion and taste, as to the translation of the Sacred Word, was
influenced by regal authority or not.
After that two editions had been executed abroad, besides two
of the New Testament in a separate form, it was certainly time
for the English printers to bestir themselves ; and the man who
had printed for Queen Mary aU along, John Cawood, must be>
allowed to take the lead. He had changed with the times, and
now came forward with an edition of Cranmer's Bible in quarto;
while Bichard Jugge, silent since the days of Edward, now gave
two editions of the New Testament, one of Tyndale's, and, it
has been affirmed, one of Coverdale's. Bichard Harrison, too,
though not printer to her Majesty, having obtained Ucence, had
printed an edition of Cranmer's Testament. Thus, and before
the year 1561 had expired, it is curious enough, the people had
Tyndale and Coverdale, Cranmer and the Geneva version all
before them. Seven years must pass away before another
competitor appears ; but this will be no other than Parker's or
the Bishops' Bible, and the result remains to be seen. These,
even including Parker's Bible, it must be borne in mind, were,
without exception, personal undertakings, or affairs managed
with certain stationers — that is, printers or booksellers for the
time being, the licence granted for every single edition being
applied for, to secure the parties against loss by their outlay of
capital. The different versions were like so many candidates for
public choice, or so many feelers, put forth through an all-wise,
overruling Providence, leaving time to discover which was to
prevail, as esteemed by the readers to be the best, or nearest to
the Divine original.
In the year 1562, an edition of Cranmer's Bible appeared, the

1558— 1603. J ENGLISH BIBLE PRINTING AT ROUEN. 461
first in folio under Elizabeth : and it is worthy of notice, that
this came from neither of her Majesty's printers, but from the
press of Bichard Harrison, already mentioned.
The two previous editions of the Geneva Bible being ex
hausted, Bodley, in 1565, was preparing a new impression, but
wishing to renew his privUege beyond the seven years first
granted, he applied to Sir WiUiam Cecil. The wary Secretary
consulted Archbishop Parker, who replied that though he was
himself, with other Bishops, then engaged on " another special
Bible for the Churches," he thought so weU of this one, that he
wished Bodley to have twelve years' longer term to his special
privilege, but coupled with this recommendation his desire to
"take such order with the party in writing under his hand, that
no impression should pass, but by their direction, consent, and
advice." Thus quietly setting aside the royal licence unless
confirmed by the consent and advice of the Bishops ! The idea
of such a rider on his patent, once communicated to Bodley,
seems to have been quite sufficient, for after this date we hear
not one word more of it ; and the Geneva translation was
printed again and again, without licence either asked or
granted !
About twenty-eight years ago, or in 1538, the reader cannot
fail to remember an edition of Matthew's Bible being com
menced under Coverdale's inspection at Paris, which, however,
had to be finished in London. But if the state of France was
' unpropitious to such an attempt then, it seemed to have been
much more so now. There happened, however, to be a short
pause in the civil wars which for forty years had desolated that
fine country. The King of Navarre had been killed at a siege,
the Duke of Guise assassinated, and fifty thousand Huguenots
aheady slain. Elizabeth, for her own safety's sake, had aided
this people ; and in 1563 a peace was concluded which lasted
till 1567. A gentleman, then living at Bouen in Normandjr,
belonging to the Customs, and of good repute, resolved to seize
the opportunity here presented him ; and at his own cost and
charges, committed to the press an edition of Cranmer's Bible in
folio. This is a very fine book, on royal paper, printed " at
Rouen by C. Hamilton, cum privifegio, 1566." This gentleman,
Richard Carmarden, the frequent correspondent of Cecil, as in

462 THE BISHOPS' BIBLE [book ti.
the Lansdowne manuscripts, was afterwards in the London
Custom House, and living as late as the year 1599.
Another instance at home was no other than the last edition
printed by the same man who in the midst of actual pestilence,
and with but doubtful prospect of success, first brought the
Bible of 1537 into England, Bichard Grafton. He had wea
thered the storm in Mary's reign, and now saw his old virulent
enemy, Bonner, still living, but under general contempt, and in
prison. Though advanced in Ufe, Grafton ventured on an
edition of Cranmer's Bible, evidently intended for family use.
It was the first edition of the EngUsh Bible in one volume octavo ;
and it seems to have been a very large impression. At least
there is a passage in the annals of Queen EUzabeth, by Sir
James Ware, the Irish Camden, which, H correct, could bear
upon no other than the present octavo Bible. " In the year
1566," says he, " John Dale, a bookseller, imported seven thou
sand copies of the Bible from London, and sold the whole, in
Ireland, within two years." What a singular contrast to so
many succeeding years ! But it would be a circumstance no
less memorable, if the very same individual who first brought
the Sacred Volume into England in 1537, should, before his
death, have been the first employed in printing it even for
Ireland itself. Accordingly, there does not appear' to be one
copy left in the possession of any private collector, or public
library, on this side of the Channel, nor have we heard whether
there be one left in Ireland.
At last, in 1568, or the tenth year after Elizabeth had
ascended the throne, the first edition of the Bible, superintended
by Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, was published. Great
care had been taken in this revision of the text, by more than
fifteen learned men, Greek and Hebrew scholars, besides Parker
himself, who superintended the several portions, as they came
from the hands of those to whom he had committed them.
The Pentateuch was consigned to W. E. or William Alley, Bishop of Exeter;
Joshua, Judges and Ruth, to R. M. or Richard Davies of St. David's, who had
previously been engaged in translating the Bible into Welsh ; Samuel, the
Kings and Chronicles, were assigned to Edwyn Sandys of Worcester ; Ezra,
Nehemiah, Esther and Job, to A. P. C. or Andrew Pearson, Prebendary of Can
terbury ; the Psalnw to T. B. or Thomas Bentham of Lichfield and Coventry ;
the Proverbs to A. P. C. ; Ecclesiastes and Solomon's Song, to A. P. E. or

1558 — 1608.] NOT ORDERED BY THE QUEEN. 463
Andrew Perne, Dean of Ely ; Isaiah, .Jeremiah, and Lamentations, to R. W. or
Robert Horn of Winchester ; Ezekiel and Daniel to T. C. L. or Thomas Cole,
once at Geneva, afterwards Dean of Lincoln ; the minor Prophets to E. L. or
Edmunde Grindel of London ; the Apocrypha to J. N. or John Parkhurst of
Norwich; the Four Gospels and the Acts, to R. E. or Richard Cox of Ely ; the
Romans to Edmvmd Guest of Rochester ; the Corinthians to G. G. or Gabriel
Goodman, Dean of Westminster. Mr. Laurence, a learned Grecian, was also
engaged, with one or two other individuals. Erom the majority of these men
being on the Bench, this translation has been styled " the Bishops' Bible," the
initials above mentioned being printed at the end of their respective parts.
Parker had now at last accomptished that which Cranmer had
attempted in vain, or a version of the English Bible, generally
revised from the preceding, in conjunction with certain brethren
on the Bench, and other scholars. It was a decided improve
ment on the whole. They had watched Cranmer's or Coverdale's
leaning to the Vulgate ; they expunged the three verses from
the fourteenth Psalm, which the latter first inserted at Paris,
and in Timothy, they altered Cranmer's rendering " by autho
rity of the priesthood" to that of " the eldership," besides other
amendments of the text.
It has been erroneously supposed that this revision was under
taken by royal command. There is not only no proof of this,
but the evidence presented forbids the idea. Parker, in pre
senting the first copy to Elizabeth, through CecU, prays for her
Majesty's " gracious favour, Ucence and protection to be
extended to this recognition of the Bible." He entreats the
Secretary himself to procure such royal licence for this version,
" to be only commended in public reading in churches, to draw
to one uniformity ;" and that " Jugge only may have the pre
ferment of this edition." This is not the language of one who
is acting under royal command in the matter. Still more is
this evident from the circumstance that the requests thus pre
ferred were never granted. The Geneva version continued to be
read in many churches, and Jugge received no licence for the
exclusive printing of this one.
As far as printing editions could carry it, all justice was done
to the Bishops' Bible ; and backed by the influence of so many
men on the Bench, personally interested, it must have been
presumed that this book would at last carry the palm oi supe
riority, and put not only Cranmer's version out of sight and out
of mind, but the Geneva Bible also. Had not Parker completed

464 COMPARISON OF GENEVA AND BISHOPS' VERSIONS. [book ii.
his task, and even his final corrections ? He was now deceased,
a circumstance which might be supposed to lend additional
interest to his labours ; and he had been succeeded by Edmund
Grindal, one of the translators actually engaged in the work.
The Queen, therefore, if she had any zeal, such as the Bishops
desired, seemed to owe it to the Primate's memory, that this,
and this alone, should be tbe Bible in general use ; and so, it
may be supposed, certain parties anticipated. Besides, to make
this the more probable, there had evidently been some hindrance,
if not demur, about allowing the Geneva Bible to be printed at
all. We know not whether it was owing to Archbishop Parker's
fixed determination to have it under his control ; but it is certain
that while he Uved, no edition was printed upon English ground.
After Mr. Bodley's attempt, there had, it is true, been three
impressions, dated in 1568, 1569, and 1570 ; but all these had
been printed at Geneva. Since 1570 there had been no reprint,
and in 1575, the sixteenth year of the reigning Queen had come.
By this time, complaint as to the long delay in printing it at
home, had been publicly and strongly expressed. " If that Bible/'
it was said, " be such as no enemy of God could justly find fault
with, then may men marvel that such a work, being so profitable,
should find so small favour as not to be printed again."
In the meanwhile, her Majesty was never applied to again, to
license by patent the Geneva Bible. Mr. Bodley's, of course,
had expired in 1568 ; a.nd it may have been on the strength of
his expiring patent that the book was edged into England, as it
was also into Scotland. If it was now to be printed in London,
and far more frequently than any other version ; if, after it
begins to be so, scarcely a year is to pass without one, or two, or
three editions issuing from the press, then this must be brought
about in some other way. However imperative the government
was, in a thousand other things, great and small, there was to be.
no force applied here. From the Queen — and her authority was
paramount to all other — there were to be no "injunctions" that
Parker's Bible was to be received into families, or alone read
under the domestic roof. Nay, there had positively been none
whatever as yet, as to its being read in public assembly. The
man too, styled " her Majesty's printer," and now, moreover, he
alone, shall continue, from year to year, to meet the choice and

1558—1603.] NO PARTICULAR TRANSLATION FAVOURED. 465
wishes of the people : and though in many other things, con
nected with their ideas as to the supposed form of religion,
Elizabeth be determined to have her own way, and so to cross
their wiU ; one whisper of disapprobation as to the people's Bible,
or its domestic use, and almost universal perusal, shall never be
recorded to have escaped from her Ups ! If the sUence of her sister
Mary, in issuing no denunciation of the EngUsh Bible by name,
was remarkable, considering the general tone of Elizabeth's
character, her silence was far more so ; for let it only be remem
bered that after Parker's decease in 1575, EUzabeth had yet
twenty-eight years to reign, yet this shall not prevent the
Geneva Version from being now printed either in folio or
quarto, and being read in churches also. Parker has already
told us, that they were so read in his days, and twelve years
afterwards, we know they were. For the proof of this fact we
are indebted to the best of aU witnesses then living in the king
dom, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Whitgift himself. " Divers,"
says he in the year 1587, " Divers, as weU Parish Churches
as Chapels of Ease, are not sufficiently furnished with Bibles,
but some have either none at aU," (observe stiU !) " or such as
be torn and defaced, and yet not of the translation authorized by
the synods of Bishops."3 But the preference shown, both
before the sway of Whitgift, as weU as under it, survived him
for years. If the Queen knew of any difference between the
two versions, it must have frequently met her Majesty's ear,
when present at Sermons before the Court ; and it might have
met her eye, if she deigned to look into what was printed around
her. Thus Gervase Babington, a pupU of Whitgift's, who
preached his funeral sermon, and had been successively Bishop
of Llandaff, Exeter and Worcester ; ii we turn to his " Comfort
able Notes on the Pentateuch," to his other expositions, or his
sermons preached before the Court at Greenwich, or at Paul's
Cross in 1591, we find him uniformly quote the Geneva Bible, as
well as read his text from it. Thus George Abbot, the suc
cessor of Bancroft and predecessor of Laud, when Master of
University CoUege, Oxford, under Elizabeth and Whitgift, not
only preached, but pubUshed in 1600, his sermons upon Jonah,
and throughout he used the same version. Other instances might
3 Cardwell's Documentary Annals, ii. p. 11. H 11

466 EXPEDIENTS FOR MONEY, [book it,
be adduced, but however striking, they would, taken altogether,
prove but a feeble indication of that decided preference which
began to be shown by the people at large, from the year imme
diately after Parker's death.
Here then we are met by a course of events, and the moving
cause of that course, the most signal features of Elizabeth's
reign, which after all that has been written, have been passed
over by most historians, and never fully explained by any.
But are they, on this account, of but inferior moment? An
extraordinary demand for the Sacred Volume, and supplied by
means not less extraordinary, can never be unimportant in the
estimation of many ; while at the same time the cause of this
demand was of such a character, as to form, in the history of the
English Bible, one of its brightest pages. To each of these in
turn, therefore, the attention of the reader is now solicited.
This eager desire for the Word of Life, and decided preference
for it, in the Geneva Version, were simultaneous, in the year
1575. There are therefore several circumstances connected with
the times, as weU as the character of Elizabeth's sway, which
here invite notice, and wiU reward it. If the reader, however,
will first turn for a moment to our List of Bibles at the close of
this work, he cannot fail to be struck with one peculiarity in its
appearance. For a period extending to fifty years, or from
1525 to 1575, he may observe what a number of different men
had been engaged in printing the Scriptures ; after which, or
from 1577, one name alone meets his eye, from year to year.
That name is Barker, and since the change, or rather the origin
of the change, has never been explained, so that great confusion
still prevails on the subject, it becomes of no little importance
to understand it now.
The reign of Elizabeth was the age of patents. Jealous of
her prerogatives, the granting of monopolies by patent was one
of the most cherished modes of displajdng it. Enriching her
self and a few of her courtiers and crafty traders, the extension
of this policy tended to impoverish the kingdom and fiU it with
discontent. It was the subject of frequent remonstrance in
Parliament, where the idea thrown out, that it might be extended
to bread, filled the members with alarm. Their expostulations
had little effect, for, with a few exceptions, these patents, above

1588 — 160S.J BY PATENTS. 467
forty in number, remained unrepealed at the Queen's death in
1603. Among these, there was a class styled, by way of distinc
tion, Patents of Privilege, the holders of Avhich might sell
licences of that for which they held the patent to the highest
bidder. One of these patents of privilege was granted in 1575, (no
doubt for a consideration,) to Sir Thomas Wilkes, Elizabeth's
Ambassador to France, Holland and Germany, as "her Majesty's
printer of the English tongue." The chief part of this patent
was resold to John Jugge, the son of Bichard, the printer of
Parker's Bible. A formal complaint of this was made to the
authorities by 175 members of the Stationers' Company, and
185 dealers hi books, free of other companies, all of London,
representing the injury inflicted on them, their families, work
men, apprentices, and the public generally by this monopoly.
John Jugge died soon after, having never once exercised his
privilege ; but in 1577, WUkes again sold a patent of a far more
exclusive character than the one complained of ; and who was
tbe purchaser ? One of those who had so bitterly complained of
the former, who changed his voice as soon as he was in posses
sion of the coveted privilege, — one that speciaUy included the
printing of the Old and New Testament in the English lan
guage. This was Christopher Barker, who afterwards speaks of
the great sum he had paid to Wilkes, as if he were a loser by
the bargain. Nevertheless, in 1589, when WUkes had fallen
into disgrace, Barker, now weU known to Cecil, and patronized
by Walsingham, applies for and obtains a new patent from the
Queen direct. For a still greater sum he now secures the
privilege, for the joint lives of himself and his son Bobert, who
survived him for the long period of forty-six years.
The extensive patent of Christopher and Bobert Barker once
secured, in regard to the Scriptures, it embraced " all Bibles and
Testaments whatsoever, in the English language, of whatever
translation, with notes, or without notes, printed before then, or
afterwards to be printed by our command." The privUeges are
granted, professedly, in consideration of Mr. Barker's great im
provement in the art of printing. But the most singular feature
of the document at such a crisis, is this, that no notice whatever
is taken of any one translation, as preferable to another, no, nor of
H h 2

468 SURVEY OF THE SCRIPTURES. [book II.
any one as having been either ordered or sanctioned by the Queen.
This too becomes more remarkable, when it is observed that the
patent was granted under the sway of Whitgift, Archbishop
of Canterbury, the strenuous promoter of uniformity in every
thing else, and -whose decided preference of the Bishops' ver
sion had only the year before been strongly marked and
enforced. Burleigh indeed, and Sir Francis Walsingham, may
be presumed to have acquiesced in a licence so broad ; but at all
events, here, under one of the most powerful monarchs that had
ever held the English sceptre, and as rigid - a Primate as had
occupied the See of Canterbury, since the invention of printing.
if we look to what foUowed, it is not difficult to see there, an
overruling hand once more. Whatever may be said of Queen
EUzabetb, assuredly Archbishop Whitgift did not intend to
promote the perusal throughout all England of any version of
the Scriptures, save one, now sanctioned by " the Synod of
Bishops ;" but then here comes her Majesty, with open eyes, and
by her sign manual, she has left the people free to choose, in the
highest sense, when, so far as her power extended, she would on
no account allow it, in any other.
No one will stand up now, to justify the course pursued by
Barker from the beginning. It was a most mercenary affair
from first to last ; and yet even when a man is so influenced,
the consequences, whether immediate or remote, by the hand of
God may easily be overruled for good. One consequence, at all
events, is here worthy of special observation. Even under an
exclusive patent, granted by a Queen imperative even to trifles,
since the supply was after all regulated solely by the demand,
and only the sordid prospect of remuneration, we are able to see,
and as clearly as we did under Edward the Sixth, what was the
taste or choice of the great body of English readers.
In contemplating this long and powerful reign, with imme
diate reference to the Sacred Volume, there are three distinct
points alike worthy of notice and recollection. The first is, the
number of editions on the whole, so very far beyond that which
has ever been observed. A second peculiarity is very manifest,
or the number of impressions in what is usually styled the
Geneva version, in comparison with others, or with Cranmer's
and Parker's versions taken together. But the third point, as

150S — 1603.] UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 469
soon as our list at the close is glanced at, cannot escape notice —
the large number of Bibles, as compared with the editions of the
New Testament separately.
Apprehension, approaching nearly to horror, had been ex
pressed in Parliament, at the very idea of a patent for bread;
but here was a commodity infinitely above it, in point of im
portance and value — the Bread of Life ; and since it had been
delivered into the hands of one man, to deal it out in conformity
to privUege granted ; this being the first movement of the kind,
every reader must be curious to observe the experiment in its
first operation and consequences. Here, then, he may now do
so, at the distance of two hundred and forty years, and for a
space of time equal to that of the entire generation first so
circumstanced. The supply on the whole cannot faU to occasion delightful
suiprise, as it so far exceeds what has ever been pointed out in
history. Speaking of the Geneva version only, Lewis con
jectured that there had been " above thirty editions in folio,
quarto, and octavo, printed from the year 1560 to the year
1616." And so very loosely has the history of our Bible been
regarded, that, although the editions of Shakspeare have been
scanned and counted with the most vigilant scrupulosity, this
vague estimate of the Scriptures has been repeated in print, by
Newcome and many others, down to the present hour ! Lewis
took great pains in his day, and then spoke according to the
extent of his research ; but had he multiplied by three, and said
ninety editions, instead of thirty, and added thirty editions more
of the New Testament separately, he would have been not far
from the truth. We are here, however, confined to the reign of
Elizabeth terminating in 1603, or thirteen years before the
estimate of Lewis ; and, referring to our list at the end for
particulars, we can now speak only in round numbers.
From the year 1560 to that of 1603 inclusive, there had been
certainly not fewer than one hundred and thirty distinct issues of
Bibles and Testaments, or about eighty-five of the former and
forty-five of the latter, which presents an average of three issues
annually throughout the entire reign ; and notwithstanding aU
the caution exercised for the first sixteen years. With reference
to the Geneva version, out of the gross issues now stated the

470 DEMAND FOR THE SCRIPTURES [book ii.
number approaches to ninety editions, thus leaving only forty
for aU others. Or if we speak of Bibles alone, while the number
of Cranmer's and Parker's version put together we state as
twenty-five, that of the Geneva Bible had amounted at least to
sixty editions. The very remarkable disproportion, however,
between the New Testaments issued as compared with the Bible
entire, demands more particular observation, and it will come
before us presently.
Here, it is granted, we have a subject which previous his
torians have overlooked, as either below their notice, or un
worthy of investigation. The imprisonment and death of Mary
Queen of Scots, the invincible Spanish Armada, and the
dominant power of Elizabeth, on the one hand ; or the Ufe and
actions of Parker, Grindal, and Whitgift, of Bacon and
Leicester, CecU1 and Walsingham, on the other, have so en
grossed the mind, that history on this subject has been cold,
nay, sUent. But may we not leave it to the judgment of every
unbiassed reader, whether there was any movement of the pass
ing day to be compared to this, either in itself or in its conse
quences ? What are the footsteps of men or monarchs, moving
like shadows o'er the plain, when compared with the progress of
Divine Truth in any nation ? Editions of the Sacred Volume,
at any given time, rise in importance infinitely above those of
any human composition ; but at this period especiaUy, owing to
pecuUar circumstances, they formed the only unerring index to
the thirst for Divine revelation, or the actual progress in Chris
tian knowledge. This, it wiU be granted, is a state of mind the
most vital of all others, so far as Christianity in its proper sense
is concerned ; while, far from being a transitory ebullition, it
extended over a space of time equal to more than a generation.
This was a growing and prodigious purchase of the Sacred
Scriptures, for they were neither given away, nor sold at reduced
prices, as in modern times. In short, the people of the day,
whether in England or Scotland, purchased all they read, nay,
and paid ten times the value of the present prices.
The^ cause of this remarkable demand for the Word of God is
a problem that cannot be solved by pointing either to the power
of party or to the power of preaching.
In the da\ s of Edward VI., there were but two parties, the

1558 — 1603.] DURING ELIZABETH'S REIGN. 471
" Friends of the Old Learning," and the " Friends of the New; "
and to the zeal of the latter might be ascribed the thirst for the
Sacred Word that then prevailed. But under EUzabeth this
party was again divided, so that there were now three great
parties in the kingdom, whose struggles occasioned aU the
restless uneasiness of that otherwise powerful reign. But what
ever desire some one or other of these might feel for the circula
tion of the Bible, or preference for some version of it, the patent
of Christopher Barker now stands in the way. Every sheet of
either version must issue from his press, and he, a man of the
world, with a view to gain alone, will throw off only those which
wiU answer the one object he has in view. The Queen has sold
away her interest in the sale, and Barker wiU go with the stream,
where the prospect of gain may carry him. The people are left
to show their preference by their demand, and he meets this
demand in the way most profitable to himself, never aUowing
his interests to be affected by the smaUest zeal for party. It
was his interest to lessen the cost of printing the Bible, whUe
the price was kept up ; hence, by degrees, disappear dedications,
prefaces, addresses to the reader, and aU that might gratify
either party. To the same avarice in the patentee we must
ascribe the smaU number of Testaments compared with Bibles
prmted by him. " Testaments alone," said the poor mercenary
monopolist, "are not greatly commodious, by reason the prices are
so small as will scarcely bear the charges." They were found
commodious enough before the exclusive patent was granted.
But now, aU who desired to have a New Testament must gratify
it only at a great personal expense.
Nor can the large sale of the Scriptures at this time be
ascribed to the power of preaching. The " Uberty of prophesy
ing" was under even greater restraint than the Uberty of the
press. The London petitioners to ParUament complained that
one lialf of the City churches were without preachers, and of the
remaining half "is scarce the tenth man to be found that maketh
any conscience carefuUy to wait upon his charge." In vain did
Archbishop Grindal plead for " the plentiful preaching of the
Gospel of Christ," and approach the throne on its behalf. The
Queen herseU told him " that it was good for the Church to
have few preachers ; that three or four might suffice for a

472 THIS GROWING DEMAND [book ii.
county ; and that the reading of the homilies to the people was
sufficient ! " Firm as a rock, she never relented, nor forgave the
man who so earnestly pled for the "ministry of reconciliation,"
Primate of all England though he was. Under the cloud of her
displeasure he closed his days. Whitgift succeeded him with a
policy the reverse of his, and preaching was aU but put down.
But it mattered not. The demand for the Word of Life rose
progressively, and the issues of edition after edition from the
press of Barker continued to meet the growing demand.
In conclusion, we enter not here into the comparative merits
of the Bishops' and the Geneva versions, nor should the atten
tion at present be diverted to any such point. Both went on to
be printed, and they will, therefore, come before us under the
next reign. Suffice it to say, that, as translations, as instru
ments in the hand of God, both were all-sufficient for His
purpose; but it is of more immediate consequence, that the
mind should rest on the remarkable fact, that under the reign
of Elizabeth not fewer than one hundred and thirty distinct
pubhcations of the Divine Word passed through the press,
mainly to meet the desires of the people ; • while the disposition
thus to purchase and to read must have had a cause.
Unable, therefore, to point out any adequate instrumental
cause upon earth, why should there now be any hesitation in
all England to refer immediately to Him " from whom aU good
counsels and aU such desires proceed " ? Considering the people
as a people, far from being any disadvantage or discredit to
them, that God himself should thus speak to them more directly
than usual, and by His own Word, it only placed them in a
higher state of responsibility. The number of its editions has
shed quite a new light, and, in reference to the period itself, it is
questionable whether any people in Europe can now produce a
parallel ; but certainly there was, at that period, no similar
proceeding in any nation.
The Queen upon the throne might cast indignity upon the
ordinance of Heaven for saving the souls of men, or care not for
it. For this the Primate of aU England, being of another mind,
might pine for years under her frown; or, as ever after, his
successor, Whitgift, might carry everything before him. The
Commons' House of Parliament itself might propose to meet for

1558 — 1603.] TRACED TO ITS ORIGIN. 473
prayer, and to hear a sermon ; when, being rebuked by her
Majesty for their presumption in not first asking counsel of her,
to obtain her sanction, they gave up the intention, and never
heard one. One half of the buildings called churches in the
capital might stand there, and no one faithful voice be heard
within their walls, while only the tenth man of the remaining
haU possessed any conscience. AU this and more might be, but
the Word of Jehovah must not be bound.
Nor was it that the Almighty Bedeemer undervalued the
ministry of his own appointment. Far from any mind be such
a thought. But He is a Sovereign, " having no need either of
His own works or of man's gifts," and for a season might
suspend their operation for a higher end, even the glory and
power of His Revealed Word. True rehgion revived in Babylon
when Jerusalem lay in ruins, as it had prospered in the wilder
ness, before the Temple wras built ; and of that favoured people,
as the depositaries of the truth, it was once said, " If they hear
not Moses and the prophets, neither wiU they be persuaded
though one rose from the dead," — but a greater than Moses
was here.
AU this while, the nation was seen rising, confessedly, into
far greater power, though often agitated ; and if without were
fightings, within were fears. The reign had been stained by
the blood of persecution ; and as liberty of conscience was
understood by no party, instances of oppression occurred with
a frequency which cannot be explained fully, tiU the State
Paper Commission has done the same justice to Elizabeth which
it has done to her father. But throughout all the tumultuous
scene — the zeal for what was styled uniformity — the decrees of
the Star Chamber, and the restrictions of the press, the " still
smaU voice" was there. In other words, from year to year, and
as with pointing finger, a benignant Providence stood above the
nation, directing it to the Bible alone, as its only charter to the
skies ; or God's own divine grant, in the language of the people,
to aU the glories of Ufe eternal.
Christianity, not an outward conventional form, being essen
tially a mental subject, addressing the heart and soul of man,
this first and fundamental truth — " the all-sufficiency oi the
Divine record," — it was worthy of its Divine Author to repeat,

474 ACCESSION OF JAMES I. [book II.
so emphatically, in the ear of the people, from month to month,
and from year to year, amidst all their wild confusion and the
strife of tongues. This was a consideration, which, historically,
had taken precedence of everything else, whether of the -ministry
itself, or the form of godliness. Nay, and it is a truth still,
which if the heart and conscience of this nation were once fixed
upon it, the consequences would surpass human foresight :
meanwhile this, and by way of eminence, seems to be one main
instruction to be drawn from aU that had yet occurred. By the
man of mere party, it is true, of whatever class throughout the
kingdom, from Oxford aU round to the sea, the monition may
not even yet be heard ; and that simply because the subject is
one which happens to be above his customary sphere of judg
ment. Bat should the slightest hesitation remain in the mind
of any reader, let him read on. Upon this subject there is no
ambiguity awaiting him, in the sequel.

JAMES I. TO THE COMMONWEALTH.
MDCTII.  MDCL.
ACCESSION OI? JAMES— HIS STRANGE PROGRESS THROUGH THE COUNTRY— HIS
HEEDLESS PROFUSION — CONFERENCE AT HAMPTON COURT EXPLAINED — REVI
SION OF THE SCRIPTURES — THE REVISORS — INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN — PROGRESS
MADE — REVISION OF THE WHOLE — MONEY PAID, BUT NOT BY HIS MAJESTY,
NOR BY ANY BISHOP, AFTER THE KING'S APPLICATION, BUT BY THE
PATENTEE — THE PRESENT VERSION PUBLISHED — NO PROCLAMATION, NO ORDER
OF PRIVY COUNCIL, OR ANY ACT OF THE LEGISLATURE UPON RECORD, ON
THE SUBJECT — DID NOT BECOME THE VERSION GENERALLY RECEIVED THROUGH
OUT ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND, TILL ABOUT FORTY YEARS AFTER
WARDS — THE LAST ATTEMPT TO INTERFERE WITH THE ENGLISH BIBLE BY A
COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENT, REPRESENTING ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND SCOT
LAND — UTTERLY IN VAIN.
p to the present moment, the history of the English
Bible had maintained a character peculiar to itself.
Originating with no mere patron, whether royal or
noble, the undertaking had never yet been promoted at
the personal expense of any such party. But now in
regard to that version of the Sacred Volume, which for
two hundred and thirty years has been read with delight

1603 — 1650.] HIS CONNEXION WITH THE BIBLE. 475
from generation to generation, and proved the effectual means
of knowledge, holiness, and joy to miUions ; it may be imagined
by some, as there was now another and a final change, that
our history must, at last, change, or in other words, forfeit its
character. If, however, the accounts frequently given of our
present version have been involved in as much inaccuracy of
statement, as they have been with regard to all the preceding
changes, there is the greater necessity for the public mind being
disabused ; and that, too, whether in Britain, or America, or
the British foreign dependencies. This is a subject which alike
concerns them aU, as they all read, and prize, the same
version. If because that a dedication to James the First of England
has been prefixed to many copies, though not to many others ;
and if because not only historians at their desks, but lawyers
at the bar, and even judges on the bench, have made most
singular mistakes — it has therefore been imagined by any, or
many, that the present version of our Bible was either suggested
by this monarch ; or that he was at any personal expense in
regard to the undertaking ; or that he ever issued a single Une
of authority by way of proclamation with respect to it, it is
more than time that the delusion should come to an end. The
original and authentic documents of the time are so far expUcit,
that, just in proportion as they are sifted, and the actual cir
cumstances placed in view, precisely the same independence of
personal royal bounty, and, on the part of the people at large,
the same superiority to aU royal dictation, which we have beheld
all along, wUl become apparent. James himself, however vain,
is certainly not so much to be blamed for any different impres
sion, as some others who have misrepresei led his Majesty. On
the other hand, his character was such ti, to many writers it
has occasioned some exercise of patience - , en to refer to it.
But since his name occurs in connexion with this final revision
of the Enghsh Bible, it is of the more importance to ascertain
the exact amount of this connexion. From the moment in
which he was invited to the throne, and to be King of Great
Britain, his own favourite term, down to the year in which our
present version was published, his "royal progress" is forced
upon our notice.

476 CONFERENCE AT HAMPTON COURT. [book ii.
By the death of Elizabeth on the 24th of March, 1603, James
succeeded to the throne of England. During the whole of the
summer and autumn of that year, he gave himself up to the
pleasures of the chase, the monotony of which was only in
terrupted by feasts and masks on the most extensive scale;
occasioning the greatest anxiety to the Lord Treasurer to find
means to supply the King's profusion. To avoid the plague
which was then raging in London and its vicinity, as weU as to
find sport for James, the Court made a progress through the
kingdom, but was haunted by the sickness which followed it
everywhere, and infected every spot at which it halted. Before
the close of the year, so exhausted were the King's resources, and
so low his credit with the money-lenders both at home and
abroad, that he was forced to issue his proclamation for the
meeting of Parliament on the 19th of March foUowing, to
obtain suppUes. It was in the midst of his heartless sports at
Wilton, when the plague was carrying off its thousands weekly
in London, that James summoned another meeting, known as
the Conference of Hamptox Court, " for the hearing, and for
the determining, things pretended to be amiss in the Church."
This Conference was held on the 14th, 16th, and 18th January,
1604, but did not consist of any official body of men. As
ParUament had not met, James was not as yet, according to
law, King of England, except by courtesy. There were present
only nine Bishops, eight Deans, two Professors of Divinity from
Oxford, and two from Cambridge, with the King's Chaplain,
Patrick Galloway, from Scotland. Nor were these all present
any one day. The only subject debated, the result of which has
been of any lasting consequence to posterity, Was, the necessity
for another translation of the Bible. The proposal came from
Mr. John Bainolds, a man of high character, and perhaps the
most eminent mdividual for learning in the kingdom. His
fame grew from the Greek lecture in Corpus Christi College,
Oxford, of which he was the president. Some made a few
objections, especially Bancroft, Bishop of London, who mut
tered that, " if every man's humour were followed, there would
be no end of translating ;" but the King expressing his appro
bation of the scheme, there was, at present, no gainsaying. The
second of the articles, as presented by Bainolds, (according to

1603 — 1650.] THE TRANSLATORS SELECTED. 477
GaUoway, whose account was corrected by the King's own hand)
was the following : —
"That a translation be made of the whole Bible, as consonant as- can be to the
original Hebrew and Greek ; and this to be set out and printed, without any
marginal notes, and only to be used in all Churches of England in time of divine

The Parliament met on the 19th of March, and the Convoca
tion next day ; but the former was dissolved, and the latter rose,
without a word being uttered on the subject of the new transla
tion. Before the end of June, a list of scholars suitable for the
work was presented to James for his acceptance. They were
selected for him, and he of course approved. This was notified
to the intended translators in a letter from Bancroft, dated 30 th
June, 1604, in which he informs them that it is " the King's
pleasure that they should, with all possible speed, meet together
in their University and begin the same."
Then followed another letter dated 31st July, addressed to all
the Bishops, enclosing one from " His most excellent Majesty,"
straitly charging them to confer any prebends or parsonages
in their gift, which " shall next upon any occasion happen to be
void," on some one of the learned translators who may have no
ecclesiastical preferment, or one "unmeet for men of their
desert," pleading his own inability to supply them, for " We of
ourself, in any convenient time, cannot well remedy it." Cecil as
Chancellor of Cambridge addressed that University to the same
purport. We give the list of translators here, with their respective
tasks, to which a few particulars, from the best authorities, are
subjoined : — WESTMINSTER Genesis to II. Kings inclusive.
Dr. Lancelot Andrews, then Dean of Westminster, who is reported to
have been such a linguist that he understood fifteen. Afterwards Bishop of
Chichester, 1605 ; then of Ely in 1609; and finally of Winchester in 1619.
Died 21 Sep. 1626, aged 71.
Dr. John Overall, then Dean of St. Paul's. Bishop of Lichfield and
Coventry, 1614; of Norwich in 1618. Died 12 May, 1619, aged 60.
Dr. Adrian a Saravia, then Canon of Westminster. Of Spanish extraction ;
the friend of Hooker, and tutor of Nicholas Fuller. Afterwards Prebend of
Gloucester, and Canterbury, where he died 15 January, 1613, aged 82.
Dr. Bichard Clarke, then Fellow of Christ College, Cambridge ; Vicar of

478 THE TRANSLATORS AND [book ii.
Minster and Monkton in the isle of Thanet. Died in 1634, and a folio volume
of his sermons published in 1637.
Dr. John Laifield, then Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; afterwards
Sector of St. Clement's Danes. A Fellow of Chelsea College, which, how
ever, was never founded. Died in 1617.
Dr. B,obert Tighe, or Teigh, (not Leigh as often misnamed,) then Archdeacon
of Middlesex, and Bector of All-Hallows, Barking. An excellent textuary
and profound linguist. He died in 1616, leaving his son £1000 a-year.
Dr. Francis Burleigh, then Vicar of Bishop Stortford, if not of Thorley, Herts,
and died in 1619 (?)
Dr. Geoffry- or Wilfrid King, then Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.
As Begius Professor of Hebrew in that University, he succeeded Robert
Spalding, about to be mentioned.
Bichard Thompson, M.A. of Clare Hall, Cambridge; born in Holland of
English parents ; an admirable philologer, but better known in Italy, France,
and Germany, than at home.
William Bedwell, the best Arabic scholar of his time. The tutor of Erpenius
and Pocock ; (but not W. Bedell of Kilmore, as has been conjectured ; hewas
then at Venice.) " The industrious and thrice -learned," said Lightfoot, "to
whom I will rather be a scholar, than take on me to teach others. "
CAMBRIDGE. /. Chronicles to Ecclesiastes inclusive.
Edward Livlie, Begius Professor of Hebrew for thirty years in this Univer
sity ; an eminent linguist, in high esteem by Ussher and Pocock. His death,
in May 1605, is supposed to have retarded the work in hand.
Dr. John Richardson, then Fellow of Emmanuel College ; afterwards Master
of Peter House, then of Trinity College. He is not to be confounded with
Ussher's friend of the same name. Died in 1625.
Dr. Laurence Chaderton, distinguished for Hebrew and Babbinical learning,
then first Master of Emmanuel College. ' ' If you will not be Master, " said
Sir Walter Mildmay, "I will not be Founder." He was the tutor of Joseph
Hall of Norwich and IF. Bedell of Kilmore, who retained the highest venera
tion for him, and died the year after him. Chaderton, who never required
the aid of spectacles, died, according to his epitaph, at the age of 103 ! Born
in 1537, he lived to 13th November, 1640. His life, in Latin, by W. Dilling
ham, was published in 1700.
Francis Dillingham, then FeUow of Christ's College, an eminent Grecian.
He was Parson of Dean, and beneficed at Wilden, Beds. As an author, he, as
well as Overall, continued to quote the Genera version years after our present
one had been published. He died a single and a wealthy man.
Thomas Harrison, Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College, was eminently skilled
in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues, as his own University has borne
witness. Dyer ascribes to him a Lexicon Pente Glotton.
Dr. Roger Andrews, brother of Lancelot, then Fellow of Pembroke Hall, and
afterwards Master of Jesus College, and Prebendary of Chichester. Died in
1618.
Dr. Robert Spalding, then Fellow of St. John's College, and afterwards the
successor of Livlie as Regius Professor of Hebrew, a sufficient proof of his skill
in that language.
Dr. Anderw Byng, (not Burgc, as in Burnet and Wilkins,) then Fellow of St.
Potor's College. In 1606 Sub-dean of York, and in 16.18 Archdeacon of

1603 — 1050.] THEIR RESPECTIVE TASKS. 479
Norwich. As Regius Professor of Hebrew, he succeeded King, who had suc
ceeded Spalding, already mentioned.
OXFORD. Isaiah to Malachi inclusive.
Dr. John Harding, then Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University, and
afterwards President of Magdalen CoUege, and also Rector of Halsey in
Oxfordshire.
Dr. John Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi CoUege ; or the man who
moved the King for this new translation. ' ' The memory and reading of that
man," said Bishop Hall, "were near to a miracle ; and all Europe at the time
could not have produced three men superior to Rainolds, JeweU, and Ussher,
all of this same CoUege." At the age of 5S, he died 21st May, 1607. Even
during his sickness, his coadjutors met at his lodgings once a week, to compare
and perfect their notes.
Dr. Thomas Holland, then FeUow of BaUiol College, afterwards Rector of
Exeter, and Regius Professor of Divinity in Oxford. "Another ApoUos,"
says Wood, "and mighty in the Scriptures." Died 17th March, 1613,
aged 73.
Dr. Richard Kilby, the Rector of Lincoln CoUege, highly esteemed by Isaac
Walton. He was afterwards prebendary of Lincoln, and Professor of Hebrew
in the University of Oxford. He left commentaries on Exodus, drawn from
the Rabbins and Hebrew interpreters. Died November 1620.
Dr. Miles Smith, then Canon of Hereford. A Hebrew and Chaldee, Syriac
and Arabic scholar. He is understood to have been the writer of the preface.
He and Bilson we shaU find to be the final examinators of the whole work.
Bishop of Gloucester in 1612.
Dr. Richard Brett, then FeUow of Lincoln CoUege. Eminent as a linguist in
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, to which he added Chaldee, Arabic, and
Ethiopic. Bector of Quainton, Bucks, where he died 15th April, 1637.
Richard Fairclough of New CoUege, Oxford (?) ; the Bector of BuckneU.
Oxfordshire, who died there in 1638.
OXFORD. Mattheio to the Acts inclusive, and the Bevelation.
Dr. Thomas Ravts, then Dean of Christ Church ; afterwards, on the 14th
March, 1605, Bishop of Gloucester, and in 1607 of London, where he died,
14th December, 1609.
Dr. George Aeeot, then Dean of Winchester and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford.
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1609 ; of London 1610, and, Bancroft
dying 2nd November, Abbot became primate in 1611. Died 4th August, 1633,
aged 71.
Dr. John Aolionby, then Principal of St. Edmund's HaU and Bector of Islip,
and afterwards chaplain in ordinary to the King. "Accomplished in learn
ing and an exact linguist." Dr. Richard Eedes was indeed the first
appointed, but he died 19th November, 1604 ; Aglionby died 6th February,
1610.
Dr. Giles Tomson, then Dean of Windsor, afterwards in March 1611 Bishop
of Gloucester, but died 14th June next year. " He had taken a great deal of
pains in translating."
Sir Henry Savile, Greek tutor to Elizabeth, and Provost of Eton. He was
knighted by James this year, and, losing his son about that period, he devoted
his time and fortune to the encouragement of learning. ITc contributed

480 THE TRANSLATORS AND [book II.
several rare books and MSS. to the Bodleian, besides Greek type and matrices
to the Oxford press. His fine edition of Chrysostom' s Works, in Greek, with
notes by John Bois after-mentioned, and of which 1000 copies, in 8 volumes
folio, were printed, is said to have cost him £8000. He died at Eton, 19th
February, 1622, aged 73.
Dr. John Peryn, Professor of Greek, and afterwards Canon of Christ Church.
Died 9th May, 1615.
Dr. Leonard Hutten, then Vicar of Flower, Northamptonshire ; an excellent
Greek scholar, and learned in other branches. He died at the age of 75, 17th
May, 1632. Dr. Ravens had been first appointed, but his place vacated.
Dr. John Harmar had been Professor of Greek, Warden of Winchester
College. A noted Latin and Greek scholar. He published Latin translations
from Chrysostom, and his translation of Beza's sermons into Enghsh bespeaks
him an excellent writer of EngUsh. He died 11th October, 1613.
WESTMINSTER. Romans to Jude inclusive.
Dr. William Barlow, made Dean of Chester in December 1604, Bishop of
Rochester in 1605, of Lincoln, 1608. Died 7th September, 1613.
Dr. Ralph Hutchenson, then President of St. John's CoUege, Oxford.
Wood's AthenaB, by Bliss, ii. p. 92.
Dr. John Spencer, FeUow of Corpus Christi CoUege, and afterwards Chaplain
to the King. On the death of Dr. Rainolds he succeeded him as President of
Corpus Christi, and died 3rd AprU, 1614.
Dr. Roger Fenton, it has been supposed ; if so, Fellow of Pembroke Hall,
Cambridge ; and Minister of St. Stephen's, Walbrook London.
Michael Rabbett, B.D., was Rector of St. Vedast, Foster Lane, London.
Dr. Thomas Sanderson, of BaUiol CoUege, Oxford (?) Archdeacon of Rochester
in 1606.
William Dakins, B.D., then Greek Lecturer, Cambridge, and afterwards
junior Dean in 1606. He had been chosen for his skUl in the original
languages, but died February 1607. 1
To these men the King is reported to have given the foUowing Instructions
or Rules : — 1. The ordinary Bible read in the Church, commonly called the
Bishops' Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the original wiU permit.
2. The names of the Prophets and the holy writers, with the other names in the
text, to be retained as near as may be, according as they are vulgarly used. 3.
The old ecclesiastical words to be kept: as the word church not to be translated
congregation, &c. 4. When any word hath divers significations, that to be
kept which hath been most commonly used by the most ancient Fathers, being
agreeable to the propriety of the place, and the analogy of faith. 5. The divi
sion of the chapters to be altered either not at all, or as little as may be, if
necessity so require. 6. No marginal notes at all to be affixed, but only for the
i Wood's Fasti and Athena? — Newcourt's Repertorium — Le Neve's Fasti —
Todd's Vindication — Whittaker, and several other authorities compared. In
addition to these forty men, engaged on the sacred text, seven more, or the
second class at Cambridge, were put to the Apocrypha.: viz. John Dnport,
Dr. Branthwaite, Jeremiah Radclift'e, Dr. Samuel Ward, Andrew Downes, the
Greek Professor, Mr. Ward, and John Boys, who, however, afterwards was
engaged on the Sacred text.

1603 — 1650-3 THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN. 481
explanation of the Hebrew or Greek words, which cannot, without some
circumlocution, so briefly and fitly be expressed in the text. 7. Such quotations
of places to be marginally set down, as shaU serve for the fit reference of one
Scripture to another. 8. Every particular man of each company to take the
same chapter, or chapters ; and, having translated or amended them severaUy
by himself where he thinketh good, aU to meet together, confer what they have
done, and agree for their part what shaU stand. 9. As one company hath dis
patched any one book in this manner, they shaU send it to the rest, to be consi
dered of seriously and judiciously : for his Majesty is careful in this point. 10.
If any company, upon the review of the book so sent, shaU doubt or differ upon
any places, to send them word thereof, note the places, and therewithal send
their reasons : to which, if they consent not, the difference to be compounded at
the general meeting, which is to be of the chief persons of each company at the
end of the work. 11. When any place of special obscurity is doubted of, letters
to be directed by authority, to send to any learned man in the land, for his
judgment in such a place. 12. Letters to be sent from every bishop to the rest
of his clergy, admonishing them of this translation in hand ; and to move and
charge as many as, being skilful in the tongues, have taken pains in that kind,
to send his particular observations to the company, either at Westminster,
Cambridge, or Oxford. 13. The Directors in each company to be the Deans of
Westminster and Chester for that place ; and the King's Professors in the
Hebrew and Greek in each University. 14. These translations to be used,
when they agree better with tlie text than the Bishops' Bible : viz. , 1. Tyndale's ;
2. Mattliew's ; 3. Coverdale's ; 4. Whitchurche's (i. e. Cranmer's) ; 5. The Geneva.
The accuracy of these Rules is considerably shaken by the account delivered
in to the Synod of Dort on the 20th of November, 1618. They state that only
seven rules were ultimately prescribed, and that after each individual had
finished his task, twelve men (not six) assembling together revised the whole !
Most of the translators were already in independent circum
stances, though some were not so, and the posts to which any
of them succeeded afterwards are noted under each of their
names. These appointments, however, cost his Majesty nothing.
But there was another point which the King left Bancroft to
explain to aU his brethren. The fact was, that some money did
appear to be requisite in the first instance, and his Majesty not
choosing to signify in writing that he had none of his own to
spare, or that the Lords in the Privy CouncU would not agree
to his drawing on the public purse, he left it to another to ex
plain the dilemma, and, through him, turned to the Bishops and
Deans in the hope that they would furnish supplies. The sum
specified by Bancroft was not large. It was only 1000 marks,
£666 13s. 4d., the same amount he had spent in repairing his
palace. The Bishop, however, being under orders, must forward
his circular as to this point, which it seems he did ; and from one
of them yet extant, dated 31st July, 1604, we find him requiring
i i

482 THE PATENTER DEFRAYS [book it.
his brethren, with every several Dean and Chapter, in the
King's name, to contribute to the work, and to send him word,
as soon as they could, of the amount they would so contribute,
hinting that he would " acquaint his Majesty with every man's
liberality towards this most godly work."
For a reply to this pressing circular we search in vain.
From the Bench entire we hear not one echo ; for if there was
even one reply, it has never been found, and, at least, no money
was ever contributed. The public exchequer was empty, and
nothing was to be got from that quarter. It was well that most
of the translators were in good circumstances, others had to look
forward to the future for their reward, whUe we find at least one
of the most able of them aU, John Boys, eating his "commons"
first at one college table, and then at another, in Cambridge,
during the entire period in which he was there engaged.
It is not fully ascertained tchen these men sat down to their
work. The different parties might not aU commence at the
same moment, but, on the whole, it may be presumed that, with
the Hebrew of the Old Testament, and the Greek of the New,
before them aU along, the first revision of the sacred text by
the forty-seven, occupied about four years ; the second exami
nation by twelve, or two selected out of each company, nine
months more, and the sheets passing through the press, other
two years, when the Bible of 1611 was finished and first issued.
No money was needed whUe the six companies were working
separately at "Westminster, Cambridge, and Oxford. But when
the selected two of each company met in London, pecuniary
supply, to a moderate extent, had become necessary. The
entire Bible as it came from the forty-seven was now before
these twelve men, who met at Stationers' HaU, and were thus
daily occupied in their second revision for nine months or thirty-
nine weeks. They were paid weekly, and a sum of " a thousand
marks," and more, is now required, and the only question is,
from whence it came ?
From a memoir of John Boys already mentioned, one of the
twelve, and who alone took notes, we learn, that each of them,
while in London, duly received thirty shillings a week ; " though
before they had nothing." Upwards of £700 must have been
thus expended, but with regard to the paymasters for this

1603 — 1B50.J THE ENTIRE EXPENSE. 483
service, it is evident that the Company of Stationers, in wliose
Hall they met, had too little interest in the affair to meet this
demand. From the King nothing could be hoped for. If it
was " not convenient," to use his own phrase, in 1604, it was
far less so in 1608. After the twelve had performed their share
of the work, the translation had to be superintended through
the press under the eye of Dr. MUes Smith and Thomas Bilson,
Bishop of Winchester, with their subordinates — a process which
involved much additional expense for two years, yet neither was
this met by any grant of public money.
To a writer in 1651 we are indebted for the information we
are in quest of. Defending the patented monopoly enjoyed by
Barkers for more than seventy years, he argues : —
"jAnd forasmuch as propriety rightly considered is a legal relation of any one
to a temporal good ; I conceive the sole printing of the Bible and Testament,
with power of restraint in others, to be of right the propriety of one Matthew
Barker, Citizen and Stationer of London, in regard that his father paid for the
amended or corrected translation of the Bible £3500 : by reason whereof the
translated copy did of right belong to him and his assigns."2
In perfect harmony with this payment, immediately after
Robert Barker (the son of the original patentee, and now son-in-
law of Day, Bishop of Winchester) had printed the Bible of
1611, in May foUowing he obtains from the King a patent for
Christopher, his eldest son, to hold the same after the death of
his father ; with the proviso, that if the son should die first, his
heirs were to enjoy the benefits for four years after Robert the
father's death. Within five years after this the son died, and so,
in February 1617, the King granted the same patent to Robert,
the second son, for thirty years, to commence after the death of
his father. The Barkers assigned their rights, in July 1 627,
to Bonham Norton and John BUl, which the King confirmed.
In 1635, the father, Robert Barker, yet aUve and unsatisfied,
obtains the same patent in reversion to Charles and Matthew,
his younger sons, after the expiration of aU the others ! Thus,
from 1577 down to 1709, during the long period of 132 years,
not a single copy of the Sacred Volume had issued from the
5 " A Brief Treatise concerning the Regulating of Printing, humbly submitted
to the Parliament of England. By WiUiam Ball Esquire, London. Printed in
the year 1651." I I 2

484 NO HUMAN AUTHORITY [book II.
press in which this one family, father, son and grandsons, had
not a personal pecuniary interest.3
To return then for a few moments, and finally, to the Bible
of 1611 ; after neither his Majesty, nor the Bishops, nor the
Stationers' Company, had afforded any pecuniary aid, we have
found the money furnished, and very properly, by the only
party who was to receive the profits. The honour of payment
for the whole concern, so often ascribed to James the First, is by
no means to be taken from him, if one shred of positive evi
dence can be produced ; but this, it is presumed, lies beyond the
power of research. In this case, therefore, to speak correctly,
we have come at last, not to an affair of government, not to a
royal undertaking at his Majesty's expense, according to the
popular and very erroneous historical fiction, but simply to a
transaction in the course of business. If we inquire for any single
royal grant, or look for any act of personal generosity, we search
in vain.
There is, however, in conclusion, one other inquiry to be
made ; and this, to some minds, may be not the least important.
It is this. By whose influence or authority was it, that our
present version of the Sacred Volume came to be read, not
in England alone, but in Scotland and Ireland? This, too,
is a question the more interesting to mUlions, as it is now the
Bible of so many distant climes — read not only in the Americas
and Canada, but in all the wide-spread and daUy extending
British colonies.
The reigning King had indeed signified his approbation of
the undertaking, and when the Bible was published it bore on
its title-page, that the version had been " newly translated out
of the original tongues, and with the former translations dili
gently compared and revised, by his Majesty's special command
ment." In a separate line below, and by itself, we have these
words, " Appointed to be read in churches." Now, as the Book
never was submitted to Parliament, never to any Convocation,
nor, as far as it is known, ever to the Privy Council, James, by

3 In 1635, the same year in which he obtained his last patent, Robert Barker
the elder became involved in difficulties which landed him in the King's Bench,
where he lived ten years, and where he died in 1C45.

1608 — 1650.J URGED OUR PRESEMT VERSION. 485
this title-page, was simply foUowing, or made to follow, in the
train of certain previous editions. As for Elizabeth, his imme
diate predecessor, we have already seen, that under her long
reign, there was another version, beside the Bishops', and that
the former enjoyed the decided preponderance in pubUc favour :
so, in the present instance, that there might be no mistake or
misapprehension, in regard to the influence or authority by which
our present Bible came to be universaUy received, a result some
what simUar took place.
" We can assign," says Professor Lee, of Edinburgh, " no
other authority for using the present version of the Bible, except
that of the Conference at Hampton Court." But that Conference
had no authority at aU, in point of law. The King wrote a
letter, by his Archbishop, to the Dignitaries of the Church, but
after that one letter, so abortive in one of its objects, he spoke no
more. " After this translation was pubUshed," says a writer in
the Bibliotheca Literaria, " the others aU dropt off by degrees,
though I don't find there was any canon, proclamation, or Act of
Parliament to enforce the use of it." " The present version,"
says Dr. Symonds, " appears to have made its way without the
interposition of any authority whatever ; ioi it is not easy to dis
cover any traces of a proclamation, canon, or statute published to
enforce the use of it." Sometimes indeed at an episcopal visi
tation, the question, " Have you a large Bible of the last trans
lation?" was put to the churchwardens. But such inquiries
only proceeded in virtue of the King's personal authority over
that Church of which he was recognised as the head, and could
have too Uttle effect to account for the growing use of the new
version. One mighty advantage, besides its general superiority as a
translation to aU its predecessors, consisted in its being without
note or comment. That which sunk the Geneva Version, excel
lent though it was, into obUvion sooner than it otherwise would,
was the dead-weight of its notes. Though it continued to be
printed by Barker up to 1618 or later, and when he ceased, was
printed in Holland, and imported down to 1640 into England,
and much later into Scotland, it graduaUy gave way to the
newer and better version.
Under the gradual disclosure of attested facts, in regular

48G ALL INTERFERENCE REPUDIATED, [book II.
succession from Henry the Eighth down to this period ; while
establishing the high independence of the EngUsh Bible as a
distinct undertaking, and not to be confounded with other
things ; the present history may seem to have borne hard upon
some men in high places ; since it has bereaved the reigning
prince, as well as some of his titled advisers, of an honour and
influence which have too often been falsely ascribed to them.
But in never soliciting their patronage, and in no vital point
admitting of their control, it becomes a very observable circum
stance, that, at this crisis, when the question of our present
version of the Bible came to be settled for two centuries to come,
the history wiU effectually redeem itself from aU imputations
as to anything invidious towards the Crown, as the Crown.
The course it held under monarchical government, wiU not
change when this is gone. Let executive human power be
held by whomsoever it might, if put forth here, in the shape
of control, it cannot be allowed, and, Uke former attempts, it
must come to nothing. The proposal may be hinted, but it will
die away.
It happened about eight years after the death of Laud, and
four after that of Charles the First, that a BiU was introduced
into the Long Parliament, on the 11th of January, 1653, for " a
new English translation of the Bible out of the original tongues."
Such a Bill, it must be remembered, had never before been laid
before any previous Parliament in England. Once upon a time
indeed, under Edward VI., we have seen that a Bill was brought
before the Senate referring simply to the reading of the Bible,
which was never mentioned a second time, or heard of more ;
but respecting any version, or revision of the Scriptures, as the
consent of Convocation had never been deemed necessary, so that
of Parliament had never been consulted. At a period, therefore,
when there was no King upon the throne, no Primate in
existence, nor any House of Lords, such a proposed BUl excites
special notice ; while as an attempt on the part of official power
to interfere, it becomes the more striking, as being of a new
character. The BiU was once mentioned, and only once ; but
the Parliament of the Lord-Brethren must no more invade the
peculiar character of this cause, than the Parliament of royalty ;
nor must the sovereignty of the people be flattered, any more

1603 — 1B50.J PARLIAMENTARY AS WELL AS ROYAL. 487
than the sovereignty of the Prince. This Parliament had
aheady sat for more than twelve years, retaining the supreme
authority in their hands, so that this Bill sunk into oblivion by
the weU-known dissolution of the House soon after. On the
20th of April, CromweU, surrounded by some of his officers and
several hundred men, repaired to the Parliament, and after
hearing them for a quarter of an hour discuss the question as to
the form of their own dissolution, he rose and peremptorily
settled it. In the way which has been so often described, he
upbraided certain members, dissolved the House, ordering the
members to disperse, the mace to be taken away, and carrying
the keys of the House with him, in the afternoon of the same
day, he also dissolved the CouncU of State.
It was just at the time that the London press was occupied
with the last volumes of the London Polyglot, edited by Walton,
in 1657, that the final attempt to interfere with our present
version occurred. Walton himseU and a few others appear as
though they were about to reconsider it ; that is, they were
deputed to do so, but as they come before us under the orders of
a parliamentary sub- committee, they were not allowed to pro
ceed. The existing Parliament had been summoned by Crom
weU, as the Lord Protector, to represent England, Scotland, and
Ireland. They had chosen what they were pleased to style
" The grand committee for ReUgion," but whatever else they
had done, or did after, they must not interfere in regard to the
Scriptures. This Committee assembled at the house of Lord
Commissioner Whitlock, who has himseU recorded their fruitless
attempt in the foUowing words : —
" Jan. 16, 1656," (that is, 1657,) "ordered that it be referred to a sub-com
mittee to send for and advise with Dr. Walton, Mr. Hughes, Mr. CasteU,
Mr. Clarke, Mr. Poulk, Dr. Cudworth, and such others as they shaU think fit ;
and to consider of the translations and impressions of the Bible, and to offer
their opinions therein to this committee ; and that it be specially commended
to the Lord Commissioner Whitlock to take care of this business."
This Committee accordingly often met, from this date to
November following, when they gave in a Report. They might
say what they pleased, as to any existing impressions of the
Bible, but, as an official body, they must not touch with the
Translation itseU. Accordingly they had occasion to reprobate

488 PRESENT VERSION GENERALLY RECEIVED. [book ii.
the incorrectness of certain editions, but particularly one, printed
by John Field for the Barkers, in 1653, or twenty years after
their father had been fined under Charles, for the same crime.
As for the Translation itself, they made several remarks upon
some mistakes ; while they agreed, that, as a whole, it was "the
best of any translation in the world." In this testimony, Walton,
Castell, Pocock, Seldon, and others concurred ; but official
authority could not be permitted to proceed any farther.
Parliament was soon dissolved, and from about this period the
general acquiescence of the nation in that version of the Bible, which
has been read and revered ever since, may be considered as having
taken place. The reader cannot faU to mark the season of this
very important national occurrence ; but of this we must refrain
from taking any farther notice, till the History of the Bible
in Scotland be brought down to the same period.

SCOTLAND.

INTRODUCTION.

BRIEF NOTICE OF SCOTLAND DURING THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CEN
TURIES— THE OPENING OF THE SIXTEENTH BEFORE THE SACRED SCRIPTURES
IN PRINT WERE FIRST IMPORTED.
Before the Sacred Volume in our vernacular tongue, and in a printed form,
was brought into England itself, we had occasion to notice the two preceding
centuries ; and it would be doing injustice to the northern part of our island,
were we not now to glance, however briefly, at the same period.
The early connexion of Scotland with France is distinguished by the institu
tion of the Scots CoUege, or " S&minaire des Ecossais," in Paris, founded in
1325, by the Bishop of Moray ; and in the revival of Uterature during the
fourteenth century, such as it was, individual natives of Scotland must have
taken an interest, if one of her sons may be admitted in evidence. In furnish
ing a poetical historian, contemporary with Wickliffe and Chaucer, of whom an
Englishman, even Wharton, has told us, that he ' ' adorned the English language
by a strain of versification, expression, and poetical imagery, far superior to the
age ;" Caledonia had so far already proved herself to be no unmeet " nurse for
a poetic child." We refer to John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, the
author of "The Bruce" — a soothfast history of the life and adventures of Robert
the First ; for, independently of its poetical merits, it is acknowledged to be a
book of good authority. "Barbour," says Dr. Irving, " was evidently skiUed
in such branches of knowledge as were then cultivated ; and his learning was so
weU regulated, as to conduce to the improvement of his mind : the liberaUty of
his views, and the humanity of his sentiments, appear occasionaUy to have been
uneonfined by the narrow boundaries of his own age." His apostrophe tp
Freedom, like the earliest lark of the morning, though hailing a day which he
could not anticipate, has been quoted with admiration in his own country, at
the distance of more than four hundred and fifty years.
" All ! freedom is a noble thing ! — ¦
Though he that aye has lived free
May not know well the property."
This work, finished about the year 1375, was written while Wickliffe was yet
busy with his translation of the Scriptures ; and we notice them together,

490 INTRODUCTION. [xiv. CENT.
simply for the purpose of remarking, that as there was but little difference in
the phraseology of the Scottish and EngUsh writers of this period, so the prose
of Wickliffe must have been as intelligible in North Britain, as the poetry of
Barbour in the south. " The obscure and capricious speUing," it has been said,
may, perhaps, deter some readers from a perusal of " The Bruce," (a supposition
equaUy applicable to Wickliffe ; ) " but it is very remarkable, that Barbour,
who was contemporary with Gower and Chaucer, is more inteUigible to a
modern reader, than either of these EngUsh writers." Nor was the language
unfelt by those who first read it. On the contrary, so highly was the work
appreciated, that, by Robert II. , the author had a pension assigned to hiTtiJ
which was punetuaUy paid untU the day of his death in 1395.
Seventeen years, however, before that event, this man, along with the rest of
his countrymen, had taken part in that great controversy, which agitated aU
Europe, when Scotland and England became divided in opinion, and on a point
of such vital importance as the Pontificate itself. To this subject, reference has
already been made, in our introduction at the commencement of the volume ;
but to understand it now, so far as Scotland was concerned, we know not
of a shorter method, than that of exhibiting the two countries in the position
which they respectively occupied for nearly half a century.
ENGLISH PONTIFF. CHOSEN. DEPOSED. RESIGNED. DIED. SCOTTISH PONTIFF. CHOSEN. DIED.
Urban VI. 1318.   1389. Clement VII. 1378. 1394.
Boniface IX. 1389.   1404. Benedict XIII. 1394. 1424.
Innocent VII. 1404.   1406.
Gregory XII. 1408. 1409. 1415. 1417.
Alexander V. 1409.   1410.
John XXII. 1410  1415. 1419.
The Chair now vacant, two years and five months.
Martin V. 1417. .... .... 1431. Clement VIII. 1424. 1429
Thus strikingly had Providence shed confusion into the counsels of Rome ; and
throughout the whole period, there must have been a degree of mental agitation
such as the entire island had not experienced for many a day, if, indeed, ever
before. During all these years, England had been bowing to seven different
Pontiffs in succession ; but six of these Scotland would never acknowledge.
On the contrary, she abode by Clement and Benedict, two different men ; and
yet it was at one of the most perplexing moments of this schism, or in 1411,
that the first University in Scotland was founded at St. Andrews. Then, there
were three rivals before the world ; Gregory, Benedict, and John ; and the
grand question of the day was, which was the true Pontiff. Two years before
this, the CouncU of Pisa, by way of aUaying all strife, had increased the confu
sion, by deposing Benedict, the Scottish, and Gregory, the English Pontiff;
leaving both England and Scotland to make their choice of Alexander V.,
a poor feeble character. England acquiesced, but Scotland had taken her
ground, and was never to be moved ; though her Monarch, James I., was then
a captive in England, unrighteously detained. The consequence was, that
when the University of St. Andrews came to be founded, Henry Wardlaw, the
Bishop, who must have not fewer than six bulls to confirm the appointment,
obtained them from Benedict, dated at Paniscolain Arragon, 25th August, 1412.
Thus the first school of learning in Scotland received its authority from Peter de
Luna, then in his 80th year, but a deposed Pontiff; whUe two other men
besides himself, Gregory and John, were fighting for the same chair.

XV. CENT.] SCOTLAND. 491
Nor was this the only coUege established in Scotland under the fifteenth
century. The breach as to Rome once more healed, the delusive idea, that the
promotion of such literature would be able to secure the prolongation of spiritual
and temporal power, had taken fuU possession of different Pontiffs, and
especiaUy of Nicholas V. By his authority, therefore, and whUe they were
running riot at Rome, in keeping their noted Jubilee of 1450, the University of
Glasgow was foimded ; a place then containing only about fifteen hundred
inhabitants, or not the one hundred and seventieth part of its present popula
tion. A second college at St. Andrews, St. Salvator's, followed in 1455, and
King's CoUege, Aberdeen, in 1594-5. Thus, in Scotland, as weU as in England,
before the learning or phUosophy of Greece had reached either country, what
was called scholastic erudition was first permitted to put forth its powers, and
prove to posterity its utter impotence for doing good. The human mind, how
ever, in Scotland, as weU as in other countries, was evidently waking up ;
, though in all this it is not difficult to perceive only the first efforts of "the old
learning," to prevent the sUghtest innovation, or the introduction of a better
day. They were so many feeble attempts, akin to the grand exploit of Wolsey
at Oxford, in the early part of the next century. Henry Wardlaw has been to
Avignon, and Uved in friendship with Benedict. As it was from him he had
received his appointment to the See of St. Andrews, from him he returned as
his Legate for Scotland, with fuU powers. This was in 1404, or the same year
in which James the First, then on his way to France, was seized by Henry IV.
of England ; so that for twenty years Wardlaw was left free to pursue his own
plans. Tiie University was concocted in union with Benedict, and when first
set on foot, it was through the efforts of learned men, who gratuitously
afforded their services as professors, rather than from any stipendiary patronage
either of a pubhc or private character. For above sixty years the professors
had no fixed salaries, and the students paid no fees, so that we have before us
rather a nursery in favour of existing opinions, than a school of learning,
intended for the ultimate benefit of the people at large. Thus, on the release
of James in 1424, so far from any improvement in morals, to check the licen
tiousness of the ecclesiastics, the king had to labour in estabUshing schools, such
as should be avaUable to all ranks, as weU as not hold the sword in vain. In
short, it turned out, that the Legate of Benedict, though proverbiaUy a,
hospitable man, was a far greater enemy to what he deemed heresy, than to
open immorality ; and the first bloodshed in Scotland for opinions held, was
shed not only under his sway, but in the city where he had founded his
University. Two men are weU known to have suffered by his authority ; and
as neither of these were natives of Scotland, it only shows what a dread was
felt, lest one ray of light from abroad should disturb the surrounding gloom, or
existing authority. John Resby, an Englishman, was condemned in 1408 ; and
in 1432, Paul Craw or Crawar, a native of Germany or Bohemia, but certainly
a disciple of Huss ; both being burnt to ashes, as the punishment then affixed to
the operations of the human mind. The death of this Bohemian, who is
described, by one annalist, as having "first displayed the bright beams of the
Gospel in St. Andrews," must have been regarded at the moment as a great
achievement, since it stands even now in strange association with the venerable
remains of Melrose Abbey. Very soon after, that monastery was given in
reward to an abbot who had acted as the chief persecutor ! "This year," 1433,

492 INTRODUCTION. [xvi. CENT.
says Sir James Balfour, ' ' the king, at the earnest soUcitation of the clergy, but
especially Henry Wardlaw, Bishop of St. Andrews, bestowed the Abbey of
Melrose upon a lubberly monk of the Cistercian order, named John Fogo, who
had written a blasphemous pamphlet against Paul Craw's heresy."
The reign of superstition continued to maintain its supremacy ; but though
the progress of knowledge was slow, the efforts of genius in certain directions,
during the latter part of the fifteenth century, and the opening of the next,
were not to be repressed. The names of WilUam Dunbar and Gavin Douglas,
of Kennedy and Henryson, of John Mair, Sir David Lindsay, and others, were
quite sufficient to aUow of Scotland taking no inferior place in the rising dawn
of literature. Dunbar has been frequently styled the Scottish Chaucer : and
Douglas was the first translator of a Roman classic into the English language ;
his own original poetry prefixed to the different books of the iEneid having
received the warmest praise of the present day.
James IV. was decidedly in favour of the progress of letters. Witness only
" The Thistle and the Rose," by Dunbar — a poem foil of picturesque beauty —
presented to James, in 1503, on the occasion of his marriage to Margaret, the
eldest daughter of Henry VII. By the king's sanction also, and under his own
eye at Edinburgh, the art of printing itself was introduced into Scotland. The
first patent was granted, in 1507, to Walter Chepman and Andro MyUar, his
workman ; and they set up their press accordingly in " the Southgate." But
though the press was set up, the idea of applying that art to its noblest end, or
the printing of the Sacred Scriptures, and in Edinburgh, was not to be cherished
for seventy years to come. We are left, therefore, to inquire at what time any
part of the Sacred Volume, printed in our native tongue, had first reached the
shores of North Britain.

BOOK III.
SCOTLAND.
jFrom Slames tfje JFiftfj ta tty Commonforaltij.

REIGN OF JAMES V.
MDXXVI.
STATE OE SCOTLAND — THE FIRST INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE — EARLIEST ARRIVALS AT EDINBURGH AND ST.
ANDREWS — SINGULAR CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY, AND ESPECIALLY OF ITS
PRIMATE, AT THE MOMENT.
)he first introduction of the New Testament into Eng
land, by Tyndale, has been fully described, and it must
have been felt how much the existing state of the
country deepened our interest in that ever memorable
event : the state of Scotland immediately before, and
at the same moment, will complete the picture as to the
entire island. For nearly eight years longer, it is true,
the inhabitants of both countries regarded each other with no
amicable feeling. Monarch and people considered the interests
of tbe t«ro kingdoms to be perfectly distinct, and far from being
disposed to union, they viewed each other with proverbial
jealousy, and fought accordingly. In the year 1526, therefore,
more especially after England had gained such influence in the

494 SCOTLAND JUST BEFORE [book III,
north, the idea that the monarch of the inferior state would
ultimately become the sovereign of the whole island, must have
been treated with disdain ; but that the change, when it did take
place, whatever was the character of that King personally,
would be overruled for introducing, to all alike, that Sacred
Volume, which has been read ever since, is a result which would
then have been regarded with equal scorn by both parties. Yet
thus early, and whatever might be the feelings entertained, or
sentiments then held, on either side of the Tweed, it seems as if
the Governor among the nations, regarding them as only one
people, had begun to act accordingly. If it shall turn out that
the highest gift which He has ever bestowed upon both countries,
was conveyed to them both at the same period ; if the only
effectual cement or remedy, for all local and petty antipathies,
was then first supplied to both, however imperceptibly, and
hitherto unnoticed, certainly the fact well deserves to be traced
out, and will, it is presumed, fully reward attention.
In 1526, when the New Testament in English was, as far as is
known, first introduced into Scotland, that kingdom was in a
state of the greatest distraction. On looking over the criminal
trials of the day, we see but one continued series of slaughter
and theft, treason and deadly feud. James V. was yet a minor,
and three parties had been struggling for the mastery ; one,
under the Earl of Arran and the Queen Mother, sister to Henry
VIII. ; another, under the Duke of Albany and James Beaton,
Arcb bishop of St. Andrews ; and the third, under the Earl of
Angus and the Douglases, in the pay of England. The last of
these soon gained the ascendency and seized the person of the
young king, who, against his will, was kept in thraldom by this
party. The other two parties united and did what they could
to obtain the person of James. An appeal at length was made
to the sword, but in the battle of Linlithgow, Angus was vic
torious, the Queen Mother had to escape in disguise, and Beaton,
the counsellor of the party, was compelled to provide for his
personal safety, assuming the garb of a shepherd, and remaining
on the hills for several months.
The news, on reaching the English court, were hailed with
joy by Henry and his Cardinal ; and from a letter of Sir Thomas
More to the latter, it is evident that it was the policy of Wolsey

1JJ0.] RECEIVING THE SCRIPTURES. 495
to get Beaton into his power, and that instructions were sent
to Angus and his party to " provide and see so substantial
order taken, that none evil weed have power to spring up too
high."1 Archbishop Beaton having exchanged his palace or castle for
the hills, and his crosier for a shepherd's crook, it had been well
for himself, as well as the interests of humanity, had he abode
by his occupation to the day of his death. At present, however,
he could do nothing, and must keep as quiet as possible ; but it
will not be out of place or uninstructive to observe what was
doing in England at the same moment.
Wolsey, as a politician, was evidently playing one of his
double games with Scotland, as well as with the Continent ; a
proof of his consummate talents for worldly business all round
him, in every direction ; but he was now also enraged at the
existence of Tyndale's Testaments, recently detected in Antwerp,
and straining every nerve to get them burnt ; while Tunstal,
Bishop of London, was not only authenticating the book for
this end, but he and Warham of Canterbury, in October and
November, were thundering out their injunctions against the
Sacred Volume as " pestiferous poison." Now, after all that we
have witnessed in England ; while they were thus up in arms,
and while Beaton, the grand enemy in Scotland, was laid aside
— wrapped up in his shepherd's disguise, or tending his sheep
on the hills — it would certainly be a curious and memorable
coincidence, if the same sacred treasure was then arriving in
Scotland at different ports, not excepting St. Andrews itself ; if
indeed the earliest copies had not secretly arrived in the course
of the summer ! But we shall see presently.
With regard to the first introduction into Scotland of the
Sacred Volume in a printed form, the historian has never yet
been able to proceed farther than a shrewd conjecture. It has .
been supposed that the translation of Tyndale may or must have
found its way there ; but when, how early, or by what means,
we have never been told. If it can now be proved that the
book was conveyed to Scotland as well as England, not only by
the same method, but nearly about the same time, and certainly
1 Gov. State Papers, iv. p. 458, note.

496 GEORGE CAMPBELL. [book III.
within the compass of the same year, the reader cannot fail to
return with fresh interest to the period. This would be suffi
cient to render the year 1526 equally memorable in Caledonia,
as in Old England.2

2 There is no reason to suppose, even as to Scotland, that Wickliffe had
laboured in vain, more especiaUy as his language was equally intelligible with
that of its native writers, Barbour or Dunbar. Fragments of his translation in
MS. must have found their way north. We know that soon after his death, in
1390, his writings were answered by a Scotch divine, Robert Hamilton As
early as 1402, EngUsh ecclesiastics accused of "unsoundness in the faith" were
sought for in Scotland ; whUe in 1494, from twenty to thirty families, chiefly
resident in Ayrshire, were reprimanded for "new opinions." George Campbell
of Cesnock, Reid of Barskimming, Campbell of Newmills, Shaw of Polkemmet,
with the ladies of Stair and Pokellie aud other persons of distinction, were
among the number. Our information in regard to the vernacular Scriptures
themselves, hitherto has been vague and indistinct. But that the New Testa
ment in manuscript was in existence and in the best use, under the reign of
James IV. , we are able to give one veritable proof, though never before presented
to the English reader. Alexander Ales, addressing James V., in the year 1534,
in favour of the domestic reading of the Scriptures, says — "I remember the
most exceUent king your father, a very brave prince, by a remarkable testimony,
approved of this domestic practice. There was in your kingdom a man, not
only of rank, but also distinguished for his exalted piety, John Campbell, Laird
of Cesnock. His house might have been an example of Christiari~instruetion.
For he had a priest at home, who read to him and his famUy the New Testa
ment in their vernacular language ; and the morals both of himself and of his
family corresponded with the Gospel. He also assisted the poor in aU kind
offices ; and although he had learned from the Gospel that superstition and
hypocrisy were displeasing to God, that he might not seem partial to any rank
he was wont to receive also the monks into his hospitable abode. There,
when at times he would famiUarly converse with his guests upon Christian
doctrine, certain hypocrites, as it happened, understood that he attacked some
of their superstitions. At last, his mind having been often sounded, the monks,
violating the law of hospitality, carried his name to the Bishop and accused him
of heresy. In that suit, when, after long disputation, it appeared that both he
and his wife were in danger of their lives, Campbell appealed to the King.
Although the monks were grievously offended, that the King should caU the
cause before himself, stiU he thought it belonged to his good faith and humanity
that to good and noble men he should not faU to do his duty. He therefore
graciously heard the cause on both sides ; and when the husband, from natural
reserve, and not a Httle agitated by fear of the monks, ans wered with modesty,
the King commanded the wife to plead the cause. She then, quoting Hie Scrip
tures, refuted the charges brought against them, so distinctly and wisely, that
the King not only acquitted the defendants, Campbell with his wife and the
priest, but also, rising up, he kissed the lady and extolled her diligence in
Christian doctrine. Having severely reproved the monks, he threatened, that
if ever they created trouble of this sort, to such honourable and innocent
persons, he would punish them severely. To CampbeU himself he presented

1536.] NEW TESTAMENT — FIRST ARRIVALS. 497
• In their commercial intercourse with the Continent, Scotland
and England were altogether independent of each other, and
the trade of the former with the Low Countries was of equally
ancient standing ; but it is of importance to observe, that, by
this period, and by the authority of Parliament, the Scottish
merchants generally went along with their goods, and that none
were allowed to do so, but persons " able and of good fame."
So much the better, or more in favour of what was now to take
place. The reader can scarcely fail to remember what a battle was
fought in Antwerp respecting the New Testaments of Tyndale,
when first detected there, and how the Ambassador of England,
John Hackett, got himself so embroiled in the business ; Wolsey
and Tunstal being not more fierce at home than he was abroad.
Hackett's object was to "see justice done" upon all such Eng
lish books as were entitled " The New Testament." By "justice
done," he meant burning them ; and this he said was for " the
preservation of the Christian faith." Now it is in the very
midst of this, the first onset in that long war, that we have
positive information as to Scotland ; and while it must be new
to the reader, it happens to be fully as distinct as any we have
read in the history of England, if not more so. Hackett was
in busy correspondence both with Cardinal Wolsey and Brian
Tuke, the Secretary of State. It was to the forjner he addressed
a letter, dated from Mechlin, on Wednesday the 20th of Feb
ruary, 1526, that is, 1527 ; from which the following is an
extract : —
"Please your Grace to understand that since my last writing to your Grace, I
certam villages, that there might remain an honourable token of his decision,
and of his goodwiU toward him. "*
This John CampbeU of Cesnock was the immediate successor of George,
already mentioned. He appears to have been a son worthy of his father, and as
James IV. feU at Flodden in 1513, the occurrence must have taken place at
least thirteen years before the New Testament of Tyndale could have arrived in
Scotland, but most probably stiU earlier. Such an anecdote is in perfect har
mony with the character of the monarch, by no means disposed blindly to
foUow the priests or monks of his day ; nor can we adduce an incident of deeper
interest before any part of the Sacred Volume, in print, was imported into
England itself.

* Alexandra Alesii Scotti Responsio ad Cochlei calumnias, 1534.
K K

498 THE YEAR ALIKE PROPITIOUS [book m.
have received none of yours. I trust by this time that your Grace has ample
information of such execution and justice as has been done in the towns of
Antwerp and Barrow (now Bergen-op-Zoom) upon aU such EngUsh books as we
could find in these countries, similar to three such other books as your Grace
sent unto me, with my Lord the Bishop of London's signature.
" By my last writing to Mr. Brian Tuke (4 January, 1527) I advertised him
how that there were divers merchants of Scotland that bought many of such hke
books, and took them into Scotland ; a part to Edinburgh, and most part to the
town of St. Andrews.
"For the which cause, when I was at Barrow, being advertised that the
Scottish ships were in Zealand, for there the said books were laden, I went
suddenly thitherward, thinking, if I had found such stuff there, that I would
cause to make as good a fire of them, as there has been done of the remnant in
Brabant ; but fortune would not that I should be in time ; for the foresaid ships
were departed a day afore my coming. So I must take patience for all my
labour, with leaving My Lady Margaret's letters, and good instructions with
my Lord of Bever, and the  Mr. ...off.. .concerning the foresaid business."3
Mons. de Bever, who was Lord of Campvere, and Admiral of
Flanders, had been in London only in March 1525, as Ambas
sador from Lady Margaret, Regent of Flanders, and must have
been fully aware of Wolsey's imperious temper, as he had then
insulted himself ; but it is not a little remarkable, that, at this
very moment, confidence in the Court of England was failing,
if not gone ; the double dealing of the Cardinal on the Con
tinent had been detected, and for some time to come, no atten
tion will be paid to any request from that quarter. The Lord
of Campvere was not so likely therefore to quarrel with the
Scottish traders at their own staple port ; nor is there the slightest
evidence of Wolsey having conveyed the intelligence he had
received to Scotland, a circumstance the more remarkable since
he was so annoyed with the subject. He had, it is true, far
higher 'game in prospect. The sack of Eome itself first,
and then his own splendid embassy to France, engrossed him ;
but, besides, when these last ships arrived, Beaton lay under his
frown, and in concealment ! Hackett, however, certainly refers
to importations as already past ; and as more business was done
in summer than in autumn, the probability is, that even these
were not the first Testaments. At all events, here the channel
of conveyance was opened. Besides Leith and St. Andrews,
there were the ports of Dundee, Montrose, and Aberdeen, which
3 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. vi., fol. 4.

1526.] TO ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 499
all traded with Zealand ; and as in Scotland there were no official
steps taken against the New Testament by name, for at least five
years after this, the book must have arrived, again and again,
at all these ports. This is easily understood, after the scene we
have witnessed in England, in the face of far greater and more
vigilant opposition. But farther evidence awaits us.
Thus, although England and Scotland were washed by the
same sea, the one country was to be, in no degree, dependent
upon the other for the Word of Life ; either at first, or for years
to come. Into both, it was to be imported, and both were to
stand alike on the same humble ground, as recipients. Nor when
first conveyed, in either case, was it to be by some one man of
great mental energy rising up, and rousing the attention of his
countrymen to the truth of God. Quite the reverse. But
having once made of the Scottish Primate a fugitive, in terror
of his life, it was the God of Providence himself finding His
way into the very metropolis of superstition, as well as other
sea-ports ; pouring contempt upon the crafty, and saying, in
effect to the people of Scotland, as well as England, at the same
moment — " From henceforth let no man glory in men ; let
veneration for foreign names, or for that of any man, who shall
afterwards rise in either country, never be carried to an undue
or idolatrous extent."
For a number of years the same providential course of sup
ply was steadily pursued ; so that afterwards should any boast
ing or vain-glory, in connexion with Christianity, ever be heard,
whether in the south or the north, a most singular foundation
had been laid, for replying as Paul once did to his Corinthians,
" What ! came the Word of God out from you, or came it unto
you only ? For who made thee to differ ? And what hast thou
which thou didst not receive ?" — among all the other nations of
Europe, by way of eminence, receive ? Petty or narrow-minded
rivalry has too often been evinced between England and Scot
land, as to priority in smaller matters ; but there was to be no
room left for boasting in regard to the greatest of all. That such
coincidence should never have been observed before, may indeed
seem strange ; but once pointed out, it certainly was not intended
to be simply noticed, and so forgotten. Let it rather be im
proved, even at this late hour, to the praise of Him, who thus,
k k 2

500 THE AUTHORITIES IN SCOTLAND . [book. III.
in spite of every species of hostility, so signally conveyed His
own word to the very camps of the enemy — to the north as well
as the south, about the same period — to Edinburgh as well as
London — to the mouth of the Eden at St. Andrews, and no
doubt other places, as well as to the mouth of the Thames, or
to Oxford and Cambridge ! In this point of view, the year
1526 becomes by far the most remarkable in the annals of our
common country. The New Testament thus conveyed to both
countries, was dreaded and deprecated by both alike, and as an
evil of the greatest magnitude. More than ten years passed
away in England, before their greatest national blessing was
accepted or allowed by the sovereign ; it was seventeen years
before a similar allowance occurred in Scotland. Where then,
ever since, has there been any ground for boasting ? It is ex
cluded ; and that by the simple and authentic history of the
Sacred Volume itself,
The Scriptures, however, once introduced, one is curious to
inquire after the Archbishop. To an ambitious mind no punish
ment could be more severe than that of retirement and disguise,
and Beaton was soon thoroughly sick of both ; but he was very
rich, and must now therefore try what money could effect. The
Queen first ventured from her concealment, and approaching to
Edinburgh on Tuesday the 4th of November, or two months
after the fatal battle, was met on the road at Corstorphine by
her youthful son, the King, and other Lords, who conducted
her to Holyrood. This so far paved the way for Beaton's
release, but as Angus had all men in his power, " to fine and
ransom at his pleasure," mere personal influence was not to
avail, and least of all that of the Queen Mother. David Beaton,
therefore, the primate's nephew, the future Cardinal, was now
in Edinburgh, negotiating for the fugitive ; and through the
noted Sir Archibald Douglas, Provost of the city, an uncle of
the Earl of Angus, he at last succeeded. To the Earl of Arran
the Archbishop had to present the Abbey of Kilwinning; to
Angus himself, in money, two thousand marks Scots ; to George
and Archibald Douglas, one thousand each, and to Hamilton,
the murderer of Lennox, one thousand. Five thousand marks
and an abbey was certainly no trifling ransom in those days.
After all, though Beaton was released by the end of the year,

1827-8.] SEIZED WITH ALARM. 501
and was keeping Christmas with the Queen in Edinburgh, he
was but barely forgiven, and not to be trusted. Soon after,
both the Queen and he had to withdraw from the seat of the
Court, and to Stirling once more.4. Restored, however, to his
episcopal functions, we shall see, only too soon, the base and
ungrateful use which he made of his power. But so ended the
year 1526.

MDXXV1I. — MDXXVIII.
CONSTERNATION OF THE AUTHORITIES IN SCOTLAND— THE NEW TESTAMENT
SOON FOLLOWED BY ONE LIVING VOICE, THAT OF PATRICK HAMILTON — HIS
MARTYRDOM — ALEXANDER SETON, THE NEXT WITNESS, PERSECUTED — HE
ESCAPES TO ENGLAND — THE NEW TESTAMENT GOES ON TO BE IMPORTED.
nce more the analogy between England and Scotland is
presented to our view. Under the English history we
had occasion to observe, that as early as 1520, some
alarm had been felt respecting what was called
Lutheranism, the phrase of the day for any approach to Scrip
tural truth, even though the party molested might never have
heard of Luther's name, or, at least, read a page of his writings.
So Scotland was soon seized with similar alarm, and by the 17th
of July, 1525, an Act of Parliament had passed, enacting, that
"no manner of persons, strangers, that happen to arrive with
their ships, within any part of this realm, bring with them any
books or works of the said Luther, his disciples or servants," on
pain of imprisonment, besides the forfeiture of their ships and
goods. Now, whether what was taking place last year as to
books imported was known, we have no positive evidence ; but
at all events, by the autumn of this year there was fresh alarm,
and that not owing to strangers. In the month of August 1527,
the Earl of Angus having got himself appointed to be Chan
cellor, with Dunbar, the Bishop of Aberdeen and uncle of
Dunbar the Archbishop of Glasgow, to assist him ; Angus and
4 Gov. State Papers, iv., pp. 461, 463.

502 PATRICK HAMILTON, [book III.
the Lords of Council added the following clause to the Act of
1525 : — " And all other, the king's lieges, assistaries to such
opinions, be punished in seemable wise, and the effect of the
said Act to strike upon them." Thus, between July 1525 and
September 1527, as it was determined to extend those penalties
to natives of Scotland, we have sufficient proof that importa
tions by them had been going on ; but while there were, very
probably, some other publications, it is not a little extraordinary,
that the only books which can now be traced, or distinctly
specified, should be those of the New Testament itself oi Tyndale's
version. Never, then, let it be overlooked, that if the provisions
of this Act were followed out, there existed a time in the history
of our country, when, if a vessel arrived at Leith or St. Andrews,
at Dundee, Montrose, or Aberdeen, with copies of the New
Testament on board, the ship and cargo were liable to confisca
tion, and the captain to imprisonment ! A battle was now to
be fought and won, in the north as well as in the south of
Britain. But again, as in England, serious and long-continued per
secution did not commence till after the Scriptures had arrived ;
so it was in Scotland. Copies had soon found their way, and
not in vain, to the canons of Cardinal College, Oxford ; but so
they had to the canons of St. Andrews, as well as other parties.
The explosion at Oxford occurred in February 1526, and by
February 1528, at the very moment when Tunstal and his
vicar-general were sitting in severe judgment on the book in
London, the Neio Testament will now be very pointedly referred
to, and condemned, within the walls of the Metropolitan Church
in Scotland.
The occasion of this, the first storm, is well known. It fol
lowed the arrival from abroad, about the autumn of 1527, and
the subsequent exertions of one of the loveliest and most in
teresting of all characters in early Scottish history— Patrick
Hamilton. Of the noble army of Martyrs on British ground,
during the sixteenth century, he was to be the youthful and
heroic leader.
He was born in 1504, the son of Sir Patrick Hamilton of
Kincavil, a son of Lord Hamilton who was brother-in-law to
James III. His mother was a daughter of John Duke of

1527-8.] THE PROTO-MARTYR. 508
Albany, brother to the same monarch, so that by both parents
he was related to the royal family of Scotland. His father was
Idlled in the High Street of Edinburgh in a feud between the
Earls of Arran and Angus. Patrick, intended for the Church,
was educated under the well-known John Major at St. Andrews.
There receiving the knowledge of the Word of God, he could
not conceal his sentiments, and had to leave with several others
for the Continent. This was in 1525, and he was about two
years abroad. That he visited Luther and Melancthon at
Wittenburg, though not certam, is probable. But at Marburg,
from which he returned direct to Scotland, he was intimate with
Francis Lambert, John Fryth, and William Tyndale. Though
affectionately warned by these friends, and dissuaded from rush
ing into certam danger, he was pressed in spirit to revisit his
country, which he did in 1527. While at Marburg, he wrote
his well-known treatises in Latin, " De Lege et Evangelio," and
" De Fide et Operibus," called afterwards, " Patrick's Places."
These, soon after his departure, Fryth translated into English,
as he says, " to the profit of my nation ; to whom I beseech God
to give hght, that they may espy the deceitful paths of per
dition, and return to the right way which leadeth to Hfe ever
lasting." He speaks of his friend as " that excellent and well-
learned young man Patrick Hamilton, born in Scotland, of a
noble progeny, who, to testify the truth, sought all means, that
he might be admitted to preach the pure Word of God."
Hamilton, on his arrival, had proceeded first to his brother's
house in Linlithgowshire, Sir James having succeeded his father
as Sheriff of that county ; and here, as the sequel proved, he
had preached, and conversed not in vain, as well as elsewhere.
On the one hand, it has been said of him, that he did not fail to
lay open the corruptions of the Church, and the errors by which
the souls of men were ruined ; but, on the other, that he had
not attacked the hierarchy as an Establishment, nor its claims
to mfallibility. He certainly had not commenced with denun
ciation, but by preaching the truth itself, by enforcing the
reading of the Scriptures, with the necessity of repentance towards
God, and faith in Christ in order to good works. His discrimina
tion as to the Law and the Gospel, as to Faith and its fruits,
was evidently of the first order, very far above the age in which

504 PATRICK HAMILTON, [book III.
he suffered ; and as to his mode of procedure, it seems to have
exactly corresponded with the counsel which Tyndale gave to
Fryth himself, five years after, as already explained. The
Bellum Sacramentarium, or the bitter strife about ordinances,
had commenced on the Continent in 1524, or before Hamilton's
reaching Germany, and it was still raging there ; but the zeal
of our first martyr was not to be spent on the ceremonial or
outward form of Christianity. His was a controversy with the
heart, addressed to the soul and spirit of man within him ; and
for proof we only need to observe the points which he regarded
to be " undoubtedly true," and from which all the terrors of the
stake could not, for one moment, move him. They were simply
these —
" 1. That the corruption of sin remains in children after their baptism. 2.
That no man by the power of his free wiU can do any good. 3. That no man is,
without sin so long as he Uveth. 4. That every Christian may know himself to
be in a state of grace. 5. That a man is not justified by works, but by faith
only. 6. That good works make not a good man, but that a good man doeth
good works ; and that an iU man doeth UI works ; yet the same iU works, truly
repented of, make not an ill man. 7. That faith, hope, and love, are so linked
together, that he who hath one of them, hath aU ; and he that lacketh one,
lacketh aU. " AU others he denominated "disputable points," though such as
he could not condemn ; but the above he regarded as vital truths.
The youth of Hamilton and his rank, his fine talents and his
views of Divine truth, had all combined in producing an imme
diate impression ; while the power of his family, of which the
Earl of Arran was the chief, and who had so resented the death
of Patrick's father, must have rendered any open hostility more
difficult. The recent union also of Arran with the Earl of
Angus, the present possessor of all power, to say nothing of
Beaton himself, so lately in disgrace, and Lord Chancellor no
more, one should have imagined would have still farther in
creased the difficulty. These circumstances, however, clearly
show the height to which alarm had been excited, or, in other
words, the powerful result of this young man's exertions. After
the Scriptures had come, it was like a voice crying, " Arise from
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." The panic among
the leaders of "the old learning" must have been both great
and general, before decided steps were taken ; and these, at last,
were accordingly distinguished, not only by deep dissimulation,
but Satanic haste.

1527-8.] THE PROTO-MARTYR. 505
Invited to St. Andrews by a special message from tlie Primate,
who, with solemn promises of safety, said, he only wished to
converse with him, Hamilton went without hesitation. Beaton
received him with a hypocritical show of kindness, assigned him
a lodging in the city, and so left him to be fully ensnared by a
Dominican friar, Alexander Campbell, with whom he had come
in contact before his departure for the Continent. Only a very
short time, was required to draw from the ardent and zealous
youth ample ground for accusation to the Archbishop ; more
especially as Campbell, who was the Prior of his order, had pre
tended to admit the force of all that Hamilton advanced. In
fact, he had been only a few days in St. Andrews, when, under
night, he was apprehended in bed and carried to the Castle ;
and the very next day he was before Beaton, with thirteen
different articles laid to his charge, by the man who seems to
have long thirsted for his blood. Though drawn into some
general conversation at this moment, the youthful martyr, with
the finest discrimination, separating the truths from the errors,
had evidently resolved to die for the confession of the former,
rather than the denial of the latter, and therefore he abode by
the seven points already mentioned. So Fox informs us that
" learned men who communed and reasoned with him, do testify,
that these were the very articles for which he suffered." Mean
while, with a hypocritical show of moderation, Beaton remitted
the articles entire to the judgment of fourteen theologians, such
as they were, not forgetting, however, to include among the
number his base persecutor, Campbell. Within only a day or
two more, these men returned their censure, condemning the
whole articles as heretical, before a solemn meeting in the
Cathedral. This happened on Saturday the 28th of February,
1528 ; and now, on the same day, the prisoner, after all that had
been promised by Beaton, was to be tried, condemned, and
reduced to ashes, before the sun went down! They trod in
the footsteps of the Pharisees of old, for the next day was the
Sabbath !
That no small sensation had been created by the youthful and
heroic martyr, we only need to glance at the mighty array
brought together to condemn him, after a mock trial. Beaton
durst not send to the King, and say, as Amaziah the priest did

506 THE SHOCKING TREATMENT [book HI,
of Amos to the King of Israel, " The land is not able to bear all
his words;" but it really seems as if he had sent round, and
said something of similar import to his brethren ; for here we
have more than twenty judges, and all assembled to doom this
young man to death. Here, there were the two Archbishops
and three Bishops, two Priors and four Abbots, five Rectors and
three Deans, a Sub-dean and a Canon, including friars black
and friars grey.
The trial, such as it was, formed but a very summary pro
ceeding ; but we must not omit part of the brief dialogue
between the Martyr and Campbell his accuser, in presence of
his judges ; as it forms the first evidence on record that the New
Testament in English, by way of eminence, had become a sub
ject of alarm ; the mere reading of it, involving all that the
hierarchy already feared and deprecated ! It seems as if, this
Testament having arrived, Hamilton's enforcing the reading of'
it by all, had formed the head and front of his offending ; for,
the articles being read over by his determined prosecutor, with
this he commenced : —
Campbell. — " Heretic, thou sayest it is lawful to any man to read the Word
of God, and in special the New Testament?" Hamilton. — "I said not so (to
you) to my knowledge ; but I said, and say it now, it is lawful to all men that
have a soul, to read the Word of God, that they may understand the same, and
speciaUy the latter wiU and testament of Jesus Christ, whereby they may
acknowledge their sins and repent of the same, whereby they may amend their
lives by faith and repentance, and attain salvation by Christ Jesus. " Campbell.
— "Now, heretic, I see that thou affirmest the words of thy accusation."
Hamilton. — " I affirm nothing, but the words which I have spoken in presence
of this auditory. "
The auditory to whom he addressed these, and other like
words, all condemned him to be guilty of death ; and delivering
him over to the secidar power, on the afternoon of the same
day, he was led forth to a stake placed, in terrorem, before
the gate of St. Salvator's College. On the scaffold, turning
affectionately to the faithful servant, who had long attended
him, and slept in the same apartment, having divested himself
of his gown, his coat, and his bonnet — " These," said he, " will
not profit in the fire ; they will profit thee. After this thou
canst receive no commodity from me except the example of my
death, which, I pray thee, bear in mind. For, although it be

1827-8.] OF THE FIRST MARTYR. 507
bitter to the flesh, yet is it the entrance into eternal life, which
none shall possess that deny Christ before this wicked genera
tion." When bound to the stake, far from exhibiting any fear,
he fixed his eyes towards heaven, commending his soul unto
God. The executioners setting fire to the pile, it would not
burn, but merely scorched the left side of their victim ! In this
excruciating state, obliged to send some distance to the Arch
bishop's Castle for gunpowder, as well as elsewhere for more
combustible materials, an immense crowd having assembled, some
of whom loudly denounced the persecutors, while others implored
the martyr to recant and save his life, he thus addressed
them : —
"As for my confession, I wiU not deny it for fear of your fire, for my confes
sion and behef is in Jesus Christ ; and therefore I wiU not deny it. I wiU
rather that my body be burnt in this fire for confession of my faith in Christ,
than that my soul should suffer in the unquenchable fire of heU, for denying of
my faith. But as for the sentence and judgment pronounced against me ihis
day, by the bishops and doctors, I here, in the presence of you all, appeal
against the said sentences and judgment given against me, and betake myself to
the mercy of God." Then turning to CampbeU, who had acted in the threefold
character of traitor, judge, and executioner, as he even now satanicaUy assailed
his victim, and reviled him as a heretic, HamUton closed by adding, ' ' Wicked
man ! thou knowest the contrary ; to me thou hast confessed. I appeal thee
before the tribunal seat of Jesus Christ. "
Amidst the noise and fury of the flames now kindled, and the
tumult of the multitude, his last words were distinctly heard —
" How long, 0 Lord, shall darkness cover this realm ! How
long wilt thou suffer this tyranny of men ! Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit."
Thus gloriously fell, as far as we know, the first native of
Scotland as an unspotted martyr for the truth, for the Word of
God itself, as well as our right to read it.
The powerful consequences resulting from this martyrdom
can never now be fully traced ; but if we follow them out as far
as they may be, it will be evident, that, hitherto, the event has
been greatly underrated. The New Testament Scriptures had
arrived in Scotland, and they had been reading in secret for at
least a year and a quarter. These were God's own providential
gift, at a period when the country was full of strife and feud,
ferocity and murder. This it was which is to be regarded as
the commencement of decided blessing from God ; and now came

508 THE MARTYRDOM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. [book hi.
the bold and loud summons from the believer's lips, to rouse
the dead in sin, and embolden them to read, believe, and live. .
A space equal to nearly three generations had passed away since
anything so truly horrible had occurred in Caledonia, however
stern and wild. Besides, in 1 432, it was a foreigner who had
suffered ; but here was a native, of the most amiable character,
and high birth. The report of the martyrdom speedily ran
through the kingdom, promoting a spirit of inquiry into the
cause, as well as the cause itself. For as truly as Antipas, the
faithful martyr of old, so God's most faithful servant had now
been " slain among them where Satan dwelt, even where his
seat was ; " and yet no place was so deeply affected as the spot
where the deed was done.
Of the extent of the sensation now produced, it is impossible
to judge with accuracy, but of its depth there can be but one
opinion, since it actually so far changed the character of this
metropolitan city, the Rome of Scotland. From being the
stronghold of the Prince of Darkness, it became the seat of deep
inquiry and indomitable discussion, among not a few of the
students in the different colleges, the canons of the Cathedral,
and even the friars. The sufferings endured will furnish the
evidence of this.
Another human voice was now demanded ; but where shall
one be found ? Campbell, the prior of the order of St. Dominic,
or the Black Friars, had betrayed this heroic young man, and
who so proper to speak next, as a brother of the same fraternity ?
The Friar who had been appointed to preach throughout Lent,
in the Cathedral itself, it might seem far too much to expect,
but in truth it was no other ! He was the first to sound again
the trumpet of truth, and that almost immediately after the
Martyr had gone to receive his crown. Opening his lips, they
found he was no other than what they denominated a heretic !
Standing on the very spot where the murderers had sat in judg
ment, this, as the prophet once expressed it, was as if " the stone
had cried out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber had
answered it." Nor was the preacher himself, from his official
character, less remarkable. The Archbishop, as well as all
under his authority, were afraid to touch him, he being actually
the Father Confessor of the King himself — that King whom

1827-8.] ALEXANDER SETON. 509
Beaton had not consulted, and who had therefore not consented
to the counsel or deed of these bloody men. This was Friar
Alexander Seton, brother of Ninian Seton, or Seytoun of
Touch. In discharging his duty, and following the example of his
deeply lamented predecessor, Seton now saw that in the truth
itself there was enough to convict all its enemies, and produce
dismay ; and that no wise man will ever commence his labours
by merely attacking superstition, or pulling at prejudices, as he
would at a cart-rope ; an egregious mistake, into which many
have since fallen. Taking for his subject the law of God itself,
Seton insisted much on the following points : —
"That the Law of God is the only rule of righteousness ; that if God's Law
be not violated, no sin is committed ; that it is not in man's power to satisfy for
sin ; that the forgiveness of sin is no otherwise obtained than by unfeigned
repentance and true faith, apprehending the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. Of
purgatory, pilgrimage, prayer to saints, of merits and miracles, the usual sub
jects of the friars' sermons, not a word he spake." '
It is remarkable that he should have been permitted to repeat
his sentiments ; but having been appointed to preach during
Lent, this, together with his official character, may have been
his safeguard, until he had given his auditory line upon line,
and proof after proof. About the end of that season, however,
having occasion to go northward to Dundee, he was there
informed that a friar of his own order had been set up to refute
his doctrine. He then returned to St. Andrews, and the King's
Confessor, not to be resisted, confirmed his former positions,
adding, from Scripture, the qualifications required for a good
and faithful bishop.
This last subject could not be passed over, and soon brought
him before the Archbishop ; but he, knowing Seton to be of a
bold spirit, dissembled his anger. Upon another martyrdom he
dared not venture so soon, a negative testimony to the power of
Hamilton's death ; nor could the Primate resolve upon trying
any expedient, except that of first undermining Seton's character
in the estimation of the young King. This was easily effected,
and very soon after. Poor young prince ! His natural powers

1 Spottiswood, fourth edit., p. 64.

510 ESCAPE OF SETON. [book III.
were of no inferior order, but these men, whether nobiHty or
clergy, had allowed him to grow up in a state of comparative
ignorance, and of self-indulgence, even to licentiousness: the
nobility, that they might rule him as a puppet, which his high
spirit could not endure ; the clergy, that he might one day fall
into their hands, and move only in subservience to their designs.
Now, at this very period a crisis had arrived, of the King's
emancipation from the one party, and his falling under bondage
to the other. His Highness had groaned from day to day under
the iron yoke of the Earl of Angus, who, supported by the
influence of England, was the absolute governor of the nation
still, though James had been crowned in 1525. Next year the
King had applied to some of his nobles to relieve him from
bondage, and hence the battle of Linlithgow in 1526. On tbe
watch ever after, at last, on the 22nd or 23rd of May, 1528, he
himself dexterously succeeded, by his escape from Falkland to
the castle of Stirling ; soon after which Angus and the Douglas
party were overcome and banished.2 In part indebted for his
escape to Archbishop Beaton, at this moment the young monarch
must have been ready to listen to whatever he said, and hence
it was no difficult task to destroy all respect for Seton ; while
this was rendered still more easy, not only from his having been
the Confessor of his Highness in the wearisome days of his
thraldom, but because Seton, much to his credit, had warned
him respecting his licentiousness.
From what had happened in February, and observing the
confidence or respect of the monarch to be on the decline, Seton
well knew what must ultimately await him, and seeing no safety
on the spot, he fled to Berwick. From thence, however, he
wrote to his royal master, a faithful letter, warning him of the
men under whose influence he had now fallen. He here ex
plained that the authority of the Bishops, and by no means that
of his Highness, was what he dreaded.
They behaved, he said, as kings, and would not aUow any man of whatever
state or degree, if once they pronounced him to be a heretic, to speak in his
own defence. Nevertheless, if he might but have audience before the king, he
now offered to return and justify his cause. Like a faithful adviser, he then
informed James, that in duty he ought to see that every subject accused of his
2 Gov. State Papers, vol. iv. Tytler. Pitcairn's Criminal Trials.

1627-8.] CONTINUED IMPORTATION OF TESTAMENTS. 511
life, should be allowed to use his lawful defences ; since the Prelates held that
such matters did not faU under the cognizance of the Prince, and if only once
heard, he would demonstrate the contrary by their own laws. He then besought
his Highness not to be led any longer by their informations, but to use the
authority committed to him by God, and not to suffer these tyrants to proceed
against him, tiU brought to his answer. This he would not refuse to give, if
once assured of the safety of his Ufe.
At Berwick he waited for some reply, but waited in vain.
Before this time Angus had been banished, and his estates
forfeited; Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow, had been appointed
Chancellor in August, as his successor, and Beaton, though not
yet in power, had been recalled to the Council by the end of
November.3 Seton, therefore, retired into England, where he
became chaplain to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. As if to
show how equally balanced the two countries, England and
Scotland, were, with regard to their progress in Divine truth ;
about thirteen years after, or in 1541, Seton was called before
Stephen Gardiner, and examined, but denied not any point
which he had formerly taught. He even continued to preach
the truths with which he had been charged, and died, it has been
said, next year, or 1542.
In the meanwhile, or before the close of 1528, it is pleasing
to find any information whatever, bearing on the Scriptures,
and their continued importation. The friars now were more
busy everywhere than they had ever been, since friars were in
fashion. The reader may recollect of one, under our history as
to England, Friar John West. Earnestly charged, by Wolsey,
with despatches to Counsellor Herman Rincke of Cologne, their
united efforts were to be employed in the apprehension of
Tyndale himself, and of William Roye, once his amanuensis ;
or, at all events, their books. With regard to the men they
entirely failed, but a number of what Rincke calls " their books,"
he had found out and secured. These must have included copies
of the New Testament, as well as Roye's celebrated Satyre on
the Cardinal, a personal affair, which the latter so deeply
resented. One short passage in Rincke's reply to Wolsey,
dated the 4th of October, 1528, and sent by West, deserves to
be repeated here —
" But these books, unless I had found them out and interposed, must have
3 Gov. State Papers, iv., pp. 476, 540.

512 IMPORTANT PERIOD. [book HI.
been pressed together with parchment, and concealed ; and enclosed in pack
ages, artfuUy covered over with flax, they would in time, without any suspicion,
have been transmitted by sea, into Scotland and England, as to ihe sameplace;
and would have been sold as merely clean paper ; but as yet, few or none
of those, carried away and sold, have been found."
Here then we have distinct mention of a continued traffic
going on, and of one of the asserted methods of transit, for there
must have been various ; nor is it less worthy of repetition, that
the Jews are to be supposed as having had some concern in these
importations, whether " to Scotland or England, as to the same
place."

MDXXIX.  MDXXXIV.
ALL-IMPORTANT PERIOD, HITHERTO UNNOTICED — ALEXANDER ALES — CRUELLY
PERSECUTED BY HEPBURN, THE PRIOR OF ST. ANDREWS — AT LAST ESCAPES
BY SEA, FROM DUNDEE, FIRST TO FRANCE, AND THEN TO GERMANY — HIS
EPISTLE ADDRESSED TO JAMES V.; OR THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIRST
REGULAR CONTROVERSY IN BRITAIN RESPECTING THE SCRIPTURES PRINTED
IN THE VULGAR TONGUE — THE ABUSIVE PUBLICATION OF COCHL^JUS IN REPLY
— THE REPRESENTATIONS OF ALES CONFIRMED BY THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY,
AND THE SECOND MARTTRDOM — ANSWER OF ALES TO THE CALUMNIES OE
COCHL^US — ALES PLEADS FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT TO BE READ — BUT
ESPECIALLY IN FAMILIES — OOCHIuEUS ADDRESSES JAMES V. — AND IS REWARDED
— THE PERSECUTIONS AND MARTYRDOMS OF 1534 AGAIN CONFIRM THE STATE
MENTS OF ALES — WHO IS NOW STANDING BY HIMSELF ALONE IN DEFENCE OF
THE TRUTH. i n e are now arrived at a very memorable period in tbe
j) history of Scotland. It involves a space of five years,
from the year 1529 to 1534 inclusive, and yet it has
been treated by all our historians as a sort of chasm,
or calm in the annals of persecution. No author has
informed us that there was, at such a time, one frag
ment of distinct information in existence, respecting
the Sacred Volume ; its importation into the country ; its being
bought, or sold, and read by the people ; or that such reading
was being so bitterly opposed. This is the more surprising,
since, upon this subject, it forms one of the most interesting
periods in the early history of the entire island. Commencing

1539-34.] ALEXANDER ALES. 513
seven years before Henry the Eighth had decidedly broken off
from Rome, and while both the South and North were still
under the dominant power of " the old learning ; " yet was it
the season of the first regular controversy in Britain, though
carried on with Scotland, respecting the Sacred Yolume in our
native language ; as well as the undoubted right of every one,
"both low and high, rich 'and poor together," to read the
Scriptures for themselves.
The first individual who took up this argument, one of the
highest which can occupy the tongue or the pen of man, was
Alexander Ales, whose name does occur in our histories, as an
exile from his native land, and a professor at Leipsic, where he
died, but his chief claim to his country's grateful remembrance
seems to have been altogether overlooked. Fond recollections
of his native city while in a foreign land, led him to write a
description of it, which is the only work of his reprinted in
modern times ; but his exertions in reference to the free circu
lation of the Scriptures in the language of the people, call for
some notice here.
He was born in Edinburgh on the 23rd of April, 1500. His
father was a burgess of the city, and gave his son such education
at home as fitted him for entering the University of St. Andrews.
At that .seat of learning, having completed the usual course of
study, he took priests' orders, and became one of the Canons of
the Cathedral Church in that city, then the largest in Scotland.
We hear nothing more of him, however, till he had reached the
twenty-eighth year of his age. Then, as a proof that the alarm
of the bishops and monks in 1525 and 1527, respecting the
introduction of "the new learning" into Scotland, was not
without grounds, it turned out that the canons and students
were, through the medium of certain books, studying the grand
controversy of the times. But whatever might be the object of
other young men, that of Ales was, that he might be qualified
to oppose all innovation. When Patrick Hamilton, therefore,
four years younger than himself, was "drawn unto death" at
St. Andrews, and now " ready to be slain," far from disposed to
" deliver" him, and confident in his own scholastic powers, Ales
actually undertook to reclaim the suspected heretic. For this
purpose he held several conferences with his more enlightened L L

514 PERSECUTION OF ALES. [book i«.
junior, little dreaming that the attempt was about to change the
current of his whole life. But staggered by the reasoning of
that young gentleman ; then hearing his noble testimony, in a
full house, or within the very walls where Ales himself was
accustomed to engage in services which the Martyr had so
exposed ; and finally, beholding the heroic constancy with
which he maintained his integrity in the flames, amidst the
rage, and more than savage cruelty of his enemies, the scene, as
well as the sentiments, were never to be forgotten. In short,
the heart of Ales was pierced by convictions, which ended in his
conversion to the faith he had laboured in vain to destroy. St.
Andrews was not now to sleep in quiet, after the smoke of
Patrick's funeral pile had been blown upon the spectators, and
scorched the Benedictine friar, his persecutor. Seton, as we
have seen, was the first victim soon after, but severer trials
awaited Ales, the very next year.
Almost all the inhumanity of these times has been heaped
upon David Beaton, the nephew of the Archbishop and future
Cardinal ; but in this early stage at least, the lasting odium was
largely shared by another man, of whom we are about to hear.
Ales, as we have seen, had been a Canon in the Priory of St.
Andrews, of which the Superior was Patrick Hepburn. Named
after his father, the first Earl of BothweU, and then frequently
styled " the young Prior of St. Andrews," he had succeeded his
uncle John, in 1522. He soon became one of the most wicked
men of his time, as far as licentiousness and unbridled passion
could go. A veteran in crime, long before the prime of hfe,
the public registers bear testimony to his enormous profligacy.
Witness the legitimation of at least eleven children, seven sons
and four daughters. The man had gloried in destroying the
peace of many a family. It is but an imperfect idea that can
now be formed of the immorality in which these official men
rioted life away, and frowned on every attempt to reform a
Church that winked at such enormities in her priesthood.
In a Latin oration delivered by Ales at the command of
Archbishop Beaton before the Synod of Bishops and Priests, the
preacher bore hard in his strictures on the debauched clergy,
but avoided all personalities. Hepburn thought himself aimed
at, and as, about the same time, the whole college had com-

1829-84.] HE ESCAPES TO GERMANY. 515
plained to the King of the Superior's cruelty, he rushed with
armed men into the hall of the Chapter, and twice attempted to
stab Ales, from which he was only held back, first by the other
Canons, and then by his own guards. He then seized the
whole of the Canons and threw them into prison, from which
they were all, without exception, commanded by the King to be
immediately released. Ales, however, was retained, and thrown
into a dungeon under the Bishop's Castle in St. Andrews, among
the ruins of which it is still shown. It is hewn in the solid rock
in the shape of a bottle, its only entrance being from the top or
mouth, from which the prisoner was let down. The orifice is
7 feet, but at the depth of 8 feet it widens to 17 feet in diameter,
and is in all 23 feet deep. Here Ales might have died, had not
his friends and fellow- canons raised a cry against the Superior's
cruelty and disobedience to the royal mandate ; then, on the
twentieth day, the sufferer was brought up, and shown to the
magistrates, who were assured that he would forthwith be set at
liberty. He was, however, remanded to prison, and lay there
for nearly a year. The Canons, during the absence of the
Superior, got him out, and restored him to his office. But the
infuriated man, returning one day unexpectedly, and finding
him officiating at the altar, flew into a rage, and would have
dragged him at once to the dungeon, had not the Canons once
more interfered. That night, by the advice of his deliverers,
who assured him his death was determined on, he escaped alone
to Dundee, where he was received on board a vessel by a kind
relative, and sailed next day for the Continent. Whither he
went at first, it is impossible now to say, but certainly not to
Wittenberg, since, even in 1534, he tells us that he knew not
Luther, nor had acquired the German language. He had,
however, "traversed part of the coast of France and many
other places," and some time after he speaks of being in Cologne.
After the escape of Ales, an edict or order of the Bishops was
promulgated, prohibiting the New Testament in English from being
read or sold. The alarm of the enemy is one decided proof of
progress in this cause, and the writings of Ales, still un
translated, throw much additional light on this history. In
debted to James V. for his kind interposition in favour of him
self and the other Canons, Ales writes under the impression that
l l 2

516 EPISTLE OF ALES TO JAMES V. [book III.
the royal youth is the same in 1533 that be had been in 1529,
little aware how rapidly he was sinking under the baneful
influence of the hierarchy, till at last they brought him to
sanction, by his own personal presence, the burning of his subjects.
His first work was addressed " To the renowned King of
Scots, James the Fifth, Duke of Albany, Prince of Ireland and
the Orkneys, his most compassionate lord, Alexander Ales, S.D."
It is entitled " An Epistle of Alexander Ales, against a certain
Decree ofthe Bishops in Scotland, ivhich forbids to read the books of
the New Testament in the vernacular tongue." In this he earnestly
expostulates with the King for permitting this prohibition of
the Divine Word to take effect, using, for the first time, all
those arguments which have often been repeated since, for an
unfettered Gospel, and showing how this would tend to heal
many of .the woes under which his unhappy country then
laboured. He implores the King, as one to whom God had
committed all departments of the State, to interpose, — describes
the advantages which must accrue to the people, and especially
the children and youth, from being trained up by such domestic
reading and instruction, — that they would prove better subjects
and better citizens, which otherwise they could not be. He
quotes the Scripture to show that this is an imperative duty, and
warns his Highness of the evils which must arise from the
interdict. He reminds him of those who in former times had
stood between the Message of Heaven and those to whom it was
sent. Here occurs the remarkably prophetic passage : —
"When A ntiochus attempted to destroy rehgion in Judea, he commanded the
books of the prophets to be sought out everywhere, to be burned. And he
suffered indeed the just puuishment of his madness. With his ruined army, he
himself was consumed with grief of mind. Nor was God satisfied with this
punishment, but destroyed also his posterity, that He might set forth an example
of the punishment described in the decalogue, where God says that punishment
for iniquity should travel through aU posterity."
How sadly parallel were the conduct and fate of unhappy
James, though thus warned ! Persisting in burning the best of
his subjects, and closing the best of books, he, literally, "with
his ruined army, was consumed with grief of mind," and died of
a broken heart at the early age of thirty-one. After pleading
for himself as an exile unjustly banished from his country, but.

1529-S4.J REPLY OF COCHLSEUS. 517
willing to endure this if the Scriptures were but free to his
country, Ales concludes —
" The histories of aU ages, of all nations, teach what end cruelty shaU experi
ence, especiaUy that against the pious and the priests or ministers of a church.
Wherefore, I shall not cease to beseech thee, most gracious Sovereign, that you
would carefully examine these matters, and not grant this unbounded licence to
the chief priests and monks, which Christ wiU not long endure ; and surely it is
opposed to your justice and clemency. This, therefore, I desire to obtain, if
what I ask be equitable, just, worthy of yourself, and profitable to the Church
and the State. May Christ preserve thee, and direct thy mind to the public
welfare! Anno 1533."
Thus it appears, at this early period, that Scotland was not
behind England in point of progress made. The New Testa
ment had been given to her in the same year. — She could
aheady point to her proto-martyr — and an advocate rising out
of his ashes, was now as earnest with her King, and against her
bishops, as John Fryth now was with similar parties in London.
Had Ales only been forthcoming, he had expired in the flames
this year, as certainly as Fryth did in England.
In reply to this letter, as far as is yet known, there was not
one man in Scotland able to move his tongue ; but there was
one abroad, who, though abundantly ready in reply, could never
answer any argument ; and who, when engaged in furious
wrangling, was never so much in his element. This, the reader
may anticipate, was no other than John Cochlmus, the same who
raised the alarm respecting the New Testament, at first, in
1525. Stung with disappointment, at his having no reward
assigned to him by Wolsey, or Henry VIII., he now did his
utmost to procure notoriety and a pension, by addressing King
James V. of Scotland. The epistle of Ales could scarcely have
been read in his own country, before this indefatigable opponent
must have been at the press, as his tirade is dated on the 8th
of June, 1533. There is nothing whatever of sound argument
in the book, though professing to answer Ales, paragraph by
paragraph. It abounds in different parts with virulent abuse,
and in others with blasphemy. There is no lack of positive
falsehood as to Luther, the writer's perpetual eye-sore ; and
Ales, though unknown to Cochlseus personally, comes in for his
full share, upon one hundred and sixty pages, in reply to
twenty-six ! The object in view was to mystify and alarm the

518 COCHLjEUS ADVISES THE KING, [book hi.
young King ; and the title is perfectly expressive of the great
point in hand — " Whether it be expedient for the Laity to read the
books of the New Testament in the vernacular tongue." x
At the commencement, Cochlseus owns that he was shooting
in the dark, not knowing whether this name of Alexander
Alesius was a real, or only a fictitious one ; but though ignorant
of his man, and equally so of the state of Scotland, he artfully
insinuates that the representation of the country, as drawn by
Ales, was altogether incredible. That the Bishops of Scotland
could act towards any subject whatever, in the manner described,
without [the consent of his Highness, he pretends to think
impossible. The exile, he asserts, must either falsely praise the
King to stir him up against his Bishops, or else feign the King's
wonderful clemency to himself, to render him suspected abroad,
with regard to the orthodox faith. Ales, too, he insists, must be
a Lutheran, of course, and the epistle itself must come from
Wittenberg, the common asylum of fugitives and apostates ;
while " the whole is concocted with such skill, that readers may
beheve that the gospel of Luther is already propagated to the
most remote Scots, as far as Ultima Thuke." It is here that
Cochlseus repeats, by way of warning, the groundless falsehood
of Tyndale and his amanuensis having come to Wittenberg,
acquired the German language, and then translated the New
Testament of Luther into English ; adding, what was true, that
he found them at Cologne, and forewarned Henry VIII. ;
though he takes care to conceal that he had received no thanks
for his pains, and now entertained a very bad opinion of the
English monarch.
Not aware that the New Testament had been introduced into
Scotland as early as 1526, and boasting of his own exploit of
1525, he warns the King of similar snares preparing for his
kingdom, and dissuades him from reversing the Bishops' edict
against the reading of the Scriptures, by dwelling on " the accu
mulation of evils which have sprung up among the Germans

1 "An expediat Laicis, legere novi Testamenti libros lingua Vernacula? Ad
serenissimum Scotia' Ilegem Jacobum V. Disputatio inter Alexandrum Alesium
Scotum et Johannem Cochheum Germanum." Bated "Ex Dresda Misnia? ad
Albim. vi. Idus Junii mdxxxiii."

1529-84.] AND DEFENDS THE BISHOPS' EDICT. 519
within a few years from such reading, to say nothing of the loss
of property suffered from this Gospel ; while for these mischie
vous books, the people have squandered an incalculable sum of
money, for so many hundreds of thousands of copies printed and
sold ! From these they have got no good, but a deal of harm ;
artizans neglecting their shop and their work from whence they
ought to procure a subsistence for their wives and children.
Nor will I mention those evils which many have endured in
their body through this, while, in opposition to the edicts of the
magistrates, they read the prohibited books ; and for this offence
were shut up in prisons, confined in towers, fined, banished from
their country, and suffered other bodily inconvenience."
Cochlseus then fortifies the royal youth, originally disinclined
to deeds of blood, not only against all the cruelties which might
ensue in Scotland, and the counter advice of any of his council
lors, but against all the odium that was sure to follow. His
bishops ought to act with just severity against a few transgres
sors in order to preserve the souls of many ; nor was the New
Testament of Luther, as he artfully calls every vernacular
version, to be considered the Gospel of Christ, but of Satan !
Therefore, if the King desired to preserve among his people
concord in the faith and unity of the Church, agreement in
piety and worship, fixedness of faith, and all the benefits of
ecclesiastical discipline, let him " desist from this business of trans
lation, especially at this time." He then proceeds to inform the
King that any translation of the New Testament, " the best and
most undoubted," if it be " in the vulgar tongue," must produce
all imaginable evil, and closes with the warning that copies may
soon be secretly transmitted, " through merchants, by the Elbe to
Hamburg, which looks over to Scotland" ! Such was the advice
with which this persecutor sought to fill the ear of the young and
thoughtless Scottish monarch. With Cochlseus abroad, and such
men in power at home, both bishops and monks, a Prince once
averse to all Cruelty, and still given to deeds of kindness in
regard to the bodies of his subjects, was driving on to ruin, by
yielding to the sophistry of the hierarchy, with respect to
opinions which could neither be gainsaid nor resisted. At the
same time, let the chief blamo rest where it actually did. Had
the King, unmolested, been allowed to pursue his pastime,

520 THE CONTROVERSY CONTINUES. [book III.
humanly speaking, there had been no such cruelty as still
ensued. But the ecclesiastics, led on at present by Patrick
Hepburn, the young Prior of St. Andrews, as they were after
wards by David Beaton, Abbot of Arbroath, were perpetually
insisting that heretical opinions, as they styled them, did not
belong to the King's jurisdiction ; while, in justice to the Prince
himself, there is reason to believe, that he . by no means yielded
without a struggle, and did actually interfere again and again,
as Ales has represented. The King and the ecclesiastics had
formed two parties quite distinguishable in the estimation of
many more than the writer of this epistle : but soon after that
Ales had done his best in addressing his former benefactor, not
only did Cochlseus follow, but it so happened, that an ambas
sador or legate from the Pontiff had been perambulating the
country in company with the King and the Queen Mother.
They terminated their journey by visiting St. Andrews, where
they were all entertained in style by Beaton and Prior Hepburn.
In short, the year 1533 seems to have been about the turning
point in James's course and character. He was even now only
twenty-one years of age, but in early life, " a stranger to pride,
easy of access, and fond of mingling familiarly with all classes
of his subjects ; with a generosity and warmth of temper, which
prompted him, on all occasions, to espouse with enthusiasm the
cause of the oppressed ; "2 what wonder that Ales should have so
addressed him ? The change was most melancholy not only for
himself, but his kingdom. The year before this, or 1532, he
had been sinking deep into the licentious course which he after
wards pursued, for to this the hierarchy had no objection ; and
now he is giving himself up to the counsel of these unprincipled,
and far more licentious, ecclesiastical men.
Before the end of the year 1533, and just as if to confirm
every word that Ales had so faithfully written, the second
martyrdom took place at St. Andrews, and this also was but a
young man. Hamilton's death was sufficient to have roused
both priests and canons, which it certainly had done, but the
monks had also responded to the call. Seton was the first, Ales
was the second, but here was a third, who seems to have been
2 Tytler.

1529-84.] MARTYRDOM OF HENRY FORREST. 521
moved by Patrick's earliest exertions on his return from abroad,
as well as his subsequent death. Henry Forrest of Linlithgow,
a Benedictine monk, had contracted such an admiration of
Patrick Hamilton as he could not suppress. He thought that
he had been wrongfully put to death, that the articles for which
he suffered were not heretical, and might be defended. This-
much, however, they could not fully establish against him, till
they resorted to the same base method which they had pursued
with the first martyr ; and one Friar Walter Laing was ready to
act over again the same part which Campbell had done. Ano
ther specific charge however was, that he had in his possession
a copy of the New Testament in EngUsh ; now, of course, deemed
to be a crime far more heinous after the edict or decree. There
must have been considerable hesitation about proceeding to
extremity, as Forrest had been for some time kept a close pri
soner "in the tower" or Castle of St. Andrews ; and at last the
spot on which he died at the stake, was at once expressive of
the truth having extended far beyondthe bounds of St. Andrews,
and of the fear entertained as to its further progress. " He
suffered death," says the manuscript, " at the north church
style of the Abbey church of St. Andrew, to the intent that all
the people of Forfar or Angus might see the fire, and so might be
the more feared from falling into the like doctrine which they
call heresy." On such a mode they had at last ventured, though
far from being according to the counsel previously given by one
John Lindsay, a man of wit, familiar with the Archbishop. "If
you burn any more of them," said he, " take my advice and burn
them in cellars ; for I assure you that the smoke of Patrick
Hamilton has infected all upon whom it blew." The first
molestation of Henry Forrest appears to have commenced about
the year 1530, but his death cannot be stated earlier than 1533 ;
a circumstance which may account for his martyrdom being
ascribed to both years.
Only a very short time, however, now elapsed, before there
arrived from abroad, an all-sufficient exposure of Cochlseus, and
of other men at home besides the calumniator. The slander and
falsehood which had been emitted, had, it is probable, not been
seen by Ales for some months, but early in 1534 he was ready
with his Response. It is entitled — " The answer of Alexander

522 RESPONSE OF ALES TO COCHLvfcU.S. [book iii.
Ales, Scotsman, to the calumnies of Cochkeus." 3 It is addressed
to the King as before, and as it has been equally unknown to
the English reader, with his first letter, no apology is necessary
for giving some account of this very rare book. Among other
information, it contains the full account of his own personal
treatment, besides some valuable particulars with regard to the
Scriptures of the New Testament, still read by stealth, and hid
with anxious care. Cochlseus had questioned the veracity of
Ales — had insisted that he was a Lutheran ¦ — had approved
highly of the interdict as to reading of the New Testament —
had tried to terrify the King by a bold endeavour to identify
the translation of the New Testament into German by Luther,
with the independent English version — had strongly deprecated
the New Testament being presented to any man in the vernacular
tongue, however correct, and represented this as the only source
of all evil, national and domestic ; warning his Highness to
succumb, or by all means yield to the advice of his ecclesiastics,
those determined enemies of Divine truth. Every one of these
points was now met by this first and able advocate of the people.
As Ales, even still, could not be aware of any alteration in tbe
King's character and conduct, he writes under the impression of
these being yet unchanged. Addressing the King once more,
as his most gracious Sovereign, before answering the main argu
ment of Cochlseus, he defends himself from the double charge of
being an exile and a Lutheran, with which he is reproached by
his adversary. He sorrowfully confesses his exiled state, in
which there was more evil than could be expressed in words,
calling for sympathy rather than for calumny. As for the cause
of his banishment, he appeals to the King's memory to confirm
the truth of the narrative which follows of the circumstances
which led to his flight. He appeals to the testimony of his own
college at St. Andrews, by the fidelity and constancy of whom
his life was preserved ; and then leaves it to the judgment of all
good men, whether he had done anything worthy of punish
ment ; for if free from blame, exile ought not to be his reproach.

3 " Alexandri Alcsii Scotti, Responsio ad Cochlei calumnias." This occupies
thirty-one leaves lSmo, in a smaller type than the former publication, and
without any colophon.

1529-84.] ALES VINDICATES HIMSELF. 523
He then comes to the charge of being a Lutheran, and of wish
ing to introduce Lutheranism into his country. In reply, he
disclaims connexion with any sect, avowing only his covenant
with the Church of Christ, and offering, either before the King,
or in the presence of other good men, " simply and clearly to
give a reason of my faith. I believe the writings of the Pro
phets and Apostles, and embrace the consent of the holy Fathers,
of whom the Church approves. I also reverence the authority
of the Church, and its judgment in doubtful cases, as that which
chiefly I do, and will freely follow. Does Cochlseus require
more than this?" He disclaims undertaking the defence of
Luther, but states his strong disapprobation of the dreams of
the Monks, and their persecution of those who question these.
He had seen the burning of Patrick Hamilton in Scotland, and
subsequently the martyrdom of two very good men at Cologne,
whose death afflicted him with grief for the Church, and horror
at such cruelty. He had conversed with " one of the highest
learning and authority," who was himself much grieved at the
confusion and corruption of the Church, and whom he exhorted
to interpose his opinion, and use his influence with both prince
and people toward a reformation, but he could only draw from
him an apologue, which seemed to intimate that the prudent
should keep silence, because, on the one hand, truth is greatly
disliked, and, on the other, flattery injures both the state and
the flatterer.4
Ales proceeds to answer " those who set the title of the Church
in opposition to the Word of God, who vociferate, like Cochlseus,
there had been no Church for ages, but for the doctrine of the
Monks. For there was a Church, though the Word of God was
very obscure, and there were a few who taught more correctly
than did the bulk of the Monks. There exist some writings of
4 This was no other than the weU-known Herman, Count de Wied, the
Prince Archbishop of Cologne. He had denounced Lutheranism, but now, at
the age of sixty, felt deeply the causes of the Reformation. Hence his conversa
tion with the young Scotchman ; and soon after his interviews with Melancthon
and Bucer. He was timid, and shrank like Cranmer, from an open avowal of his
convictions, but in maturer age rose above aU fear and earthly considerations,
exposed himself to excommunication by the Pope, and deposition by the
Emperor, and died in 1553 as simple Count de Wied, in the faith and hope of
the Gospel.

524 HE DEFENDS SCRIPTURE-READING, [book in.
almost all ages, which smell sweetly of the pure doctrine of the
Apostles. Hence, when Cochlseus adduces the authority of the
Church, why should we not inquire what the ancient Church
thought?" He then states his own views on several subjects,
proving them from the Scriptures, and confirming them by quo
tations from Augustine, Hilary, Ambrose, Irenaeus, and Epi-
phanius. " These men," he maintains, " never teach that
Christian perfection is placed in human traditions ; never do
they sell works of supererogation." The subjects of repentance
and faith ; of reliance on mercy alone, and the forgiveness of
sins ; of supererogation, of invocation of saints, " beclouding the
glory of Christ;" the Mass; public idolatry and vows, — are
touched on, with a defence of the " new learning " from the
charge of causing sedition. He then shrewdly concludes :
"If the causes of that tumult were to be coUected, we should somewhere
discover, that the minds of men were provoked by the unrighteous cruelty of
certain persons. Then after discord once commenced on account of rehgion, it is
very probable that many evUs foUowed, which accompany civil commotions.
Covetous men, on either side, take advantage of the pubUc disturbance for their
own purposes."
The sentiments of this writer, at this early period, and so
well expressed, must occasion surprise to all those readers who
have never before heard of such a man ; but the chief import
ance of this Response, as well as of the previous Epistle, con
sists of this grand point, which, at this early day, and by him
self alone, he urged with such zeal and ability, for the benefit
of his native land. Both England and Scotland owe every
thing to the Bible, and if proof be still sought, we need not
look far to find it, so long as we see Ireland lying, as it were,
in the lap or bosom of Great Britain. The first translator,
therefore, and the first advocate, though alike standing at a
distance in a foreign land, and under the frown of their respec
tive countries, occupy such high ground, that they never can
be overshadowed by any other men who followed in their wake.
But if the countrymen of Ales be bound to cherish his memory
with becoming gratitude, as their first able intercessor for un
limited access to the Sacred Volume in their own tongue ; he
enjoys a second claim, which sets him before us as a man pos
sessing wisdom or sagacity, ver)- remarkable for his o\yn time,

1529-34.] ESPECIALLY IN FAMILIES. 525
and but too uncommon still. He had evidently felt assured
that, in the melancholy condition of Scotland, personal religion
could not possibly be promoted, if the Scriptures were withheld,
and for this he first pled, as lying at the foundation of all that
he desired. What then, with him, was the next argument ?
What the next measure, which lay with such weight on his
mind ? Was it an immediate refutation of all existing errors ?
Was it a direct attack upon the existing hierarchy, as to the
ceremonial of their false and hideous system ? No ; neither the
one nor the other. Had he any plan, as men now speak ? Any
scheme or platform to propose, or lay before the King, which was
to bring order out of confusion ? No ; nothing of the sort.
With a shrewdness and Christian simplicity far superior to
many since his time, he earnestly urged a more excellent way.
For although pubhc exercises of religion, when properly con
ducted, possess a happy tendency to prepare the mind for those
of a more private nature, there were then no pubHc exercises,
save such as were pernicious in the extreme. Through them,
as a regular system covering the land, Ales saw that its baneful
roots had struck into the bosom of every family there. The
ecclesiastical rulers, so called, were the very curse of society,
and especially of that " only bliss of paradise, that has survived
the fall,"— domestic happiness and peace. Every other social
bond in which men were united, being but loose and incidental,
when compared to this, the heart of this man now panted after
the immortal interest of every circle round the household fire.
Nor did he, like some in modern times, fix his eye upon children
only, but upon parents. That venerable character in the eye of
domestics, with which the reading of the Scriptures is sure to
invest them, he regarded as sufficient to discomfit even the
Prince of Darkness ! If every chimney that smoked in his
native land was liable to Peter's pence ; by this time he must
have felt assured, that the simple exercise of domestic reading
would deliver from the imposition, and soon cause the smoke
to ascend freely to the skies. Only grant him access to the
families of his country, and he saw that out of these would rise
the morning of a better day. And although he now pleads for
that which neither the King, nor, above all, his hierarchy will
allow ; this was the path which an overruling Providence had

526 NECESSITY FOR AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION. [book III.
already opened and afterwards pursued, and to a far greater
extent than can now be told. Evidence, indeed, presently, will
not be wanting ; but at all events here was the secret hinge on
which the future well-being of the entire island was then turn
ing. At many a fireside, therefore, Ales ought to have been
not only better known, but highly respected, long before this
late day. What would the Scotland, which he left with such
reluctance, have been, but for the practice for which he first
pled ? He reminds his readers that the Divine Lawgiver, in
Deuteronomy, requires the fathers of families to read the law
themselves, that they may inculcate it upon their children;
that domestic reading of the Scriptures was now the custom in
Germany, even beyond the circles that favoured the Reforma
tion, and boys and girls in almost all the more respectable
families read the New Testament, and learned the Psalms ; that
so far from preaching setting aside the necessity for the study
of the Scriptures, the best preachers greatly encouraged the
practice, and only the ignorant suppressed it. Thieves, they
say, hate noise. Hence the monks close the New Testament,
lest comparisons should be made of their doctrines with the
Gospel. He vindicates himself from the charge that he was
about to translate Luther's version. " I do not know the
German," says he, " and speak of that version which now, for
some time past, exists in the country, and against which that decree
was made." Though not called on to defend Luther's New
Testament, he reminds Cochlseus that Emser, who first censured,
afterwards published it with a few verbal alterations as his own.
Difficulties there might be in the interpretation of some few
texts, but not more than in any other ancient author. The
general fidelity of the Scottish version, as he now calls Tyndale's,
the only one then in existence that could be read in Scotland,
was unimpeached. " I have heard," he adds, " even the chief
among our preachers declare, that this same version gave them
much more light than the commentaries of many."
Cochlseus had denied that " noble men and honourable citizens
were not prohibited, but only inquisitive people who read that they
may bring into question received opinions." Ales replies that
the edict he complains of is equally severe " against the best men
of all ranks, and prohibits the New Testament from being

1829-34.] C0CI1LJEUS AGAIN ADDRESSES THE KING. 527
imported into the Island, — from being sold, and consequently
from being bought by any, even the most honourable ; but the
Sacred Scriptures were designed for all, for ' the wise and the
unwise,' and adapted to the capacity of either, teaching ' all
ranks of life what is great and honourable for assisting and pro
tecting society ;' but is silent respecting those trifles which the
Monks sell under the most specious pretences. For this cause
they do not wish the Gospel to shine forth, as they are afraid
both for their character and for their kitchen." He closes with
a powerful appeal to the King, reminding him of his royal
father's noble conduct, when the Monks would have deprived
some of his subjects of their Bible, warning him of the syco
phants, who, on account of their own lusts, cannot bear the
light of the Gospel, and carry on everywhere a horrible warfare
against those who are pious, and who desire to show forth the
glory of Christ ; concluding with a prayer that God would guide
his mind to the glory of Christ, to his own salvation and that of
the Church.
Naturally impetuous, and delighting in war, Cochlseus was
now in a perfect rage, and though evidently confounded by the
talent displayed against him, as he could, at any moment, make
hes his refuge, he lost no time in replying to Ales, by again
addressing the King.5
He commences with one of his bold shifts or assumptions,
which he reiterates as a fact, throughout his quarto pamphlet.
It was no less than this, that Ales was not the author, either of
the Epistle or the Response ! He now ascribes the whole to no
other than Philip Melancthon; a very plain proof of the
ability displayed, and an unwilling eulogy upon our Scottish
exile, then and even still so httle known.
In writing his Response, however, this year, it so happened
that Ales had informed his readers that he was not as yet ac
quainted with Luther personally; and it corroborates his state-

5 This is entitled — " Pro Scotue Regno Apologia Johannis Cochlei. Adversus
personatum Alexandrum Alesium Scotum. Ad Sereniss. Scotorum regem.
1534." At the end we have this colophon — "Ex Dresda Misnie, Idibus Au
gusti mdxxxiii. Excusum Lipsiae apud Michaelem Blum." Leipsic was
the very city in which Ales was afterwards established as a Professor, for
many years.

528 MEANNESS OF COCHLJEUS. [book iii.
ment, that as for Melancthon, there is not one shadow of evi
dence that he had become acquainted with him, till after his
answer to Cochlseus had been sent to Scotland. It is not at all
improbable, that the calumny now raised might bring them into
contact ; which appears to have happened about the close of
1534, perhaps the spring of 1535. But be this as it may;
formerly, Cochlseus had no idea whether Alexander Ales was a
real or supposititious character : now, that this will no longer
serve him, both compositions must, it seems, be the production
of Melancthon, to whom, as well as to Luther, Cochkeus bore
such invincible hatred ! The traducer, of course, could not
foresee that, in two years hence, Ales would display equal talent
upon English ground, and before all the bishops assembled ;
when he was far removed from the ear of Philip Melancthon.
Nor could he foresee, that seven years hence he would meet
with Ales, and at the same time, apparently, be afraid even to
address him.
But our German canon was equally dexterous, whether in
making facts, or in feigning ignorance of what he must have
known. Thus, after even the Doctors of Louvain, in a body,
had made such boast, and sent such congratulations to Scotland
in 1528, over her proto-martyr Hamilton, he pretends to be pro
foundly ignorant of the event, nay, and still of the state of
Scotland, as well as of the facts now stated by Ales with regard
to himself. He must therefore set himself to spy out some dis
crepancy between the Epistle of Ales to the King, and his
Response to the calumnies already published. In this, however,
he signally fails ; but mentions a Scotchman, "of no small
authority and trust with the King, appointed to England," who
had declared Ales's book to be one continued lie.
No sooner than he had finished at press, Cochlseus afforded a
striking proof, not only of his fury, but his thirst after some
remuneration for all this gross scurrility. His book was finished
on the 13th of August, and by the following month, his con
fidential servant was safely arrived with copies in Edinburgh
itself. The man " of no small authority and trust," of whom
he had spoken, Stewart, Bishop of Aberdeen and Lord High
Treasurer of Scotland, had gone as Ambassador into France;
but there were those under him, who were not slow to welcome

1629-34.] PERSECUTION AT EDINBURGH. 529
the servant with his master's production. Of this we have full
evidence in the Register Office of this, the native city of Ales,
or in the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer himself. Thus,
the indefatigable opponent of the Scriptures in our native
tongue, has, at least, discovered to us, the grave importance
which was then attached to the single-handed efforts of
Alexander Ales.6
All this verbiage of Cochlseus, however, goes for nothing,
when compared with the melancholy facts, which were attesting
at the moment, the truth and importance of all that Ales had
written ; and this the servant, if he was not as blind as his
master, must have seen, immediately on reaching the end of his
journey to Scotland. It was while this man was actually on
the road to Edinburgh, that the flames of persecution had been
kindled for the third time. The martyrdom of last year con
firmed the Epistle of Ales ; those of this year his Response.
The flames had hitherto blazed at St. Andrews ; now, for the
first time, they had done so at Edinburgh. Those of the year
1533, in effect, told us that the truth was extending beyond the
boundaries of the metropolitan city ; and we shall now have
proof, by the flames of 1534, that it had reached far beyond
those of the capital. The former were kindled, to be seen at a
distance, as a terror to the people of Angus ; those of this year
so as to be seen by the inhabitants of Fife. One martyr at a
time had served hitherto, but now two men were consumed at
the same stake, on the afternoon of Thursday the 27th of
August, 1534. There were two, also, out of a nameless number,
who had been summoned, from various quarters ; and as if the
death of the proto-martyr, so lamented by Ales and many others,
was now to be followed up, and the family exterminated, his
brother and sister had been ordered to appear. In short, here
was a band of selected witnesses ; and unquestionably we are to
regard them as the representatives of many other individuals,

B From the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, September, 1534
—"Item, to ane Servand of ... . Cocleus, quhilk brocht fra his Maister
an buyk, intitulat  To his reward.  1. li." The blank may now
be fiUed up with "Pro Scotise," &c. But such was the reward, £50 Scots, not
a trifling sum in those days.
M M

530 THE MARTYRDOMS OF [book III.
not only in Angus and Fife, Clackmannan, and Linlithgow-
shires, but in Edinburgh and Leith.
On Tuesday the 7th of July, Parliament had met at Edin
burgh, and by Wednesday the 26th of August, an ecclesiastical
court, of unwonted solemnity, assembled in the Abbey of Holy-
rood. The infatuated young King, in the face of repeated
warning and entreaty, from an Exile, whom he had once rescued
out of the paws of the persecutor, was now about to take his first
ominous step. To lend greater importance to this occasion, be
had agreed to preside, and clothed in scarlet, — the judicial Scot
tish dress, in matters of life and death, down to the present day.
A number of persons had been summoned, and among them
there appears to have been more than the following : —
Belonging to Edinburgh — Mr. WiUiam Johnstone, Advocate, Mr. Henry
Henderson, Master of the Grammar School; but the "Diurnal" adds, "with
sundry others, baith men and women in Edinburgh." From Leith — Henry
Cairns, skipper, Adam Dayes or Deir, shipwright, John Stewart, indweUer, and
a married woman. From St. Andrews — Gavin Logie, John Fife, John M'Alpine,
— M'DougaL From Angus-shire — Mr. David Stratoun. From Linlithgow
shire — Sir James Hamilton, the hereditary Sheriff, and Katharine Hamilton, his
sister, besides Norman Gourlay and WiUiam Kirk, two priests, whose residence
is not mentioned by any historian. With the exception of Hamilton and his
sister, aU these were disposed of before the Court rose. Several had already
fled, and others abjured ; but Mr. David Stratoun or Straiton and Norman
Gourlay were reserved for execution.
The martyrdom itself took place next day. Of Gourlay we
know nothing more than that he was a man of " reasonable
erudition," having been abroad. He said there was no such
state as purgatoiy, denied the authority of the Pontiff in Scot
land, but he had also married a wife, and this was an unpar
donable crime. Mr. Straiton's was a far more interesting case.
He was a gentleman of landed property, at the confluence of
the North Esk with the sea, in the parish of Ecclesgreig, (Ec
clesia Gregorii,) now called St. Cyrus, in the shire of Angus.
His property included the seat of a productive fishery; and
whether one refers to the present proprietor of the soil, to the
present fishermen of Milton, or to the limestone quarrymen
there, in the history of their predecessors above three hundred
years ago, they have not a more interesting subject for remem
brance than the present. Laurieston Castle, built in the tenth
century, where Straiton was born, and part of which still re-

1529-34.] STRAITON AND GOURLAY. 531
mains, had, before and after his day, continued in the same
family for four hundred years-. The martyr appears to have
been brother to the last laird or baron of Laurieston, and uncle
to the present, then a young man. The Straitons, for several
generations, were equally distinguished for stature and strength,
and the martyr's temper had once been both rough and impe
rious. In former days, he had resolutely resisted one tythe
claimed by the vicar, Robert Lawson of Ecclesgreig ; who ex
acted the tenth fish from those which his servants had taken out
at sea. Straiton had said, " If he would have them, he must
go and take them where the stock was taken ;" and this had
given great offence. " Before," says Calderwood, " he had been
very stubborn, and despised all reading, specially of good pur
poses ; now he delighted in nothing but reading, although he
could not read himself, and exhorted every man to peace and
concord, and contempt of the world. He frequented much the
company of John Erskine, Laird of Dun," (the Provost of Mon
trose, who had recently returned from the Continent,) " a man
marvellously enlightened in respect of these times." One day
" when the Laird of Laurieston, being then a young man, was
reading to our martyr the New Testament, (so much hated by
many,) he chanced to read this sentence of our Master — ' He that
denieth me before men, I will deny him in the presence of my Father,
and before his angels.' At these words, as one revived, he sud
denly cast himself upon his knees, extending his hands, and
looking constantly with his visage to the heavens a reasonable
time, he burst forth at length in these words — ' 0 Lord, I have
been wicked, and justly mayest thou abstract thy grace from
me ; but, Lord, for thy mercies' sake, let me never deny Thee,
nor thy truth, for fear of death, or bodily pain ! ' "
It becomes evident, that Straiton was fully prepared for such
a time as the present. When brought before the King, on the
26th, great pains were taken to move him, and procure his re
cantation ; but all efforts failing, he was adjudged to the fire.
He then applied to his Highness, but the Bishops answered,
proudly, that " the King's hands were bound, and that he had
no grace to give to such as were by law condemned." It was
after dinner next day that Mr. Straiton and his companion
Gourlay were led forth to death. The spot was evidently chosen
m m 2

532 THE ESCAPE BEYOND SEAS. [book HI.
for effect, whether near or afar off, on the northern brow of the
Calton-hill, above the rood or cross at Greenside. The stake
was planted so' far up the hill as that not only the surrounding
crowd from the city, whether below or above, might see ; but
" to the intent," says Calderwood, " that the inhabitants of Fife,
seeing the fire, might be stricken with terror and fear, not to fall
into the like."
Not satisfied with these flames, the ecclesiastics, with the
King at their head, assembled at Holyrood once more, on the
28th or next day, and by way of conclusion to this head
strong burst of cruelty, brought forward the persons of highest
rank ; Sir James Hamilton and his sister, both of whom were
related to the King. By advice of his Highness, however, the
former had fled, so that the scene closed with the appearance of
the lady, his sister. The Bishops gathering courage by their
progress, neither her rank or sex could shield her. Mr. John
Spens of Condy, the lawyer, and future King's Advocate, or one
of the men who had sat in judgment on her brother Patrick in
1528, held a long discourse respecting works, telling her there
were divers sorts ; " works of congruity and works of condignity?'
Katharine, disturbed with the length and nicety of the argu
ment, at last out of all patience, cried out before them all, the
King also sitting by — " Work here, work there, what kind of
working is all this ? I know perfectly that no works can save
me, but the works of Christ my Saviour." His Highness, amused
with the very brief manner in which she had disposed of the
lawyer's tedious harangue, interposed, and saved her from
death. The visible and decided progress of Divine Truth is, however,
to be observed, not only in those who suffered, but in the cha
racter and station of those who had fled. The teacher of the
grammar-school, and the advocate, Johnstone of Edinburgh, must
have been men of some talent and influence. The former died
in England. His house forfeited, was given to James Banna-
tyne, W.S. The property*bf the latter, also falling to the King,
was sold for a trifling consideration, chiefly to Reid, abbot of
Kinloss, afterwards President of the Court of Session, and
Bishop of Orkney, and partly to another individual. Johnstone,
however, returned some years after, when he was permitted to

1529-84.] THE ESCAPE BEYOND SEAS. 533
live in a single chamber of that house which had been once his
own ; though, at his death, his body was not allowed to be
interred in any churchyard !
But the refugees from St. Andrews, the former associates of
Ales, were among the most eminent for literature then in the
country ; and they prove that the disciples of " the new
learning," far from being weak men, as some one has grossly
asserted, were duly appreciated elsewhere. Of Logie we know
nothing afterwards, but having been the Rector or Principal of
St. Leonard's College, he had so imbued the minds of the
students, that when any of them was suspected, it was said that
" he had drunk of St. Leonard's well." M' Alpine, who changed
his name to M'Bee, or Maccabseus, as he was called on the Con
tinent, became a favourite of Christiern, King of Denmark,
Professor in the University of Copenhagen, and one of the
translators of the Danish Bible. He was the brother-in-law of
Miles Coverdale, and to this expatriated native of Caledonia and
translator of the Danish Scriptures, that of the English was
indebted for his life, as already explained. Fife accompanied
Ales to the Continent, though not when he first fled from Scot
land, but afterwards from England, in 1539 ; as soon as " the
bloody Statute," or that of " the six articles," had passed. At
Leipsic he continued to teach as a professor for years ; but he
returned finally to his own country, acted as a minister, and
died at St. Leonard's, soon after the year 1560, or about five
years before Ales.7

7 The reader may wish to know what became of Ales, who never returned to
his native land, though its welfare lay always near his heart. From Cologne
he removed to Antwerp in 1534, but as Tyndale was now close prisoner in the
fortress of VUvorde, he could have no direct intercourse with him. In the
spring of 1535 he was invited by CrumweU to England, and appointed to read
' ' Lectures on Scripture" at Cambridge. The Heads of that University, however,
were not yet prepared for such doctrine, and by the advice of the Vice-Chancel
lor he withdrew to London. There he entered on the study and practice of
physic, in which he acquired some celebrity. It was while he was thus prac
tising in London that CrumweU took him to the Convocation in June, 1536,
introducing him as "the King's Scholar," and availing himself of his aid in the
discussions there. (See p. 255. ) Notwithstanding CrumweU's favour and his suc
cess in his profession, Ales in a few years found there was no safety for him in
aU England. In 1539 he went abroad, and in the July of that year we find him
at Wittenberg, with his friend Melancthon, and writing a letter of thanks to
CrumweU for his kindness to him when in this country. The same year the
Elector of Brandenburg appointed him Professor of Divinity at Frankf ort-on-

534 SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND ALIKE [book hi.
The state of Scotland and England, at the close of 1534, was,
in one sense, directly opposed to each other, and in another,
exhibiting precisely the same aspect. Scotland profoundly
attached to the rule of the Pontiff, and England proclaiming
throughout the country hostility to Rome : but amidst all the
turmoil of political affairs, both governments had found time to
be alike enraged, and for the same cause ; both alike imagining
a vain thing — that they should be able successfully to stem the
introduction of the Divine Word. Again, both countries had
furnished their respective martyrs in this single-handed struggle,

the-Oder ; whUe Cochlseus, his old antagonist, expeUed from Meissen, where he
was a Canon in the Cathedral, had fled to Bautzen in Lusatia, and thus
became his near neighbour ; too near for Cochlasus, who retired farther east to
Breslau in SUesia, where, as a Canon in the Church, he closed his restless life in
1553. As deputy from the Elector of Brandenburg, Ales attended the Conference at
Worms in Dec. 1540, but was not aUowed to speak, the Emperor's Chancellor,
who presided, knowing how weU he was prepared, and dreading his power of
debate. He was also a member of the Diet of Ratisbon in March, 1541, where
he must have met Cochlseus, also a member, face to face ; but came into stUl
closer contact with Stephen Gardiner, who was present as Henry's Ambassador
to the Emperor. With him he had a long discussion in the presence of Bucer,
who writes of Gardiner — "How the veins in his hands did leap and tremble,
speciaUy if he heard anything that gave him offence, spoken by that learned
and truly pious divine, Alexander Ales, whom I brought with me to Bishop
Gardiner at this Conference ! " *
That same year, 1541, Ales was appointed by Henry, Duke of Saxony, a
professor in the University of Leipsic, and there after an honourable residence
of twenty-three years he died in peace, 17th March, 1565, aged 65 years. He
was Melancthon's assistant iu composing the divisions in Nuremburg in 1555.
Camerarius, who was with him on the occasion, remarks, — "He was thoroughly
versed in divinity, had an excellent talent at disputation, and was famous for
his extraordinary learning and merit." f To controversy he had a natural aver
sion, and the works he left behind him, twenty -three in number, when taken
all in aU, fuUy prove this. They consist mostly in Expositions of Scripture,
but include another effort for his country in the form of an Address to the
Government and Nobility, the Bishops and the people entire of the Kingdom of
Scotland. It is entitled, " De Scotorum Concordia, vel Cohortatio ad Concor-
dium pietatis, in patriam missa."
Ales married while in England, and had three children— a son and two
daughters. One only of the latter survived him. For his son, who expired
at Leipsic, parental affection found a stone and an inscription to mark his
grave ; but as for the father, his ashes lie— no marble teUs us where ! Is it
yet too late ?

* Gratulati Buceri, p. 55. + Camerar. in vita Melanct. 1569.

1585-87.] OPPOSED TO THE SCRIPTURES. 535
though neither of them at home could show even one open, bold,
and determined advocate for the Scriptures. John Fryth, it is
true, had come home from abroad, and shown the people of
England how to die, rather than deny the truth ; as Patrick
Hamilton and others had nobly done in Scotland. But the
present was distinguished as the moment when Tyndale on
behalf of England, and Ales on the part of Scotland, occupied a
position all their own, and one which was singular throughout
Europe. "Say not," said Tyndale upon one occasion to
England, " Say not that ye be not warned ;" and so might Ales
have now said to his King and countrymen. With a nation on
one side, and a solitary exile on the other, in reference to both
countries ; while the Sacred Volume had been actually reading
in both, and for eight years, in spite of their respective rulers ;
perhaps no cause was ever more evidently exhibited to be that of
God, and not of man. No exact resemblance to this was then
to be found in any land.

MDXXXV. — MDXXXV II.
STATE OF SCOTLAND — PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF THE PRELATES — AGITATION —
READING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT FORBIDDEN BY PROCLAMATION — PROGKESS
OF THE CAUSE.
, n the course of our English history, these three years, from
1535 to 1537, abounded with interesting details, as
including the year before and after Tyndale's martyr
dom ; the first being that of his imprisonment, the second
that of his death, and the third so distinguished for the
arrival of his Bible in London. On turning to Scotland,
the interest is deepened. We there discover through
out, increasing alarm at the progress of " the new learning,"
and determined opposition to the Sacred Yolume, as translated
by Tyndale, and already so powerfully enforced by Ales.
As nations, England and Scotland were far from being on
sound terms with each other, yet were they firmly united in
hostility to the Word of God ; while in reference to Scotland,
the cruelties of last year seem to have only strengthened the
determination to obtain the Sacred Volume. The hollow device

536 INCREASING ALARM IN SCOTLAND. [book hi.
of representing the English New Testament to be the produc
tion of Luther or his disciples, which Cochlseus had done all in
his power to promulgate, continued to be fostered by the priests
for years to come : but by this year it must have been well
known, both by friends and foes, in Scotland, that Tyndale was
the author. In the Castle of Vilvorde, he was now contending
for the truth with the Doctors of Louvain, who, since the days
of Patrick Hamilton, had their eye on Scotland. Ales, it is
true, all along, and with great propriety, had mentioned no
names. But how is this to be accounted for, that we now see
Dr. Buckingham, Prior of the Black Friars at Cambridge, a most
determined enemy to the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue — the
man whom Latimer so successfully opposed, and who had for
some time been living with his brethren in the Monastery at
Edinburgh — leave that city, with a brother friar as his com
panion, and direct for Louvain ? This occurred at the close of
March, 1535 ; and the object of this hitherto mysterious move
ment, we have already explained. We have seen how he
wrought, in conjunction with Gabriel Dunne and Phillips, in
the persecution of Tyndale, throughout this very year. Bucking
ham, unquestionably, would not leave his old friends, the friars
in Edinburgh, ignorant of what was going on, whether at
Louvain or Brussels, as to the prisoner in Vilvorde, with whom
all the doctors now wrangled, though in vain.
Meanwhile, the alarm of the Scottish government shows that
books were still coming into the country. The Act of Parha
ment in 1525, against all importation by strangers, had been
strengthened in 1527, so as to apply to the native importers ;
but by the language of Ales, it seems as if there had actually
been attempts at selling the New Testament in book-shops ; and
certainly if the Act was now to be repeated, and with greater
severity, it lends countenance to all his remonstrances. Parha
ment, at all events, opening in the summer of 1535, and on the
8th of June, farther degraded itself by not only repeating the
Act, but now all persons having any such books were com
manded to deliver them up to their Ordinary within forty days,
under the penalty of confiscation and imprisonment. As a
decided evidence of no small progress made, even "discussion
of opinions" was now sternly prohibited by the Parliament !

1535-87.] CONDITION OF THE KING. 537
Happily, however, there was an exception, or, as some would
say, a flaw in the Act, as there has often been since, in many
such feats of human legislation. An exception was made in
favour of clerks in the schools, who might read, in order to refute.
The consequence was, that a number of these clerks, by reading
and discussion, sincerely embraced the same sentiments, or the
reverse of those which were intended by the indulgence.
In the year 1536, with regard" to the Scottish monarch him
self, now sinking under the power of licentious habits, and to
which the clergy offered no objection, his situation was one
which might well excite pity. The language of Ales has clearly
shown, that, as a youth, there were generous and humane feel
ings within him ; and the banishment of the Douglas family,
with Angus at their head, was owing to a burst of emotion per
fectly natural. But now the King was beset by no less than
three parties. The family of Angus, though not in Scotland,
were ever on the watch, having sold themselves to England.
James, still unmarried, and without a direct heir, had the
Hamiltons near him, not without an eye to the throne ; while,
as the clergy's kingdom of this world seemed to be in danger,
the guidance oi the monarch had become, with them, a subject of
supreme and intense interest. The erratic course of the King's
uncle, Henry VIII., had also raised Scotland in the scale of
importance in the eye of Rome ; so that, in conjunction with
the hierarchy, James, being the man he was, had no chance of
escape from vexatious thraldom.
On the one hand, Henry's eager desire to have a personal
interview with his nephew, must be thwarted. The Queen-
Mother, Henry's sister, in conjunction with Lord William
Howard, strove for this at present, but in vain. At the same
time, in the spring of 1536, the needle seemed to be still quiver
ing in the beam, as to what course the King would pursue.
In 1534, the clergy, with the concurrence of the Pontiff,
Clement VII., had granted a tenth part of their revenues to
James for three years, to encourage him, it has been supposed,
in following their advice with regard to the suppression of
heresy. Clement had ceased to live in September, 1534, and
this grant would expire in 1537. But whatever was the cause,
the monarch appears to have been dissatisfied, and especially

538 DISSATISFIED WITH THE PRIESTS. [book III,
with the exactions of the priests at large. The clergy were in
motion throughout the kingdom, and from the 11th to the 17th
of March, 1536, a provincial council of the Prelates was held
in Edinburgh. Once assembled, they received a message" from
the King. Of its purport, we have one account from the Earl
of Angus —
" These," he writes to his brother, "were the points of the Bang's charge, as
I was advertised — bidding the clergy give over the corps-present and the upmost
cloth through aU Scotland, that they should be no more taken ; and that every
man should have his own teind (tythe), paying for his tythes, such like as he
pays to his landlord of his maills (rents), and no more, for his whole tythes. If
they granted not that, at the King's command, there should be a charge laid to
them, that he would ger (make) them set aU the temporals that the kirk have,
to feu (fee), and to have for it, but the old rent, such as the old rentals bear.
The Kirkmen of Scotland were never so ill content." ]
If this intelhgence was substantially correct, it was certainly
indicative, thus early, of very general dissatisfaction on the part
of the common people throughout the country ; although the
grounds of complaint were not removed for twenty- four years
after this, or eighteen after James was in his grave. The King
himself, however, was evidently ill at ease, and it might seem,
at the moment, as if he were on the point of following his
uncle's footsteps. How he became pacified does not fully
appear, though it be evident that the power of the hierarchy —
the counsel of the chief priests — had prevailed. The Queen-
Mother was writing to her brother in England, while these
prelates were yet sitting, and she informs him on the 16th of
March, that the King, her son, had got counsel of the Kirkmen
to desire of him these points : That he will promise not to desire
his nephew to take his new constitutions from the Scriptures; not
to labour for the Earl of Angus ; to desire the- meeting-place
should be Newcastle, not York.2 In April, Lord Howard finds
also that the time of the meeting had been prorogued to
Michaelmas ; he had had an interview with the King himself,
at Stirling, on the subject, and being disgusted, wished to return
home. In May, Henry expresses to his nephew his surprise at
their meeting being changed, both as to place and time ; when

1 Holograph. State Papers, Scotland, in the Chapter-House, Westminster.
'' Gov. State Papers, vol. v., p. 38.

1585-37.] COUNCIL OF THE PRELATES. 539
James, on the 20th of that month, by way of prolonging the
game, replies in a letter, sweet as summer. "Dearest uncle,
trust firmly, that it shall not be in the power of any wicked
person to make us believe anything of you, but to repute and
hold you our most faithful and Idnd uncle, and we to be
semblable, an heartful and true nephew, ever ready to do unto you
all honour and humanity to us possible." 3 In short, the entire
c&mmunication is pregnant with hypocrisy, as it was not pos
sible for James to be ignorant, that already John Thornton, the
protonotary apostolic, had passed through England on his wav
to Rome, for the Pontiff's brief, charging the Scottish King to
have no meeting whatever with the King of England. Of this
fact, Henry had been informed a week before, so that on
receiving his nephew's letter, he could only learn with what
celerity he was following his own footsteps, in a course of
perpetual dissimulation.
But we have not yet done with this council of prelates. Both
Howard and Barlow were present at their discussions and ser
mons ; and whether the latter had, or had not, been the author
of the Satyre on Wolsey, or " The Burial of the Mass ; " his
language now certainly borders on it, in point of violence. He
was still Prior of his monastery, and did not resign till next
year ; but he had recently been made Bishop of St. David's, and
was extremely anxious to try his powers for the first time in
Scotland. Having alluded to the troubled state of the borders,
when writing to Crumwell, he adds —
"Also, I am sure that the CouncU, which are only the clergy, would not
willingly give such advertisement to the King, for due execution upon thieves
and robbers ; for then ought he first of aU to begin with tliem, in the midst of
his Realm, whose abominable abused fashion, so far out of frame, a Christian
heart abhorreth to behold. They show themselves, in aU points, to be the
Pope's pestilent creatures, very Umbs of the Devil, whose popish power violently
to maintain, their lying friars cease not in their sermons, we being present,
blasphemously to blatter against the verity, with slanderous reproach of ns,
which have justly renounced his wrong usurped papacy. Wherefore, in confu
tation of their detestable Ues, if I may obtain the King's Ucence (otherwise shaU
I not be suffered) to preach, I wiU not spare for no bodily peril, boldly to pubUsh

3 Gov. State Papers, vol. v., p. 51.— "20th day of May, the 23rd year of our
regime."

540 THE READING OF SCRIPTURE FORBIDDEN. [book III.
the trath of God's Word among them. Whereat though the clergy shall repine,
yet many of the lay people will gladly give tearing."1
Such was the state of things in March, 1536, at least in
Barlow's estimation, and his testimony on^behalf of " the lay
people" may be received as evidence that they already knew
much more than such clergy had either told them, or knew
themselves. Nor was this all. In only two months more, a more im
portant fact, because referring to.the manifest progress of Divine
truth, comes out, nor is the name of Luther or Lutheranism
mentioned in connexion with it. In May, 1536, the reading of
the Sacred Volume in the vulgar tongue ivas publicly prohibited.
Lord Howard and Barlow, in their joint letter^of the 13th, give
this information —
' ' Though we have not brought to such final pass the contents of our instruc
tions, according as we have confidence, to the King's Highness' pleasure, yet
there wanted in us no diUgent endeavour, which nevertheless is not so in vain,
but that we have necessarily tried out the Scottish dissembling mutability ;
which known and mistrusted, can do Uttle displeasure, whereas their feigned
uutrusty amity intendeth us no farther pleasure but their own profit : except
hereafter God give them a more faithful heart, grounded on knowledge of His
Word, whicli, lo be read in llieir vulgar tongue, is lately prohibited, by open
proclamation. "s
Now, in our English history we have already always found,
that every such measure as this, within the country, was only
indicative of still greater pressure from without, and so it must
have been in Scotland. Thus, then, before Tyndale expired, so
powerful had his exertions proved, that his translation had been
publicly denounced by the authorities in the north, as well as in
the south ; while all the time it was making its way, in un
known directions, and in both countries.
Barlow must have written in this style simply to please
Crumwell, and perhaps the King, though he uses language
actually at the expense of both. He could scarcely be ignorant
that a similar prohibition lay on the same version in England ;
nor was it till a full year after this that Crumwell obtained the
removal of all restriction. But he was soon to hear from
Latimer, in Convocation, how little the English Bench could
4 Holograph. CaUg., b. iii., fol. 194. Gov.. State Papers, vol. v., p. 37.
5 Gov. State Papers, vol. v. , p. 48.

1538-42.] THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 541
take credit over their brethren in the North ; and to learn from
Fox of Hereford, that the Bishops of England were " in danger
of being laughed to scorn by the common people (who knew
more of the Scriptures than they did), as having not one spark
of learning or godliness within them ; " and to witness a native
of that same Edinburgh, from which he wrote, on the point of
adjusting the balance more correctly between the English and
the Scottish bench, putting Stokesly, Bishop of London, in a
rage, though simply pleading for the authority and all-sufficiency
of Scripture with a power and point which excited the fear of
even Crumwell and Cranmer, who shrunk from the responsi
bility of allowing him to fight the battle out.6 These equal
reminiscences show that the Clergy in both countries were
equally hostile, and at the same moment, to the highest favour
which Heaven had ever bestowed on them both, while "the
lay people" alike in Scotland as in England were far ahead of
them.

MDXXXV1II.  MDXLII.
STATE OF THE COUNTRY — BEATON A CARDINAL AND PERSECUTION REVIVED —
THE MARTYRDOMS OF 1538 — DEAN FORRET — THE CAUSE OF ALL THE TUMULT
IN OPPOSITION TRACED TO THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE NATIVE TONGUE —
ANOTHER MARTYRDOM — MEN ESCAPING — THE CRUEL PROGRESS OF CARDINAL
BEATON — DEATH OF THE KING JAMES V. — GLOOMY STATE OF THE COUNTRY
AS TO ITS GOVERNMENT AT THIS MOMENT.
jhroughout these five years ensuing, or from 1538 to
1542 inclusive, just as though it had been intended by
Divine Providence to be the more observed by the
people as such, and at all events by posterity, the only
cause that looked upward was that which was most
hated ; the only progress towards improvement, in any
department, was in that of Divine Truth. At the close
of this period the King is to die, and even now, whether in
relation to himself or the country at large, every movement was
from bad to worse. All things went the downward road.
« See p. 256.

542 THE KING'S SECOND MARRIAGE. [book hi,
David Beaton, Prior of Arbroath, a nephew to the Arch
bishop of the same name, was now rising into power. As
licentious and ambitious as Wolsey, he was far more unrelent
ing in his disposition. He had been sent to France to bring
home the young and amiable Queen of James ; but she having
died within fifty days after her arrival, Beaton was sent again
to Prance to negotiate another marriage. He returned in
May, 1538, with Mary of Guise, an alliance perfectly agreeable
to the clergy, but most injurious to the best interests of
the country. While at the French Court, Beaton had contrived
to be made Bishop of Mirepoix in Languedoc ; but this was
only a step to higher promotion. He applied to the Pontiff for
the office and power of a Cardinal, and though but an Abbot in
his own country, he succeeded at the Court of Rome, and was
actually raised to that honour by Paul III., on the 20th
December, 1538.
Throughout the year 1538, the "new learning" having made
very manifest progress, the disposition to persecute was about
to be fully gratified. The secret of Beaton's zeal for power
could not long remain hid, and since James was both so mar
ried, and too far gone to profit by any warning ; his character
as a man must " smart for it," as Henry, his uncle, had
predicted. Nothing improved by his former visit to France,
gay, licentious, and thoughtless, James was as much in want
of money as his uncle always was, and money he must have.
In younger life he had shrunk from the shedding of blood, but
now, in order to beguile him from an eye to clerical wealth and
the accumulated treasures of the monasteries, the property
of all who should either die for their opinions, or abjure, was
held out as the base incitement to the enslaved and infatuated
monarch. If, therefore, among the subjects of James there were
those who would " take joyfully the spoiling of their goods,
knowing that they had in heaven a better and an enduring
substance," and if their attachment to the Word of Grod as such
should thus become apparent, a better evidence of progress made
could not be wished. At the same time, the course about to be
pursued by the enemy, is worthy of notice, on another account.
It was the choice plan of Stephen Gardiner in England to hunt
after such as he styled " the head deer ;" and as the persecutor

1538-42.] BIT1ER PERSECUTION REVIVED. 543
in Scotland is about to gratify not merely his own malice, but
supply the King's necessities ; the poor believer, who had
nothing to forfeit or leave behind him, not being a subject
suitable to the miserable end in view, must have been, most
providentially, passed over. The poor, often the richest in
faith, were below notice, merely because not worth the trouble
and expense.
Before, however, noticing any instances of persecution, it must
be remembered that " the New Testament in the vulgar tongue"
had been pointed out since May, 1536, by public proclamation.
There may have been some other Enghsh books suspected
of heresy already in Scotland, but even still, no other book
is expressly named. The presumption therefore is, that in
all these proceedings, the Scriptures chiefly, if not solely, were
now aimed at, and all opinions grounded on the Sacred Volume.
Beaton once a Cardinal, there was no farther occasion for
troubling either the Lords of the Privy Council, or those of the
Justiciary, in prosecution for heresy. Wherever his cross was
borne before him, there he reigned as lord paramount over the
conscience, and the suspected will not now easily escape. By
the 10th of January, 1539, we find Robert Forrester, brother
to the Laird of Arngibbon, William Forrester, son of John,
burgess of Stirling, Walter Cousland, David Graham, and James
Watson, all of Stirling, were seized for books, suspected to be
heretical ; " for breaking his Highness' proclamation, in having
and using such books as are suspected of heresy, and are prohi
bited by the Kirk." Observe the altered phraseology, or how
soon and slily they were interposing their own authority. The
caution at once exacted from these parties amounted to no less
than 3,100 marks, so that the entire property must have been
considerable. The first gentleman, we shall find die at the
stake ; the second and third, as well as another, a burgess of
Edinburgh, Robert Cant, were all entirely forfeited in March.
Similar forfeitures extended to Perth, as well as to Stirling,
where John Stewart, son to Henry, Lord Methven, was among
the number ; and so far as the seizure of property was concerned,
the persecution lay very heavy upon Dundee.
Two parties had now fully engrossed the mind of Beaton,
namely, the Kirk and the King. The former was to be defended

544 FIVE MARTYRS IN EDINBURGH. [book III,
by fire, the latter to be cajoled by fines ; and this month of
March served to unfold his character, as equally busy in both
departments. The most fearful week was the first in this month,
and Saturday the 1st its most shocking day. The country
hitherto had witnessed no scene so outrageous. The trial, such
as it was, and the sentence to death being all overtaken before
the sun went down, it must have been intended to strike with
terror, not Edinburgh alone, but every other place. Not fewer
than five different men appeared ; John Keillor and John
Beveridge, two Benedictine monks or Black "Friars, nor improba
bly from the same monastery in Edinburgh where Prior Buck
ingham had lodged till 1535, when he set off to the persecution
of Tyndale ; Sir Duncan Simpson, so called as being a priest,
from Stirling ; Mr. Robert Forrester, notary, a gentleman of
the same place ; and last, though not least, a Dean of the Kirk,
Thomas Forret, canon regular in the Monastery of St. Colm's
Inch, and Vicar of Dollar. Having been summoned before
Beaton, and Chisholm, Bishop of Dunblane, men equally
notorious for licentious habits and bigoted attachment to their
system, no mercy was in store for any of the five, while the last
was treated with characteristic reproach and barbarity. The
trial soon over, the fire was prepared on the esplanade of the
Castle, visible at once far and near, to two counties, Mid-Lothian
and Fife.
The King, too, must proceed one step farther on the present
occasion. In 1534 he had presided in a red dress at the trial of
Straiton, but his authority on the bench was now not consulted.
It had, in fact, been superseded by that of this Cardinal, but
still his Majesty must sanction all. He must follow the foot
steps of his father-in-law Francis I., in 1535, and himself be
present to see the red flames on the Castle-hill, when five of his
best subjects were consumed to ashes before his eyes, on the 1st
of March, 1539.1

"1 March, 1538-39. Accusatio haereticorum et eorum combustio, apud
Edinburg Bege presente." Household Book of King James V. The King left
the city, next day, for Lithgow, perhaps to escape odium ; but it was in perfect
keeping with the whole affair, that on the day itself, the Searcher was gone after
the property! March 1, Item. "Delivered to Archibald Heriot, Messenger,
to pass and search their goods, who were abjured and declared heretics in Edin-

1588-42.] CONDEMNATION OF DEAN FORRET. 545
From the record of Dean Forret's trial, it appears that his
official accuser, John Lauder, having demanded a proof of some
statement made, he produced a New Testament, which Lauder
snatched out of his hand, and holding it up, cried, " Behold, Sirs,
he has the book of heresy in his sleeve, that makes all the din
and play in our kirk ! " " Brother," said the Dean, " God
forgive you ! Ye could say better, if ye pleased, nor to call the
book of the Evangel of Jesus Christ, heresy!" But he was
immediately interrupted by his accuser with, "Knows thou
not, heretic, that it is contrary to our acts and express com
mands, to have a New Testament or Bible in English, which
is enough to burn thee for ?" Then proceeds the record,
" The Council of the Clergy gave sentence on him to be burnt,
for the having and using of the same book — the New Testament
in English-"
No attestation could be more distinct than that which was
here given by those unprincipled and wicked men. No other
book is once named. All the healthful and life-giving commo
tion is ascribed to one source, and that the Book of God. This
alone, it is confessed and deplored, was that which gave such
great annoyance, and, in their style, occasioned all the din and
play throughout the country !
Not satisfied with this horrible scene, Beaton must look west
ward, where it seems to have been resolved there should be
another martyrdom by way of terror. Here, however, he was
to meet with some temporary obstruction from Gavin Dunbar,
who was not only an Archbishop (of Glasgow), but at the same
time possessing the highest civil authority, as the Lord Chan
cellor. The fact was that Beaton, though nominally a Cardinal,
had not even yet received the " instrument of possession" to his
title, nor did he do so till October ; but though he had been in
full power, Glasgow as well as Ross would have demurred to
his authority, and objected to his cross being borne there. He
will provide for all this presently, but now, being still only an
Abbot in Scotland, if resolved to push his way over the head

burgh and Stiriing," 16sh. Lord Treasurer's Accounts. Independently of the
cruelty and deep depravity of persecution, it is generally accompanied by a
meanness most detestable. N N

546 martyrs in Glasgow and cupar-fife. [book m.
of Dunbar, it will only display the arrogance and fury, of this
man's ambition.
Two individuals — Jerome Russell, a Grey Friar, and Ninian
Kennedy, a young man, only eighteen, of good education and
poetic genius — were brought to trial. The Archbishop would
gladly have saved them, but the Cardinal was not to be checked
in his course of cruelty and ambition ; Dunbar was threatened,
and not liking to come into collision with this power so new to
Scotland, he yielded. The martyrs died in triumph. Another
suffered at Cupar-Fife. Many fled the country, and Berwick
was crowded with refugees. " Daily, cometh to me," writes
Norfolk from that place to Crumwell, " some gentlemen and some
clerks (priests), which do flee out of Scotland, as they say for
reading of Scripture in English, saying that if they were taken
they should be put to execution."
Such was the result of the influence and title, newly imported
from Italy, but at the same time the storm has again cleared the
moral atmosphere, giving decided proof that a great and un
wonted power had been introduced into Scotland. In other
words, we have before us the veritable progress of all the
scriptural Christianity which has been in the country ever
since ; and however feeble and unpretending in its com
mencement, the work, since 1526, was now of thirteen years'
standing. With such a second Queen as the Cardinal had procured, and
with this increase of tyrannical power to such a man, it was to
be expected that James's uncle, the King of England, would
take alarm. Through his own rude violence of language, how
ever, to say nothing of his licentious character, and the under
mining policy he had pursued, all influence over his nephew
was now gone ; but for his oicn sake, he must try the effect of
warning, through his herald or ambassador, once more.
His letter, however, was too late, and he might have saved
himself the trouble. James had already "smarted" in his
character, by yielding to Beaton, who was by no means to be
interrupted in his career after higher authority still. In the
autumn of 1539, by the death of his uncle, he had become
Primate, but even this, and the red hat of a cardinal to boot,
would not satisfy. The western Archbishop, the Lord Chan-

1538-12.] BEATON NOW A CARDINAL. 547
cellor, still sitting, like Mordecai in the King's gate, must be
fully, or without question, overruled. The Primate's mind, by
this time, was soaring after all power, whether over the King or
the country, as he will prove before long. Meanwhile, he felt,
at this moment, that there was still a technical flaw in the
authority for which he panted. He must carry his cross
triumphantly over broad Scotland, and no man shall gainsay or
plead exemption. In short, though both an Archbishop and a
Cardinal, he must not only be Legate a natus, which, as Primate,
he was already, but Legate a latere, or plenipotentiary, and
enjoy as much or more power than any primate had done before
him. Hence Oliphant, his most willing agent, who had been
to Glasgow, was then dispatched to Rome, and by the 16th of
November, 1539, we have Beaton writing from Kelso, urging
him on to " diligence and to labour at his power."
" Attour,'' says he, or, "Besides, ye shaU incontinent get us a brief, that we,
as Primate of the realm, may bear our cross before us, through the whole king
dom of Scotland, both in tlie diocese and province of Glasgow, and all other places
whatsoever exempt." And again, in December from Edinburgh, he adds — "Make
the best and most honourable persuasions ye can, or may, to induce his Holiness
to the granting of the said legation."2
The fact was, that the Pontiff himself faltered and hesitated,
but, at last, Beaton's agent was successful ; and since he was the
last individual in Scotland to be clothed in such high and shock
ing authority, we can now see a propriety in the Pontiff being
permitted to put forth all his power, and lift his head as high as
he possibly could in the person of this man, a little before his
authority in Scotland was to be broken for ever. It will be
remembered, that precisely the same thing had been permitted
to take place in England.
Whether, however, it was infatuated policy, or rather profli
gate extravagance, in the Scottish King, there could be no
excuse for the guilt of persecution ; though still we are not to
imagine that James was a true son of the Kirk. He did not
care one straw for their system, and held the persons of his
ecclesiastics in profound contempt. In the drollery and satire
which was played off against them, he would himself indulge,

2 Sadler's Letters, 4to, i. p. 14—17.
N N 2

548 THE INTERLUDE AT LITHGOW. [book III.
and even listen to it for hours, with the keenest pleasure. An
instance had occurred at this very time, on the 6th of January,
1540, at Lithgow, where an interlude was played before the
King and Queen and the whole Council, spiritual and temporal.
The subject of the play, according to an eye-witness, was "the
naughtiness in religion, the presumption of the Bishops, the
pollution of their courts, and misusing of priests." At the
close the King called on the Archbishop of Glasgow and other
Bishops present to reform their manner of living, saying that,
unless they so did, he would send six of the proudest of them to his
uncle of England, and as those were ordered, so he would order all
the rest that would not mend.
But then upon such an occasion as that of this play, what has
become of Beaton ? He was not there, and as long as he carried
his cross so high, all this was nothing more than idle talk.
James might amuse himself, but he must live and die, the mere
shadow of a King. This scene at Lithgow, however, was not a
solitary or unwonted affair. Such plays and poems and satires
were repeatedly acted ; and though the most eminent scholar in
Scotland, George Buchanan, had to fly, there was another man
who never did, and whom the Cardinal never was allowed to
touch. Here was a second Mordecai, far more obnoxious than
Gavin Dunbar had been, who was long to survive all the fury
of this period, and write his " Tragedie of the late Cardinal,"
after he had gone to his account. This was no other than the
Lord Lyon King at Arms, Sir David Lindsay of the Mount,
Fifeshire. He had been the official keeper and companion of
the King, in the days of his infancy ; and now, the author not
only of the interlude referred to, but of other satirical pieces,
bearing with such force and effect on the superstition of the day,
and especially on Ihe ignorance and immorality, or vices of the
Kirk, as to render its officers, both high and low, most con
temptible in the eyes of many. Yet must he never be molested,
nor Beaton ever wave his cross over his head. So far from it,
the Queen having been lately crowned, Sir David had been not
the least conspicuous figure. We find a sum of not less than a
thousand marks had been actually paid to him and his wife, for
their official services on that occasion.
Mary of Guise was scarcely crowned Queen, when Sir Ralph

1538-49.] DEATH OF THE KING. 549
Sadler was down once more to visit the King. He tried, but in
vain, to shake the confidence of James in his Cardinal and
Legate ; at least so the King pretended, by the manner in which
he continued to rally Sadler in reply. But in May, clothed in
all his honours thick upon him, Beaton, as Legate a latere, pro
ceeded in grand entrance to St. Andrews, with an unwonted
array of nobility, and there delivered his first oration.
It was on the 22nd of this month, from his Abbey of St.
Andrews, that the King informed Henry of his having become
a father, by the birth of James his eldest son : but from this
period, it may be added, the gay but enslaved monarch was
hastening rapidly to his ruin. One cause of molestation or
perplexity now followed the other in quick succession. By the
sudden death of Thomas Scott, Lord Justice Clerk, the King
had been not a little disturbed, but the execution of Sir James
Hamilton of Finnart, for high treason, appears to have shaken
his nervous system. Jealousy of his nobility preyed on his
mind, and there were those who were ever ready to promote the
feeling. In April 1541, his second son Arthur was born, but he sur
vived only a few days, and in a few more his elder son and heir
followed his brother to the grave. In December the Queen
Mother, Henry's sister, died at Perth, and the reign of discord
between England and Scotland began. The battle of Solway
Moss, so fatal to the King's reputation and so ruinous to the
kingdom, was fought in the year following. Slow fever, the
result of distraction with the deepest melancholy, preyed on the
vigorous constitution of the unhappy monarch. He lived only
to hear of the birth of his daughter, the equally misguided and
unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, and seven days after died of a
broken heart. Did he remember in his last hours the warning
of Ales, pointing to Antiochus, who, " with his ruined army,
himself was consumed with grief of mind" ?
Meanwhile the Word of the Lord grew and multiplied.
Beaton had drawn up a list of victims for his intended Inquisi
tion, most of them men of rank and property ; and the number
shows the extent to which the principles of truth were embraced.
Sir Ralph Sadler, Henry's Ambassador, computes them at 360
" gentlemen, all well minded to God's Word." But against the

550 MANY PERUSING THE SCRIPTURES. [book hi.'
horrible proscription here meditated, the mind of the King
revolted, and he could not stand even the sight of the list, and
the bloody intention was frustrated. Still it discovers the extent
to which the Scriptures were read and prized, while Buchanan
speaks of " many thousands who did not hesitate to peruse the
books of the Old and New Testaments." An important question
now is — How, or by what instrumentality, had this mighty change
already been effected ?
Seven years after the Scriptures of the New Testament in
English had been first conveyed into Scotland, there had,
indeed, been an able and well-sustained controversy, though
hitherto buried in oblivion, as to the right and duty of the
people to read the Scriptures for themselves, and at home in
their own dwellings ; but there had been no ministry of tbe
Word, properly so called. One man, Forret, in a very hmited
district, for a short time had spoken out ; but he was almost
immediately silenced, and then burnt to ashes. There had been
no son of thunder lifting up his voice, nor had any such means
been employed as to account for this confessedly great change.
Two or three men from England may come down afterwards,
and make some impression ; but we now speak of the past, and
of what had been already effected. Putting the presumptive
heir to the crown entirely out of view, as a weak and vacillating
man, have so many round about him been so shaken in mind, as
to involve themselves, by Beaton's casuistry, in the deadly sin of
what he called heresy ? Then, as far as the art of printing, or
English books were concerned, nothing can be ascribed to either
cause : and of books imported from abroad, we find not upon
record a single title-page, save one. But that one has been pro
claimed in open court, by Lauder, in 1538, as having been the
great, nay, the only source of annoyance. He denounced it as
heresy. " God forgive you," said Forret, " that ye should call
the book of the Evangel of Jesus Christ heresy." But he
insisted that it was, and that it was this which had occasioned
" all the din and play in their Kirk," or throughout Scotland.
Certainly it was intended, that posterity should observe this,
and no event of the day has been more distinctly marked, if so
much so.
The ministry of the Word, though of Divine appointment, has

1538-412.J BEATON ANTICIPATES THE REGENCY. 551
again and again, throughout this history, been presented by
God as entirely subordinate to His own Word — the living voice
of man, to the voice of the living God. In the scale of human
depravity, or the profanation of Divine things, besides the neglect
or perversion of the ministry, there is a lower depth, or greater
sin. This had been shown in Scotland as well as England, in
the treatment of the Divine Record itself — in the wilful conceal
ment of the Word of God — in the denial of it to the people —
nay, in the denunciation of it by the profligate rulers of the
darkness which reigned around them. This was the greatest
of all crimes. The force of systematic depravity could go no
farther. They had rejected the Word of Jehovah, and what
wisdom was in them? The Sacred Scriptures, therefore, and
more especially those of the New Testament, standing in the
same relation to the Christian Church, which the law, when
lost, did to the Jewish, and which, when found, became the
means of its revival ; so the Sacred Volume must now take
precedence. We leave other nations to examine for themselves;
but in the course pursued by Divine Providence towards this
island entire, and by way of eminence, this fact is worthy of
mpre reflection than it has ever obtained. The Word of the
Lord, as an instrument in His own hands, and conveyed into the
island in spite of all opposition, was to be first, and to be thus
glorified. So it had happened in England, as already explained.
But here, in the north, as well in the south, in Scotland as well
as in England — " Jehovah had resolved to show
"What His own Sovereign Word could do."
And yet, after all that can be said, at this moment, what was
now to be done ? na}-, what to be expected ? We have come to
December 1542. The King is dead, and Beaton has reached
the highest point of his ambition. Before his sovereign was
even laid in the grave at Holyrood, he has usurped the govern
ment ; and look wherever the people might, everything seemed
to portend success in favour of such a movement. With regard
to his own crafty brethren, he sits, like a sovereign Pontiff, over
every one of them. The King has left for his heir only an
infant, whose mother is favourable to all the intentions of

552 CRITICAL STATE OF THE GOVERNMENT. [book Hi.
Beaton. The presumptive heir to the crown, the Earl of Arran,
is not merely a weak man, but he seems to be quite indisposed
for action; while, in point of talent and activity, there is no
other individual to be compared with the Cardinal and Legate.
As for the nobility at large, their power is broken ; such of them
as possessed any authoritative influence are either dead, or in
exile ; and the best of them have been carried out of the way,
from Solway Moss to London. The neighbouring powerful
monarch, elated by his victory, threatens war ; and it may be
one of conquest or of extermination. In short, according to
Buchanan, " the considerate foresaw a tempest overhanging
Scotland, dark and gloomy beyond conception ; for the king
had not made a will, and left a girl, scarcely eight days old, as
his heir."
From all these circumstances, it must have been quite im
possible for any man to see before him a single day, or to
foretell what awaited either himself or his country. The only
certain thing was, that Beaton had resolved to be both "king
and priest" for the time being; having, it is said, caused the
will of the king to be proclaimed on Monday after his death,
and this, it is understood, pointed to him as the future Regent.
But let what will take place, nothing shall prevent the pro
gress of Divine truth ; and, as in nature, the darkest hour pre
cedes the daybreak, so it may be even now.

1543.] MEMORABLE YEAR. 553
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, JAMES VI.
TO THE COMMONWEALTH.
MDXLIII. — MDCL.
THE YEAR 1543, A MEMORABLE ONE — CRITICAL STATE OF THE GOVERNMENT
— REMARKABLY SUDDEN CHANGE — THE PRIMATE OF ST. ANDREWS IN PRISON
— PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLES, AND BY A BILL AND PROCLAMATION THROUGHOUT
SCOTLAND, SANCTIONS THE GENERAL PERUSAL OF THOSE SCRIPTURES — CON
TRAST WITH ENGLAND AT THIS MOMENT — EXTENT TO WHICH THE SCRIPTURES
HAD BEEN POSSESSED, IN SCOTLAND — THE EARL OF ARRAN, THE GOVERNOR,
FALLS UNDER THE POWER OF BEATON, NOW ENLARGED — MORE MARTYRDOMS
BY HANGING, DROWNING, AND THE FLAMES — THE DEATH OF BEATON —
HISTORY OF THE BIBLE IN SCOTLAND FROM 1543 TO 1650 — SUPPLIED BY
IMPORTATION FOR MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS — THE PRESENT VERSION
BECOMES THE ONLY ONE IN USE OVER THE ENTIRE KINGDOM.
ijHE year 1543 was a memorable period, whether we allude
to Scotland or England. In relation to both countries,
it was a crisis ; but as viewed in conjunction, we are
furnished with matter well worthy of notice, and in
close connexion with the Sacred Scriptures. In Scot
land, the opening of the. year will discover how in
significant is the power of any human party, however
ably led, when the moment arrives in which the Supreme Ruler
begins to deal with it. Beaton we have just left, in great
power, and fondly anticipating a higher place than Wolsey him
self had ever reached. He may be allowed, for a few days, to
dream of reigning over the kingdom, at the head of a regency,
of which the EarLs of Argyle, Huntly, and Murray were to be
chief men ; and as for the presumptive heir to the crown, the
Earl of Arran, he must be neutralized or overruled. If we can
rely on the deliberate testimony of Arran himself, Beaton
exhibited a will of the King, appointing, him to be guardian of the
infant Queen, as well as Regent, or Governor of the realm.
Henry VIII., his determined enemy, was now dreaming also,
as well as Beaton, though in very different strain. The death
of James V. instantaneously gave fresh impulse to his ambition.
If possible, and immediately, he is to reign over Scotland. He
is to get possession of Beaton, as well as the infant Queen Mary,
who, as he now proposed, should in due time be married to his

554 HENRY THE EIGHTH IN MOTION. [book hi.
son Edward. Once awake, however, both the King and the
Cardinal must, like other men, follow with the tide of events ;
but the question between them at this moment being one of
time, the sequel will explain which of them gained his object.
No sooner had Henry been informed of his nephew's death, than
he sent for the Scottish lords and gentlemen, the prisoners from
Solway, who, only a few days before, had been marched, as in
disgrace, through London, and then they had been only
upbraided. The King now sounded them, with a view to his
intentions, when, without exception, they bowed to his terms,
and without gainsaying ! Henry exacted pledges, which they
left behind them ; and they engaged, that when Queen Mary
came to be ten years of age, she should marry Prince Edward.
On Friday the 29th of December, the prisoners were allowed to
depart, and coming down by way of Darlington, they had
reached home by Wednesday the 24th of January.1 Arran now
found himself in circumstances to act with decision ; and no
sooner do we turn to Scotland, than we find, that not one day
had been lost by the Governor.
Upon Monday the 8th of January, the King had been in
terred ; but on Wednesday the 10th, not more than forty-
eight hours having elapsed, the Earl of Arran was pro
claimed Protector and Governor of the kingdom.2 Thus far
successful, still the Governor was not sufficiently strong to
take any step against Beaton. On the contrary, slow to forego
all secular power, it appears that Beaton actually snatched at
the chancellorship, and obtained it, for one solitary week !
With such an office in addition to those he possessed, if he had
effectually ousted Dunbar, the Archbishop of Glasgow, he no
doubt intended ultimately to overrule the Governor according to
his pleasure.
Here, then, at last, it becomes evident, that Henry VIII. had
overreached his greatest opponent in the North ; for though
already in possession of the great seal, by Friday the 26th of
this month, the Chancellor and Cardinal, though Legate, was in
safe keeping at Dalkeith ; only two days after the arrival of the

G-ov. State Papers, vol. v., pp. 234, 242, notes.
' ' Diurnal of Occurrents. "

1543.] BEATON, THE CARDINAL, IN PRISON. 555
Scottish barons from England ! The will exhibited, pronounced
a forgery, had been of no avail. But whatever obscurity still
hangs over the precise charges against Beaton, he was put in
prison on the day now mentioned. From Dalkeith he was
removed to Seton House ; from thence, under the charge of
Lord Seton, to Blackness Castle on the Forth ; and finally, to
St. Andrews, from whence he was not released till April, or
more than a fortnight after Parliament had transacted all their
business.3 Thus are we left free to inquire what this business
included. In the meanwhile, however, was the arrestment of such a
man as this to pass without notice? So far from it, all the
disciples of "the old learning" were immediately in mourning,
and struck with horror. " The public services," says Mr. Tytler,
" were instantly suspended ; the priests refused to administer
either baptism or burial ; ihe churches were closed : an universal
gloom overspread the countenances of the people, and the
country presented the melancholy appearance of a land excom
municated for some awful crime. The days, indeed, were past
when the full terrors of such a state of spiritual proscription
could be felt, yet the Catholic party were still strong in Scot
land; they loudly exclaimed against their opponents for so
daring an act of sacrilege and injustice ; and the people began,
in some degree, to identify the cause of Beaton with the inde
pendence of the country." The barons also were far from being
unanimous on the subject. Four days only after the imprison
ment, or on Tuesday the 30th of January, the Earl of Argyle
had left Edinburgh for his estate in the west, where, gathering
his clan, he might stand ready for any future emergency. The
Earls of Huntly, Murray, and BothweU, had offered to be
sureties for the Cardinal's liberty, but in vain. Mass might be
suspended, while the priests and monks, having little or nothing
to do, had more time for politics and intimidation ; but still
there was no enlargement of their Cardinal. At this early
period, and in reference to the clergy, such an instance of
inflexibility was analogous to that of the Venetian government;
and it becomes the more observable, when the two cousins are
3 Gov. State Papers, vol. v., p. 242, note.

556 THE MOURNING FOR THE CARDINAL. [book iii.
viewed in contrast. Between the Earl of Arran and Beaton
there was the greatest possible distinction, in point of strength
of mind and firmness of purpose. It was therefore fit, that at
this peculiar crisis, the weakest individual in authority, or the
most vacillating, not to say treacherous, should be instrumental
in putting aside by far the most acute and powerful man in the
kingdom. All that the Pontiff could possibly convey to him
from Rome, had previously been bestowed : and if any words
are about to be spoken in Parliament regarding the Sacred
Volume ; if anything was about to be done, which was never to
be undone ; it was certainly something to say in future years,
that all this power had gone for nothing !
Parliament having been summoned to meet on Monday the
12th of March, throughout the month of February, the Earls of
Argyle and Huntly, BothweU and Murray, were straining every
nerve to rally and invigorate their adherents ; so that the week
immediately before the opening of Parliament exhibited two
parties in hostile array, one assembled at Perth, the other in
Edinburgh. At the former, besides the earls already men
tioned, there were other noblemen, with a great number of
bishops, abbots, and knights. They commenced with negotiar
tion, sending certain articles to the Governor and his council.
The very first of these stipulated, that the Cardinal should be set
at liberty; the second, that the Neiv Testament in the native tongue
should not go abroad. They then requested that the Governor
should be counselled by them in aU the affairs of the realm, and
that other ambassadors to Henry VIII., than those which were
intended, should be sent to England !
There was not a moment's delay at Edinburgh in returning a
most decided answer. The Governor and council would listen
to no such terms. On the contrary, they immediately dis
patched a herald of arms, charging all these lords at Perth,
under pain of treason, to repair to the capital and serve the
Governor, according to their allegiance. At the same time, or
upon Friday the 9th of March, by way of making their inten
tions doubly sure, Archibald Beaton of Capildra was committed
to ward at Dalkeith, as his relative the Cardinal had been in
January, he being now in safe keeping at a greater distance.
The party at Edinburgh was now ready for business.

1543.] THE AGITATION OF THE KINGDOM. 557
The appearance of the herald at Perth had proved quite
sufficient. The Earl of Huntly immediately gave in. As for
the clergy, whfle they could not extricate the Cardinal, if they
had anything to say against the Scriptures, it was proper that
they should be mustered on the spot. Since Beaton only is put
out of the way, let the fraternity assemble and put forth all its
strength. As a body, therefore, whether bishops or abbots, they
now foUowed Huntly's example ; and they all arrived in
Edinburgh on Sunday, or the day before Parliament was opened.
By Monday, the Earl of Murray, and on Tuesday, the Earl of
BothweU, sent, craving that they might serve the Governor.
The only baron absent was the Earl of Argyle, who pled sick
ness; but on Thursday he sent his procurator and his two
uncles to make his excuse. In short, and on the same day, the
Earl of Angus and his brother, Sir George, in their joint letter
to Lord Lisle, describe the assembly as " the most substantial
Parhament that ever was seen in Scotland in any man's remem-i
brance, and best furnished with aU the three estates ; the multi
tude, including their serving-men, being as much as Edinburgh
and Leith could lodge." *
This " substantial" ParUament having assembled on Monday
the 1.2th, on Tuesday they proceeded to business, and in three
days only dispatched the whole ; for though it did not rise tiU
Saturday, after Thursday there is nothing recorded. On
Tuesday, as James, the Earl of Arran, had been chosen by an
inferior number of Lords only, he was now ratified and con
firmed by aU the three estates, as Governor and second person
in the realm. On the same day, Dunbar, Archbishop of
Glasgow, and as Lord ChanceUor, made a motion as to the
treaty of peace with England, and the marriage of Mary to
Edward. By Wednesday they had reinstated the Earl of
Angus and his brother, Sir George Douglas, in their honours
and estates, after having been kept in banishment by the late
King for fifteen years. But Thursday, the 15th, was reserved
for by far the most memorable transaction, or rather the only
one, worthy of our notice.
On that day a BiU having been presented by Lord Maxwell

4 State Papers, vol. v., p. 264.

558 READING THE SCRIPTURES DECLARED [book III.
for aUowing the Scriptures to be read by all without any limitation,
the Lords of the Articles found, because there was no law shown
or produced to the contrary, that the same may be used by
all the lieges of this realm in our vulgar tongue ; and therefore in
full Parliament allowed the Bill to be read.5 The proposer of
this measure was the same man who had been so disappointed
of command at Solway Moss, through the folly or infatuation of
the late King. He was one of those described by Arran as
"weU minded towards God's word," which, under the sway of
Beaton, he " durst not avow ;" but little could he have imagined
that in less than three months, his Sovereign in the grave, and
the mighty Cardinal in prison, his next, or first important step,
would be to move in Parliament on such a subject. Maxwell's
visit to England has been loosely conjectured to have had some
influence on his mind ; but his mind, as weU as that of many
others with him, had been influenced for years before they had
seen England ; and at aU events, his present movement could
not have been in obedience to any previous instructions received
there, much less any engagement. No, when he departed from
London, leaving pledge for his return, if called for, Beaton was
in full force as chief ruler of the country, and no such speedy
result could have been either foreseen or conjectured; The
truth is, that many others in Parliament were of MaxweU's
opinion, and hence his success.
But was such a proposal as this to pass, and grow into the
shape of an Act of Parliament, without any opposition ? Cer
tainly not ; and this, at the moment, formed part of its value,
as a memorable occurrence. It was not within the power of
these' men, though they had been unanimous, either to retard
or greatly further this cause. That cause was now nearly seven
teen years old, independently alike of their aid or opposition ;
and it will go on, when this pusiUanimous and unprincipled
cousin of Beaton's, the Governor, has turned his coat, and is
sanctioning the bloody deeds of the Cardinal again ruling over
him. But in the meanwhUe, the opposition was weU fitted to
instruct the people at large, as to who were not, and who were,
the determined enemies of the will of God being made known
5 Scottish Acts, vol. ii.

1043.] LAWFUL BY GENERAL PROCLAMATION. 559
to His creatures. There was therefore a select band of men in
Parliament now in alarm, though only one, but that one una
nimously. We need scarcely name the Bishops and their
brethren ; for though the body of the Cardinal and Legate had
been placed at a convenient distance, the animus of his party
was present, and in its full strength.
Accordingly up rose Dunbar, the Archbishop and Lord Chan
ceUor, "in his own name, and in name of all the prelates of
the realm that were present, and dissented simpliciter." They
now opposed the measure at least " unto the time that a pro
vincial council might be had of all the clergy of this realm, to
advise and conclude thereupon, if the same be necessary to be had
in vulgar tongue, to be used among the Queen's lieges or not;
and thereafter to show the utter determination what shall be
done in that behalf; and thereupon he craved instruments."
Thus spake one of the three estates in ParUament to a man, but
upon this day altogether in vain, as the Bill was immediately
passed into a law, and in these terms : —
" It is statute and ordained, that it shall be lawful to all our
Sovereign Lady's lieges to hare the Holy Writ, both the New Testa
ment and the Old, in the vulgar tongue, in the English or Scottish,
of a good and true translation, and that they shall incur no crimes
for the having or reading of the same; providing always that no
man dispute or hold opinions, under the pains contained in the Acts
of Parliament."
The party in opposition might complain, and still decline to
say mass, nay even refuse to bury the dead ; but as soon as Par
hament had risen on Saturday, no time was lost in proclaiming
to all the people what had been done. On Monday an order
came from the Governor to the Clerk- Register, Mr. James
Fowles, of Colinton, and proclamation was made at the market-
cross of Edinburgh ; but this was not sufficient. Letters were
sent off by special messengers, ordaining the Act to be pro
claimed within the jurisdiction of the protesting Archbishop,
in the west — also in Dundee and Aberdeen ; in Elgin, Forres, and
Inverness; in Dumfermline and Perth; in Lanark and Dumfries,
Kirkcudbright and. Wigton. 6
6 Lord Treasurer's Accounts.

560 SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND [book III,
There was certainly no ambiguity in this parliamentary de
cision, nor any want of vigorous despatch in sounding it out,
through the length and breadth of the land. All of a sudden,
the trumpet had given a certain sound, from Wigton to Inver
ness, nor should it pass unnoticed that the voice of the Scottish
senate never was recaUed. The Act was never repealed, nor was
there any haggling with the subject in ParUament, amidst aU
the turmoil of many subsequent years. The step taken, however,
considered as a parliamentary one, becomes doubly striking, as
soon as we observe what was doing in England at the same
moment. In the northern part of the island, in one single day,
they had discussed and settled a subject, on which Henry's ob
sequious Parliament were deliberating and disputing for weeks,
if not months, together. If the Bishops of " the old learning"
were discomfited and down in Scotland, at the same precious
moment they were up and doing in England. The English
Convocation had, it is true, been made to feel and confess its
own impotence again and again, before this period ; but at last,
having, through its organs in ParUament, for once got the sub
ject before the Senate, they succeeded effectually in befooling it.
All their proceedings, however, it is freely granted, recoUed on
the head of Henry himself, who did what he pleased, in a Par
liament prostrate at his feet ; nor in referring to him, as the
sovereign agent, is it possible to forget his course of intrigue, in
Scotland, year after year. Had he not been prompting his
nephew, James V., for the last seven years to compliance ?
Nay, teasing him to admit the Scriptures to be read in his
kingdom ? How often he had anxiously felt his pulse on this
subject, we need not recount ; but now the Scottish monarch is
gone, and the very first Parliament after his decease has thus
determined, and so promptly. And what is the stiU surviving
uncle, Henry VIII., now doing, or what does he say ? Why,
his Parliament, after abundance of wrangling between Gardiner
and Cranmer, have only now discovered that " the Lord Chan
cellor of England, the Captains of the wars, and the King's
Justices may read the Bible ! — That any nobleman, or gentle
woman, or merchantman, being a householder, may follow the *
example ! But that no woman-servant, no artificer, no ' appren
tice, no journeyman, no husbandman, no labourer, was to read

1543.] IN CONTRAST THIS YEAR. 561
either the New Testament or the Old, by themselves, or to
any other, privately or openly, on pain of one month's im
prisonment ! ! "
And were these two Parliaments within the compass of the
same island, thus acting, and at the same moment ? They
certainly were ; and for additional proof, the reader has only
to refer to the preceding history, under the year 1543. But
from the singular coincidence in point of time and theme, with
the striking contrast in regard to treatment ; if it was intended
that posterity should learn a lesson ever after, as to the foUy of
parliamentary interference on such a subject, we ask if it be
possible to conceive of one more decisive ? Nor does the lesson
terminate here. Henry the Eighth has an ambassador on the
road to Scotland, and in proceeding with our narrative, we find
him arrive on the evening of Sunday, the 18th of March, or the
day after the Scottish ParUament had risen. It was Sir Ralph
Sadler once more. That evening he saw the Governor at Holy-
rood, and heard of aU the doings of the preceding eventful
week. Next day, when proclamation was made, he had his first
deliberate interview, and on Tuesday commenced his first and
long letter. By his correspondence, so far as the reading of the
Sacred Volume was concerned, he wiU certainly not add to the
consistency of his Royal Master's character. For whatever they
were deciding in his EngUsh Parliament, as a part of the best news
Sadler could convey, he informs his Royal Majesty personally,
not indeed one syUable respecting the distinction now making
in the south, between gentlewomen and maid-servants, between
noblemen and labourers, or captains of the wars and husband
men ; but that in Scotland, " the gospel was now set forth in
EngUsh, and open proclamations made that it shall be lawful for all
men to read the Bible or Testament in the mother tongue, and
special charge that no man preach to the contrary on pain of
death ! " And by the 10th of April, that same Monarch, who
was on the point of endeavouring to restrain the Bible, threaten
ing to punish every soul among the useful or working classes in
his kingdom for daring to look between its leaves, was, in order
to accomphsh his ambitious designs upon Scotland, urging his
ambassador there, respecting " the setting forth of the Scrip
tures !" Nor was this newly- appointed Governor in Scotland
o o

562 EXTENT TO WHICH THE SCRIPTURES [book III.
far behind the English King. His fickleness had, by this
month, excited the suspicions of Sadler ; but we shaU hear of
him presently.
These gentlemen, however, having now chosen to say that it
was lawful for " all men to have the Holy Writ, and to read it,
whether in the New Testament or the Old ;" the only question
is, where were copies, either of the one or the other, to be found,
sufficient to satisfy the demand ? Not a single edition was
ordered to be put to press, nor was there any Bible to be printed
in Scotland for fully thirty-five years to come. Sadler, it is
true, had written, at the Governor's request, for certain copies
to be sent, but this was not till a fortnight after ParUament had
risen, nor can this render the proclamation inteUigible. The
Governor had ordered open proclamation to be made, not in
Edinburgh alone, but in all the principal towns of the kingdom;
but was this to be regarded as no more than a liberty to read
what was nowhere to be found ? This would have been nothing
short of a piece of mockery. Here, therefore, at last we meet
with a sudden, but certainly no sUght or ambiguous confirma
tion of our previous history. Long before these parliamentary
men had thus spoken, human authority for such Uberty had
never been consulted. It was now above sixteen years since
the EngUsh New Testament at least had been in Edinburgh and
Leith, as well as St. Andrews and Dundee. Maxwell, who had
spoken in Parliament, was then a much younger man ; and it is
curious enough that at that time, the Archbishop of St. Andrews,
the uncle of Beaton, should have been a fugitive tending sheep,
under the disguise of a shepherd ; while, at the present moment,
the nephew, though clothed with the highest pontifical authority,
was now a prisoner in safe custody.
At the same time, it should be observed, that but for what
has just occurred, no one could have imagined that the importa
tion of the Scriptures had been going on to such extent; and,
in a historical point of view, it is this which lends any import
ance to the step taken in Parliament. It was like the drawing
aside of a curtain, to let us see what had been accomplished,
without any human sanction, either asked or given ; and with
out the agency of even one conspicuous character, to be known
in future years. These proclamations were like so many invita-

1543.] HAD BEEN ALREADY POSSESSED. 563
tions for the Sacred Volume to be produced, if it was already in
the country. The precious book which for so many years had
been read in secret, or at midnight over the household lamp,
might now be held up in noon-day.
In such a history as the present, therefore, nothing could be
more desirable than to ascertain the precise extent of the circu
lation of the Sacred Volume, or by whom, at this early period,
it was actuaUy and already possessed. Our authority for this
is one which wiU not here be disputed, although he was a man
of whom, tiU now, we have had no occasion to speak. Even at
the present moment, indeed, he had not yet declared himself to
be in favour of the Scriptures. About seventeen years must
elapse before he wiU take up his abode in Edinburgh, and at
least a few more before he described the fame of 1543 ; for
though born in the year 1505, he had nearly reached his fortieth
year before his mind was ripe for any decisive step. It has been
conjectured, indeed, that about the year 1535, some favourable
change in his sentiments had commenced ; but whatever these
were, he had not possessed sufficient fortitude openly to profess
them, nor to act with decision tiU about ten years after that
period. We now aUude, it may be anticipated, to the weUJmown
John Knox.
If it has hitherto been- imagined by many, that there had
been no vital and important movements in Scotland before his
appearance, the previous history is left in explanation, and Knox
himself wiU now so far draw aside the curtain. The positive
importation of the Sacred Volume in the language of the
people, for at least seventeen years past, and that tiU the men
in power were constrained to bow and acknowledge it ; or its
importation for about seventeen years more before his settlement
in Scotland, he has not interpreted ; but when sitting down to
review the past, he had a distinct and Uvely remembrance of the
memorable occurrence in 1543. Indeed, such an event was
weU fitted to stimulate even the timid and the wavering mind.
About six or eight years had elapsed after Knox's settlement
before he commenced that history, the whole of which passes
under his name ; and since by the year 1543, though not yet
decided in his views of Divine truth, he must have become no
unobservant spectator of his country, no man was more able to
o o 2

564 TRIUMPH OF THE TRUTH. [book III,
narrate with fidelity what had been so visible to many eyes.
Looking back, therefore, about twenty-five years, and speaking
of the freedom, then at last proclaimed, for all to read the
Scriptures, he says :— " This was no smaU victory of Christ
Jesus, fighting against the conjured enemies of His verity ; not
smaU comfort to such as before were holden in such bondage,
that they durst not have read the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Com
mandments, nor articles of their faith, in the English tongue,
but they should have been accused of heresy. Then might have
been seen the Bible lying upon almost every gentleman's table. The
New Testament was borne about in many men's hands !" 7
Now, these volumes, of course, had been in Scotland before,
and most of them long before this period ; otherwise such a
display could not have been made, for a very considerable time
to come ; so that, up to this period, the progress of Divine
truth had been entirely independent of human approbation, or
rather in spite of human authority ; and the cause wiU now pro
ceed as it had done, whatever should occur, or whatever men in
power may yet either say or do to the contrary.
The present crisis had served to show that Beaton was nothing
more than as " clay in the hands of the potter ;" but, after aU,
the triumph in its fuU extent was Uttle more than a gleam of
sunshine. The parUamentary "liberty" granted, was very
much akin to the present Russian idea of that term. There was
unUmited freedom to have and to read the Sacred text, but none
whatever to form any opinion, or, at least, express it ! In strict
propriety of speech, the terms of the Act were a mixture of pre
sumption and cruelty, or of profanity and persecution : of pre
sumption in any men taking it upon them to legislate on a sub
ject so sacred ; of cruelty, in resolving to punish their fellow-
subjects for their opinions, and, according to the report of Sadler,
with death itself.
The most memorable circumstance however was, what we
have already hinted, that the Act never was repealed. As
it was therefore " lawful for all men to have the Holy Writ," it

7 Knox's History ; the first book of which was written by himself, the second,
third, and fourth from his papers, by Richard Bannatyne, and the fifth by
Mr, David Buchanan.

1543.] BEATON SET AT LIBERTY. 565
never could be iUegal to import it, and we have to witness pre
sently the extent to which this importation must have gone.
Meanwhile, and just as if to render all future progress only the
more observable, the Regent of Scotland, the selfsame governor
who had sent out these proclamations, in less than six months
had entirely changed his politics ! Indeed, the very next
month after Parliament rose, he had begun to betray symptoms
of wavering ; and though he, and some others, had sold their
country for EngUsh gold, since Beaton was once more at liberty,
as weU as in great wrath at what had been done while he was in
confinement, it wiU not be long before the Earl of Arran will be
entirely at his command. In short, the Lords of the "sub
stantial" Parliament were soon at variance, and though the
treaties both of peace and marriage with England, concluded at
Greenwich on the 1st of July, were ratified by Arran on Friday
the 25th of August, and at the same time he proclaimed Beaton
a traitor ; in ten days after, or Sunday the 3rd of September, he
threw himself into the arms of the Archbishop ! They met at
CaUender House, went together to Stirling, where, in the
Franciscan convent, the Governor abjured in favour of "the
old learning," and from the man he had imprisoned in
January, received absolution in September for all that he had
done !
Beaton, once more in possession of unlimited power, was sure
to take advantage of the word opinions, so strangely inserted like
a sting in the taU of the late Act of Parliament ; and with this
precious Governor at his feet, he took him forth in 1545, as he
had formerly done James V., to witness and sanction his mur
ders. To say nothing of those who were banished, these
amounted to at least seven in number, and through the Car
dinal's influence, it is worthy of remark, partook of a new
character. It had been the practice of that community to which
he belonged, to burn people to ashes for their opinions ; but
whether it was cowardice in Beaton that he durst not do this, or
rather cunning, that he might identify the State with what he
did ; yet so it was, that of five persons put to death at Perth,
four were hanged, and one was drowned. The last was a
female, the first and only martyr of that sex of which we read.
She was the wife of one of the sufferers, with an infant at her

566 THE DEATH OF CARDINAL BEATON. [book hi,
breast, who, before she was thrown into the water, gave the
infant to another, and expressed great joy in foUowing her
husband to a better world.8 A sixth individual, a priest, John
Rogers, is said to have been dispatched within the Castle of
St. Andrews, or thrown over the wall, so as to occasion his
death ; but the only instance of death by fire was, conspicuously,
Beaton's own act, shortly before his own death. This was
George Wishart, whose martyrdom, on the 1st of March, 1546,
is to be found in our general histories, taken in connexion with
the Government state papers and manuscripts, but recently
published. One point only is deserving of notice here, as iUustrative
of the pinnacle on which Beaton stood, just before he was
thrown down or slain within his own strong castle, whUe in the
act of rendering it stronger stiU. This is to be seen in the
insolence with which he trampled on his victim, the Governor,
and now treated his authority. Arran had advised delay, and
that the cause of Wishart should be thoroughly examined,
intimating that if the Cardinal acted with precipitation, the
blood of this man would be required at his hands. However
deeply chagrined at this message, Beaton cooUy replied, " that
he had not written to him about this matter, as supposing him
self to be any way dependent upon his authority, but from a desire
that the prosecution and conviction of heretics might have a
show of pubUc consent ! But since he could not obtain it, he
would proceed in that way which to him appeared to be most
proper ! " He did proceed, and shortly after followed to his own
judgment in another world. His death by violence, which took
place on the morning of the 29th of May, 1546, may be traced
to the long-cherished desire of Henry VIII., so weU known by
his agents at the time ; or to the violent existing quarrel
between Norman Lesly, Master of Rothes, and the Cardinal,
respecting a piece of land, heightened, no doubt, by his treat
ment of Wishart ; but the event was nothing more than might
have been expected, whUe it is impossible to overlook the cir-
6 The names of these worthy citizens of Perth were — William Anderson,
Robert Lamb, James Ronald, James Finlayson, and his wife Helen, formerly
named Stark.

1543 — 1650.] SCOTLAND SINGULARLY SUPPLIED. 567
cumstance, that the man who would not allow another to be
deliberately and legaUy tried, was himself put to death, without
trial or ceremony of any kind.

From the year 1543, and for more than three successive
generations, the history of the English Bible north of the Tweed,
is of a very marked or memorable character, and peculiar to
Scotland among aU the other nations of Europe. Certainly not
one of them has the same story to teU. Throughout, it forms a
remarkable continuation of that independence of human patron
age, which has been so steadily repudiated from the beginning ;
whUe no country has been more signally indebted to the
gracious providence of God.
In 1543, when it was first proclaimed to be lawful to peruse
the Scriptures, although they had been reading in secret for
fully sixteen years, it is to be observed that no edition of the
Bible entire, or of the New Testament separately, was ordered
to be printed. Cardinal Beaton having immediately regained
his authority, such a proposal was not to be whispered for a
moment. But as he was removed by death only three years
after, this wiU not account for its being, not three, or five, but
thirty-five years, before any Bible was issued from the Scottish
press ! This, too, was in folio, nor did a second edition foUow,
and of the same unwieldy character, tiU 1610, or above thirty
years more had passed away. Nay, only the third edition, and at
last in the octavo size, did not appear till the year 1633 ; or
ninety years from the day on which it was said to be lawful
to have and to read the Bible in English ! There was then also
a fourth edition, in 1637, and one in duodecimo next year.
Thus it was, that for more than a hundred years, or a space of
time equal to that of three generations, there were no more than
five editions of the Bible issued from the printing-presses in the
country ; not to say that two of these were in folio, no size even
approaching to that which the people required having made its
appearance till so late as 1633. The first pocket Bible was not
prmted tUl 1638.
Such then was the condition of our Scottish ancestors, so far
as their own native press was concerned. No Bible, even so
convenient as that of an octavo size, had been printed in Scot-

568 THE PEOPLE DISTINGUISHED [book hi.
land, for the use of the community, till one hundred and seven
years after the New Testament of Tyndale had been first con
veyed to Edinburgh and St. Andrews, as well as other ports.
What then had become of the people at large ? Had they been
left destitute of the Book of Life to such an extent as this, and for
an entire century after it first reached their shores ? Far, very
far from it. In proportion to its population, perhaps in no
other country had it been more generaUy possessed, if not
eagerly perused ; and the explanation wiU afford us now in
review, one of the most signal displays of the goodness of God to
our northern ancestors. Once pointed out, it certainly wiU be
difficult for the present generation to escape from the obligation
to send the Sacred Volume over sea and land to other nations.
The very commencement of this long period was auspicious
for Scotland. It should not be forgotten, that, as soon as the
Earl of Arran was overruled to make his proclamations through
out the country, no trifling display was given of the Scriptures
having been already there, and to an extent which could not
have been imagined. But at the same moment, Henry in
England had frowned on the general perusal of the Sacred
Volume, because, as it has been said, "he being now to go
abroad, upon a weighty expedition to France, thought it con
venient to leave his subjects at home as easy as might be." This
frown, though it was disregarded by many, even in England,
must have been quite in favour of Scottish usage. Whatever
supernumerary copies there were, might have been sent down to
the North, where Henry had no objection that the subjects
should be as little at ease as possible. The printers in England
must have been perfectly aware of the crooked policy of their
Sovereign, and, from self-interest, would act accordingly. Not
only the Bible, but what Sadler styles "his Majesty's books of
religion," Henry was eager should now be read in the North;
and by the month of August, or just before the Regent had
turned his coat, his Majesty had been personaUy anxious to
know hoiv they were " liked " there. The distinction drawn, in
reply, between them and the Scriptures, should not be over
looked. Although the gentlemen of the old learning were, says
Sadler, " well pleased with the restraint of the Scriptures in
England, and yet would have liked it much better, if it had been

1543 — 1650.] AS NEW TESTAMENTERS. 569
generally restrained from all sorts," there was another class
" much offended with the same ; " while, at the same moment, the
" books of rehgion," so called, the ambassador confesses were
"not much liked by any party," and as for the Governor or
Regent, he did not desire "to have any more of them."
Beaton, it is granted, might prevail with the Regent to dis
countenance the circulation of the Scriptures, but Providence
soon found him enough to do, whether in maintaining his seat,
or providing for his own safety. Besides, he died in the short
\space of three years ; and as the first Bible printed on Scottish
ground was not pubUshed tiU the year 1579, or seven years
after the death of Knox : not to say that this was in folio, and
appointed to be sold for the sum of £& 13s. 4d., or seven marks ;
how, aU this time, had it fared with the people, or the thousands
who, even now, could afford no such sum ? It may indeed
appear scarcely credible, but by even this early period it comes
out, that the Sacred Volume in the vulgar tongue was almost in
every house ! A better testimony to the truth of this fact could
not be desired, since it is to be found in the Dedication to
James VL, of this first Bible. After acknowledging the " great
occasion" they had " to glorify the goodness of God towards
their country," the Assembly addressing the King exclaims —
" 0 what difference may be seen between these days of light, when almost iu
every private house tlie Book of God's Law is read, and understood in our vulgar
tongue, and that age of darkness when scarcely in a, whole city (without the
cloisters of monks and friars) could the Book of God once be found, and that
in a strange tongue of Latin, not good, but mixed with barbarity ; used and
read by few, and. almost understood or exponed by none ; and when the false
named clergy of this realm, abusing the gentle nature of your Highness' most
noble goodsire, of worthy memory, made it a capital crime, to be punished with
the fire, to have or read the New Testament in the vulgar language ; and to
make them to all men more odious, as if it had been the detestable name of
a pernicious sect, they were named New Testamenters. "
The fact was, that the folio Bible now pubUshed was intended
chiefly " to the end, that in every parish kirk there should be
at least one kept, to be caUed ' the common book of the kirk,' as
a most meet ornament for such a place, and a perpetual register
oi the Word of God, the fountain of aU true doctrine, to be
made patent to all the people of every congregation, as the only
right rule to direct and govern them in matters of religion, as

570 THE FIRST BIBLE [book iii;
also to confirm them in the truth received, and to reform and
redress Qprrup tions, whensoever they may creep in."
But stiU the question returns — How had the Sacred Volume
found its way into so many private families ? There was no
word of command from rulers, no voice of human authority, and
yet, stiU from the beginning, or for fifty years past, from time to
time, the Word of God had, it is evident, come into the country.
There was no such thing once thought of then as gratuitous dis
tribution. The people desired to have the Book of God, and
must have gladly paid the price, but it came to them actually
terrd marique, over land and sea. They were supplied not only
from England, but from the printing-presses of Holland, as' they
continued to be from both countries, for more than half a cen
tury to come. Hence the next edition executed in Scotland was
still a folio, and not printed tiU 1610, or only a few months
before our present version ; the first edition of that version not
appearing tiU 1633, and the first pocket Bible not tiU five years
later. In this point of view, certainly no other people in Europe
can look back to such a century.9
After this we need not repeat that the course pursued by an
indulgent Providence was one, in no sense relying on the
patronage or power of the authorities in Scotland ; but this fact
will become still more striking if we now glance at the history
of these two folio Bibles, printed in the country itself.
The first licence to publish any part of the Scriptures in the
vernacular tongue was granted to Robert Lekprevik on the
22nd of March, 1564, and a special licence to print the Geneva
Bible was added in April 1568 ; but although thus licensed and

" How many editions of the English Bible were thus printed beyond seas,
whether for South or North Britain, it is impossible to say, as, with a few
exceptions, they had the London imprint, and can only be detected by an
experienced eye, but that there were many thousands is well known. At first
some of these editions may have been undertaken with the concurrence of the
Patentee, but in the end the Dutch were reading a severe lecture to this country
on the superiority of competition to monopoly. The workmanship in Holland
had become of a superior character, and threatened to carry the printing of
Bibles out of the kingdom. Hence the language of Archbishop Laud when he
wished foreign prints excluded for the protection of the English printer, "The
books whicli come from thence are better print, better- bound, better paper, and for
all the charges of bringing, sold better cheap." A free press at home would have
effectually met this grievance.

1013 -1650.] PRINTED IN SCOTLAND. 571
constituted "King's Printer," and printing books in Edinburgh,
St. Andrews and StirUng, he never printed a Bible at aU. The
first Bible, however, appeared in 1579, a reprint of the Geneva
translation of 1561, but more correct. Thomas Bassandyne, a
native of Scotland, having acquired the art of printing in Paris
and Leyden, returned to his own country and began business in
Edinburgh. He had finished the New Testament in 1576, but
delayed publishing it till the Old was completed in 1579 ; dying
that year, the book came out with the name of Arbuthnot, who
had likely been at the charge of the undertaking. Having ap
plied to the Privy CouncU for the licence which was necessary
for aU books, he obtained one, and at the same time the title
of "King's Printer," which Lekprevik had forfeited. It is
entitled, —
" The Bible and Holy Scriptures contained in the Old and Newe Testament.
Printed at Edinburgh be Alexander Arbuthnot, Printer to the King's Majestie,
dwelling at the Kirk of Eield. 1579. Cum gratia et privilegio regis Majestatis."
This was a Bible not for general use, but for the " Kirk."
The whole expense was defrayed by the parishioners through
their ministers or superintendents, and, in many instances, the
money was advanced before the book was delivered.
The second Bible printed in Scotland did not appear till
thirty-one years after the first, in 1610. This much admired
foho was from the press of Andrew Hart, who had never been
King's Printer; whUe Charteris, who held that appointment,
never printed one soUtary edition. Hart's Old Testament was
a reprint of Bassandyne's, but the New was the same as that
printed in England by Lawrence Tomson, with Beza's notes in
the margin. No Ucence for printing this book has been found,
but next year, 1611, when our present version first came out in
England, we find the foUowing enactment by the diocesan Synod
of St. Andrews : —
"For as much as it was thought expedient that there be in every Kirk a
common Bible, it was concluded that every brother shall urge his parishioners
to buy one of the Bibles lately printed by Andro Hart; and the brother failing
either to cause buy one, as said is, or else to give in his exact diligence, shall
pay at the next Synod 6 lib. money."
In the year foUowing, 1612, Finlason succeeded Charteris as
King's Printer, with Ucence to print " the books of Holy Scrip
ture, containing the Old and New Testament, in all Ian-

572 IMPORTATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. [book in.
guages ;" but he never printed the Scriptures in any language
whatever. In this very Ucence there is a clause rendering it
perfectly legal for " any printer, bookseUer, or other, to print,
or cause to be printed, the Bible, New Testament, and the
Psalm Book," at home or abroad. A Ucence indeed was neces
sary, but this was open to every one ; and importation was never
prohibited. This entire freedom was unlike anything done in Eng
land from the days of Edward VL. up to the present hour. What
the motive for this was no one can teU, for none is assigned.
The wisdom of non-interference is, however, obvious.
In reference to Scotland, that her sons should have been sup
plied, and so richly, with the Book of God, in a way altogether
independent of her native press, not to say her reigning govern
ment, and for more than a hundred years, is one of the most
singular points in her history. From the year 1526 down
to 1633, and even later, the people at large had been sup
plied entirely from without. The New Testamenters acquired
their honourable distinction from reading an imported book.
Their Bibles, after this, were prepared for them at a distance,
with paper and types foreign to their country, and yet as
early as 1579, the book was " almost in every house." The tide
of importation, however, was then only setting in with a
stronger current, for after that it rose to a far greater height.10
10 So spirited was the importation, and so numerous the editions of some other
books, that the disposition to read could scarcely have been stronger in any other
country at the time. This becomes very evident through the last thirty years
of the sixteenth century, during the whole of which, Elizabeth of England was
so apprehensive of the power of the press, that at last, books were prmted in
Edinburgh, which the printers upon English ground were afraid to risk. We
find licences granted in 1573 and 1580 to carry books from England to Scotland
in the way of regular business. In 1587, Norton of London, in conjunction with
Hart of Edinburgh, was bringing books from Germany to Scotland equally with
England, "from whence Edinburgh was supplied with better books than hereto
fore, as cheap as they were sold in London." To effect this, Hart applied for
and obtained, both for himself and others, the privilege of importing books duty
fi e.e. Books were printed abroad expressly for the Scottish market, and also for
Scottish authors, to an extent now but little known. Thirty-one editions of
Buchanan's Psalms were printed in Paris, Antwerp, and London between 1566
and 1610. Four editions of his History were printed between 1582 and 1594.
There were fourteen editions of the entire works of Sir David Lindsay, besides
many of his separate pieces, between 1558 and 1C14. Nine of these were
printed in Scotland. Sixteen volumes of the works of Rollock, who died in
1598, were published before 1605, and went rapidly through several editions.

1543—1650.] THE READERS NUMEROUS. 573
After these statements, it cannot but appear passing strange
that it shoidd have been supposed, nay asserted, and in print,
even in our own day, that from the time when the people of
Scotland (in 1543) obtained leave to read the Bible, very few
people in those days could read at aU ! ! And that very few
copies were introduced into Scotland, tiU after the year 1560 ! !
Such is the ignorance still betrayed respecting one of the most
heart-stirring periods of her history, and which, as the earliest,
ought to have been regarded with the deeper interest. These,
however, are only Uke the assertions of a man, who never all his
lifetime inquired what was then doing, or done. Why, for six
teen years, without asking leave, the people had been reading
the New Testament, at least to this extent, that, their enemies
themselves being judges, they declared, it was this that occasioned
all the din throughout the land. Before 1543 also, or before one
word was spoken about leave, they had been reading the Bible
entire ; only they could then carry in their hand, what formerly
they had read in concealment. Nay, after leave was proclaimed,
and after the man by whose orders this was done had changed
his tone, reading went on as before, and to an extent not only as
to the Sacred Scriptures, but even as to other books, with which
many in the present day are but little acquainted, and but too
few have ever observed.
After the opening of the seventeenth century, not only im
portation of books from abroad, but printing of books at home
having proceeded with accelerated progress, we have the surest
index to the art of reading having advanced with equal steps.
Indeed, some time after this, it is by no means difficult to prove that
anxious attention had been bestowed upon education down to the
humblest rank, and the art of reading had become very general.
It may be thought by some a picture too highly coloured ; but
according to Kirkton the historian, by the time that our present
version of the Bible was prevailing throughout the kingdom, or
before the restoration of Charles IL, he affirms that "every
village in Scotland had a school, every family almost had a
Bible ; yea, in most of the country all the children of age could
read the Scriptures, and were provided with Bibles either by
their parents or the ministers." Whatever deductions from
this statement can be proved, may be freely allowed ; but after

574 THE PRESENT VERSION [book hi.
all, we presume that a very remarkable degree of moral cultiva
tion had certainly been attained, and beyond this period we do
not at present proceed.

Thus the history of the Bible in Scotland has been brought
down to the same point of time with the previous detaU respect
ing England. Since the commencement, in 1525, or of the
Scriptures entire, in 1537, there had been a fivefold revision of
the original translation, an advantage altogether pecuUar to
itself, and doubly valuable from that circumstance. Conse
quently, there had been five different versions printed, and these
had proved in succession the means of salvation, and the source
of comfort, to four successive generations ; but now there came
to be but one version. Entertaining no superstitious reverence
for that one, as though it were already perfect, or never destined
to be yet improved and corrected, we cannot but pause over this
general consent, as a very memorable historical event. The last
rival competitor for general acceptance had been the Geneva
book, a version in several passages preferable to our own, and
especiaUy in translating " love," not "charity ;" but it had been
generaUy encumbered with notes or glosses ; and it is observable,
that so late as the year 1649, an attempt was made to saddle our
present version with those notes, but it was in vain. One or two
editions of the Bible were thus printed, but such additions to the
Sacred Text must not continue. Notes and comments must be
withdrawn. Since the year 1611, however, these two versions
of the Sacred Volume had been before the people in both
countries ; our present translation, from the beginning without
notes, the other very generally with them ; so, at last, and about
the middle of the seventeenth century, our present venerated
Bible had nearly arrived at that state of prevalence which it has
ever since maintained. Whatever opinions have since prevaUed,
or died away, from that time to the present, and in any part of
the United Kingdom, the same version, without a single inter
ruption, has continued to be the Bible of Great Britain and
Ireland, or wherever the language is spoken.
In looking back, however, from the commencement, even
down to this period, it must be very evident, that no space what
ever is left for self-complacency. No inhabitant of Britain can

1543— 1650. J HAS BECOME UNIVERSAL. 575
now say, that the Revelation of the Divine Will was received
by his forefathers generaUy, with any ready or cordial concur
rence. On the contrary, the point to which the Sovereign
Disposer of aU events had now brought our country, was pre
cisely that with which He had begun so long before. It was
the Bible, but without note and comment, which was now at last
received, whether in England or Scotland ; but, then, such had
been the original movement of Divine Providence. This it was,
which Tyndale had laid down to Henry the Eighth, as the sole
or exclusive terms of combat, above one hundred and twenty
years ago ! Through the medium of His Word, the Almighty
had been striving with the nation ever since, and " the long-
suffering of God had waited, and long it had waited, as in the days
of Noah."
The season and circumstances, therefore, in which this general
consent took place, it would be criminal to overlook, or ever for
get. The event was one of moment to unborn generations, and
every one must be eager to mark the time. Both the season
and circumstances, it is true, may be humbling to our national
vanity, but for this we have been fully prepared ; after having
had such frequent occasion to observe, that independence of
human authority, patronage, or power, has been one distinguish
ing feature of this history throughout. By far the most re
markable display of this, however, was reserved to the close.
There was a moral significance, others will say sublimity, in the
season chosen. It was at a crisis altogether sui generis, when
God, by His providence, as all agree, was speaking loudly to
every corner in Great Britain and Ireland.
It was at a period when there was no earthly throne in the
island to invoke ; no King in Britain to enjoin such consent. It
was when there was no primate of Canterbury or St. Andrews, to
enforce it, or any House of Lords in being. Even the office of
"Licencer of the press" had been abolished, nor must the existing
legislature of the day for once interfere. No voice of human
authority was raised, when a nation, in other respects greatly
divided, became of one consent, and a consent unbroken to the
present hour ; nor did any one thing in which man was then
engaged, concur to produce an effect, then first felt by the
whole kingdom, and since enjoyed for nearly two hundred years !

576 THE ONLY PERMANENT EVENT. [book III.
In those unprecedented and tumultuous times, certainly the
main consolation of those who feared God, and loved the
Scriptures, must have run in very much the same channel ; and
perhaps at no preceding era in this country, had they more
frequently closed their mutual communications in the same ex
pressive terms — the Lord reigneth. But we who Uve, though
at such a distance, can now see this event in greater perfection,
as by far the most conspicuous proof that He did reign, as stiU
He does. It was the solitary eminent pubUc occurrence, which
was to admit of no mutation for two centuries to come.
The kingdom itself may yet be moved, from its centre to its
shores, and be greatly agitated. The civU power may change
its aspect. The monarchy may be restored, only to be dealt
with providentially, as the Pontiff had been. The line of suc
cession may be broken, and the existing dynasty even be
banished from the soil. Yet better days are coming, and no
weapon, though employed by a future Sovereign, shaU prosper
against the Bible of his subjects : though among the causes of
removal from his crown and kingdom, should hostUity to the
Sacred Volume be discovered, this is not to be buried in oblivion
amongst other provocations.

BOOK IV.
GREAT BRITAIN.
jftom tfje Commonfoealtfj to <&uzen Ftctorta.

THE COMMONWEALTH TO GEORGE III.

MDCL.  MDCCLXXX.
BRIEF SURVEY — THE REVOLUTION OF 1688-9 — PRECEDING OPPOSITION TO THE
SCR1TTUP.ES BV JAMES ?., AN" ADHERENT OP THE OLD LEARNING —CON
SEQUENCES OP THE REVOLUTION — STATE OP THE BIBLE PRESS IN ENGLAND —
CANNE'S BIBLE — BASKERVILLE'S — BLAYNEY'S BIBLE — STATE OP THE BIBLE
PRESS IN SCOTLAND — JAMES II. EQUALLY BUSY IN OPPOSITION THERE — THE
NUMBER OP BIBLES NOW PASS ALL HUMAN" COMPUTATION — THE RESULTS.
His period, extending to one hundred and thirty years,
from 1650 to the twentieth year of the reign of George
the Third, or 1780, involved many changes in the
sovereignty of the kingdom, namely —
The Commonwealth, 1649-1660. Queen Anne, . 1702-1714.
Charles II. . . 1660-1685. George I. . . 1714-1727.
James II. . . 1685-1688. George II. . . 1727-1760.
William and Mary, 1689-1702. George III. . 1760-1780.
Glancing back for a moment at the commencement of the
Stuart dynasty, though there was some expression of apparent
momentary interest by James I., in reference to the Scriptures,
as this was never foUowed up by any substantial or recorded
p p

578 OPPOSITION TO THE SCRIPTURES [book iv.
proof of continued zeal, it was ominous of all that foUowed
in the times of his son and grandsons. That King, it is
notorious, in his latter years, had discovered a decided lean
ing towards the gentlemen of " the old learning ; " and, at
all events under the successive reigns of his descendants,
we witness such neglect in the printing and publishing
of the Sacred Volume, not to say open contempt, that if the
eye has once fixed on this history throughout, one cannot
help anticipating the approach of some great national crisis.
What were dignified with the title of "public affairs" had
frequently in this kingdom, before now, been treated as subordi
nate to one other. Among the elements of our national changes,
it is true, any reference to the Sacred Oracles, though first
given to us after such an extraordinary manner, has seldom, if
ever, found a place. And yet, in reference to the Scriptures in
the language of the people, a contrast is forced upon us between
the house of Tudor and that of Stuart. The princes of the former,
from Henry to EUzabeth, had been overruled, and to this they
submitted— those of the latter were at last banished from tbe
soil. Among the impelling causes of this final step, the treat
ment of the Divine Record may have had more to do than has
hitherto been observed.
It may be inquired — What possible connexion can ever be
traced between that great national change, the Revolution of
1688, and the possession of the Divine Record in the language
of the people ? It is true, that many instances might be adduced
of the very slovenly manner in which the privileged printers
had been executing their task. This, however, the long-suffer
ing of God had endured, and will continue to do, so that it may
be glanced at afterwards. But now the supreme authority of
the Sacred Volume having been unblushingly impugned under
the immediate sanction of the Crown, there must be a change.
The very first year of the reign of James II. was marked by
several noted events, indicative of direct hostUity to Divine
Truth, as affecting its devoted adherents at home and abroad.
From the year 1670, indeed, the sentiments of this Prince bad
created uneasiness, agitating Parliament again and again, and
his doings in Scotland from 1679 were known to aU. But once
crowned, in February 1685, he then pledged himself to be a

1650 — 1780.] BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 579
disciple and adherent of " the old learning." In June, Charles
the Elector Palatine dying without issue, was succeeded by the
house of Newburgh, no less ardently devoted to Rome. In
October, Louis the Fourteenth revoked the edict of Nantes ;
and in December, threatened by the Court of France, the Duke
of Savoy had recaUed the edict that his father had granted in
favour of the Vaudois. All these were indications of some
general storm, and the King of England wiU hasten its approach.
Ere long a select junto of persons in favour of the old learning
and its re-establishment, with Father Edward Petre, the King's
confessor, as a privy counciUor at their head, took the manage
ment of many affairs, the too evident proof of some concerted
scheme being in progress.
And now when the King was down at Oxford, for the last
time in 1687, he might " be presented in the name of the Uni
versity with a rich Bible, printed there," which his Majesty, as
a bhnd, said he would accept ; and he might afterwards talk of
estabHshing toleration by an Act of Parliament ; but it is of far
more importance to observe, both before and after this, how he
had been acting elsewhere, both at London and in his former
abode at Edinburgh.
The reader has already heard much of the Barkers, as the
printers of the Bible, but long before their rights expired,
Charles II. had granted a reversionary patent to Thomas
Newcome and one Henry Hills. Sooner or later this last man,
whose moral character seems to have been far from correct, had
actually been employed in printing the Scriptures, and, accord
ing to report, shamefully incorrect.1 But no sooner was James
upon the throne, than HUls had come into closer confidential
contact. He then styled himself openly, " Printer to the King's
Most Excellent Majesty, for his Household and Chapel." This
might serve for whatsoever was to be done in London, but there
was another man sustaining the same office and title down at
Edinburgh, and the question will be, how were they engaged ?
Was the press about to be employed in hostility to the Word of
God, and by printed sanction of the King ? In both capitals the

1 See "The London Printer's Lamentation, or the Press Opprest and Over-
prest," 1660. Or the reprint in the Harleian Miscellany. p p 2

580 A VERY DISCERNIBLE FEATURE [book iv,
design was the same. So early as October 1685, the servile
Privy Council in Edinburgh had issued orders to every printer
and bookseller, forbidding the printing or selUng any books
which reflected on the faith of the King. Among these, how
ever, there was at least one bookseller of some spirit and con
science, named James Glen. He explicitly stated that he had
one book which he was resolved to sell at aU hazards, though it
was the worst enemy the Church of Rome had ever seen ; and
that one book was the Bible. But still the progress downwards
went on. The King's yacht had arrived at Leith from London
in November 1686, with an altar and vestments, images and
priests, to be accommodated in no other place than Holyrood,
A college of Jesuits was there estabhshed — a printing press
was set up, and among its fruits we need only to mention one
production : —
"The Catholic Scripturist, third edition, more correct, by Joseph Mumford,
priest of the Society of Jesus, Holyrood House. Printed by James Watson,
printer to his Most Excellent Majestie's Royal Family and Household, 1687.
Permissu superiorum. "
In this book the reader was told in so many words — " Scrip
ture alone cannot be the rule of faith."2 So determined was the
opposition shown to all this, that ere long hlood had been shed,
and cruelties inflicted ; though these doings in Scotland were
merely a branch of the same wUd design, which was driving
with unblushing vigour in London itself. Hence from the
press of Hills, who had just served the office of Master of the
Stationers' Company, we have more than one pubUcation, full of
monstrous and daring profanity in reference to the Sacred
Scriptures. Witness the foUowing : —
" The Question of Questions, which, rightly interpreted, resolves all other
questions. By James Mumford, priest of the Society of Jesus. Permissu
superiorum. London, printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the King's Most
Excellent Majesty, for his Household and Chapel, 1686." There was also
another edition in 1688, said to be by "Optatus Ductor," but, slyly, without
either place or printer's name.
2 To this man James II. had actually assigned a salary of £100 annually ;
nor was he the only man employed with the same title. No sooner had Watson
died in 1687, than Peter Bruce or Bruschii, a German, was appointed as printer
" to his Majesty's Household, Chapel and College." "What salary the King
assigned in London we have not ascertained.

1.650 — 1780.J IN THIS REVOLUTION. 581
Now in this book the running title for more than 260 pao-es
was in these words — The Bible is not our Judge. And as
many more were employed in telling the reader that " The
Roman Church is our infallible Judge." The false and violent
abuse of our Translators, commencing with Tyndale, we cannot
poUute the page by quoting. But enough has been stated to
show the propriety of such impiety on the part of the Crown
being no longer permitted on British ground. James might
now call secretly for the Great Seal, and throw it, as he did,
into the Thames, and at last retiring to France, he may, in
Httle trifles, faintly imitate the style of Louis the Fourteenth, or
visit the monks of La Trappe ; but he must no more conduct
himself towards the Word of God in the way which, through
his prmters, he had so presumptuously, or, by the laws of his
country, treasonably done. The displeasure of the God of Truth
he had brought upon himself, and in the great change so re
markably wrought in favour of Britain, the indignity thrown
upon the Sacred Volume was avenged.
To enter with any minuteness into the history of the English
Bible throughout this long period, from 1650 to 1780, could
answer no valuable or present practical purpose ; but this work
would, confessedly, be incomplete, did we not put upon record
certain particulars, in reference both to the Scriptures them
selves, and the vast number of editions printed.3

* It will be remembered that to her exiles for conscientious opinion, from
Tyndale downward, Britain had been all along under far greater obligations
than to any of her subjects living at home. About the middle of this century,
she was indebted to another, who was living at Amsterdam. The first English
Bible, with Scriptural references on the margin throughout, was prepared and
printed in that city, b3' John Canne. He proceeded on the principle, that
"Scripture was the best interpreter of Scripture," and his parallels, therefore,
are parallels of sense and not of sound, as too many have been since his day. Of
this Bible there were various editions, at home as well as abroad, viz. : —
1644 Amsterdam, 4to. 1682. Amsterdam, London title, 12mo.
1647. London, 2 vols., 8vo. 1698. London, Bill and Newcomb.
1662. London, 12mo. 1700. London, ditto, in quarto.
1664. London, 2 vols., 8vo. 1720. Cambridge, Basket, quarto.
1671. London. 1727, 1754. Edinburgh editions.
Several of these books are but too incorrect, and many of the latter have been
corrupted by additional texts. After a careful collation of these preceding
editions, a good reprint would prove a very valuable and saleable book.
After the Revolution, the very first monarch who took any cognizance of the

582 NOTICES RESPECTING VARIOUS [book rv.
With regard to the Bibles themselves, and especially their
style of execution, the history is too often so very unwelcome,
that we have no disposition to go into more detaU than is neces
sary. Classics, and almost every species of mere human compo
sition, not only beautiful, but sometimes almost faultless, were
teeming from the press, or at least in the best manner which
could then be executed ; whUe the Sacred Record, in the most
miserable style, both as to paper and printing, was issued by
printers, who, to crown all, were proclaimed to the nation as
privileged to do so. This, however, let it be ever remembered,
was man's department in the affair ; and the slovenly, the
penurious manner, in which he too frequently and so long per
formed his task, left to his posterity nothing whatever save the
blush of shame. There were, it is granted, many most creditable
editions, and the EngUsh Bible considered as an instrument of

carelessness of the privileged printers of the Bible belonged to the House of
Hanover. George I. having informed himself on the subject, issued the follow
ing orders to the patentees: — 1. That all Bibles printed hereafter shall be upon
as good paper at least as the specimens they exhibited. 2. That they forth
with lodge four copies in the two Secretaries' offices, in the registry of the Arch
bishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London. 3. That they shall employ such
correctors of the press as shall be approved of by these two bishops. 4 That
they print in the title-page the exact price at which each book is to be sold to
the booksellers. These orders, dated 24th April, 1724, must have had some
effect, though they could not possibly reach the root of the inaccuracy.
There was, however, considerable improvement, and in the reign of George
II., a folio Bible was produced, said to be the most beautiful ever yet printed.
This was by John Baskerville of Birmingham, the printer and typefounder, in
1763 ; though once more the country had been indebted, as it had often been
before, not to any privileged or incorporate body, but to individual genius and
enterprise. Baskerville, indeed, had to pay a considerable premium to the
University of Cambridge for permission to print his Bibles, and after his death
his types, which lay a dead weight for want of a purchaser, were carried out of
the country. The reign of George II. was also distinguished by one of the moat
careful revisions of the Scriptures which had yet been made. In 1769, a Bible
in folio and quarto was edited by Dr. Blayney, the subsequent Professor of
Hebrew at Oxford. Professedly, in this edition, the punctuation was thoroughly
revised ; the words in italic were examined and corrected by the Hebrew and
Greek ; the proper names were translated and entered on the margin ; the
heads and running titles were corrected; errors in chronology were rectified;
and marginal references were corrected and considerably increased. This has
been referred to often since as the standard edition. Yet even then, there had
not been sufficient vigilance in superintendence, as more than a hundred errors
have been detected since, and it was reserved for our own age to make a nearer
approach to an immaculate volume.

1650  1780.] EDITIONS TN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 583
infinite good, stiU continued, by the favour of God, to be suffi
cient for its purpose, or intended end ; but a minute detaU of
the incorrect manner in which it so often came from the press,
would serve to LUustrate only the forbearance and long-suffering
patience of Heaven.
With reference to Scotland, were it not that the inhabitants
had been constantly receiving the Scriptures both from England
and HoUand, their condition would have been deplorable, so far
as their native press was concerned. During the Common
wealth, and down as far as the twenty-fourth year of Charles II. ,
or from 1649 to 1672, there is understood to have been no Bible
printed in Scotland, and perhaps the people had better have
remained dependent on foreign supply for forty years longer.
It was in the year 1671, that a privilege was obtained by one Andrew
Anderson from Charles n., which continued for forty years, to the great disad
vantage and molestation of the country, and most dishonourable to the King.
At his very outset, Anderson had been convicted by the Privy Council of gross
'inaccuracy in printing a New Testament. His 8vo Bible in 1679 was indeed
very well executed, but all the subsequent editions, down to 1712, waxed worse
and worse. The privilege thus granted by Charles II. was of such shameful
extent, that it has been said of it by one who felt its effects — "By this gift the
art of printing in this kingdom (of Scotland) got a dead stroke ; for by it, no
printer could print anything from a Bible to a ballad, without Anderson's
licence." Bibles the most illegible and incorrect that ever were printed in the
world came from this press ; the patentee persecuted all the other printers in
Scotland, and at last went so far as to seize a number of Bibles brought from
London by the booksellers. Under Queen Anne such an avaricious pest was no
longer to be endured. Watson, from whose history we have quoted, became
printer under Freebaim, the patentee, and a better day succeeded. Eor ten
years, from 1713, he printed a number of most excellent editions in folio, quarto,
octavo, duodecimo, and twenty-fours. His editions of small size in 1715, 1716,
1719, and 1722, as well as his folio of 1722, are still deservedly esteemed. The
assignees of Watson were not so careful, but by this time the Scriptures were
printing in Edinburgh by two or three other houses. One merciful peculiarity,
however, in regard to Scotland, and during the whole period under review,
must not be forgotten. It was this : importation was never interdicted, and the
consequence was, that long before 1650, and beyond 1780, the Scriptures had
been imported during the run of all the home patents. Such Bibles are still in
existence, and to be found there, ranging in point of dates throughout a period
of above two hundred years. More than half the Bibles used in Scotland
throughout the eighteenth century, are supposed to have been printed in
England or Holland.
But we must not omit to glance at the number of Bibles and
New Testaments printed in England, HoUand, and Scotland on
the whole. At the very threshold of this period, and so forward,

584 THE EDITIONS PRINTED [book iv.
we meet with one circumstance, which, to every reflecting mind,
must immediately convey an idea of personal, and, of course,
national responsibility, rising to a height beyond all accurate
calculation. It is simply this — The books cannot be numbered !
Hitherto, we have numbered the editions printed. This is now
impossible. From the commencement of this period to its close,
no one can say how many editions of the English Bible have
been published, much less inform us how many copies on the
whole. On attempting this, one is soon lost, as in a wUderness ;
but it is one unknown to any other part of the world, or any
other language upon earth ; and all is vague conjecture. The
printers themselves have left no data, nor can those now living
lend any assistance. Both in England and Scotland, it is long
since they have left off numbering even the editions.
That there should be one ever- watchful eye, and only One,
who knows this secret, and the number of them aU, is a con
sideration of no light import ; the amount of which wUl only be
known, when another book is opened, which is "the book of
life." But we have noticed this circumstance here, chiefly in
order to point out its bearing upon everything else printed in
the English tongue. Even long before 1780, no other book, in
the annals of printing, occupied such a place. Of no other book,
in the history of our country and its literature, can anything
approaching to this be asserted. As far as the English language
and the art of printing were concerned, everything else in the
form of human composition, or in the shape of a book, was
reduced to a thing of comparative insignificance. Even before
the close of the last century, notwithstanding the countless
multitude of publications by men issued from the press, how
triumphantly had the Sacred Volume redeemed itself altogether
out of the usual category of books ! This it has already done,
by our simply following out only its history. Nor is this all.
From the place it thus occupied even then in this land, it never
will be, never can be, superseded as to its number, by any book
of human composition in the shape of print. With aU safety, at
the present moment, we assert as much, not blind to aU the
approaching wonders of the steam-press itself.
It is, however, with the times that passed over Britain during
these one hundred and thirty years, that we have now to do ;

1650 — 1780.] NOW CANNOT BE NUMBERED. 585
and the all-important inquiry remains to be answered — What
were the results ? To record all these, would, of course, demand
a volume. The days of burning the Sacred Volume, or those
who possessed it, had long since passed away. And whatever
the beneficial consequences now were, while, we repeat, that
there had been many most estimable editions of the Divine
Word, the slovenly and imperfect style in which man had too
often fulfiUed his part, only render the results so much the
more observable. On the whole, however, at home, or within the
shores of Britain, it must be confessed, there was by far too
much ground for the genuine patriot to hang down his head.
Thus, in finishing his weU-known " History of the Translations
of the Bible," in 1738, one cannot but observe, that good John
Lewis seems to have been in but very low spirits indeed with
reference to the subject on which he had bestowed unprecedented
research. "This is the account," says he, "which I have been able to give of the
several translations of the Bible and New Testament into the ancient and modern
English tongue, and of their most remarkable editions in print. Prom whence,
I suppose, any one will infer the great honour and esteem that these holy books
were always held in by our Christian ancestors : since they were so very desirous
to have them, and to know and understand their contents, as to spare no cost
or pains, but to run the hazard of even their lives and fortunes, and not to count
them dear, so that they might but procure the free use of these books, and have
the advantage of perusing them. The great number of the copies of them in
manuscript, before printing was invented, and the many editions of them since
printing came into use, is a demonstration of the great value put on them by the
Christians here in England ; and that every one who could read took care to
purchase a Bible or Testament in the tongue wherein he was born. This, no
doubt, will be thought a very great reproach to the professed Christians of the
present age, and but too good an argument of their having lost their first love,
and being nowise earnest for the faith delivered to the saints in these holy
books. Since — to our shame be it spoken — whatever reputation the .Holy Bible
lias been had in, it is now treated with the utmost slight and neglect, and is
scarce anywhere read but in our churches ! So far, too, are many of our
modern Christians here in England, from reading this book, meditating on it,
and letting the sense of it dwell richly or abundantly in them ; that, everybody
knows, the writings of the most silly and trifling authors are often preferred,
and read with greater pleasure and delight. What surer sign can be given,
that we have a name that we live, and are dead ? And, consequently, that
unless we remember from whence we are fallen, and repent, and do the first
works, the great Author and Finisher of our faith will come unto us quickly, and
will remove our candlestick out of his place. Sed Deus avertat omen."
Mr. Lewis, no doubt, spake as he felt at the moment, and
must have had too much reason for all that he expressed. Yet

586 NEW MOVEMENT IN FAVOUR [book IV.
such is the history of our English Bible, when fully foUowed
out, that it wUl be sure to raise any man far above his own
vicinity, his own community, or connexions. From the begin
ning to the then existing moment, our Sacred Volume had been
the counseUor of aU departments throughout this nation, the
partisan of none ; and immediately after the author had penned
these lines, by many who had never read them, considerably
revived attention was given to the Scriptures of truth. But as
we have now to raise our head, and survey a century and a half,
we shaU obtain a more enlarged view of the progress made;
and it is not for us to present so sombre a picture of the times as
that of Lewis. True, indeed, we have been accustomed all along
to look to our own favoured island only, as embracing the soU
where the seed was sown ; but we have come to another, and
more advanced stage of this stupendous cause ; and in tracing it
out, if we simply foUow the Sacred Volume, we are invited
to depart, or to look far beyond the shores of either England or
Scotland.

NORTH AMERICA.
NEW MOVEMENT IN REFERENCE TO THE ENGLISH SCRIPTURES — THE BIBLE
EIRST BEHELD BY THE NATIVES IN AMERICA, AN ENGLISH ONE — COPIES
CARRIED AWAY TO NEW ENGLAND BY THE REFUGEES AND FOLLOWING
SETTLERS — COPIES SENT ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN FOR ABOVE A HUN
DRED AND SIXTY YEARS ! — RESULTS DURING THIS LONG PERIOD — THE RESTRIC
TIVE AND UNNATURAL POLICT OF BRITAIN — SHE MUST BE OVERRULED, AS HER
MONARCHS HAD BEEN IN ENGLAND — THE ENGLISH BIBLE IS AT LAST
PRINTED IN AMERICA — NO CONSULTATION OF THE MOTHER COUNTRY — THE FIRST
EDITION ONLY IN 1782 — THE FIRST BIBLE IN OCTAVO, QUARTO, AND FOLIO,
PRINTED THERE IN 1791 — THE SECOND IN DUODECIMO NOT TILL 1797.
p to this period, or the middle of the seventeenth century,
the history of the English Bible, in comparison with
that of the Sacred Volume into every other European
tongue, had sustained a character aU its own. This
peculiarity may now undergo a change in its general
appearaace ; but the singular distinction of character
will remain, nay, and be more strongly marked than
ever before.

1680 — 1780.] OF THE ENGLISH SCRIPTURES. 587
In the opening of the seventeenth century, England and Scot
land, once united under the same crown, had received the appel
lation of Great Britain from her overjoyed monarch, James the
First — a title peculiarly flattering to his personal vanity. In
connexion with the Sacred Volume, his kingdom exhibited the
aspect of an island which had been invaded from without, and
which, after long resistance at first, had been ultimately sub
dued by the Word of God. The Scriptures in the vernacular
tongue, which were now happUy printing both in England and
Scotland, had, from the beginning, been often also imported,
nay, and from HoUand copies were importing afterwards. But
if perfect Uberty not only to read, but also to judge of their con
tents, is not to be here obtained, Divine Providence has now
another, and a greater lesson in reserve. The inestimable gift,
or deposit, is not to be always, or even long, confined within the
shores of Britain.
Of course, it could not then have crossed the imagination of
any man, that the same unseen hand, which we have observed
aU along, was already in motion, and actually preparing for the
population of a new world, where a freer life and a fresher nature
were to be enjoyed ; and even at the present day, few individuals
may, at first, be disposed to trace the populating of the American
wUderness, in any degree, to the consequences of reading the
English Bible in Britain. At aU events, the time had arrived,
when, as it was carried out of England to the European Conti
nent in the reign of Queen Mary, so under that of James, nay,
and of seven sovereigns in succession, it was to be carried farther
stiU. If the Uberty to form opinion of its dictates was a blessing
denied to many under the Tudor family, so it happened under
. that of the Stuarts ; and the same cause produced the same
effect, only to a far greater extent. Under Queen Mary I., aU
that had occurred was an affair of Uttle more than five years'
duration. It might be compared to the migration of those
birds, who, in summer, return again to gladden the land, for at
that time many returned ; but now, from the American " Pilgrim
Fathers," and so onward, the people in general who hurried
across the Atlantic, Uke the passengers to eternity, were to
return no more. For this singular movement of the British
people, in the civil department of the British constitution, there

588 THE ENGLISH SCRIPTURES TO BE [book IV...
was not to be found even the shadow of a cause ; but if the
existing government of the mother country, generally speaking,
was either so framed, or to be so conducted, as to charge itself
with the vain task of regulating the mind, as weU as that of
ruling the bodies of its subjects, then was there no relief or
remedy, but in another arrangement beyond seas. Hitherto, we
have long, and not unfrequently, seen the Almighty overruling
individuals of the highest authority within this kingdom ; but, if
necessary, it was as nothing with Him to overrule the realm
itself. The only question will be, What connexion had aU this
with the perusal of the Sacred Volume in our native language,
and in our native land ?
The very first Bible that was ever beheld by the Indians of North America,
was, unquestionably, an English one, and so early as the year 1585. That part
of the Continent then visited, Queen Elizabeth had just named Virginia, and,
in the expedition sent out, there happened to be one Heriot, au eminent
mathematician, and apparently a kind-hearted Christian. Feeling deeply
interested in the artless and hospitable Indian natives, he took advantage of the
impressions made by the sight of his instruments, whether marine or mathema
tical, perspective and burning glasses, clocks and books. This led many of
them to give credit to what he said respecting God. " In all places," says he,
"where I came, I did my best to make his immortal glory known, and told
them, though the Bible I showed them contained ail, yet of itself it was not of
any such virtue as I thought they did conceive. Notwithstanding, many would
be glad to touch it, to kiss and embrace it, to hold it to their breasts and heads,
and stroke all their body over with it. " '
These merely mercantile and scientific adventurers, however, did not succeed.
Twenty years after Sir Walter Raleigh had planted the first colony in Virginia,
not a single Englishman remained alive, and the colonization of America had to
await the energy of a widely different impulse, to be followed by far other
results. Although America had been discovered to England, by Cabot, in 1497, under
Henry VII. , the first permanent colony on the coast of Virginia did not arrive
till 1607, while our present version of the Bible was preparing ; but this was
still nothing more than a mercantile adventure under James I. It was in the .
year 1620 that the refugees from England to Holland embarked on board the
Mayflower, and touching, by way of farewell, at the laud of their birth, pro
ceeded across the ocean. On the 12th of November that year, these " Pilgrim
Fathers," as they have been ever since styled, having their Bibles with them,
kept their first Sabbath on the shores of New England. The name thus given,
by Prince Charles, a few years before, seemed to send its echo back to the
country which they had left for ever. The Sacred Volume in their native
tongue, which these people prized above life itself, was now within the shores
of a new Continent ; but this was in the year 1620, whereas the first Bible with
1 Smith's Virginia, p. 11.

1650—1780.] CARRIED ACROSS THE ATLANTIC. 589
an American imprint was not published till the year 1782 ; that is, above a hun
dred and sixty years afterwards, or little more than only sixty years ago !
Yes, such is the remarkable fact.
From the first reception of the English New Testament by Britain, it was
about a hundred years before the Bible, so singularly conveyed to the island at
first, began to be carried away, never to return. But what must now appear in
retrospect far more extraordinary, for a hundred and sixty years the authorities
at home would never permit of a single edition being printed, except within
this island ! The British authorities, in fact, never did give any permission, but
at the end of this long period, the English Bible was then prmted, four thousand
miles distant, without authority or liberty being either asked or granted by any
man. As if the singular history of this version must still retain the integrity of
its character, down to our own day, and exhibit to the world, once more, the
same independence with which it was first presented to us at home, the
American edition was printed in defiance of all British restrictions, in the year
1782. The simple announcement of this fact, though never pointed out or contem
plated, as it has deserved to be, at once gives birth to a crowd of remarkable
associations. Here was a period of more than a century and a half, in all which
time no man, or set of men, is represented in history as particularly zealous in
the business. Nothing similar to a society, confederacy, or association, was
formed ; the idea of either cheap or gratuitous circulation had never once
entered the human mind, to any known extent ; and yet, by the good provi
dence of God, through the usual channels of commerce, from the reign of James
ihe First, down to that of ihe eighth sovereign in succession, or tlie 22nd year of
George III., was the Divine Record in English uniformly carried all ihe way
across ihe Atlantic ! It belongs to the Christians throughout America at present,
along with those now living in Britain, devoutly to mark this as by far the most
remarkable SIGN OF those times. It was the zeal and long-suffering patience
of God which thus ministered His Word to those who lived and died at such a
distance from the spot where it was prepared ! Odious, indeed, and humiliating
must this spirit of restriction or monopoly now appear ; but as to the event
itself, never were any people upon earth so singularly supplied, and for so long *
a period, with the Word of Life. As one step in the path of Providence, it
even still suggests the idea that something far more powerful and extensive is
intended, through the medium of this version, than it has ever yet accomplished.
The greatness and importance of this movement, however,
can only be estimated, by observing its results ; or, in other
words, by adverting to the men who lived and died in America,
throughout these years, and this would require a volume. But
for our present purpose a very few names may suffice, and these
are mentioned simply in the order of time, as they come
before us.
Roger Williams, a native of Wales, born in 1599, was the
founder of Rhode Island, in 1644, and the first legislator in the
world who established a government of free, full, and absolute
liberty of conscience. John Eliot, born in 1604, was the

590 • THE FIRST ENGLISH BIBLES [book iv.
translator of the Bible into the language of the Indians, to
whom he was the first Missionary. Cotton Mather, born in
1663 and dying in 1728, left his "Essays to do good," still
doing good ; to say nothing of his three hundred and eighty
other pubUcations ! Jonathan Edwards, born 1703, the
greatest metaphysician and divine America has produced.
David Brainerd, born 1718, dying 1747, that prince of Mis
sionaries to the Indians, whose example has been of such value
ever since. But time would now fail to teU of many other
venerable, laborious, and useful characters ; stiU though they
were all before us, or all mentioned by name individuaUy, one
of the most notable circumstances in their Uves was this— that
not one of these men ever possessed any other than an imported
English Bible ! And all who ever heard them, all who read the
book from which they preached, were using volumes which had
come to them, thousands of imles, across the sea, from the land
of their ancestors ! A similar track, or lengthened train of pro
ceeding, of course cannot be pointed out, with relation to any
other European version of the Scriptures ; and, with reference
to any Bible in any language whatever, we may safely say, that
the same remarkable course will never again occur in the history
of future times. Meanwhile, if the path pursued has lent
additional emphasis to the history of the English Bible, so it
ought, assuredly, to the obligations of those miUions, far and
near, who now all read the same version.
To return, however, to the history itself : the first proper
American imprint, as already stated, was not before 1782;
though in the course of this long extended period, there was one
attempt at what has been styled piracy, in a smaU edition of
only 800 copies of the Bible, in quarto, by Eneeland and Green
of Boston. But it certainly casts no honourable reflection on
the monopoly so long maintained in England, that this was
done only by an evasion of the patent. Carried through the
press as privately as possible, about the year 1752, it bore this
imprint — " London : Printed by Mark Baskett, Printer to the
King's most excellent Majesty." A similar expedient was
resorted to with a solitary edition of the New Testament, by
Rogers and Fowle of the same place. The principal man con
cerned in both, was Daniel Henchman a spirited bookseller,

1650—1780.] PRINTED IN AMERICA. 591
who had buUt one of the first paper miUs in New England.
The fact is, that the printing-press had been set up as early as
1639, and its noblest fruit had been the Indian Bible for the
natives ; other books they were at Uberty to print ; they had a
newspaper as early as 1704, and were making paper from one
generation to another ; but owing to their connexion with
Britain, they must not print the English Bible ! The very few
Scriptures now mentioned — such was the humQiating apology —
were thus put forth, "in order to prevent a prosecution from
those in England and Scotland who published the Bible by
a patent from the Crown, or ' cum privilegio,' as did the uni
versities of Oxford and Cambridge." Nor, alas ! for Old
England, was the liberty ever granted ! At last it was wrested
from her, nolens volens, so that the first English Bible, with an
American imprint, was not published tiU the year already
specified. In connexion with this fact, one should have
imagined there could scarcely have been another more humilia
ting to national vanity ; and yet there was one, which must not
be suppressed, as it may be of some value even stiU. During
this long period, no other nation in Europe had so treated its
vernacular Bible. There never was any monopoly of tbe Sacred
Scriptures, as to printing them, in Germany, similar to that in
England; no patents from the beginning, to compare with
British poUcy. And therefore the first Bible in any European
language, printed in our own America, was in German. This
was in 1743, after having been three years in the press, by
Christopher Sauer at Germantown, near Philadelphia. He
printed a second edition in 1762, and a third in 1776. It was
only her own Bible, as already stated, that England held in
chains. StiU, however, and as if to link the two countries, even then,
more closely than ever in Christian bonds, this first American
Bible is the more worthy of notice, as not having been the work
of a native American. It was a year equally memorable in
both countries. Political ties might be snapped asunder ; not so
those of Christianity ; and at the very moment in which
American, independence was acknowledged by Britain, there
had been printed, by a native of Scotland, on the American
shore, and in the city of PhUadelphia, a practical acknowledg-

592 AMERICAN BIBLES. [book iv,
ment, that we were stiU the readers of one common Bible, and
equally bound by the same Divine authority.
Robert Aitken, born in 1734 at Dalkeith, had served a regular apprentice
ship to some bookbinder in Edinburgh, and afterwards perfecting himself in the
knowledge of the book trade, at the age of thirty-five he sailed for America.
Having seen the country, he came home, and in 1771, with a stock of books,
embarked for Philadelphia. Three years after this, having commenced printer,
and in 1775, a magazine, it was in 1782 that he published, in small duodecimo,
his edition of the Bible in brevier type — " Philadelphia, printed and sold by R
Aitken, &c, mdcclxxxii." Mr. Aitken died only in 1802, having survived his
son, but he left a daughter, who continued the business ; and she has had the
honour of printing the only edition of the Septuagint that ever had been trans
lated into Enghsh.2
Into the history of the printing of the English Scriptures by native Americans,
we here enter no farther than to mention, that the first English Bible, in folio,
was published at Worcester, Massachusetts, by Isaiah Thomas, in 1791 ; and
the first, in quarto, with a Concordance, also that year. At the same period,
the first edition of the English version in octavo, was printed at Trenton, in New
Jersey, by Isaac Collins. The second, in duodecimo, was not published till 1797,
by Thomas at Worcester, Massachusetts, which seems to prove that Bibles of
this size, at least, if not others, were still importing from Britain. Farther than
this we need not now proceed, under this head.
Thus, as far as we have come, we may be permitted to assert,
it has been demonstrated, that for more than two hundred and
fifty years, or from 1526 to 1782, the Sovereign Disposer of aU
events had proceeded invariably, and with infinite long-suffering,
after the same manner, whether in England or Scotland, or
finally in America. The same mysterious and unwearied foot
steps are now visible throughout. First, in braving all the
hostUity of the authorities in succession, at home, as in Britain,
and then abroad, as in America ; thus overruling the narrow
policy of England towards her distant colonies, with regard to
that blessed book which had been so undeservedly bestowed
upon herself. Conveyance from a distance had been adopted,
first in the one case, and then in the other. There was printing
in one country, and reading in another; first for a hundred,
and then for above a hundred and sixty years ! Importation
was ever and anon pursued, and for so long a period. As if to

2 "The Old Covenant, commonly called the Old Testament, translated from
the Septuagint, by Charles Thomson, late Secretary to the Congress of the
United States. Philadelphia, printed by Jane Aitken, 71, North Third Street.
1808." Forming, with the New Covenant, or Testament, four volumes 8vo.

1780 — 1844.] A NEW AND GREATER MOVEMENT. 593
elevate every mind conversant with this language, to a higher
tone of veneration for the Divine wiU and record, than it has
ever yet obtained ; it was in this lofty and independent manner,
that Divine Providence had now proceeded throughout the
space of two centuries and a half! No other nation upon
earth had heen so visited at first — no other people so favoured
and foUowed ever since — no race of Adam so frequently
addressed.

REIGN OF GEORGE III. TO QUEEN VICTORIA.

THE COMMENCEMENT OP A GREATER MOVEMENT THAN EVER BEFORE— THE
REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN FRANCE — NEITHER BRITAIN NOR HER COLO
NIES REMAIN UNSCATHED— ACTION IS CALLED FOR — BUT THE OBSTACLES TO
UNITED ACTION APPEAR TO EE INSUPERABLE — THE FIRST FEEBLE MOVEMENT
TAKING ITS NAME FROM THE BIBLE— THE SECOND — ITS ENTIRE FAILURE
NO GROUND FOR DISCOURAGEMENT — THE EFFORTS OE CAREY AND HIS ASSO
CIATES IN INDIA MUCH IMPRESS A FEW POWERFUL MINDS AT HOME — THE
BIBLE WITHOUT EITHER NOTE OR COMMENT DRAWS MORE ATTENTION — THE
DESTITUTION OF IT IN WALES — THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY
WITH ITS AUXILIARIES — THEIR EXERTIONS UP TO THE PRESENT DAY — AN
EXTRAORDINARY AND UNPRECEDENTED FALL IN THE PRICE OF THE SACRED
VOLUME.
BRITAIN AT THE HEIGHT OF HER RESPONSIBILITY — THE PRESENT HISTORY IN
DICATES A COURSE OF ACTION WHICH INVOLVES HER FUTURE WELFARE AND
STABILITY — A PATH OF DUTY WHICH CANNOT, WITH IMPUNITY, BE EVADED.
I n the first year of this period, or 1780, we discover the
first feeble symptom of a great movement, and one with
regard to the Sacred Volume, more especiaUy the
English Bible, greater than this nation, or even the world,
had ever witnessed. But it cannot be duly appreciated,
nor its true bearing understood, if we at once begin
here.
While the Scriptures were in the course of translation into
English,- when they were first printing abroad, and importing
into our native land, the state of the Continent, as well as that
of Britain, invited our attention, and that, alternately, for a
series of years. And now, in the last division of this history,
Q Q

594 STATE OF FRANCE AND BRITAIN. [book rv.
now that these Scriptures had been read and enjoyed for so
many generations ; now that they, and they alone, are to be
regarded as the means, under God, of having given to Britain
her distinguishing character among the European nations, we
are constrained to look across the Channel once more, but only
once. It is to France.
The history of Britain, in connexion with the Scriptures, we have already
given ; and, in this comparison, let all justice be done to her potent neighbour.
There was a time, in the sixteenth century, when France bade fair to have
followed in the same career. Like England, and especially Scotland, she was
highly favoured from without. In the course of only fifty years, or from 1550 to
1600, there were printed not fewer than ninety-eight editions of the French
Bible, and fifty-nine of the New Testament separately. Again, when in 1600
Lertourt had printed his edition in folio, it was followed by thirty -five editions
in various sizes, besides fifty-six separate editions of the New Testament. To
these we may add thirty-six editions of the Catholic version, and seventy-four
of the New Testament, from 1600 to 1700. Here, then, of the Scriptures in
the French tongue, we have not fewer than three hundred and fifty-eight distinct
issues from the press ! 1 Of these 358 editions, not fewer than 205 had been
printed, not in France, but-ehiefly at Geneva, on the one hand, and at Amster
dam, on the other. Then came the reign of Louis XIV., with a brilliancy of
a far different character. Were any one to take the hundred years which
preceded his being declared of age in 1651, and compare it with the century
which followed his death in 1715, few historical contrasts would be more
striking. In the former, we should see the truth of God combating superstition,
and promising, if only let alone, to make the vine-covered hills of France rejoice
in the possession of the true vine ; in the latter would be seen but little or
nothing else save infidelity, undisguised and unblushing, in frantic rage against
Divine Truth itself.
Duriug the seventeenth century in France, but more especially from the year
when Louis the Fourteenth was declared of age, all eyes were fixed on the
Crown, and for sixty years despotic monarchy was the order of the day. This
long reign has not unfrequently been compared to that of Augustus. Poets and
orators, philosophers and lawyers, painters and architects, were not merely
allowed to play their several parts, but they were fostered and stimulated
by the royal bounty, while at the same time arts and commerce were brought
into a flourishing condition. But was this all ? Not to mention the licentious
ness of this Monarch and his Court, how did he conduct himself towards tho
human mind and the Sacred Volume ? After hearing Massillon on more
occasions than one, well might he go away, as he confessed, "very much
displeased with himself;" but he was the slave of his own passions, and so died.
It was the same man who persecuted the Port- Royal of which Pascal was the
head, who banished Fenelon, but, to crown all, revoked the Edict of Nantes, in
1685 ! And what then? More than fifty thousand families, nay, it has been
said eight hundred thousand individuals fled the kingdom, and they are not in
this history to be called by any mere nickname. Correctly speaking, they were
1 See Le Long, " Biblia Gallica Geuevcns." &c, although he has not marked
all the editions.

1780 — 1844.] THE MONARCHY OF FRANCE. 595
the people who pled for the Scriptures, or possessed them ; and prizing them
from principle, above life itself, left all behind. They were the salt of the land,
as the pestilential exhalations which followed, most fully proved. No, the
condition in which a Monarch leaves his country, has been well described as the
key to his character and to his reign ; and in what condition was France when
Louis the XIV. died in September 1715 ? Dying at the age of seventy-seven,
after a reign, in full sovereignty, of more than sixty years, several provinces
were left less powerful than they were even at the beginning. The insatiable
thirst for splendour at Court had beggared the kingdom, and another Versailles
would have completed its ruin. The people possessed no rights ; the royal
authority was restrained by no limits. And how did the people behave, when
their King died 2 They insulted his funeral procession, and the Parliament
cancelled his will. He had carried despotism to its utmost height, violating
laws both human and divine ; but the eyes of Louis Le Grand once closed in
death, his entire system was levelled to the ground. Such was the termination
of brilliant despotic monarchy in France.
But the eighteenth century was to prove of a far more serious or searching
character. A storm which had been long gathering, amidst the elegant gaiety
or external polish which reigned at Paris and Versailles, was, in the end, to
break over the country at large ; and occasion not a few, even in Britain,
to stand in doubt whether she should be able to weather it. Properly speaking,
this was a question, not respecting government of any kind, but society at large.
It was not any single monarch which now filled the eye, all over Europe, but
the people of France, in full resolve to throw off every restraint, human and
divine. It was a development of what was styled "public opinion," working
for nnlimited display, and for many years. The closing ten years of the
eighteenth century only interpreted a process which had been in constant
operation, ever since the days of the Grand Monarch. The death of Louis the
Fourteenth had been the signal for action. In patronizing genius, he had been
all along inviting intelligence and opinion, and the next century was to explain
to all Europe, as had been done in ancient times, " that science may flourish
amidst the decay of humanity, and that the utmost barbarity may be blended
with the utmost refinement."
A powerful confederacy was formed, at the head of which all historians agree
in placing Voltaire. TTia disciples or associates are known to all. There was
Toussaint and Helvetius, D'Alembert, Diderot, Condorcet, and many others of
the same school. The vain design, which was carried on for many years, with
great subtilty, was to sap the foundations of Christianity, and destroy the
authority of Scripture. Before these men, there was nothing so inviting in their
own apprehension as the triumph of Reason, the perfectibility of the human
race. By this time, the mind of man, they said, sighed for its native home, and
well it might; but they fearfully mistook their way, when they confounded
Christianity with superstition, and cast away the word of Jehovah. There was,
however, to be no Temple, save the Temple of Reason. As it were, in the
inner court of this structure, the league had been formed against all who looked
higher than Nature, for the object of their veneration and confidence. They
had banded together, and their Dictionnaire Encyclopedique contained the
entire poison of the sect— Scepticism, Materialism, Deism, and unblushing
Atheism. Carefully enlisting the lusts and passions on their side, against every
species of restraint they had vowed vengeance ; but, above all, the Sacred
Volume excited their implacable hatred. Voltaire, their hoary ringleader, was
Q Q 2

596 FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. [book IV.
born in 1694, and at the age of 81 was full of the hope of success. Upon Louis
the Sixteenth ascending the throne, in 1775, when writing to Frederick of
Prussia, the philosopher King, for such was the title in which they gloried :— " I
know not," said he, "whether our young King will imitate your example, but I
know that, with the exception of one, who is a bigot, he has taken philosophers
for his ministers; one of them, M. Turgot, is worthy of your Majesty's
conversation. The priests are in despair. This is the beginning of a great
revolution." Amidst a storm, so peculiar in its character, and certainly unknown to any
former age, while France was driving on iu misery, neither Britain, nor even
her colonies, remained unmoved. To say nothing of older sceptics, from Herbert
to Hobbes, England had now her Edward Gibbon ; Scotland, her David Hume,
who by the way had first lighted his taper in France, with a view to his own
country ; and then finally came home, an Apostle to the common people, Thomas
Paine from America. In Britain the sentiments of Gibbon and Hume had in
fected the higher classes, and it is well if many of them be not infected still ;
but for the people at large, Paine, though obliged to leave his native land, sent
into it fourteen thousand of his deistical publications, and these were followed
by large and cheap editions printed on British ground, and most industriously
circulated. Such a, state of things Europe had never before witnessed ; so that if the
dormant energies of all who believed in Divine Revelation had not been
awakened, never could they have said that burning zeal had not been displayed
by the enemy — zeal sufficient to have roused the soul of every one in this
country, who rested all his hope for time and eternity on the Sacred Volume
alone. To this, therefore, and to this alone, and without note or comment, must
they not finally turn ?
In these circumstances, however, and only thus far, we may be permitted to
remark one notable distinction between France and Britain. Both countries, it
will be said, had produced their respective infidels, and where then lay any
difference? In France had they not enjoyed elegant writers in Fenelon and
Pascal ? Ecclesiastical and civil historians, as in Dupin, Fleury, and Rolhn ?
Nay, celebrated preachers, as in Bourdaloue and Massillon? True, but still,
throughout the eighteenth century, there had risen not one French mind, of
sufficient power and skill to gainsay and resist, so as to check the tide of in
fidelity. No, it spread over the people, and swept all before it into one common
ruin. And why ? The people in France had not read the Scriptures for
themselves. A ceremonial religion, though supported by immense wealth, had
proved to be no barrier. On British ground there was a difference. Her
sceptics in succession, had, every one of them, been looked hard in the face.
From Herbert down to Hume and Paine, they had been fully met, exposed, and
overthrown ; while Deism, false philosophy, and boasted human reason were
not only tried by appeal to the oracles of God, but scrutinized as to their moral
tendency, and found wanting. But why all this, or rather why successful, to
whatever degree ? We hesitate not to reply, that there is but one answer. The
people in Britain had long read the Scriptures for themselves.

In the year 1780, while England was in a state of warfare not
only with America and France, but with Spain and Holland,
the first association of individuals known by a title taken from

1T80 — 1844.] THE BIBLE SOCIETY. 597
the Scriptures themselves, without note or comment, took its
rise. " The Bible Society," and nothing more, was the name
chosen. With whom the idea originated, has never been
clearly stated ; but at such a period it was the more singular, as
being intended solely for the benefit of soldiers and sailors. It
had been resolved to put into their hands the words of Him of
whom it is said, " He shaU judge among the nations, and rebukfe
many people, and they shaU beat their swords into ploughsbares,
and their spears into priming-hooks — neither shaU they learn
war any more." It appears to have been simply the idea of
their frequent exposure to death, whether by land or sea, that
suggested the movement. This Society was supported by
" voluntary individual subscriptions, and coUections at different
places of worship." Within two years they had expended
upwards of £1500, having distributed more than eleven thou
sand Bibles among different regiments and ships' crews. At
subsequent periods we read of many thousands of the Sacred
Volume having been distributed ; for it need scarcely be men
tioned that this is the same institution which exists at the pre
sent day, under the title of the Naval and Military Bible
Society. It was not tUl ten years later, or May 1792, that we hear of
another kindred association. A certain number of individuals
in England, chiefly in London, had met, and assumed the title
of " The French Bible Society." Their object was to furnish
those persons in the French nation who were destitute, with
copies of the Scriptures in their native tongue. A printer at
Paris had been engaged, and four thousand livres remitted in
advance, whUe they in England recommended the formation of
societies in different parts of this country. But aU this was in
vain : it was aU too late, whether on this side of the Channel or
on that. Over France there was louring nothing save the
sulkiness of a thunder-storm before it opens, and the Revolu
tionary war put a period to aU communication between the
countries. The funds remitted were lost ; whUe the money col
lected in England had to be spent in circulating English Bibles
in Ireland, and the Society was then dissolved !
Nor, in this faUure was there anything to discourage the
historian of the times. No work of any magnitude ever took its

598 THE REFLEX INFLUENCE [book iv.
first rise from an assemblage, or confederacy ,whether large or
smaU. Of this fact we have abundant illustration in Scripture
itself; it is reiterated with great power, especiaUy in the eleventh
chapter to the Hebrews ; and our previous history from the
beginning throughout forms a running attestation to the same
effect. An association of any kind, involved too many for God
to begin with. At all events, we do not hear one word more of
a Bible Society, nor was one spoken of, for more than ten years
to come.
It was in the spring of 1794 that Carey, the Tyndale of
India, sat down to translate the New Testament into the
language of Bengal. In 1797, it was finished and ready for
the press, but types were yet to be cast and a press procured.
Far from aU Christian society, alone in the midst of the most
ancient idolatry in the world, meeting only with Europeans
more than tinged with infidelity, and having to superintend an
indigo factory at Mudnabatty in North Bengal, for his famUy's
support, the first and greatest of translators into the languages
of the East finished his first version. But it was not tiU May
1800, that this was put to the press. As in 1523 there was not
a place in aU England where the Scriptures could be translated,
so in 1800 there was not a place in all British India where the
same blessed book could be printed. But Marshman and Ward
having arrived in India in 1799, Carey met them, gave up his
situation in the North, and sat down with his associates on
Danish ground at Serampore, when the New Testament was put
to press and finished in February 1801. From this version they
passed on to others, and such was the rapidity of their progress
that in 1803 Carey writes, " We have it in our power, if our
means would do for it, in the space of about fifteen years, to
have the Word of God translated and printed in all the
languages of the East. Our situation is such as to furnish us
with the best assistance from natives of the different countries.
We can have types of aU the different characters cast here, and
about 700 rupees per month, part of which I hope ive shaU be
able to furnish, would complete the work."
An undertaking of such growing magnitude as this in the
Eastern World, but in correspondence with, and warmly sup
ported by, friends to the cause at home, could not fail to have a

1780—1814.] OF FOREIGN OPERATIONS. 599
powerful reflective influence on the mother country, and more
especiaUy on the healthiest minds throughout Britain, who
founded their chief hope of permanent good on the Sacred
Volume alone. It not merely affected but vastly enlarged the
mind. It induced a habit of feeling for the masses, of pity for
nations ; a feeUng which expressed itself in language lofty as the
Scriptures alone could furnish. The inclination to look far
beyond the Umits of our own Island had shown itself for ten
years, in the formation of one institution after another, wearing
a foreign aspect. But stUl the honour of an amount of union,
and of union at home throughout, such as Britain had never
witnessed, or any other nation known, was reserved for the Bible-
alone without note or comment. We turn therefore to that move
ment which marked the earlier years of the present century.
The British and Foreign Bible Society had been contem
plated, and spoken of, by a few individuals, for above fifteen
months before any step was taken. Its origin may be viewed in
one simple incident ; but this incident occurring within the
kingdom, it becomes more worthy of observation. Had the first
proposal of this institution referred to the Bible in English only,
it is impossible to conceive how such warmth could have been
immediately displayed. It was understood by aU, that no
country upon earth was already so richly supplied, and certainly
not one had more uninterruptedly enjoyed, the free perusal of
the Sacred Volume. It had even been supposed, that the
EngUsh Scriptures then in existence, were equal, if not superior
in point of number, to that in aU the other languages of the
world put together.
How then was it possible to make out a case in 1804, which
should lead to any great result ? It could not have been by
immediate reference to the English Bible only, if at all. Cer
tainly it was not. But then, within the shores of this kingdom,
there had been spoken, from time immemorial, not fewer than
four languages, very different from EngUsh. They aU belonged
to the Celtic or Iberian tribe, viz., the Welsh and Manx, the
GaeUc and Irish. And what then? From the days of
Henry VIII., had they not all been regarded as so many
barriers to improvement, nay, as so many nuisances, to be swept
away before the reigning power of our own English tongue ?

600 THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN [book iv.
So they certainly had, by some men, not over-wise ; but could
any event have been more unlikely, not to say more humiliating,
than that three hundred years after they had been so regarded,
the English Bible should owe any collateral benefit to them?
Had not two of these dialects, the Gaelic and the Irish, been
denounced by the ruling power ? And the whole regarded with
feelings of contempt, as altogether unworthy of consideration ?
Not one of these vernacular dialects had ever been included in
any one of the calculations of government, moral, poUtical, or
professedly religious ; and as mediums of intercourse, they had
long remained among " the things that were despised" through
out the kingdom. What then was to be expected, from the
partiality, however natural and enlightened, of any one Welsh
man for his mother tongue ; and though he should happen to
meet with another man in London, of Welsh extraction, what
could possibly ever come out of that ? Meanwhile, there is to
be no consultation of any human authority on the subject ; nor
did this signify. AU these circumstances were now to form no
objection, or any obstacle before an all- wise and invincible
Providence. Quite the reverse. Among " the things that are
despised" had been often found, " the hiding of his power," and
so it happened here. One of these very dialects shaU prove the
occasion of more English Bibles being printed than there had
ever been from the day that any Englishman had first beheld
one ; or, in other words, far more issued from the press in about
thirty years only, than there had been for above two centuries
and a half before ! A striking proof, by the way, to aU English
men especiaUy, whether at home or abroad, whether in India,
in Britain, or Ireland, that no language, though spoken by only
half a milUon of people, is a proper or profitable subject of
contempt. Let the gentlemen, wherever they dwell, who, with
out due observation of the past, happen to be smitten with the
Anglo-mania, never overlook, or shghtly regard, this memorable
occurrence on their native soil.
The language alluded to was the Welsh, for it is generally
known as an established fact, that the institution of the British
and Foreign Bible Society grew out of this one incident — the
scarcity of Welsh Bibles throughout the Principality. It is
curious enough, that it was not the Celtic tribe which had been,

1780 — 1844.] BIBLE SOCIETY. 601
all along, so grievously neglected, which now at last engaged
notice. The destitution of the native Irish, was almost like the
destitution of life itself. They had then no one to speak for
them, and Britain, like the hard-hearted Levite of old, had
ever passed by on the other side. On the other hand, the
scarcity so complained of by the Welsh, was actually the
result of previous supplies. But upon inquiry respecting these,
we are led back, not to any authoritative or national movement,
but simply, as in other cases, to individual benevolent exertion.2
2 There had been a scarcity of the Sacred Volume in the vernacular tongue
of Wales, deeply felt and long lamented ; but if any one search for the cause of
this feeling, he will soon find himself, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth cen
tury, among the hills and dales of the Principality. During that period there
had been dispersed one hundred and two thousand copies of the Welsh Bible
entire, chiefly in octavo, and at least eighteen thousand five hundred of the New
Testament; but in accounting for this dispersion, three or four instances of
mdividual exertion chiefly engage notice.
The New Testament in Welsh was first given to his countrymen by William
Salisbury in 1567; the Bible entire in 1588 by Dr. Davies and others; the
Standard Version in 1620 by Drs. Richard Parry and John Davies ; for the
multiplication of copies, there was first, the well-known Thomas Gouge of
London. Once ejected from his pulpit in the Metropolis, he betook himself to
works of benevolence and mercy. Though possessed of independent property,
or a good estate of his own, after he had lost much by the great fire in 1666, had
settled his children in the world, and been bereaved of his wife, he had but one
hundred and fifty pounds a year left. Thus circumstanced, and now about
sixty-five years of age, it was then that he began to compassionate the condition
of Wales. For the next ten years of his life, he visited that country annually.
His objects were to preach the truth, to educate the children, and disperse the
Scriptures in their mother tongue. He preached till they persecuted him from
place to place, and at last he was excommunicated from the Church of which he
had been so long a minister ; but nothing could prevent his travels in Wales,
nor his spending regularly, two-thirds of his annual income, and living on the
remaining fifty pounds ! To his bounty and personal solicitations, the editions
of 2000 of the Welsh New Testament in 1672, of 8000 of the Welsh Bible in
1678, if not also that of 1690, are chiefly to be ascribed. But he had to die
before justice was done to his character, when a funeral sermon was preached
for him by no other than Tillotson, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury.
Then there was Griffith Jones of Llandourer, with his delicate state of
health, who in the next century, from 1737 to 1760, was the superintendent in
teaching at various schools, above one hundred and fifty thousand of his coun
trymen to read their native tongue, when more than thirty thousand of the
Welsh Bible were printed and circulated. And then, at last, after a long in
terval, came Thomas Charles of Bala ; or three men whose memories are still
fragrant throughout the Principality. Thus it is, that in reviewing the past,
' relative proportion in the way of individual effort should never be forgotten.
These were labours of which subscribers to a Bible Society, in these easy days,
know little or nothing.

602 THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN [book iv.
It was in December 1802, that Thomas Charles, of Bala,
happened to be in London, lamenting, as he had often done, the
scarcity of Welsh Bibles throughout the country. On Tuesday,
the 7th of that month, at a meeting of the Tract Society, of
which the Rev. Joseph Hughes of Battersea was Secretary,"
Mr. Charles was present, and the subject was introduced. Mr.
Hughes, a member of the same community with Carey, had
been acquainted with every step of his progress from the begin
ning, ten years before. After a long conversation, he stood up,
and suggested whether it would not be desirable to awaken the
public mind towards a general dispersion of the Sacred Scrip
tures in aU languages, or throughout the world. The proposal
was warmly greeted, and at the request of all present, Mr.
Hughes drew up his tract or pamphlet of thirty pages, on " The
exceUence of the Holy Scriptures, an argument for their more
general dispersion." Of this tract, two editions were circulated
throughout 1803, and, after various consultations, -the result
was, that on the 7th March, 1804, that institution was formed,
with whose title not a few are perfectly famUiar in the four
quarters of the globe.
In the first instance, it will be understood that it is mainly in
its connexion with the English Scriptures that we are now called
to notice the operations of the British and Foreign Bible Society;
while, at the same time, the reader need scarcely be apprised,
that the field now opening before him, in the history of the
English Bible, embraces a far larger surface. Before and since
the formation of that Society, the printing of the Sacred Volume
in our vernacular tongue has proceeded to an extent which was
never foreseen, never once contemplated, and that extent has
now reached a point, of which but very few persons are at all
aware. This extent, indeed, may, at first, be viewed by some
with astonishment, but, unlike many other events, it never can
be with regret ; not only as having been ordered by more than
human wisdom, but because in conclusion, we shall find there
is a moral involved, which wiU be found to demand the notice of
the Christian community, individually and entire ; and in the
present day especially, more than any other to which it can be
directed. The sphere occupied by the British and Foreign
Bible Society, in the English department, has been dehght-

1780 — 1814.] BIBLE SOCIETY. 603
fuUy large, and this has been dwelt upon in a variety of ways
so frequently, that it is in danger of diminishing the rate or
pace of exertion, if not of fiUing the whole field of vision.
But as it regards the English Scriptures printed within the
last forty-four years, the field we now contemplate is far
greater. Independently of whatever number of English Bibles
and Testaments may have been dispersed through that one
medium, we have to include those which have been printed
in Scotland, and the general sale throughout the kingdom
from 1800 to 1844. From these three sources we come to
the foUowing aggregate of English Bibles and New Testaments
separately : —
The British and Foreign Bible Society have issued . . . 9,400,000
There have been printed in Scotland, independently, above . 4,000,000
The general sales, besides these, have been considered to be
more, but cannot have been less, than .... 9,000,000
or above twenty-two millions in round numbers ! Now, wher
ever these volumes have gone, — whether throughout England,
Scotland, or Ireland, or to the British dependencies at the ends
of the earth, — we have here to do at first simply with the re
markable fact, and it may weU serve to regulate exertion for
years to come. But having once pointed it out, we are the
better prepared to take up the institution referred to, as not
merely an important subject of review, but as forming one index
to the plain path, or the special course of future duty.3
To those who are old enough to remember, with any interest,
the formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and its

3 According to its last Report (57th) the British and Foreign Bible Society
had issued of the English Scriptures from its commencement to March 30,
1861 :—
Bibles  11,254,854
New Testaments  11,315,532

22,570,386

Besides 602,629 Psalms and 5,918 Gospels and Acts.
r The issues of Bibles and Testaments from the Scottish Press, as well as those
from the Patentees' and University Presses, for independent Societies and
general sale, must have been greater in proportion after 1844 than before that
date ; but assuming them to have been the same, upwards of Fifty Millions of
the English Scriptures must have gone into circulation through this country and
its dependencies since 1805. — Editor.

604 THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN [book iv,
immediate effects, the recollection must ever prove one of the
most pleasing in their past lives. Its simple or exclusive object
being to circulate the Sacred Volume ; " the Bible, without note
or comment," being its only motto, the effect was such as should
be pondered still. WeU does it deserve, and in these days de
mand, reconsideration ; for no proposal on British ground had
ever gone so directly to the heart, nor to the hearts of so many,
throughout the empire. Founded on a principle so simple, so
intelligible, so unexceptionable, the formation of the Society
produced an effect altogether unprecedented ; indeed the mere
announcement ran through every denomination in the kingdom,
and conveyed an impulse, at once the most powerful and the most
extensive under which the Christians of this country had ever
come. Unquestionably it was the most powerful, in its visibly draw
ing to itself parties who, ever since their origin, had Uved in
estrangement from each other, if not in a degree of prejudice ;
though in their apprehension, of conscientious or consecrated
separation. Many wondered why the proposal had never been
before made, since it was one to which there was but one re
sponse. The most estimable and useful members of every com
munity discovered the same cordiality, and vied with each other
only in their zeal to advance a cause, which they all alike felt to
be their privilege and duty. Upon British ground there never
had been an association of greater moral power. There might,
indeed, be many others drawn in, as by a vortex ; but stiU they
were Christians, and these the most eminent and consistent, who
led the van and formed the strength of the institution. No com
bination ever so earned for itself the title of British, for although
the proposal first emanated from London, the Bible Society has
never been a local, or merely a metropolitan institution, up to
the present hour, and less now than ever it was. Its resources
have been drawn from every corner of the empire ; its strength
has ever lain in its auxiliaries; forming, on the whole, the largest
Christian circle that had ever existed in this country. To that
circle, its single but sublime object conveyed a degree of in
vigorating warmth, which, as separate bodies, the Christians
thus united had scarcely, if ever, before enjoyed. It was the
discovery of a new influence. It was as if a finer sun had risen.

1780 — 1844.] BIBLE SOCIETY. 605
Nor was this aU. The institution had assumed the name of
" The British and Foreign Bible Society ;" and this one word,
charged as it was with more disinterested feeling, brought with
it a degree of animation greater stiU ; and one beyond anything
of the kind, ever since Christianity had an existence within the
shores of this favoured Island. But for this word, which, at that
time, came Uke a refreshing breeze over the whole land, the
number of contributors, the coUections made, and the sums sub
scribed, had never been what they were, then or since. Hence
it was that the most powerful impulse became the most extensive.
The title assumed was, in short, tantamount to this, — that the
Sacred text, the Divine Record, standing by itself, as it always
ought to have done from the beginning, and ought in due reve
rence to do, in all time to come ; or, in other words, that the
Bible, without note or comment, was not only all-sufficient
for the people of Britain, but for every other nation under heaven,
or for all the world, far as the curse was found. British Christians
had seized at last, upon a simple principle, of imperative and in
finite value to our common humanity, in all its dialects ; and in
these days, by solemn, pubUc, and often repeated acknowledg
ments, they were never to stop short of its universal application.
The men who then lived are now rapidly passing away, but
those early friends who yet survive certainly owe it to them
selves, in connexion with the generation they are so soon to leave,
to inform it fully of the deep sensation then felt, and the joy
with which this simple proposal respecting the Sacred Volume
was then haUed throughout the kingdom. They can explain to
their families to what extent this proposal was felt by every
denomination of British Christians, as conveying life to them
selves and sympathy for the world ; how it smoothed the asperity
of discordant sentiment, and absorbed the best feehngs of the
heart in favour of the Oracles of God. They can tell them, that
no sooner were the terms simply announced, than they were felt
as a summons from on high, far above the regions or spirit of
party ; for aU right-hearted men came out to obey the call. But
why need we thus speak ? The palpable results are now before
us, and with these the existing generation of Christians have to
do. They speak in language which our countrymen, less than
forty years ago, would have regarded but as some visionary

606 THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN [book iv.
prospect or pleasing dream. Of these results then, they had no
more expectation than they had of those of steam-power, or of
the benefits about to spring from the atmosphere around them,
by the discovery of gaslight. We repeat, therefore, that there
is no subject to which the attention of all Christians can be more
profitably recalled ; none upon which, in the present state of
our country, and of the world, it can be more profitably fixed.
To give any history of the British and Foreign, or of any
other Bible Society, is here altogether unnecessary ; but there
are several statements which are now essential to our knowing
with some degree of accuracy the present position of this cause,
whether in relation to this Island, or its very singular connexion
with the rest of the world. Independently of the general sales,
as there has been already expended in money, even by these Bible
Societies, considerably more than three millions sterling, it is
time to report progress, and far more than time to mark the
relative proportion, or rather disproportion, between home and
abroad ; or between the Scriptures printed merely in the lan
guages of Britain or Ireland, and those in the languages of all
other nations put together.
There has been received by the British and Foreign Bible
Society, from every source of supply, up to May 1844, the total
sum of £3,083,436 18s. 8f d. ; of this amount, not less than
£3,036,698 Os. 3d. have been expended, according to the last
or Fortieth Report, leaving a balance, upon which the Committee
were under engagements to the amount of £41,469 12s. 7d.4
For all the purposes of comparison, the entire receipt may, we presume, with
sufficient accuracy, be thus stated, viz. :5 —
Received by the Parent Society . . . £537, 831 5 5|
„ from Auxiliary Societies . . . 2,432,948 0 0
,, from abroad, chiefly Europe . . . 112,657 13 3

£3,0S3,436 18 8|

4 The receipts of the British and Foreign Bible Society from every source of
supply from its commencement to 30th March, 1861, amounted to the sum of
nearly £5,272,000. The expenditure up to the same date was £5,149,738.
The Society possessed at the closing of its Account, March 1861, £120,000,
belonging mostly to the Jubilee and Chinese New Testament Funds. The
Society was also under engagements at home and abroad amounting to
£72,270.— Editor.
5 The proportion of the whole receipts arising from these three sources is

1760 — 1844.] BIBLE SOCIETY  RECEIPT. 607
But whatever else might be said respecting the amount re
ceived, it is to the declared expenditure that every one must
look as to the guide for aU future operations. Gathered as
the supphes have been from the kingdom at large, it may be
supposed, that not only in the character, but the direction of
their outlay, the contributors at large will now be interested.
The entire expenditure, according to the last or Fortieth
Report, has been £3,036,698 Os. 3d. NaturaUy enough, one of
the first questions wiU be ; " how much has been spent in the
British and how much in the Foreign department?" Or, in
other words, " How much has been spent upon the Scriptures in
the languages of Great Britain and Ireland only, and how much
on the Sacred Volume in the languages of all Foreign nations,
whether in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America?" To these
questions the foUowing may be received as the first reply : —
Expenditure in the British department, on the languages 1 „9 „„. „„„ 19 ,„
spoken within Great Britain and Ireland . . . J*4W4^t>^10
Expenditure in the Foreign department, upon languages )
spoken throughout all the rest of the world, no more [ 1,031,971 7 5
than  J

£3,036,698 0 3

At an early stage in these exertions, a cry was heard, not un
frequently, as to ihe folly of collecting and sending such large sums
out of the country, and that more attention ought to be paid
to our own. But it must now be confessed by aU, that the
somewhat altered now, if we may judge from the Cash Account in the Report
for 1861.
Received by the Parent Society : —
In Legacies, Subscriptions, Collections, &c. . £30, 373
By Sales .... ... 7,660
By Dividends and Drawbacks .... 3,935

Received from Auxiliary Societies : —
Free Contributions . . " . . • - £52, 165
For Bibles and Testaments  46,322

41, 90S

98,487

From abroad, for Scriptures . . . 27,488
£167,943
—Editor.

608 THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN [book iv.
British Lion has, all along, enjoyed the Lion's share. Such a
disparity as this, however, courts inquiry, and, for futurity's
sake, it may be supposed to interest the great body of
contributors. It is not then to be supposed that these two sums entire have
been spent upon the Scriptures themselves. The expenses of
management and distribution, of course, remain to be deducted,
and these involve a material reduction of the total amount.
For if the whole amount of expenditure has been . . £3,036,698 0 3
The expenses referred to, turn out to have been . . 433,284 8 74

Leaving for the Scriptures, whether at home or abroad, not )
more to be accounted for than ..... j ' '  *
The positive expenditure on the Scriptures themselves, as now
reduced, and to be explained, is, therefore, £2,'603,413 lis. 7£d. ;
of which there appears to have been spent
On languages spoken in Great Britain and Ireland . . £1,691,940 14 74
On all others spoken throughout the world, only . . 911,472 17 0
As soon as this is observed, the extraordinary disproportion will
probably excite regret in those who are truly interested, that so
very Uttle, comparatively, has yet been done, for destitute foreign
nations, or the world at large. But, at this moment, the eye
must on no account be diverted from the history of the English
Bible. Let that subject, above aU, be here first fuUy under
stood, and then no mystery wiU remain as to the imperative
obligations of British Christians for many years to come.
Before, however, looking at the broad surface of England and
Wales, it would be doing injustice to London and its immediate
vicinity, as the centre of action, were we to pass unnoticed the
sum spent upon the Scriptures by the auxiliary societies even
there. What share have they enjoyed in this general expendi
ture ? It is only twenty-eight j^ears since the distinction was
drawn between money contributed, and Bibles received in re
turn, but since then more than seventy-six thousand pounds, or
£76,704 15s. 8d., have been expended by them, in the distribu
tion of the Sacred Volume, and at the reduced prices. And all
within the compass of London and Middlesex alone ! What a

1780 — 1844.J BIBLE SOCIETY. 609
contrast is presented here to Paris, Vienna, Madrid, or in
deed any other city in Europe !
If we now turn from the Parent Society and these London
auxiUaries, to the kindred Societies throughout England and
Wales, we find that, independently of their free contributions,
or £1,128,762 7s. 8d., they have spent on the Sacred Scriptures,
in their various localities, not less than £962,863 3s. 8d.
Additional suppUes for England, Scotland, Ireland, and the
British Colonies, wiU account for the entire amount defrayed
by the parent institution, in its British or home department.
But the general reader must be perfectly aware, that there
are many Bible institutions, in Scotland and Ireland, which,
during almost aU these years, have been exerting themselves
independently of the British and Foreign ; while, at the same
time, their main strength has been spent upon our native land
and colonies, through the medium of the English Scriptures ;
so that, look wherever we may, in regard to money spent, pre
cisely the same echo is heard.
And even still, justice is not yet done to the subject before us,
except we turn from pounds sterling, to the Scriptures them
selves. Confining the statement, therefore, to this British and
Foreign Society; in their Report for 1844, they tell us that they
have issued fifteen miUions, nine hundred and sixty-five thou
sand, and twenty-five volumes of Bibles and Testaments. But
then of these, how many have been in the languages of our own
diminutive country alone ? More than ten millions and a half ;
or 10,523,157 ! Thus leaving for aU the world besides, not
equal to five millions and a half; or 5,441,868 ! And even with
regard to the home department, or the languages spoken within
this kingdom, what proportion of these Scriptures have been in
the English tongue alone ? Not fewer than nine miUions, seven
hundred and thirteen thousand, seven hundred and sixteen
Bibles, Testaments, Psalms, and Gospels.
In addition, moreover, to the disparity exhibited by these
miUions, as compared with the scanty and inferior supply yet
sent to aU other nations ; it is greatly heightened by another
consideration. Every one must be aware that an EngUsh Bible
or New Testament has never cost so much, as almost all in
foreign languages ; and that, consequently, every single pound
R R

610 EXPENDITURE OF BIBLE SOCIETY. [book iv.
has gone much further at home, than it could by possibility have
ever done abroad.6

6 It would be difficult to analyse the Cash Accounts of the British and
Foreign Bible Society from its commencement to the present year, as the author
has done up to 1844, so as to ascertain the exact amount of what has been ex
pended solely on the translation and printing of the Scriptures, apart from the
expenses of management and those incurred in raising funds and circulating the
Book by agents and colporteurs. By the last Report there seems to have been
expended on the printing and binding of the Scriptures during the year : —
In the languages of Great Britain .... £67,089 8 0
In foreign tongues ...... 59,480 8 1

£126,569 16 7
Expenses of management, agents, colporteurs,
travelling, and annual and monthly reports . 38,892 15 7

The total expenditure of the year . £165,462 12 2

The amount spent on foreign objects compared with that laid out on the
Scriptures at home appears to have been increasing since the author wrote in
1844, when England certainly enjoyed the lion's share. The more liberal policy
of the Society further appears if we look at the sum total of copies of the Scrip
tures printed directly by it up to 30th March, 1861, and those in the languages
of the British Isles.
Total issues of the Society  39,315,226
Of these 1,718,629 were only portions of
the Old or New Testament.
English Bibles and Testaments . . 22,570,386
Psalms and portions . . . 593,827

23,104,213
Welsh Scriptures  1,162,681
Gaelic Scriptures ..... 154,725
Irish Scriptures . . . 99,523
Portions ... ... 18,020
 117,543

Manx Scriptures . . 7,250

Scriptures in eighty-six of tho languages of
Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and
Australasia  13,602,042
Portions of Scriptures .... 1,106,772

24,606,412

14,708,814

 39,315,226
Thus, while in 1844, 66 per cent, of the total issues were in the languages of
the British Isles, in the year 1861, this proportion has been reduced to 62 per

1780  1844.] INDEPENDENT BTBLE SOCIETIES. 611
Thus, at the distance of not less than forty years from its
commencement, or more than the space of an entire generation,
it is now evident, that the formation of the British and Foreign
Bible Society, with that of aU its auxUiaries, as weU as aU the
kindred institutions in Scotland and Ireland, was a movement,
not so much with regard to foreign lands. It was one, up to
the present hour, mainly, though not foreseen, with reference to
the Scriptures in the English language, throughout the United
Kingdom and its colonies. It was, in truth, the same gracious
Being, whom we have beheld from the beginning, stiU pursuing
his own wondrous way towards this country, which he had pur
sued so long ; and stirring up a part of the population to accom
plish that of which not one among them had the slightest intention
at the outset ! So entirely providential, because above the pur
pose of the original movers, has the result been, that if any one
man, in the room at London, on the 7th of May, 1804, had
proposed to do, what has actuaUy been done ; whatever might
have been thought of the state of his judgment or reason at the
moment, the proposal must have been viewed, as not only the
height of extravagance, or selfish pohcy, but altogether absurd.
Had any person risen and said —
" Gentlemen, you have met to make a commencement indeed, but it is mainly
in order that you should print the Scriptures in your own English tongue, and
that not for sale at their original cost only, which they never have been before,
but for distribution at a reduced price, and to the extent of more than nine
millions of Bibles and Testaments."
Would not such an announcement have been fatal to this, the
very first meeting, and consequently to the design of the secret
mover of them aU? Is it to be imagined, that the speaker
would have found any person present ready to second him, since
no one there or elsewhere had any such purpose in view ?
MeanwhUe, aU were unanimous, cordiaUy unanimous, as under
one impulse, and they obeyed it, having no conception whither
it would lead them, and thousands more. They began, but least

cent. — still sufficiently high, especially when the numbers issued for general sale
and by independent societies are considered. When the United States of North
America are taken into the account, it is evident that there are three times
AS MANY COPIES OF OUR ENGLISH BlBLE IN EXISTENCE AS THERE ARE IN ALL
THE LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD PUT TOGETHER ! — Editor.
R R 2

612 THE. ENTIRE FIELD OF [book. iv.
of all imagining that they had combined to do more for their
native land only, than for all the world beside !
Such an amount however having been expended on the whole,
it is evident that the proportion of Scripture in the English
tongue has been immense ; and yet though many may wish that
a larger share had fallen to nations in far greater need, let this
only operate the more' powerfuUy after we have done ; but in the
meanwhile actually no room is left for regret as to the English
proportion, when the entire subject, or field of operation, comes
into view. This money is gone, it is true ; it has been so spent,
and yet considered as an event past, perhaps its most extra
ordinary feature is this, that it is an event, for which, as no par
ticular person is to be blamed, so no one can be applauded, since
not a single individual either foresaw, or ever intended it ! It
may be true, that there is absolutely nothing precisely similar to
this in the history of British expenditure, during the last forty
years, if ever before ; for certainly it is not usual for an insti
tution to work in a direction, by no means originally contem
plated ; and more especiaUy to such an extent as to swaUow
up the great proportion of its funds. This, however, should
only win for the event itself now, the more deUberate con
sideration. In relation to the Scriptures in EngUsh, therefore, let it now be
specially observed, that, in the operation of these Bible institutions,
there has been actually nothing which can, correctly speaking,
be denominated excess ; since, all along, in the usual current of
national affairs, Divine Providence has been going far beyond it,
and effecting far more by men separately than by men combined.
The latter, it is true, have issued above nine millions of Enghsh
Bibles and Testaments, but the former, without its being annually
noted in any way, have produced a larger number. The men
combined may have spent a million and a half sterUng, and in
the English tongue alone, but this is far from approaching even
the half of what has actually been expended on the whole.
Besides, in the latter case, the Scriptures have been sold, they
have been purchased at a price, yielding to the bookseller his
profit ; in the former, they have been dispersed at reduced rates ;
but when both methods are combined, they form a retrospect,

1780 — 1844.] PAST EXERTIONS AT HOME. 613
certainly of the most commanding character. The Divine
blessing has, without doubt, rested on these united voluntary
efforts ; but stUl the hand of Him who " instructs the ploughman
to discretion," has been upon the printer, and the purchaser
also, and even to greater extent aU the time ! There is a vast
difference between even ten or eleven millions of volumes issued
according to the former method, and above twenty-two millions
on the whole, as already explained. In conclusion, if we look at
this subject with reference to money, how few persons through
out the kingdom have ever observed, or been aware of the fact,
that since the present century commenced, an amount equal, at
the least, to four millions sterling has been spent upon the Sacred
Volume in the EngUsh tongue ?

Such might have been the conclusion of the present work, and,
but Uttle more than four years ago (1841), probably must have
been, but for an event, altogether unprecedented, which then
took place. Happening without any previous intimation, it
took every man by surprise ; though now it forms, if not the
top-stone to the present history, that which, in a few years
hence, wiU be regarded as the stone next to it. But even now,
or rather every moment since it took place, it has added more
than double emphasis to aU that has been stated, respecting that
immense mass of English Scripture printed and circulated in our
day. The event conveys a meaning, from which there is no
possibUity for any Christian, or even the nation, to escape.
Long before this time, the reader is perfectly aware, that for
many generations back, the English Bible has been printed by
the authority of what has been styled a Patent from the Crown.
Now, whatever may be said respecting the merits or demerits of
patents in general, or of the benefit or injury resulting from
such royal grants ; it wiU certainly be singular enough, if, on
looking back, it should be found that all these Bible Patents
have taken their rise from what was once distinctly understood,
and pronounced to be illegal; in other words, if it shall be
found tbat these Patents actually rest upon one granted by
Queen Elizabeth in 1577, and then styled a Patent of pri-

614 IMMENSE REDUCTION OF PRICE [book iv.
vilege. It was upon the strength of this that Christopher
Barker first printed the Bible for nearly twelve years. But that
was a description of patents, which, when submitted to the
Attorney-General of the day, he distinctly ruled that they could
not stand with the laws and statutes of the realm. Various such
patents, therefore, fared accordingly. They became nuU and
void, though, by way of marvellous exception, this of Barker's
remained untouched ! But more strange still, Elizabeth, either
not recoUecting, or not adverting to, the distinction already
drawn, but quoting the patent of privilege by way oi precedent,
granted another with her own hand in 1589. Thus, the course
began, which has been discussed, and re-discussed, in courts of
law, not unfrequently, at great expense, both in England and
Scotland, again and again.
It is something to be able to record, at the close of such a
history as the past, that her Majesty's printer, in the spring of
1841, came forward and reduced the value of his patent, to such
a degree as to create astonishment. It would be saying too
much, that it became of no more value than waste paper, or a
piece of old parchment ; for stiU he is secure of certain advan
tages, with relation to the Scriptures, in large size. But in
regard to many smaUer editions, as it appears now that as he
could, so he actuaUy did, nearly merge the trade in the nation,
by placing them almost on the same footing.
There is no occasion for any minute detaU here, in proof of a
fact so very well known to many. But by way of brief Ulustra-
tion, it may be stated, that in the close of 1840, the patentee
advertising five different sizes of the Bible, viz., twenty-fourmo,
duodecimo, octavo, quarto, and foUo ; and thus presenting a
Bible in twenty-four distinct editions, the united price charged
was £20 Is. 6d. Early in 1841, he came forward, and by a hst
of prices, offered the whole for £9 14s. 5d. ! The largest, or
foUo Bible, for which before he charged £4, he had now reduced
to £1 10s. ! The smallest, formerly charged 8s., was now only
3s. That which before cost 5s. 6d., was now to be no more than
Is. 2d. ! A similar reduction was advertised upon nineteen edi
tions of the New Testament. Single books, gospels or epistles,
printed separately, which had been charged sixpence, were now
to be sold for three half-pence ! So much for February 1841, but

1730 — 1844.] IN THE ENGLISH SCRIPTURES. 615
even this would not suffice for the very next month of March.
The surprise and satisfaction felt at the former reductions had
not subsided, when there came farther reduction stiU, and upon
ten different books. Thus, the edition which in January was
nine shiUings, and in February only six, was now down to four
shillings and sixpence ! And so in proportion with various
other editions of the English Bible.
Inquire not how this could possibly be done. The patentee
himself best knows this. Why it was done, is another question,
and admits of a brief historical reply.
It was in the year 1831 that ParUament began to inquire into
the working of this patent, and abundance of evidence was
taken, yet all this died away, or was permitted to sleep for
years. It was afterwards to be of value, but this was to be in
other hands, and of these but very few.
The patent of Mr. Spottiswoode was not to expire till the year
1860, but that granted for Scotland was then near its end.
Evidence was, therefore, caUed for in reference to it ; and wise,
at last, in the doctrine of «o?2-interference, but without foreseeing
what were to be the very remarkable results, the patent was
aUowed to expire, without renewal, on the 19th of July, 1839.
This printing estabUshment being at the moment in possession
of many advantages as such, to her Majesty's former printers
for Scotland was thus transferred the honour of being the first
free-traders in that part of the kingdom since the days of
Andrew Hart, or two hundred and thirty years ago, nay, and
the first in Britain since the reign of Edward the Sixth. As,
then, when any respectable house applied for a Ucence to pro
ceed, it was forthcoming, so it came to pass now in Scotland,
simply by an application to the Lord Advocate ; a mode of pro
cedure of which other printers immediately availed themselves.
Only a few months had elapsed when the Committee of the
British and Foreign Bible Society began to wonder at an impulse,
for which, they informed their subscribers, in May 1840, they
"could scarcely account." It arose from an earnest desire for
the Scriptures, and at a more moderate price. This led to an
offer on their part, of a Bible and a New Testament, separately,
at a much lower rate than they had ever been presented ; but
the step they had taken showed, and in a very short time, that

616 IMMENSE REDUCTION OF PRICE [book iv.
if persisted in, it would, at the prices then paid to the EngUsh
patentee, soon swaUow up their free income entire. In six
months, by this single step, they had thus spent, or lost,
£13,000 ! They paused, and suspended the offer. MeanwhUe,
the free-trade prices in the north could not remain a secret, and
before the close of the year, the people of England were paying
for their English Bibles, from one hundred and fifty to two
hundred per cent, more than those in Scotland.
In England, however, aU parties still remained actuaUy dor
mant. The pressure from without happening not to have
originated there, so long as no voice was raised against the
enormous difference between the two sides of the Tweed, the
EngUsh patentee held fast by his prices, affirming, in print,
before aU his countrymen, and that even so late as November
1840, that "equal efficiency and cheapness could not be obtained
upon any other system." The people of London, also, or of the
south generaUy, still appeared as though they beheved this, even
though her Majesty's Board for Scotland were reporting the
reduction of prices there, and the advantages which had arisen
from the happy change. " Besides," said they, " it is not merely
a question as to the amount of reduction, but whether a vast
number of individuals are, or are not, to be put in possession of
the Sacred Scriptures ? The difference of a single penny in
the price of a Bible, determines, year after year, whether the
Word of God is, or is not, to enlighten and gladden thousands
of families."
The royal Patentee, it is true, might speak, or even print,
as he had done in November, but without saying more, he was
to act very differently, and in Uttle more than eight weeks, or in
February 1841, as already stated. When reviewing, another
day, what will appear very remarkable, the sudden and pro
digious faU in the prices of the Sacred Volume, posterity, if not
informed, might be apt to conjecture that the monopolist must
have been roused to act so by the nation at large, — but no ;
nothing more was requisite than that three individuals only
should move, and the unprecedented reduction foUowed, — fol
lowed also very quietly, and, contrary to aU custom in this
advertising age, without any boasting, or the slightest ostenta
tion on the part of the Patentee himself. Since the day that

1780 — 1844.] IN THE ENGLISH SCRIPTURES. 617
business of any moment was done in Britain, such a thing, in
business, was never so done. One Englishman, indeed, with two
natives of the north, must, it is granted, feel deeply interested in
the subject, and to many now it may be unnecessary to mention
their names, — Mr. ChUds, of Bungay, the Rev. Dr. Thomson,
of Coldstream, and the Rev. Dr. CampbeU, of London. The
first gentleman had corresponded with the second, but, without
further detaU, it so happened, that into his mind had come the
idea, that as these " Living Oracles" had been originally com
mitted in charge, as a sacred deposit, to the people of God as
such ; so it ought to be an object with them to present the Scrip
tures to any, or to aU, at no higher price than the simple cost of
their production ; or, in other words, that they ought to be
redeemed out of the usual channels of commerce altogether. But
in these days, when it seems as if no individual expects to
accompUsh any enterprise single-handed, what was styled a
Board must be formed. In the present instance, but for the
artificial state of society into which Britain has wrought herself,
this might have been dispensed with, and it appears to have
been of no other moment than that of directing attention to the
efforts of an individual. The prices of Bibles and Testaments,
then, thus advertised, were so low as to appear incredible ; whUe
the London patentee became so adventurous as to affirm that
under the whole affair there lurked some fallacy. MeanwhUe,
aU that became necessary was that this gentleman should move
from the banks of the Tweed to visit the north of England,
where, having once explained his views, and exhibited certain
specimens of Bibles and Testaments, at their affixed prices, many
eyes were opened. The reception given was cordial, nay, enthu
siastic ; nor did he require to visit the metropoUs at all. The
third individual, however, who was residing there, was now re
quired, and both meeting at Liverpool, and elsewhere, both spoke
and wrote, and both were listened to, and read. Nothing more
was required, and though neither of these friends to the cause
they advocated could expect to meet with that applause which,
in our day, has been so often awarded to men for doing little or
nothing, an impulse more powerful had been felt than either the
one or the other had anticipated. The royal Patentee evinced
penetration and wisdom to a degree seldom, if ever before,

618 POSITION OF BRITAIN [book iv.
exhibited in such circumstances. He had spoken out once, as
already mentioned, but proceeding no farther, he presently
issued his deUghtful and most extraordinary reduction of prices.
The patent itself, it wUl be remembered, has not been aboUshed,
but, sixteen years before its natural termination, i-t has been, to
a great degree, effectuaUy neutraUsed. Ever since, competition
has been at work, and all in favour of the purchaser. Into the
merits or demerits of this competition as to price between the
patentee and the free-trader, there is no necessity for us to enter
here; though it must be evident to aU, that so long as the
patent, and these concurrent rights of Oxford and Cambridge,
continue, the sales throughout the Kingdom cannot arrive at a.
healthy or natural and desirable condition. MeanwhUe, the
public at large is happily left to judge for itself; but that such
an immense circulation as that which had taken place should
have been suddenly followed up by such a vast and unprece
dented reduction in price, is an occurrence far from being the
least remarkable among the multitude of events which it has
been our aim throughout impartially to record.
Such then have been the mysterious, and, compared with
every other nation under heaven, the majestic outgoings of
Him who has been with this cause, aU along and so evidently,
from the beginning ; and who having now brought it to this
stupendous height, will, to a certainty, not leave it in its present
state or position, or ever be turned aside from His own high
purpose and ultimate design. We have said, mysterious out
goings, because the cause, as such, may be compared to a path
without an end ; that is, an end worthy of the path ; an end in
unison with the present condition of a nation, where the number
of the copies of the Sacred Record actually outnumbers the
souls that are in it, but where thousands stiU contemn the prof
fered gift ! The reader of the previous history, it is true, has
travelled a very singular and eventful journey, and aU the
while, for more than three hundred years, he has been ascending
to the eminence, on which he now stands ; so that according to
this time, he may be exclaiming — " What hath God wrought !"
Yet the exclamation is no sooner uttered, than it seems to excite
in every considerate mind but one question — what is he about
to do ?

1780—1844.] AS TO THE ENGLISH SCRIPTURES. 619
Were the pubUc mind in this kingdom once brought to such a
state of watchful inquiry, although to answer such a question is
not within the province of human foresight ; yet there is one
point connected with the present position of our Hnglish Bible,
and only one, to which we may advert, before bidding adieu to
the history itself. Whatever Providence intends to accomplish,
and whatever obscurity may rest on the future, it is already evi
dent that an Almighty hand has been, and is now proceeding,
on a scale far beyond the Umits of our sea-girt island. Some of
our legislators have recently begun to ruminate over what they
caU systematic emigration ; but that Providence, which perfectly
foresaw what would be the condition of the inhabitants of Britain
for some years back, in which every time the clock struck twelve,
another thousand has been added to our population — that Provi
dence has already and long been at work, with His own word,
for such as go away, or have gone, never again to see their
native land ; and the printing-press, which is now more busy
than ever it was, both in England and Scotland, can very easily
keep pace with the emigration, let it increase as it may. Now
this, it is confessed, so far as the Scriptures in the English
tongue only are stUl to be concerned, may be the next legiti
mate sphere of action ; but, at the same time, every one must
perceive, that this can never involve more than a fraction, or
not so much as approaching to a tithe of our future and impera
tive obUgations.
In point of responsibiUty as a nation, we have been exalted
into circumstances of which many before had Uttle or no con
ception ; nor had they been at aU aware, that we have been
placed in a condition, involving duty and obligations, from
which there is no escape. The very rich supply of Sacred
Scripture pecuUar to our country, even before this century
began, wiU be held in remembrance ; more than twenty-two
miUions of volumes have since been added to the number, and
stiU the printing-press is as urgently plied as before ; so that an
amount of above four mUUons sterling has been spent upon our
own version ! After an entire generation has been thus so
peculiarly distinguished, that there is nothing approaching to
it, on the face of the earth ; to rouse us from slumber, as but
too visible, in our unequal deaUng with the world at large ; all

620 THE ULTIMATE QUESTION. [book iv.
at once, and in the quarter where it was least of aU, or last of
aU, to be expected, there comes, in one day, a great, an immense
reduction of price with regard to the Sacred Volume in English
and let it be particularly observed, in English alone. What
though no real voice, no sound,- was heard ? No man accus
tomed to think at all, wiU presume to say that in an event so
unexpected, and altogether so unprecedented, there was nothing
intended for the ear, or rather the heart of those who are
daUy deriving light and counsel from the sacred page. Taking
the entire previous history into account, and the broad field
of action now full in view ; is it not, to say the least, as
if Providence had sounded a pause ? — an authoritative pause,
caUing upon us to do the same ; and, at last, review his foot
steps ? CaUing upon us to observe, more deliberately, His
procedure, and then putting the aU-important question — " How,
or in what manner, will it become the Christians in Britain to
act now ? "
We are perfectly aware, that some of our men of " profit and
loss" maj1" be disposed to detain us, by fretting over this
prodigious faU of price. Something, indeed, may be mooted
in reply, as to a gradual fall in the price of paper, if not other
materials, but this wiU, by no means, satisfy others, who have
looked more deeply into the circumstances. " Why, at these
present prices," says one, " we might have dispersed more than
double the number of Bibles and Testaments, and is there any
man who can now deny it?" "But what is more to be
deplored," says another, " at these prices, we might have been,
aU these years, expending upon destitute foreign nations, eight
or nine hundred thousand pounds, more than we have done!"
WhUe, independently altogether of these former high prices,
a third party meets us with his complaint, as to the expenses
incurred at home, throughout England and Wales, and more
especially within the last twenty years. But weighty as these
murmurings may appear to some minds, they are actually of no
consequence, when compared with the solemnity of our present
obligations, or that momentous position in which Providence
has now placed us. In truth, they only press our one question
with greater urgency. Besides, standing, as we do, in the
midst of a nation, which has but recently paid twenty millions

1780 — 1844.] THE ULTIMATE QUESTION. 621
of money, for the liberation of not nearly one miUion of men in
bondage ; it would be idle to suppose that, as a people, we have
been thus strikingly summoned to pause, merely for the purpose
of murmuring over the past. Certainly they are not to be
envied, who exacted such prices from the benevolent public ;
but as for those who have "paid them, every moment now is lost,
if spent merely in lamenting over the outlay. The supremely
important, the urgent, and the only question at present is —
How, or in what manner, and to what extent, will it become the
Christians of Britain to act now ?
At the close of the present history, therefore, it so happens
that there are several points left for deliberate and general
consideration, every one of which wUl be found to bear with
accumulating force on this one question.

CONCLUSIONS
DRAWN FROM THE PRECEDING HISTORY.
There is a frequent propensity in the mind of man to run
every thing into one thing. But even after aU that has been
said, it will not be supposed that the renovation of man is
anticipated by the present author, from the mere multipUcation
and dispersion of the Sacred Volume throughout any country
whatever. If but one native of Britain has ever so dreamed,
the present state of his own land may now awaken him to the
painful reverse. No nation has ever enjoyed such opportunities
of discovering its devotion or hostUity to the Book of God, and
in none is there to be found the two extremes in greater
strength. Yet, if the past history has referred to only one
subject, it has been because of its supreme importance as the
basis or ground- work of aU moral improvement. To prevent
confusion, we have proceeded on the principle that it is neces
sary to consider only one thing at a time ; and that in applying
the same incumbent remedy to the world around us, it is of
importance to understand what has been the history of Divine
Revelation in our own tongue, and what is the existing condition
of our native land.
In surveying the cause to which this volume has been
devoted, from an origin of the most unpretending character, it
has grown to a magnitude which meets us in the very threshold
to aU reflection. One leading feature of the history itself wiU
then invite some notice. After this, the visible and uninter
rupted progress, or effect produced, must not escape observation.
Thus, as a community, however dispersed, yet the most im
portant, because most influential upon earth, — "the present
readers ofthe English Bible" naturaUy come before us ; for here,
and in these times most happUy, they must be regarded in the
light of but one body. Though, after this, the resp

BOOK IV.J CONCLUSIONS FROM THE PRECEDING HISTORY. 623
position of this wide circle, but especiaUy at its centre, on
British ground, cannot faU to lend a tone of deeper solemnity to
the unwearied footsteps of that gracious Providence, which so
visited at first, and has so watched over this land ever since.
In conclusion, only one question wiU remain, — How, or in what
manner, shaU becoming gratitude to God be expressed and
proved, by far more vigorous action ?
ONE LEADING FEATURE IN THE PRECEDING HlSTORY, visible
in a long and uninterrupted series of events, was its superiority
to all human sanction in its commencement, and of all human
control in its progress. AU along, the integrity of the history of
the English Bible has been most singularly preserved, and the
distinct Une of an overruling Providence has been quite visible
from first to last. In holding on, throughout its entire course,
ever independent of all associated bodies, as such, even the
history of our Sacred Volume comes clothed with a prerogative,
or sovereign authority, above everything else, in the shape of
rehgious history. It has been kept distinct, or, as it were
above, yet among, this people, for more than three hundred
years; and never was the highest favour which God has
bestowed so long, more conspicuous and abundant than at the
present moment. If, at such a time, there should be any, or
too many, who seem to be whoUy engrossed, whether by
ecclesiastical self- righteousness, or mere party spirit ; stiU, it
is altogether in vain for any Community, as such, within the
shores of Britain, to talk of its superior importance here. All
other questions are absolutely local, and subordinate. All
communities offer to the eye, but a section of the people, or an
inferior circle. Every one of them is here not only spoken to
direct, but all aUke are here providentially over-arched. Not
one, without exception, can rise and lay claim to the glory of
that bow in tlie clouds.
Changes in sublunary things, there have been many; divisions
and sub-divisions as to its meaning ; but never has it been per
mitted to faU under the power, much less into the keeping of
any one circle. Never has it been aUowed to become the
badge or the partisan of a single party. Not one could ever
address another in the style of the Venetians to the Roman
pontiff, and say — that Book is ours. An historical event, there-

624 CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM [book iv.
fore, extending over three centuries, with immediate reference
to our vernacular Bible, may certainly be presumed to carry -
some significance beyond the external fact. But if so, that
cannot be anything of trivial moment, which speaks to aU alike,
and for so long a period. It is true, only one simple principle
may be all that is involved, though it must be one worthy of
this high and long-continued course of procedure. • After aU
this then, some, if not every inteUigent observer, may now be
disposed to pause a little, having verified this anomaly in our
national history. The boon bestowed he has long felt to be
Britain's best hope; and if the peace and tranquillity of his
country has been supposed to depend upon the harmony and
stabUity of the Institutions within her shores, he may begin to
apprehend that season, if not past, may be passing away. But
again he turns to the highest gift bestowed on aU alike. In its
history it now appears as if it had been uninterruptedly calhng
upon every circle, without exception, to look up for superior
light; or in waiting for its own pecuUar place in the wide
community below — waiting for a supremacy to which it has
been all along entitled.
Three hundred years ago, in many parts of Europe, but
particularly in this country, both in England and Scotland, the
high and keen dispute was, whether what they caUed the
Church, or the Sacred Scriptures, were uppermost, or which was
to be regarded as supreme in point of authority. For ages
preceding, it had seemed to be the former. At least, a body,
usurping that name, had long wantonly reigned over them;
and the use they made of that daring assumption is weU known.
It brought on that night of pitchy darkness which so long
brooded over Europe. They had taken away the key of know
ledge, and substituted other keys. They had not only closed or
contemned the Sacred Volume; they denied to the people at
large the use or even the possession of it. But the time to
favour Zion, the set time was come. The Almighty vindicated
His own cause in this our native land, by way of eminence ; and
after a pecuUar manner, by the power of His own Word, rescued
it out ofthe hands of those, the profane rulers of darkness. This
was His first note of interpretation, which, for illustration's
sake, we ventured to compare to the key-note in music ; and it

BOOK IV.] THE PRECEDING HISTORY. 625
reaUy seems fo vibrate in the ear now, as distinctly as it did in
August 1537.
Now, in this kingdom, where so much has been said about
the Church, ever since, perhaps more than in all the world
besides, at present it becomes worthy of universal observation,
that God, by His high providence, has, all along, never permitted
his Word, in a single instance, to fall into, much less under, the
power of any Church, so called, of whatever form, or whatever
name. The supreme authority of the Scriptures He has visibly
demonstrated, before the eyes of the nation at large, by carrying
them, in point of numbers and dispersion, far, very far above
the capacity, and beyond the narrow bounds, of any Church so
named, or of any single community within our shores. The
supremacy of the Divine Word, though stiU far from being
understood even on British ground, a watchful Providence has
not left to expositors, to speU out or explain. God has been His
own interpreter, and He has made it plain. This is one great
lesson, which the Sovereign Ruler has been reading to this
kingdom entire, for more than three hundred years.
Hence it is, at the present most eventful crisis, whatever may
betide the country as a whole, or whatever may await any of its
more limited interests, that His own cause stands out before
us, healthy and strong, and in vigorous operation ; far more
vigorous than at any previous period, and by far the highest
undertaking of our day.
Of the visible effects produced by the arrival of Tyndale's
first edition of the New Testament on our shores there was one,
by way of eminence, which imperatively demands our notice.
Almost immediately after the introduction of the Sacred
Volume in our native language, we saw it at once divide the
people, whether in England or Scotland, into two bands. Scarcely
a month seems to have passed away, before, this result became
visible. At first, indeed, one of these divisions embraced but
few in number, and an appearance so feeble as to be doomed to
destruction. It will now be remembered, that in those early
days the"*names given to these two parties were, " the Friends
of the Old Learning," and " Friends of the New." They are
titles, to which we had not only no objection, but adopted them,
and we prefer them still. They serve perfectly well to indicate

626 CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM [book iv.
by far the most momentous division of this empire. In observmg
it, we need to fetch no compass, for in a straight and uninter
rupted line, we have stiU the two parties standing before us.
They are, as they have ever been, for and against the Sacred
Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, and their being given to all,
without note or comment. This division, as being the first, and
therefore the most ancient, is one from which the public mind
ought never to have been diverted. It possesses the advantage
of great or perfect simplicity, nor, throughout the long war of
opinion, is there any other by which a more distinct understand
ing can be obtained.
In the beginning, or from the first moment, the friends of the
old learning were opposed to the importation of the Scriptures in
the vernacular tongue, and above aU things deprecated their
being given to the people. They hunted after them; they
ordered them to be given up ; burnt them, and even those who
read them, or possessed them and refused to surrender. On the
other hand, the friends of the new learning eagerly sought after
the hated book ; they read it with insatiable avidity, and cleaved
to it in the face of threatening, cruelty, and bitter death. By
them it was prized, as the book of life and salvation, as the
voice of God, as the book of the soul; and stUl it went on to
prove, as it had declared, "mighty in operation." The common
people heard, or read gladly.
In process of time, however, the gentlemen of "the old
learning," finding that aU threatening and denunciation were
in vain ; having failed to exterminate the Scriptures themselves,
and failing in power to consign their opponents to the flames, it
was not long before they had brought forward what they styled
other authorities to be obeyed, beside that which was daily
proving itself, and so powerfuUy, to be supreme. They talked
learnedly about antiquity. They mooted the authority of the
Church, even such as it had been in their own hands, and the
authority of ancient doctors, styled the Fathers; upon which,
far too many of their opponents with blind simplicity followed
them; whether by way of argument or in the way of com
pUance, to prove their skUl in polemics. Certainly these,
though the professed friends of the " new learning," had never
intended to weaken or betray the rising cause for one moment,

BOOK IV.J THE preceding HISTORY. 627
and much less for generations to come ; but in thus acting, they
but Uttle knew what they were about, or what they had done.
The Sacred Volume, it is true, had been given to the people
providentially, and independently of all these men, and its
progress to the present hour has been conducted after a similar
fashion ; but it is to this sad, this heedless and mistaken move
ment, that we are to ascribe in a great degree the history and
mystery of these two classes within this kingdom. Thus it was
in the beginning, that, under the show of argument, the
adherents of the old learning contrived to maintain their
ground, nay, and prolong the existence of their " learning ; "
for precisely so have they acted, from time to time, as occasion
has offered, ever since. The party, indeed, cannot now boast
that they are one and indivisible, any more than their opponents,
for it is under more names than one, that the old learning has
stiU lingered throughout the land. From generation to genera
tion, its votaries have survived, and certainly they have been
overruled to serve one valuable purpose ; that of ever and anon
recalling, if not driving, the friends of the new learning, to
their first fundamental principle. That principle was the
supreme authority and all-sufficiency of the Sacred Volume ; and
had this only been regarded as the pole-star, and foUowed
fearlessly, long before the present day, though not upon a sea
which knows no storms, the natives of Britain must have been
under a clearer sky. On the contrary, too many of the adherents
of the new learning, though never done with repeating their
favourite maxim respecting the Bible, and the Bible alone, have
ever since treated it chiefly as a sheet anchor, and as if it were
to be resorted to only when assaUed by a storm ; though it was
given them also as a chart to guide through aU the perils of the
deep. Such was the first great controversy in Britain, and as it
took precedence of aU others in point of time, so, as first in point
of importance, even in our own day it is abundantly manifest,
that aU subsequent, aU subordinate points of difference, sub
missively wait upon its progress, and upon its decision even stiU.
When one is constrained, to turn his eye to that particular
quarter, in England, from whence this sympathy with " the Old
Learning" has, in our own day, proceeded, what associations are
these which crowd upon the mind ! It seems as if the spot had
ss 2

628 CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM [book iv.
been selected, in order to rouse the public mind. Among aU the
cities in Britain, was this that one which became the seat of the
very first printing-press set up in this kingdom ? So it has been
affirmed ; but be that as it may, there are other associations
more than sufficient to awaken the mind and rivet the eye of
every reader of his Bible in the land. Here it was that tbe
morning star first rose in England, and so, over Europe ; when
our own Wickliffe first opened to the people of his country the
treasures of Divine Truth in their mother tongue. Here it was
where the immortal Tyndale first gave his lectures on Scripture,
and then proceeded on his way. It would, however, be doing
great injustice to Oxford, and that throughout our own times,
did we not discover something there in which there is neither
" mystery" nor "reserve," nay, something happily far superior
to any testimony from men. If sympathy with " the Old Learn
ing" has been oozing out from a certain class, through the
medium of the press, and though the friends of the New may
have been bordering upon slumber, has there been no over
whelming echo from the Oxford press itself? It is in this
locality, for more than ten years, that certain anonymous writers
have been very busy ; but has nothing been doing there, in
multiplying the Sacred Record of which they have thus dared
to speak ? On the contrary, above every other spot on earth there
has been a work proceeding, from week to week, in favour of
those Scriptures. Among the cities of this kingdom, or of the
world, the point of distinction at Oxford is confined to one, and
that one connected with the English Bible, without note or comment !
During these years it has been affirmed to be within the power
of its noble printing-press, that they could print a Bible entire,
in one minute ! But be this as it may, the power possessed has
been employed in giving existence to the Divine Record, in our
native tongue, and to such an amount, that it has exceeded that
of the presses of all the cities in continental Europe put to
gether ! Even London and Cambridge, with all their myriads
of copies, have not been able to keep pace with Oxford alone!
If, then, there has been an enemy in this quarter, threatening,
however feebly, to come in like a flood, is no significance to be
attached to the singular fact now stated ? Or rather, in tbe
very camp where he has been so long sounding his trumpet, has

BOOK IV.] THE PRECEDING HISTORY. 629
not a standard every morning been lifted up against him ? The
stress of battle, before long, must bear on this one point — the
Sacred Volume and its all-sufficiency, whether for " the plainest
rustic," or " the deepest philosopher ;" then will it be remem
bered, as at least some encouragement, that no spot on the face
of the earth has been so distinguished as Oxford, the school of
Wickliffe and Tyndale, for the multiplication of the English
Bible. If, however, the ancient contest between the Old Learning
and the New is ever to be revived, not only must all "mystery"
and "reserve" be dismissed, but aU other consequential points
be lost in the grand one. By the New Learning, as in days of
old, is to be understood, — the Bible, without note or comment, in
our vulgar tongue ; and surely, if the history of the past is ad
mitted to be any guide for the future, and if there be any tide,
or any voice, in human affairs, the Ruler of nations appears to
be summoning the mind of Britain, and above every other
nation, to His own highest movement. If, then, this summons is
ever to be obeyed, if the devoted admirers of Divine Revelation
are once more to be favoured to engage in this, the highest of
aU warfare, might it not, as a preliminary, prove to be the
exercise of a sound discrimination or discerning wisdom, if the
British mind were afresh directed, with unmitigable energy, to
that one division of the people which has in reality existed
throughout aU the past, or from the beginning ? At first, in
the sixteenth century, this division soon became palpable or
visible to every eye. As if it had been expressly intended to
explain to aU posterity its infinite importance, to save from aU
delusion or mistake in time to come, it was marked in a manner
never to be forgotten. It was a division of the community then
accompanied by distress in every form of persecution, of im
prisonment, and death by fire. It seemed meet to Infinite
wisdom to permit, that this line should be drawn in blood, by
the awful instrumentality of the rack and the stake, by the
flames and their ashes, or pining death in prison ; and though
aU these horrors have passed away, this Une now stands out, thus
glaringly, in authentic history, as a division of the entire com
munity, from which the eye of Omniscience all along has never
removed, nor ever will.

630 CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM [book IV.
At such a crisis as the present, therefore, when not one in-
teUigent Christian, of whatever persuasion, can imagine that his
party, as it stands, like Aaron's rod, wiU ultimately swallow up
aU others ; what can be the existing purpose or intention of an
overruling and ever-watchful Providence ? Full, to overflowing,
with Divine revelation, the mere multiplication of the Scriptures
in English cannot possibly be the main intention now. The
identical course pursued from 1804 cannot now be pursued. We
have been brought forward to an advanced stage, but it is a stage
only in preparation for what is to come. We may look back,
but must look forward. It is only a breathing time, which now
caUs for some vigorous and corresponding exertion, but it must
be elsewhere. In the dispersion of the Scriptures Britain has
been distinguished for thirty years, both for persistence and
perseverance. There has been no lack of persistence in her con
tinual efforts, as to the English Bible. But has there been any
relaxation of perseverance in her separate efforts, throughout her
own -foreign dominions, or the world at large ? We must, of
necessity, immediately inquire.
So far as the present history is concerned, the actual state of
things appears to be this : — There is no sectarian movement now
before us, nor does anything which can be so denominated come
in our way. But with aU her imperfections in the administra
tion of the affair, still Britain, by her activity in multiplying
and dispersing the Sacred Record, has drawn the eyes of the
world upon her, or, happily, far more than the eye of old Europe.
With what have been styled " missions," therefore, conducted
by whomsoever they may, the Pontiff, personaUy, does not seem
to interfere. These he may counter- work, he imagines more
effectually, without a bull. But it is the Sacred Volume in the
vernacular tongue anywhere and everywhere, upon which, in our
own day, he discharges his gaU of bitterness entire. Thus it is,
whether British Christians become more aUve to the fact or not,
that three different Pontiffs, out of four, in regular succession,
have been permitted to signify to them, above every other people,
where lies the strength, the best or the chief hope and mainstay,
of Britain, and the only ground of security as to her vast
dominion. Time there was, when the thunder of one buU would have

BOOK IV.J THE PRECEDING HISTORY. 631
sufficed to fix attention in this country, but though three in
succession have faUed to excite much notice, and many have
never heard of one ; still, if there be any relaxation, if anything
bordering on mere party-spirit, within our shores, these docu
ments may weU be regarded as so many distinct intimations,
that we are neglecting the highest of aU duties, and one which
ought to be common, as weU as dear, to every circle in the
land. There may be those, it is true, whether few or many,
even within this country, who are sympathising with the enemy
of truth beyond seas ; but in reaUty the friends of Divine truth
may feel obUged to these three successive Pontiffs. It is aUow-
able to derive instruction even still from the old European
enemy. His opposition once contributed to the supply of Britain
herself, and why may it not now help to the supply of even the
world in general ? No beUever in Divine revelation, it is true,
need to feel any undue apprehension at these things, but it is
strictly within his province, to observe the signs of the times.
His only question must ever be, — " What is the duty of the
day ?" And if he tread only in the footsteps of the Word of
God, he need not to fear any mere ripple in the waves, any
apparent reflux in the advancing tide.
On the devout readers of the English Bible, whether at
home or abroad, aU our hope for future exertion must depend.
At present we regard them aU as but one community, and the
most united upon the face of the earth ; possessing certain points
of attraction to each other, for which we search in vain through
out the world. Although the most widely diffused branch
of the famUy of man, except the Jews, yet they alone are
in firm possession of the entire Sacred Volume ; and once
contemplated as a community — before the eye of Him who
never slumbers, it cannot be said, at any given moment, that its
members have ceased to peruse or to search the same Divine
Record. At any hour of the twenty-four, or rather any minute,
the eyes of some among this body are in the act of resting on
the same Book of Life, and that, from the begirining of the year
to the end of the year ! To be found in the midst of a people
of the same tongue, now approaching to fifty miUions, and in
possession of Divine Revelation to an extent which serves as a
contrast to the world ; these favoured individuals, of both sexes,

632 CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM [book iv.
from youth to old age, are hourly drawn to the same heavenly
centre of attraction ; and however far apart, there alone they
all alike find their best and their happiest moments.
The present age, with all its faults, has been designated " the
age of Bibles ; " but then, in the readers we now address, having
this divine and sovereign authority before their eyes, every page
has reached the heart ; and no people upon earth so feel the
necessity for the Author's presence ; or in other words, for
special influence to accompany and sanction their reading.
Already, however, the Divine Spirit has been with His Word,
and as a preliminary to every other step, the observance of
which is fitted to diffuse a friendship, or mutual interest, never
yet felt ; let us, whether at home or abroad, near or afar off,
turn to that more distinguished weekly homage paid to the
Volume we aUke revere. Here is the point, the one point, in
which we aU meet, and it is enough. Even in times such as the
present, it is all-sufficient. Our common centre of attraction, is
the only immovable centre of repose. As one Community, we
may turn to one day in seven, and in the view now to be pre
sented, distinguish it as the Sabbath of the English Bible.
That period of time to which we now advert, as recurring at
every seventh revolution of the sphere, embraces one day and
night entire ; and once begun, to the admiring readers of the
English Bible, considered as a body, in some resemblance to the
sun in the firmament, there is no twUight ; no evening shade.
Before the Sovereign Author of this extraordinary distribution
of one people, in possession of the same Sacred Record, it can in
truth be affirmed — there is no night there. Nor is He ever more
present with them aU, than when they look to Him through
this Divine medium.
It will, of course, be understood, that we now cast an eye not
at Britain alone, — a light in which no inteUigent man of the
present day should ever regard this kingdom. We look also at
her dominions, now held by but one imperative condition, or
that of being subservient to the designs of Providence. And
here, as the day we contemplate is a day of rest and reading, of
worship and inquiry, it has no parallel in any other tongue.
The great majority of reflecting admirers is, no doubt, to be
found in Britain, but long before they have ceased from the

BOOK iv.] THE PRECEDING HISTORY. 633
cares of business, at the end of the week, the Lord's-day has
already begun ; and long after they have once more drawn the
curtains and retired to rest, there are many in the far west, who
are yet to go on for hours, exploring the same sacred page.
We have traced the English Bible as being certainly in perusal
above an hundred and seventy degrees east, and about an
hundred and eighty west, of Greenwich. The half-hour out of
twenty-four, which may yet easUy be ascertained, is, for the
present, of no moment.
Should this very memorable day, however, be thus taken into
frequent consideration, there is another which will not be
forgotten, and it is of equal length. It is the day before. This
is perfectly weU known, and even to the most influential mem
bers of this singular community. With them it is a day of
research as well as of reading the same common standard.
Here there is a positively ascertained effort of mind, of twenty-
four hours' duration, an uninterrupted mental aim after " rightly
dividing" the same " word of truth." The object in view is
that the trumpet may give one certain sound, for these men are
to lead the devotion of myriads on the following day. The
ascertained fact, therefore, is this, that for a space equal to not
less than forty -eight hours, every week, the devoted attention of
the same people is directed to the same Sacred Volume.
Now, it cannot be that such a community, whom it is possible
thus to select, and thus address, has yet fulfiUed the providential
purpose of its wide extension. By no means ; for here may
already be descried the twilight of a brighter day than Britain
has ever witnessed. Whether they be in Old England or New
England, in Scotland or Nova Scotia, in Middlesex and Braid-
albin at home or Middlesex and Braidalbin abroad, in Canada
or the Cape of South Africa, in India or Burmah, in the Indian
Archipelago, the Pacific, or on the coast of China, this favoured
people of one language, have been thus scattered, certainly not
in wrath, but in mercy to mankind. " Thou hast scattered us
among the heathen" was the mournful complaint of the ancient
Jew to his God, because this was the token of His frown — the
ruin or the death of Judaism ; but this unprecedented dispersion
of one Gentile nation may, and probably wiU, prove the life of
Scriptural Christianity. It was the providential dispersion of

634 CONCLUSIONS FROM PRECEDING HISTORY. [book IV.
the first community at Jerusalem of old which gave birth to the
very name 6f Christian ; and in this vastly greater dispersion
of one people, why may not untold or unprecedented good be
involved ?
There is only one circumstance which remains to be glanced
at, in reference to this select day, so observed by one people on
both sides of the globe. Their common language happens to be
the only one in Europe in which the doctrine of the seventh part
of time, as well as the joyful occasion of its observance, has been
so fuUy comprehended and observed. For these three hundred
years the day has been differently regarded by aU the nations
on the Continent ; so that, with all our faults, there has been, as
remarked by Guizot, a moral as weU as an insular separation.
Let us hold fast by the distinction, and improve it now in both
hemispheres. The neighbouring nations may have smiled at
these Sabbaths, and wondered at our weakness or simpUcity in
having so multiplied the vernacular version of our Bible ; but
they wiU not deny, that to a people remarked for these pecu
liarities, there has been conveyed an empire far more extensive
than any that has ever existed. But for these, there had been
no such singular community as that which it has been our
object to address, and our desire to interest more deeply in each
other, and then, in the world around them. After this, would it
not be well for the adjoining Continent, were these nations now
to take both the Volume and the Day into more thoughtful
consideration ? — The circulation of the one ?— the observance of
the other ? l

1 It is now not unworthy of notice that the nation which, with all its faults,
has- been most distinguished for the observance and the mental occupation of the
Christian Sabbath, has proved to be the most energetic and enterprising upon
earth. It has lost nothing by resting one day in seven. In its own place, that
day has been found to be equally invigorating with nocturnal repose. So far
from any interruption to business, it has proved itself to be the economist of
time, nay, of human life itself ; and they are but superficial minds who have
not frequently observed this.

635

THE FINAL QUESTION, OR PATH OF DUTY.
Our existing circumstances as a nation, in connexion with the
Sacred Volume, whether relating to the height of privUege, or
the amount of duty, we have aU along felt our inabUity to
describe, or express in words. There is a certain crisis in the
history of nations, as well as in the life of man, fitted and
intended to provoke or draw forth the activity and force of
every agent. That our present circumstances are critical, is the
persuasion of aU thinking men. But then they are the critical
circumstances of a strong and favoured nation, when so far from
repose, or even relaxation, the condition of other countries never
so favoured, must be taken into consideration, after another
manner than they have ever yet been.
The present times are distinguished by a number of pecu-
Uarities. This, it has been said, is " the age of improvement —
the age of social advancement, — it is a mercantUe age, and the
wealth of the world is poured into the lap of Britain, while its
inhabitants are Uving in the midst of discoveries which have
almost given Ufe and breath to material nature." In aU this
the enlightened Christian patriot cannot but feel and take an
interest. But still, in his sober and deliberate judgment, by far
the most momentous and significant point in the state of this
country, consists in the abundant possession of Divine Revela
tion, however Ughtly it may be regarded, and the prodigious
reduction in price of the Sacred Volume. Consequently, the
question which he desires to be resolved is this — What is the
present duty ? What are the obligations thus imposed on
British Christians ?
This subject of inquiry, as the final question, is one which, on
the part of the author, it is here confessed, has never been
absent from his mind for years past. And though it was to be
amidst a thousand interruptions by professional engagements, it
seemed to be above aU things else desirable, to ascertain the
actual state of our country ; not as containing this or that par
ticular form of ecclesiastical polity ; but the state of Britain as
the distinguished depository of Divine Revelation : and conse
quently the paramount duty of a people so enriched by the

636 THE FINAL QUESTION, [book IV
possession of the Sacred Volume. It then occurred to the
writer that there was no other method so likely to present in
their due force, the imperative obUgations of his country to the
rest of the world, as a distinct and impartial record of what had
actually been done for it, from the beginning. Out of the wide
and wonderful wilderness of "religious privileges" so caUed, in
the possession of which so many seem to be satisfied to Uve and
die, there appeared to be no way of escape, but by fixing upon
the Sacred Volume itself, without "note or comment ; and foUow
ing it rigidly as the day-star, or surest index, far above all
party, all local, narrow, or limited considerations ; foUowing it,
tUl one could see clearly, and look round on the state of our
native island as such. A more certain clue to the responsible
condition of its inhabitants he did not know, and he may now,
perhaps without presumption, be permitted to suppose, that, in
this point of view, our real position among the nations has
never before been fully understood.
In seeking for a wide and imperative field of future exertion
there is no necessity, in the first instance, for going even out of
the Empire.
Looking at that Britain in which we dwell, and to which this
previous history has immediate regard, furnished as it has been
with the truth of God, the real position of the Island cannot be
too strongly enforced. By the Sovereign Disposer of aU events
it has been graduaUy encompassed by an area more than thirty
times the size of itself, an area peopled by above one hundred
andjforty mUUons of our own species, the great proportion of
whom are our fellow-subjects ! The saUs of the mother- country
whiten every sea ; the smoke of her steam -vessels has filled with
astonishment the people of many lands. Our men of commerce,
brought into contact with all these parts, breathe after more free
and frequent intercourse ; while the sons of science are not less
eager after an accurate acquaintance with the earth, and espe
cially with the whole Eastern World. The measurement of the
meridional arc, extending to more than 1500 mUes, from Cape
Comorin to the Himalaya Mountains, begun in 1822, after
twenty years' application, has been completed. In India itself,
under the present Governor-General, the leading aim of his policy
is peace. But above all, there is a renewed attention to educa-

BOOK IV.] OR PATH OF DUTY. 637
tion in the vernacular tongue. The principle is openly admitted
by the authorities, that the instruction of the body of the people
through the medium of their own tongue is one of the essential
duties of Government : a body amounting to above thirty
millions in Bengal, with fifty milUons more adjoining. And
there too comes China, with her three hundred milUons, and
the adjoining nations, all, as it were, stretching out the hand
especiaUy to Britain — a happy and an amicable arrangement
which is stiU the subject of wonder to men of all opinions. All
this is at once propitious and animating. But can it be here at
home imagined by any one, that an Overruling Power has
brought these vast regions into such intimate connexion with
this distant Isle, for any lower purpose than that of presenting
them with a faithful rendering of His own Sacred Word in all
their different vernacular tongues ?
When reflecting on this peculiar, this untransferable respon
sibility, of our country, but especially of aU within it who
beheve in Divine Revelation ; in any man's vision there must
be some great defect, if he cannot discern what is involved in
her dominion. Upon the manner in which this is conducted, her
actual safety must now depend. Britain has not received
authority, or even influence, over so many millions of our species,
with Uberty to act by them as she pleases. Nor does she hold
in North America, an area double the size of all France, to
neglect or foster it, just as fancy or ambition may suggest. No, if
property at home has its duties affixed to it, so also has dominion
abroad. The world entire, it is true, demands the sweU of pity, and
it is not without special claims upon us ; but to avoid being lost in
generaUty, let us at least endeavour to understand the dominion
which Providence has affixed to our native land, whether in
Asia, Africa, or America, and aUow no power on earth to beguile
us from its cultivation. Dominion, therefore, we repeat, and
however distant, has its duties affixed to it. But distance, which
twenty years ago, used to be stated as accounting for the apathy
of Britain, can now be mentioned no more. To this country
has been granted not only the knowledge, but especially the
application, of the power of steam, by which the whole Island is
growing into one vast Metropolis, whUe a path in the sea has
been given to her. Whether we look to the west, or to the east,

638 THE FINAL QUESTION, [book IV.
regular communication is now brought nearly within the com
pass of every week, or four times a month, and a monthly inter
course with China has already commenced. Providence is
introducing us to the wide earth, or causing the World to draw
near and come, but especiaUy to this island. Its position is
altogether unprecedented, and enough to rouse the most un
thinking stupidity. Dominion so vast, and brought so near at
hand, the world has never witnessed. In aU previous history
there is no resemblance. Space and time were never so abridged
to the hand of any earthly power. Every other acquisition of
territory or dominion by any nation, shrinks before it. The
conquest of South America by Spain was not equal to a fourth
of the extent, in which more of human blood was shed in a
short time, than there may have been in India from the begin
ning. The Roman or Mahometan conquests wiU not bear com
parison. To this vast field of action, over which an overruling
Providence has given us influence, not to mention other frequent
opportunities of intercourse, we have forty -eight direct or stated
channels of communication every year. These, Uke so many
distinct incitements, call us to go out, or send out, and double
our dUigence in conveying to aU these populous regions, certainly
not the peculiarities of our different indigenous religious systems,
upon which some are so blindly bent, but the unsophisticated
book of God, without our notes or comments, but in translations,
if possible, at least equal to our own. This, we cannot but
imagine to be the highest end for which such wide dominion has
been bestowed, and the duty, by way of eminence, assigned to
this country.
Such has been the history of our EngUsh Bible, and such
appears to be the paramount duty imposed upon aU, who have
so long and so richly possessed it. If to thousands around them,
that Sacred Volume be of no more utUity than a sun-dial in the
dark,- — if others esteem those lines not worth reading, which
God himself deemed worthy of His inspiration, and if many
more are eager after the adjustment of merely certain local
interests upon British ground ; all this only forms a more
powerful proof of the necessity for invoking the Divine Spirit, and,
in present circumstances, a stronger argument need not, perhaps
cannot, be adduced. But nothing whatever can weaken our

BOOK IV.] OR PATH OF DUTY. 639
obligations to go forward in this high path, or justify the hands
hanging down, in a single instance. The all-sufficiency of the
Divine Record, and now, especiaUy the Ministration of the
Spirit, form the two great themes, caUing for universal and
supreme regard throughout our native land ; but, at the same
time, not unmindful of the beneficial reflex influence of foreign
operations, before the commencement of this century, and during
a season of great national perU, we have thus written ; as weU
as from a full persuasion that the permanent interests of this
country, her surest protection and best defence against all aggres
sion, are now in a state of dependence upon the general diffusion
of Divine Truth, properly so caUed. Separate from all systems
of human opinion, removed from the din of disputation and the
strife of tongues, this appears to be the pre-eminent duty to
which the Christians of Britain are now invited, as by a voice
from above. They have been favoured beyond those of any
other nation, but this should only lead them the more to remem
ber that there is a favour higher stiU than that of being blessed,
nay, blessed by God himself. It consists in their being made a
blessing to others. His object, in the first instance, is to be
adored, but let us beware, above aU things, of forgetting His
intention, or, as it were, retarding the flow of the Divine be
nignity to mankind. His fixed purpose, uttered again and
again, in the face of open rebeUion, dissension among His pro
fessed foUowers, and even the people at large labouring in the
fire, or wearying themselves for very vanity, is stiU the same, —
" The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the
Lord, as the waters cover the sea." The Divine Record, there
fore, by itself considered, must visit every land. In the various
languages of our world, here is the highest object to which the
human mind should address itself ; and were the coUective zeal
in this kingdom, now, at last, to awake and take this one direc
tion, through aU our principal sea-ports, it would be nothing
more than the very extraordinary procedure of the Almighty
towards this nation, for more than three hundred years, and the
aspect of these times, demand.
At a moment when, in every other walk pursued by British
Christians, the seeds of mutation are so thickly sown,— a season,
in which Divine Providence is in the act of bringing down the

640 THE FINAL QUESTION, [book IV.
self-importance of all collective bodies,— drawing with unwonted
solemnity over the entire kingdom, and to be more deeply vene
rated, the line of distinction between His own revealed Word,
and all the opinions of men respecting it ; and demonstrating
to the humblest capacity, that no Church, yet in existence, is to
prove the ark of this nation ; even at such a period, whatever
these signs portend, or come what may, what is the actual state
of this greater cause ? Its prospects were never, by half, so
encouraging, its claims never so imperative ! Thus strikingly,
by every calm intelUgent observer, may this undertaking be
seen at present, rising far above the regions of party, or of mere
party zeal.
Meanwhile, if everything in the condition of mankind indi
cates the approach of some great crisis, is it not more than
observable, that in this our eminently favoured land, aU things
else appear as though they had conspired chiefly to render more
conspicuous or glaring, and certainly far more inviting, one
solitary path, left open by God to British Christians as such ?
A path, indeed, to which, as far as they regard their common
standard, they appear to be now very nearly hedged up, just as
they were above forty years ago, by the fear of infidelity. A
path, however, in which they may proceed in the largest body,
and by the smaUest groups, or rather by both methods, in perfect
harmony. That path, in which those who revere Divine Reve
lation as their common charter to the skies, or their sheet-
anchor in every storm, can stiU meet ; and meeting with success
their common foe, however divided on some points, can only the
more triumphantly repel the charge of sectarianism. That
path, where, as the asperities of discordant sentiment can have
no place, so every acrimonious or noxious controversy, is left
to wither down to its root ; and where, though they confute no
heresies, they may effect what is better still, cause them aU to be
neglected or forgotten. In that plain path, where diffusion seems
to be the one idea that cometh out from the Divine throne daUy,
dispensing with a bountiful hand " the sovereign balm for every
wound," through other and distant climes, the parties so engaged
are in the way of being twice blessed : and there, while working
in the rear of the Almighty's most determined purpose and
highest end, ultimate success is no less certain, than in the

BOOK IV.] OR PATH OF DUTY. 641
course of nature. " For as the rain cometh down, and the snow
from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth,
and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the
sower and bread to the eater : so shaU my Word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth : it shaU not return unto me void, but it
shaU accompUsh that which I please, and it shaU prosper in the
tiling whereto I sent it."
What, then, although many things around us say, or seem to
say, Trust not in man ? let the heart of no Christian faU him
for one moment. With more profound reverence for the Divine
Word as the appointed instrument, a clearer perception of its
adaptation to its end, a firm reUance on the Divine veracity, and
a habitual reference to the Holy Spirit of God, let this path
only be pursued as its supreme importance demands, it must end
in consequences which are not left to human conjecture, and
such as the earth we inhabit has yet to enjoy. — " For ye shall
go out with joy, and be led forth with peace ; the mountains and
the hills shaU break forth before you into singing, and all the
trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn
shaU come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shaU come
up the myrtle tree : and this shaU be unto Jehovah for a
memorial, for an everlasting sign, which shaU not be aboUshed."

T T

©fjronoloritcal Iribtx Hist

ENGLISH BIBLES AND NEW TESTAMENTS,

T T

EXPLANATORY NOTE.
The best account of English Bibles and Testaments, with their
proprietors, which has ever been published, is that which was
printed at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1821, by the Eev.
Henry Cotton, D.C.L. In the following Index-List will be found
about a hundred editions not there specified. Under the descrip
tion column, the quotations marked are taken verbally and hterally
from the title-page or colophon, which may assist other possessors
to identify their imperfect copies. More proprietors might have
been added to some books, but these are sufficient to authenticate
aU the editions mentioned, and put an end to a degree of uncer
tainty respecting these precious volumes, which has too long pre
vailed. The number, on the whole, will be found to corroborate,
and even strengthen, the statements in the preceding History.

In the following pages Ty. denotes the translation of Tyndale —
Co. that of Coverdale — Ma. that of Rogers, alias Matthew, or that
of Tyndale left for publication — Or. denotes Cranmer's — Ta. that
of Taverner — Ge. the Genevan version— Bps. that of the Bishops,
and To. that of Laurence Tomson.
The Library of the late Hon. Thomas Grenville is now in the
British Museum.

VARIOUS EDITIONS
OF
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE BIBLE
WITH CERTAIN PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND INDIVIDUAL PROPRIETORS
IN POSSESSION OF COPIES;
SERVING AS AN
INDEX TO THE PEECEDING HISTOEY.

Henrg tfje dftgfjtij.

FIFTY-FOUR EDITIONS, VIZ. THIRTY-NINE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AND FIFTEEN OF THE BIBLE.
Prmted in twenty-two years, or from 1525, to the 2Sth January 1547.
DESCRIPTION. PRINTER. PLACE. YEAR.
Matthew and Mark — printed "as written by tbe
Evangelists," with marginal notes, stitched together
and separately. See tbe preceding History, pp. 28,
87, 104, 107.  Hamburg 1524
1. T. The New Test, with glosses and a prologue, — only
one fragment remains, and that not discovered till
1834. See pp. 30, 37. P Quentall Cologne —
Now in the Library of the Right Hon. Thomas
GrenviUe. Ty. P. Schoeffer Worms 4\ 1525
2, T. The New Test, wanting only the title, and the only
copy in this state now known. See pp. 30, 41.
Bequeathed, with many other volumes, by Dr.
And. Gifford, to the Bristol Museum. Ty. P. Schoeffer Worms 18*. —
3. T. The New Test., the first surrep. ed., of which no
copy has yet been properly identified in any collec
tion. See p. SO. Ty. Endhoven Antwerp 1526
4. T. The New Test., the second surreptitious ed. See
pp. 92, 93. Ty, Ruremund Antwerp 1527
5. T. The New Test., the third surreptitious edition. See
p. 135^ Xy. ¦  Antwerp 152S-9

646

INDEX — LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. [l580 — 1536.

DESCRIPTION.
6- T. The New Test, supposed reprint by Tyndale himself,
with his prologue to the Romans. See p. 146.
Genesis, Deuteronomy, in separate books. See
p. 118.
Pentateuch, with a general preface, and a second
edition of Genesis, dated 17th Jan. 1530, i.e. 1531.
See p. 137 — a perfect copy in the GrenvUle Lib.
Imp. British Mus. Bristol Mus.
7. T. *' The New Test, as it was written," &c, altered by
Geo. Joye, with only the Vulgate before him, dated
"M.ccccaxxxini., in August." The only copy cer
tainly known to exist is in the Grenville Library. Ty.
See History, pp. 217—221.
8. T. The New Test, dylygently corrected and compared
with the Grcke, by William Tindale, — fynished in
md. xxxm j., in Nov. See p. 217. British Museum.
St. Paul's. Bristol Museum, Lea Wilson, Esq.
CJir. Anderson Ty.
9. T. Unique copy on vellum. "Anna Regina Anghae."
Simply the sacred text. See the History, p. 227.
British Museum Ty.
Jonah, with a prologue. See p. 158.
T. New Test, anno md.xxxiiii. surrept. p. 229.
E. of Pembroke. Wm. F. How of Apsley Ty.
T. New Test, anno md.xxxiiii. sur. p. 229.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty.
T. New Test, dated on the back 1534, p. 229.
Bristol Museum Ty.
Bristol Museum Ty.

PBINTEB.

PLACE.

VEAR.

Ty.

Hans Luft

Marburg ?

1530

Ty.

Hans Luft

Marburg

-

Various

Different

Ty.

printers

places

1531

Widowe of
Ty.
Christoffel
A-ntioerp
16°. 1534
of Endhoue.
Marten
Emperowr
Antwerp 12*.
Emperowr Antwerp 12°.
10.11.12.13.
14.
G. H.?
Pentateuch, corrected. St. Pav/V
Antwerp 12°. —
Antwerp 12°. —
Antwerp 4°. —
12°. —
T. New Test, from Tyndale's corrected ed. p. 242.
Bodleian Lib.
Ty.
"The New Testament dylygently corrected, "—pecu
liar orthography, p. 242. Perfect. Camb. Un. Lib.
Imp. Ex. Col. Ox. Ty.  ?
15. T. The Newe Test. — but imperfect— date wanting.
Cotton's List. Ty. 
1. B. Biblia. The Bible, that is, the holy Scripture
of the Olde and New Testament, faithfully and
truly translated out of Douche and Latyn iu to
English. See the Hist. pp. 282—289. Earl of
Leicester's — title 1535. Bodleian. British Museum. —
Cambridge University Library. Bristol Museum. 
Lea Wilson, Esq. Earl of Jersey's, dated 1536 Co. 
16. T. "The Newe Testament yet once again corrected."
Fiue copy. Duke of Newcastle's, 1G7C, Earl Spencer.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. 
17. T. The Newe Testament, in many points similar, but
quite distinct. The second title is md. xxxvi.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. 
18. T. The Newe Testament, also similar, but evidently
on collation a different edition — same year.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. 
19. T. The Newe Testament, quite distinct from the three
last. Bristol Museum Ty. 
20. T. "The Newe Testament, yet once agayne corrected,"
by William Tyndale. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. Vosterman ?
Antwerp 12°. 1535
Antwerp? 12°. —
 fol. -
Not Zurich
Frankfort ?
Cologne ?
Lubec? fol. —
Antwerp 12°. 1536
Antwerp 12°. —
Antwerp 12°. —
Antwerp 12°. —
Antwerp 4°. —
1536-^-1538.] INDEX — LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS.

647

DESCRIPTION.
21. T. " The Newe Testament yet once agayne cor
rected," — longer paper and distinct edition.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty.
22. T. "The Newe Testament yet"— a block in the cut of
the Apostle Paul, preceding the Epistles, is only
one distinguishing mark of these three editions.
Lea Wilson, Esq, Ty,
23. T. New Test, by W. Tindale. A thick pocket vol.
smaller than any of the preceding— a fragment pos
sessed by G. Qffor, Esq. Ty.
24. T. " The News Testament yet once agayne corrected
by W. Tyndale," &c. This is from the last corrected
edition and the first Sacred Volume printed on
English ground. See p. 278. Bodleian Library. Ty.
John Fenwick, Esq.
25. T. The Newe Testament, with Tyndale's prologue to
the Romans only, but Coverdale's version. The
first edition separate from the Bible ?
Lea Wilson, Esq. Co.
2. B. "The Byble, that is, the Holye Scrypture of
the Olde and New Testamente, faythfully translated
in Englysh, and newly ouersene and correcte,
md.xxxvii." Dedicated "to Henry VIII. and his
Queen Jane." — "Myles Couerdale unto Christen
reader." Correcting p. 291. Earl Spencer.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Co.
3. B. "The Byble, that is, the oulde and newe
Testamet, faithfuly Traunslated into English, and
newly ouerseen and corrected, md.xxxvii." Dedi
cated as before, and both " Sett forth with the
Kynges most gracious license." See p. 291.
Bristol Mus. Lincoln Cathedral. Lea Wilson, Esq. Co.
4. B. " The Bible, which is the Holv Scripture,
in which are contayned the Olde and Newe
Testament, truely and purely translated into
Englysh. By Thomas Matthew." Dedicated to
Henry VITI. "Set forth with the Kinge's most
gracious license." The basis of all subsequent
editions. See pp. 207-305. British Mus. Lambeth Lib.
Bodleian. Bristol Mus. Earl of Pembroke. Ty.
On yellow paper, Earl of Bridgewater. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ma.
26. T. In Latin after Erasmus, and in English after Mat
thew, "under the King's most gracious license."
See the History, p. 321.
Royal Institution. Exeter Coll., Oxon. Ma.
27. T. New Testament of Coverdale, but with all Tyndale's
prologues, by Crom or Cromer. Bristol Museum.
St. Paul's Library. Co.
28. T. "of our Sauioure Jesu Christe,— in to Englysshe."
Lib. ofthe late Duke of Sussex. Mr. G. Mason Ma.
29. T. "The newe Testament, both Latin and Englyshe,
after the vulgar texte, by Myles Couerdale." Set
p. 321, Bodleian. Lea, Wilson, Esq.
30. T. "The newe testament both in Latine and Eng
lyshe"— "Faythfullye translated by Johan Holly-
bushe." See p. 321. St. Paul's. Lea Wilson, Esq.
Chr*. Anderson Co

PLACE. YEAR.

Vosterman? Antwerp 4°. 1536

Vosterman ?

T. Berthelet,
Printer to
the King

Antwerp 4*. —
Antwerp? 12°. —
London fol. —
Antwerp? 12°. —

¦. J. Nycolson Soutiiwarke 4°. —

J. Nycolson Southwarke fol. 1537

Grafton and
Whitchurch

Redman
M. Cromer
Treveris
Co. Nicolson

Nicolson

Antwerp ?
Lubec? fol. —
Hamboro ?

London 4°. 1538
Antwerp 12°, —
Southwark 4°. —
Southwarke 4". —
Southwarke 4°, —

648

INDEX — LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. [l538 — 1541.

DESCRIPTION. PRINTER.
31. T, " The new Testament both in Latin and English,"
—title red and black. Dedicated to Lord Cromwell,
by Couerdale. St. Paul's. Bristol Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. Co. Regnault
32. T. "The new Testament" — with atrue concordance in
the Margent— printed in the yeare of our Lorde
mcccccxxxviii. Trin. Coll. Dublin. Herbert, p. 1549. Co. 
33. T. The Paris edit, with Ded. and new title-
C. C. CoUege, Oxford Co. 
34. T. "of our sauiour Jesu Chryst — for Thomas Ber
thelet," p. 343. St. Paul's Library Ta. T. Petyt
35. T. "after the Greeke Exemplar "—for T. Berthelet.
Herbert, p. 553, 1550. Ta. T. Petyt
36. T. Rep. of 1538, very incor. See p. 35.
Herbert, p. 1549, 1550. Co. Cromer
5. B. "The Byble" — an undertaking of CrumweU's,
with Coverdale as corrector of the press. See pp.
313-320, and 325. British Museum. St. Paul's. Grafton
Lambeth Lib. Bristol Mus. Ma. and
Cr. Anderson. Perfect copy— Lea Wilson, Esq. Whitchurch
6. B. " The most sacred Bible," by Taverner. See
pp. 342-344. British Mus. St. Paul's. Bristol Mus.
Cambridge University Library. Balliol Col. Oxon.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ta. J. Byddell
7. B. "The most sacred Bible," by Taverner. See
p. 343. But no third edit, by Nycolson, as stated
by Herbert and Dibdin. See Bible, No. 
Cotton's List Ta. J. Byddell
8. B. "The Byble in Englyshe"— " Fynisshed in
Apryll mcccccxl." See pp. 347-351, 357-360. The
first of Cranmer's. Vellum, British Museum. Edward
Perfect copy — Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Whytchurche
9. B. "The Byble in Englyshe" — "Finisshed in
Apryll, anno mcccccxl." Reprint of 1539, cor
recting, p. 360. See p. 361. British Museum. Petyt and
Emman. Col. Camb. Lea Wilson, Esq.bla. Redman
10. B. " The Byble in Englyshe" — " Fynished in
July, anno mcccccxl." See p. 362. The second Richard
of Cranmer's. A perfect copy — Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Grafton
11. B. The Bible, in five parts or volumes — nowhere
complete. Ma. Rodman
37. T. The Newe Testament in English, as in Cranmer,
though said to be from the Latin of Erasmus. Grafton and
Lambeth Lib. On yellow paper, in the Bodleian Cr. Whitchurch
38. T. The Newe Testament of Tavemer's version. See
Ames. 499, Cotton's List, p. 7. Introduction to
Luke omitted. Bodleian. Ta.  .
12. B. "Tho Byble in Englyshe,"— "Fynyshed iu
Nouember, Anno mcccccxl." not pub. till 1541.
Overseen and perused at Henry's command, by
Tunstal and Heath. See p. 362. Edin. Univ. Lib. Edward
Perfect copy— Lea Wilson, Esq. Tu, Whitchurch
18. B. "The Byble in Englysh,"— "Finished the
xxviii daye of Maye, Anno domini mdxli." See
p. 365. Third of Cranmer. Edwarde
Perfect copy— Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Whitchurch

Paris

8°. 1538

London ?

16"

¦ —

London ?

8".

1539

London

4".

-

London

8".

-

Antwerp

8°.

-

Paris

and

fol.

—

London

London
London
London
London
London
London
London
fol.
fol. 1540
fol. -
fol. -
16*. -
4". —
fol. 1541
fol. -
Richard
Grafton

649

1641 — 1549.] INDEX  LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS.
DESCRIPTION. PKINTEH. PLACE.
14. B. " The Byble in Englyshe, — Fynished in
Nouember, anno mcccccxli.," the second with
Tunstal and Heath's names on the title, and
Cranmer's prologue in both edits. See p. 368. Bichard
Perfect copy— Lea Wilson, Esq. Tu. Grafton London
15. B. "The Byble in Englyshe, An. do. mdxi.. —
Finysshed in December mcccccxli. A domino
factum est istud. This ia the Lordes doynge."
See p. 309. Perfect— Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr.
39. T. The New Test, with wood-cuts in the Gospels, Acts,
and Revelations. Harleian Cat. No. 42S, — imperf.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. Van Loe f Antwerp 32°. 1544

fol. 1541

fol.

CEtifoarto the Sfxtfr.

FORTY-NINE EDITIONS, VTZ. THIRTY-FIVE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AND FOURTEEN OF THE BIBLE.
Issued in the course of six years and a half, or from 29th January 1547 to 6th July 1553.

40. T. The Newe Testament according to Cranmer's edits, note. Dated
"the ix. day of October mdxlvi." Bristol Museum Cr,
41. T. The Newe Testament in Englishe (Matthew) and Latin, accord
ing to Erasmus, — a reprint of edit. 1538. St. Paul's. lea Wilson, Esq. Ma.
42. T. "The new Testament in Englyshe," — of Cranmer's version,
known by a noted omission in the text of Rev. i. 9, 20.
Geo. Offor, Esq. Cr.
43. T. The New Testament, — the English of his edit, last year. Lambeth Ma.
44. T. "The new Testamente in Englyssh, according to the transla
tion of the great Byble." "Londini.— Ex officina Johann
HerfordiaB, Anno Domini MDxlyiii." Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr.
45. T. "The new Testament of our Saviour Christ, after the best copie
of WiUiam Tindale's Translation," with the notes of Matthew
and others. Eton College Ty.
46: T. The New Testament, similar to the last. Cotton's List. Ty.
47. T. "The Newe Testament of our Saviour Jesus Christ." 35 lines in a
page. Perfect copy, Sussex sale £50. Imperfect.— Clir. Anderson Ty.
48. T. " The newe Testament of the last Translation by William Tyndale,
with prologes and Annotacyons in the Margent." 34 lines in a
page. Herbert, p. 556. Lincoln College, Oxford Ty.
49. T. " The Newe Testament in Englishe and in Latin. Nowm Testa-
mentvm Anglice et Latine, Anno Dni 1548." Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty.
50. T. The newe Testament of the last Translation by William Tyndale.
Printed for Thomas Berthelet, without date. Herbert, p. 556 Ty.
51. T. "The new Testamente by William Tindale, with the Annota
tions of Thomas Matthew." In black letter, with wood-cuts.
Geo. Offor, Esq. Ty.
52. T. The Newe Testament, a rare edit, imper. " Vvillia Tindal vnto
the Chrystyan Reader, " with wood-cuts in Revelations. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty.
53. T. The New Testament, with Erasmus' paraphrase, vol. i.
Bodleian. New College, Oxon. Bristol Museum var.
¦  , the same, — the Epistles, vol. ii.
Sion College. New College, Oxon. Bristol Museum var.

PRINTER. TEAR.
R. Grafton 12°. 1546

W. Powell 4°. 1547

E. Whitchurch 8D. —
W. Powell 4°. 1548

J. Herford 24°. —
Day & Seres 16°. —
Day & Seres 4°. —
R. Jugge 24°. —
T. Petit 4°. —
W. Powell 4°. —
T. Petit 16°. —

Day & Seres 18°. —
Whitchurch fol. —
Whitchurch fol. 1549

650 INDEX — LIST OP BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. [l549 — 1580.
DESCEIPTION. PKINTKB. YEAH.
54. T. "The New Testament, of our Saviour Christ— after the best
Copie of William Tindale's trans, with notes of Matthew's." Bristol Museum. Ty. Jhon Day 16° 1549
55. T. The Newe Testament by William Tyndale. Cotton's list Ty. W. Seres 8". —
56. T. "The new Testamente of our Sauyoure Christ, set forth by
Willyam Tyndale, with the annatacion of T. Matthew," 23 of
Maye. British Museum. Bristol Museum Ty. Wm. Copland 8°. —
57. T. "The newe Testament of the last translacion. By Wylliam
Tyndale." Colophon dated also 1548. This is not Coverdale's
Translation, as stated in Herbert, p. 764.
Bristol Mus. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. Wm. Tylle 8°. —
58. T. "The newe Testament, by Miles Coverdale, and conferred with
the translacion of Willyam Tyndale." Wood-cuts. Lambeth Lib.
Bristol Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. Co. R. Wolfe 12°. —
59. T. " The Newe Testament, " as in 1547, but the Latin here in Roman
type. " Imprinted mcccccxlix. God save tbe Kynge."
St. Paul's. Earl of Bridgewater. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ma. W . Powell 4°. —
60. T. "The Newe Testament of oure Saueour Jesus Christ, by M. Wil.
Tindall," an earlier foreign print, though now only put forth.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. Day and Seres 12°. —
61. T. The New Testament, similar to the Bible following.
Lambeth and Cotton Lists Cr. Cawood 4°. —
62. T. "The Newe Testamente, "similar to Bible following. Lowndes' List Ty. Dayand Seres fol. —
16. B. "The Byble, that is to say all the holy Scripture, " not
Taverner's, but very slightly varied from Matthews, by Ed.
Becke. Dedicated to Edward VI. "17 day August." Bodleian.
Cam. Univ. Lib. Lambeth. Lea Wilson, Esq. Chr. Anderson. Ma. Day and Seres fol. —
17. B. "The Byble, which is all the Holy Scripture, "—reprint of
Matthews 1537, but very faulty in composition, — " fmyshed
the laste daye of Octobre." St. Paul's. Exeter Col. Oxon. Hyll and
Lambeth. Bristol Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ma. Reynaldes fol. —
18. B. "The Byble in Englishe, after the translacion appoynted
to bee read in the churches," dated the 29th day of December
mdxlix. Bodleian. Exeter Col. Oxon. yellow paper. Bristol Grafton or
Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Whitchurch fol. —
19. B. The Byble, after Cranmer's version. Lambeth & Cotton List Cr. Cawood 4°. —
20. B. The Byble in Englishe, a reprint of 1541. Being a joint
concern, some titles have " Grafton and Whitchurch."
* Bristol Museum. Cr. Grafton 4°. —
21. B. in five vols, dated 1549, 1550, 1551. "Printed in sundry
partes for these pore— that they which ar not able to bie the
hole, may bie a part." This copy wants only the first vol.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ta. Day and Seres 12°. —
63. T. The Newe Testament, " Imprinted the xn. Daye of January.
Anno Do. mcccccl. At woreeter by Jhon Oswen." Cum gratia,
&c. Balliol College, Oxon. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. Oswen 4°. 1550
64. T. " The New Testament of our Sauiour Christ,— after the best
Copie of WilUam Tindale's Translation— the vi. day of February."
All Souls College, Oxon. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. Day and Seres 12°. —
65. T. "The Newe Testament,— by Miles Couerdale, conferred with
the translacion of Willyam Tyndale," dated " Anno 1550, in
June." Lambeth Library. Lea Wilson, Esq. Co. R. Wolfe 12°. —
06. T. "The Nowo Testament of our Sauiour Jesus Christ." Should
have a port, of Edward VI. A full page 34 lines. St. Paul's Lib.
A copy imperfect. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. R. Jugge 24°. —

1550 — 1553.] INDEX  LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. 651
DESCRIPTION. PRINTER. Y15AR.
67. T. " The newe Testament faythfully translated by Miles Coverdal,
anno 1550." First so " Imprynted at Zurich, by Christoffel
Froschouer" — by unaccountable mistake for William Tyndale.
BritisJi Mus. Zurich Lib, British Mus. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. Froschover 18°. 1550
68. T. *' The new Testament in Englishe after the greeke translation,"
&c. Red and black title, "in oflicina Thomas Gaultier pro I. C."
i.e, for John Cawood. " Pridie Kalendas Decembris anno mdl."
Lambeth. Bodleian. Bristol Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. ? Gualtier. 8°. —
22. B. "The Bible in Englishe — the translacion that is appointed
to be rede in the churches." St. Paul's Lib. Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Whytchurche 4°. —
23. B. " The whole Byble,— by Mayst. Thomas Matkewe .'" First
so "Imprinted in Zurych by Chrystoffer froschower — finished
the xvi daye in the moneth of August," by strange mistake
for Coverdale. The correct London title, — "Prynted for Froschover
Andrewe Hester." British Museum Bodleian. St. Paul's. Co. and 4°. —
Bristol Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. A. Hester
69. T. The New Testament, with Erasmus' paraphrase, i. volume.
Sion CoUege. AU Souls College, Oxon. var. Whitchurch fol. 1551
70. T. The Newe Testament, by William Tyndale. Bristol Museum Ty. Day and Seres 12°. —
71. T. " The Newe Testament, with certayne Notes folowynge the
chapters." Preface by Tyndale, and margin references, mdli,
St. Paul's Library Ty. J. Daye fol. —
24. B. "The Byble, that is to saye all the holy Scripture," —
Printed by Nicolas Hyll, ti. May mdli, and for eight " honest
menne." Besides the issues Bristol Museum Ma. Jo. Wyghte fol. —
here identified there are Ma. Wm. Bonham fol. —
other copies in the British Lea Wilson, Esq. Ma. Th. Petyt fol. —
Museum. St. Paul's. Lam- Ma. T. Raynalde fob —
betk. Trinity College and Ma. B. Kele fol. —
All Souls College, Oxford. Bristol Museum Ma. J. Walley fol. —
Clirists Church, Canter- Bristol Museum Ma. Ab. Veale fol. —
bury. Bristol Museum Ma. Ro. Toye fol. —
25. B. " The Byble, that is to say, al the holy Scripture."
Revised by Becke. Mostly Taverner's, with the New Testa
ment of Tyndale, dated xxur. of Maye mdli. British Museum. Ta,
Lambeth Library. St. Paul's. Bodleian. Bristol Museum. Jhon Day fol. —
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty.
72. T.- "The Newe Testament of our Sauiour Jesu Christe." Port, of
Edward, and large wood-cuts, with a license, dated 10 June, for
bidding others to print. Note 8. British Museum. Lambeth.
St. Paul's. Wadham C. Oxon. Bristol Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. R. Jugge 4°. 1552
73. T. The Newe Testament in Englyshe, — separate copies of the
following Bible,— Cr. Nich. Hyll 4\ —
26. B. The Byble, &c. "London, by Nycholas Hyll, for Abra
ham Veale, anno mdljj." Has been ascribed to Nicolson of
Southwark by mistake. See Dibdin's Ames, vol. iii., p. 57.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Nich. Hyll 4°. —
74. T. "The newe Testament of our Sauiour Jesus Christe." This
and the edition of 1552 fixed by the King to be sold for 22d. —
22s. now. British Museum. St. Paul's. Bristol Museum.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. R. Juggo 4°. 1553
27. B. "The byble in English— the translacio — to be read in
churches, mdliii." St. Paul's. Worcester Col. Oxon. Earl of
Bridgewater. Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Whytchurche fol. —

652 INDEX-1— LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. [1553 — 1561.
DESCRIPTION. peinter. veab.
28. B. "The whole Byble," by Coverdale,— a new issue of the
Zurich edition, with new title. St. Paul's. BaUiol College and Froschover
Exeter College, Oxon. Bristol Museum Co. Ei. Jugge 4°. 1553
29. B. " The Bible in Englishe, according to the translacion of
the great Byble." Very small skeleton Saxon letter. Some
copies have Grafton and Whitchurch.
St. Paul's Library. Bristol Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Grafton 4°. —

<&utzn Jlarjr.
ONE EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, PRINTED ABEOAD.
Under this reign of flue years and/our months, from 19tk July 1553 to 17th November 1558.
75. "The Newe Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ." 10 June. The Geneva
translation of William Whittingham, in exile at Geneva. See the by
History, pp. 446— 451. British Mus. Latnbeth Lib. Bodleian. Bristol Conrad 18°. 1557
Mus. BaUiol College, Oxford. Lea Wilson, Esq. Chr. Anderson. Badius.

<&uzzn flEUjalietfj.

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-TWO EDITIONS, VIZ. FORTY-EIGHT OF TFE NEW TESTAMENT AND
NINETY-FOUR OF THE BIBLE.
Printed during forty-j 'our years and four months, from 17th November 1558 to 21th March 1603.
30. B. "The Bible and Holy Scriptvres." Thefirst Genevan, the
first in Roman letter, and first Bible in verses, 10th April 1560.
Ded. to the Queen, and addressed to "the brethren of Eng
land, Scotland, and Ireland." See the Hist. pp. 454-458.
Lambeth. Balliol College, Oxon. Rev. Br. Cotton. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. Rou. Hall 4°. 1560
76. T. The New Test.— the same version. No printer's name. Lambeth. Ge. Geneva 16°. —
77. T. " The Newe Testament, Faythfully translated out of the Greke."
Dedicated to Edward VI. forbidding all others to print, and by
his former privilege still ! AU Souls, Oxon. Lambeth.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. R. Jugge 12°. 1561
78. T. " The Newe Testament," same version, but perfectly distinct
dated edition. Both books perhaps kept up in safety during
Mary's reign. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. R. Jugge 12°. —
79. T. The New Test, without license— fined 8s. See Herb. 8SS.
Cotton's List Cr. R. Harrison 4°. 1561
31. B. "The Bible." Second Genevan. Dedicated as before,
but dated 10th April, 1561. The New Test, in 1561, the first
title 1562, Bodley's edition, Roman. See pp. 458-460. Brazen
Nose College, Oxford. Geo. Offor, Esq. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. No name fol. —
32. B. "Tho Bible," in small black letter. " Imprinted at Lon
don, in Povvles Churche-yarde, by Jhon Cawoode. Prynter
to the Quenes Maiestie, Anno mdlxj. Cum priuilegio Regise
Maiestatis." British Museum. Lambeth. Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. J. Cawoode 1". —
33. B. "The Bible in Englishe— appointed to bo read in
churches." " Imprinted at London, in white crosse strete,

1563— 1571. J INDEX  LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS.

653

DESCRIPTION.

PRINTER. YEAR.
by Richarde Harrison, Anno Domi. 1.5.6.2." Roman. See
Hist. p. 460, and Twte. Bristol Museum. Earl of Bridgewater.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Harrison fol. 1562
80. T. "The Newe Testament of our Sauiour," in red and black.
Still forbidding others to print. Balliol College, Oxford. Bristol
Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. R. Jugge 4°. 1566
34. B. The Bible in Englyshe— "At Roven (Rouen), at the cost©
and charges of Richard Carmarden," by Hamillon, not
Hamilton, as in the History, p. 461. British Mus. Bodleian.
Lambeth. Worcester College, Oxford. Bristol Museum.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Hamillon fol. 
35. B. The Bible " In oflicina R. Grafton." The first edit, in one
vol. 8vo, and the last he printed, probably sent to Ireland.
See Hist. p. 462. Herbert, p. 538 Cr. R. Grafton 8°. —
36. B. "The Bible," third edit, printed at Geneva, by John
Crispin. See Herbert's Ames, p. 1624, and the previous
History, p. 461. Ge. J. Crespin 4°. 1568
81. T. The Newe Test., printed to sell separately. Bodleian.
George Offor, Esq. Ge. J. Crispin 4°. —
37. B. "The . holie . Bible . conteyning the olde Testament and
the newe." The first edit, of Parker's, with 143 cuts and en
gravings. See the Hist. p. 462-464. British Museum. Bodleian.
Bristol Mus. St. Paul's. Cambridge University Library.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. R. Jugge fol. —
38. B. The Bible, by R. Jugge and J. Cawood.
Trinity College, Cambridge. All Souls College, Oxon. Cr. Jo. Cawood 4°. —
39. B. "The Bible in Englyshe. Imprinted — Cum privilegio
Regiae Majestatis." Lambeth. Bristol Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Cawood 4°. 1569
40. B. The Bible, — another edit. It may be distinguished by
"THE NEWE TEStament in Enghsh.— Cum priuilegio."
Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Cawood 4°. —
41. The Bible. Entirely distinct edition, though the same year.
Like an effort to uphold Cranmer's version. Lea Wilson, Esq. Cr. Cawood 4°. —
42. B. " The holi Bible." Portrait of Ebzabeth, and the Arch
bishop below preaching. See Strype's Annals and Lewis,
p. 254. In two columns, the verses intermingled with the
text. Late Duke of Sussex* Library. T. Thorpe, Esq.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. R. Jugge 4°. —
43. B. "The Bible and Holy Scriptvres conteyned." — "At
Geneva, printed by John Crispin, mdlxix," The New Test.
is MDLXvzn.— Romo;a, Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. Crispin 4°. —
44. B. The very same book as the last, though styled second
edition. It was, however, a second or fresh issue this year. —
Roman. Bodleian. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. Crispin 4°. 1570
45. B. " The Holie Bible," — second edit, in quarto of the Bishop's
version. Once in Herbert's collection, but at present we know
not where Bps. R. Jugge 4*. —
82. T. The New Testament, very similar to Nos. 77, 78, but a different
edition, evident from the wood-cuts in the Revelation, and
other marks,— black letter. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ty. R. Jugge 12°. —
83. T. The New Testament,— title wanting,— extremely small black
letter,— not paged. The letter-press measures two inches by
three and aquarter. Printed in 1570 or 1571. Lea Wilson, Esq. BpS.R. Jugge 24°. 1571
46^B. " The Holie Bible." Second folio edition with only 30
cuts and engravings, many ornamental initials, wildly taken

654 INDEX — LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. [l572 — 1576.
DESCRIPTION. PRINTER. YEAR.
from Ovid's Metamorphoses I A double version of the Psalms.
British Museum. Bodleian. Exeter College, Oxon. Bristol Mus.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. R. Jugge fol. 1572
47. B. "The Holie Bible." The third in quarto. A splendid
copy, bound in five volumes, is in Lo,mbeth Library.
St. Paul's. Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. R. Jugge 4°. 1573
48. B. "The Holy Byble, conteyning the olde Testament and
the newe. Set forth by aucthoritie," i.e. of the bishops. See
the History, p. 465, The third folio, with cuts, dated " the
fifth of July, 1574." Bristol Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq.
Chr. Anderson. Bps. R. Jugge fol. 1574
84. T. " The Newe Testament," Genevan version, with Epistle of
Calvin, as in the edition of 1557. Imprinted at London, by
Tho. Vautroullier, for Christopher Barker. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. Vautroullier 12°. 1575
85. T. "The Newe Testament," the same, in quarto. Herbert, p. 1067 Ge. Vautroullier 4°. —
49. B. "The Holy Byble, conteyning," &c. "Set foorth by
aucthoritie," i.e. of the bishops. 1575. Thin paper, and not
well printed, as if he needed capital. Hence the next edit.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. R. Jugge 4°. —
50. B. " The Holy Byble, conteyning, &c. Set foorth by auctho
ritie," as before, "finished the xxiii. day of November."
Earl Spencer Bps. R. Jugge fol. —
The same, but titled* "Imprinted at London, by Richard
Kele." The Bodleian.
The same, ¦ " Imprinted at London, by Lucas
Harison." Lea Wilson, Esq.
The same,  "Imprinted at London, by John
"W alley." King's College, Cannbridge.
The same,  "Imprinted at London, by John
Judson." Mr. Herbert.
The same  "Imprinted at London, by William
Norton." Lea Wilson, Esq,
51. B. " The Bible." Genevan. The first printed on English
ground, and by Thomas Vautroullier, for Christopher Barker.
Bristol Museum Ge. Vautroullier 4°. —
52. B. "Tbe Bible," of the same version, for the same, in small
size. Ge. Vautroullier 8°. —
86- T. The New Test, of the Bishops' version,— no date. St. Paul's Lib. Bps. R, Jugge 18°. 1576
87. T. "The New Testament," the first edition said to be from Beza,
but simply a revision of the Genevan version, with Notes by
Beza, Camerarius, &c, by Laurence Tomson, under-secretary
to Sir Francis Walsingham, differing in some parts from subse
quent editions. Dr. Cotton. Sion College. Wadliam Col., Oxon,
Lea Wilson, Esq. Chr. Anderson. To. C, Barker 8°. —
53. B. " The Bible." The text in long primer, Roman, the argu
ments in Italic letter. " Imprinted at London, by Christo
pher Barkar— Cum priuilegio." In the late Sussex Library.
The Earl of Bridgewater. Lea Wilson, Esq Ge. C. Barkar fol. —
54. B. "The Holy Byble, conteyning." In a very small type,
very well printed, and on a thick fine paper, running title
Roman, contents in Italic. Not Cranmer's, as has been stated.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. R. Jugge 4°. 1576
55. B. The Bible. Genevan version, neatly printed, in long
primer Roman and Italic arguments. Herbert, p. 1077,
Cotton's List. Ge. C. Barkar 4°. —

1577—1582.] INDEX  LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. 655
DESCRIPTION. PKINTEK. YEAR.
SS. T. "The Newe Testament of our Saviovr Jesvs Christe." . Small
lJ,larto- Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. E. Jugge 4°. 1577
89. T. "The New Testament of ovr Lord." Tomson's version.
G. Offor, Esq. Lea Wilson, Esq. To. C. Barkar 8°. —
56. B. " The Bible. That is, the Holy Scriptvres eonteined,"
So. Dedicated and addressed to " the Brethren," &o. Lea
Wilson, Esq. Oriel College, Oxford. WiUiam Pickering, Esq. Ge. C. Barkar fol. —
The last is the copy presented to Queen Elizabeth onee in the
Sussex Library.
57. B. " The Holie Bible," the last printed by him, in large 8vo.
St. Paul's Library. Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. R. Jugge 8°. —
90. T. " The Newe Testament of our Sauiour.— Cum privilegio —
solum," between the privilege of Jugge, and the patent of
Barker. Not in 1600, as in Herbert, nor 1665, as in Cotton.
Cambridge University Library. Bps.Ri. Watkins 4°. —
91. T. " The Newe Testament of our Sauiour," in black and red, same
version. Rich. Jugge, now deceased. Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. Vautroullier 12°. —
92. T. "The Newe Testament of ovr Lorde." Extremely small type,
by Barker, now printer to the Queen. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 24°. 1578
58. B. " The Bible." Two versions of the Psalms. Gen. and
Bps.' Ded. to EMz. and the address now " to the diligent and
Christian reader." The verses by Greshop, in many editions,
here first appeared, — "Here is the spring where waters
flowe." British Museum. Bodleian. Lambeth. Bristol Mus.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker fol. —
59. B. "The Holy Bible, conteyning," &c. " Imprinted — by the
assignment of Christopher Barker, printer to the Queenes
Majestie, 1578." Merlon College. Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. C. Barker fol. —
93. T. " The Newe Testament." The Bishops' version. Earl Spencer. Bps. C. Barker 16°. 1579
60. B. "The Bible," with double Psalms again. " Imprinted at
London, by Christopher Barker, Printer to the Queenes most
excellent Majestie." The Zurich Library. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 4°. —
61. B. " The Bible." Entirely different edition. The New Test.
and last leaf are dated 1580, besides other distinctions. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 4°. —
62. B. "The Bible and Holy Scriptvres eonteined," &c. The
first Bible printed in Scotland. See the Hist. p. 571. Roman Bassenden
letter. Finished at press in July this year. Earl of Morton. Ge. and fol. —
Advocates' Lib. Edinburgh. Earl Spencer. Lea Wilson, Esq. Arbuthnot
94. T. "The Newe Testament." Tomson's revision. Lea Wilson, Esq. To. C. Barker 8°. 1580
95. T. " The Newe Testament." The same version. Lea Wilson, Esq. To. C. Barker 24°. —
63. B. " The Bible," with Dedication, and the address " To the
Christian reader." Large paper. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 4°. —
64. B. The Bible, no Dedication, and a distinct edition. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 4°. —
65. B. " The Bible." The Genevan version. Cotton's List. Ge. C. Barker fol. —
96. T. " The Newe Testament of our Sauiour Jesus Christ." A clean
black letter, Italic contents, notes in Raman. Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. C. Barker 12°. 1581
97. T. " The Newe Testament," of Tomson's revision. Herbert.
Cotton's List. To. C. Barker 12°. —
66. B. "TheBible." Genevan ver. Geo. Offor, Esq. LeaWUson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 4°. —
67. B. " The Bible," of the same version. Cotton's List Ge. C. Barker fol. —
68. B. " The Bible," of the same, bound in four vols. Earl Spencer Ge. C. Barker 8°. —
98. T. "The Newe Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ." Tomson's
revision. Lea Wilson, Esq. Earl of Bridgewater- To. C. Barker 8°. 1582

656 INDEX — LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. [l582— 1589.
description. printer. year.
69. B. "The Bible." Genevan version, with the customary De
dication to Queen Elizabeth, and once more still — " To the
brethren of England, Scotland, and Ireland," Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker fol. 1582
70. B. "The Bible." The Genevan version. Geo. Offor, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 4°. —
71. B. "The Bible." The same version. Ge. C. Barker 8°. —
99. T. "The Newe Testament." Tomson's revision, best edition, with
the royal arms, large 4°. Exeter College, Oxford. Rev. Dr. Cotton's
is yellow paper. Lea Wilson, Esq. To. C. Barker 4°. 1583
100. T. "The Newe Testament of our Sauiour." In the late Sussex Lib. Bps. Bynneman 4°. —
101. T. "The Newe Testament." Tomson's revis. 1. 4°. Lea Wilson, Esq. To. C. Barker 4". —
102. T. The New Testament. Genevan version. Herbert. Cotton's List Ge. C. Barker 12°. — .
103. T. The New Testament. Tomson's revision. St. Paul's Library Ge. C. Barker 32°. —
72. B. Portion, entitled "the third part of the Bible."
St. Paul's Library Ge. C. Barker 16°. —
73. B. "The Bible and Holy Scriptvre," in red and black, splen
didly printed in large folio, margin nearly three inches broad,
and paper emulating vellum. Bodleian. Lambeth. St. John's
Coll., Oxon. Pembroke Coll., Oxon. BHstol Mus. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker fol. —
74. B. "The Bible and Holy Scripture." The same version.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 4\ —
75. B. "The Holy Bible, conteining the Olde Testament and the
Newe," in a fine new black letter ; contents in Roman. Fre
quently mistaken for the Genevan version. Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. C. Barker fol. 1584
76. B. "The Holy Bible." This and the last edition contain the
Psalms of Cranmer's version, "to be sung or said in churches."
Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. C. Barker 4*. —
77- B. "The Holy Bible." This and the last edition, " a bigger
and a less," printed by order of Whitgift, as the translation
"authorised by the Synod of Bishops." See Hist. p. 465.
Lambeth. Sion College. Bristol Museum. Earl Spencer
Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. C. Barker fol. 1585
78. B. " The Bible and Holy Scripture." Genevan version.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 4°. —
104. T. The Newe Testament. Tomson's revision.
Cotton's List. Lea Wilson, Esq. To. C. Barker 12° 1586
79. B. "The Bible." Genevan version. Exeter College, Oxford.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 4°. —
80. B. " The Bible." Same version. King of Wirtemberg.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 8°. —
81. B. " The Bible." Same. Roman. With Tomson's New Tes
tament. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. C. Barker 4°. 1587
82. B. "The Holy Bible." Black and red title, the first "Im
printed by the Deputies of Christopher Barker," or G. Bishop
and R. Newbery. Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. D. of Barker fol. 1588
83. B. "The Bible." Genevan. Geo. Offor, Esq. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. —
105. T. "The New Testament." The first printed at Cambridge; and
by John Legate, son-in-law of C. Barker, and printer to the
University, from 2d Nov. 1588. Cotton's List. Mr. T. Bradley. Ge. J. Legate 24°. 1589
106. T. The New Testament. Genevan version. Lambeth Library. Ge. D. of Barker 12'. —
107. T. The New Testament, the Bishops' and Rhemish version, in
columns, by W. Fulke. Christ's Church College, Oxon.
Bristol Museum. Bps. D. of Barker fol. —
84. B. "The Bible." The Genevan version. Lownde's List. Ge. D. of Barker fol. —
85. B. "The Bible." The same version. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 4e. —

PRINTER.

TEAR.

Ge. D. of Barker

4°. 1589

Ge. J. Legate

48°. 1590

1589— 1598. J INDEX  LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. 657
DESCRIPTION.
66. B. " The Bible." Same version, distinct edit. Geo. Offor,
108. T. "The Newe Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ." R.imanpearl
type, at Cambridge again. Lea Wilson,
109. T. The Newe Testament. Genevan, in Svo Cotton's List. Ge. D. of Barker 8°. —
87. B. " The Bible." On yellow paper. Imperfect. Sussex Lib. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. —
110. T. The New Testament. Genevan version. Cotton's List. Ge. D. of Barker 12°. 1591
88. B. "The Holy Bible." Large folio. Sion Col. Lea Wilson,Esq. Bps. D. of Barker fol. —
89. B. " The Bible : That is, the Holy Scriptvres— Anno do.
1591, Maij 29." The first Bible known to have been printed
at Cambridge, and in a beautiful Roman letter. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge J. Legate 8*. —
90. B. "The Bible," of the Genevan version, with Tomson's re
vision of New Testament. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker fol 1592
91. B. "The Bible." Genevan version throughout. There is
said to be a copy of this at Stuttgard. King of Wirtemberg. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. —
111. T. The New Testament of the same version. Rev. Br. Lee. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. 159.5
112. T. The New Testament. Cotton's List. Ge. D. of Barker 24°. —
92. B. " The Bible." Genevan version. Rev. Br. Lee. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. —
S3. B. " The Bible." Genevan version. Geo. Offor, Esq.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 8°. —
113. T. The New Testament. Same version. Brazen Nose Col. Oxford. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. 1594
94. B. "The Bible." Same version. Cotton's List. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. —
114. T. The New Testament. Library ofthe late Granville Sharp, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 8°. 1595
95. "The Holie Bible." British Museum. Lambeth Library.
St. John's College, Oxford. Lea Wilson, Esq. Bps. D. of Barker fol. —
96. B. " The Bible." Lambeth. Bal. Col. Oxford. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker fol. —
97. B. "The Bible, with Tomson's revision. Roman letter.
Brazen Nose College, Oxford. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 4*. —
115. T. "The Newe Testament," of Tomson's revision.
Lambeth. Bristol Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. To. D. of Barker 4°. 1596
116. T. The New Testament. Same version. Printed abroad. Cotton's List. To. Holland? fol. —
98. B. " The Bible." Genevan version. St. Paul's Library.
Bristol Museum. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 4". —
117. T. The Newe Testament. Tomson's revision. Roman letter.
Pembroke CoUege, Oxford. To. D. of Barker 4°. 159T
118. T. The Newe Testament, of the same version. Lea Wilson, Esq. To. D. of Barker 12°. —
99. B. "The Bible," printed at Middleburgh. Geo. Offor, Esq. Ge. Schilders 8°. —
100. B. " The Bible," with Tomson's revision of New Testament.
But even this has the Dedication and address— " To the
brethren of England, Scotland, Ireland, &c."
British Museum. AU Souls, Oxon. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker fol. —
101. B. "The Bible. Genevan version entire. Roman type.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker V. —
The Bible, printed by R. Field, son-in-law and successor of
Vautroullier, in Cotton's List, was the " Biblia Sacra."
119. T. The New Testament. Printed by John Windet, for the as
signees of Richard Day. Sir John Hawkins. Cotton's List. Ge ? J. Windet 24M598
120. T. The Newe Testament. Genevan version. Cotton's List.
Geo. Offor, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. —
102. B. " The Holy Bible." Harleian Lib. No. 184. Cotton's List. Bps. D. of Barker fol. —
103. B. " The Bible." Genevan version. Roman, letter. Geo, Offor, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 4'. —
IT IT

4°. —
4°. —

658 INDEX — LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. [lB98 — 1603.
DESCRIPTION. PRINTER. YEAR.
104. B. "The Bible," with Tomson's revision of the New Test.
Pembroke College, Oxford. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. 1598
105. B. " The Bible." Genevan version. Geo. Offor, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 8°. —
106. B. "The Bible." Genevan version.
Bodleian. Lambeth. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. 1593
107. B. ''The Bible," with Tomson's revision of New Testament.
This edition may be distinguished by a black line round the
Lea Wilson, Esq. Chr. Anderson. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. —
f Six other distinct edit, exist, dated, \ Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 48. —
i.e. antedated, 1590, though printed 1 Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 4°. —
' above thirty years later. The Colo- I Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 1°. —
phon of one— "-Amsterdam, forThos. f Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker
Crafoorth, 1633," with our History, I Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker
^ pp. 485, 486, & 570, solve the mystery./ Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. D. of Barker 4". —
' The Bible," as before, without date, place, or printer's
name. Figure of a goose on the title of the psalms. Supposed
from the DoH press. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. Dort 4\ 1600
115. B. "The Bible." Genevan version. C. Barker, now dead,
after printing by deputies for twelve years. His son's name
first appears. King of Wirtemberg. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. —
121. T. The New Testament. The Bishops and Rhemish versions, by
W. Fulke. Lincoln, Worcester; Quern's CoU. Oxon.
Bristol Museum. Bps. R. Barker fol. 1601
116. B. The Genevan version, with Tomson's revision of New
Testament. King of Wirtemberg. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. —
117. B. The Genevan version, entire, black letter. Ge. R. Barker 4°. —
118. B. "The Bible," ofthe Genevan version. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 8°. —
119. B. " The Bible," of the same version, " Imprinted by Isaac
Canin, at the expenses of the aires of Henrie Charteris and I. Canin
Andrew Hart in Edinburgh." Rev. Dr. Lee. Ge. at Dort. 8°. —
122. T. The Newe Testament. Genevan version. Cotton's List. Ge. R. Barker 4°. 1602
123. T. The Newe Testament, of Tomson's revision. Lea Wilson, Esq. To. R. Barker 8°. —
120. B. "The Bible," with Tomson's revision. Roman type.
Bodleian. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker fol. —
121. B. "The Bible." In Roman type. Genevan version.
King of Wirtemberg. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. —
122. B. "The Bible," ofthe same version. King of Wirtemberg. Ge. R. Barker 8°. —
123. B. " The Holy Bible." Christ Church Col Trin. Col.
Worcester Col. Queen's Col. Oxford. Lea Wilson, Esq. Bod
leian. This last has MS. corrections in reference to the in
tended revision of the Sacred text, forming our present Ver
sion. Bps- R. Barker fol. -

Itfafl Sterna

THIRTY-TWO EDITIONS, VIZ. EIGHT OI' THE NEW TESTAMENT AND TWENTY-FOUK OF THE BIBLE.
Printed from 1003 to the year of our present version 1611.
124. T. "Tbe New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ." Tomson's
revision. ' At Dort, printed by Isaac Canin, 1603."
Duke of Wirtemberg. Lea Wilson, Esq. To. J. Canin 12". 1603

1603 — 1610.J INDEX— IJST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. 659
DESOBIPTION. PICINTEB. YKiB.
N.B.— The New Testament by Simon (Strafford) Stafford
in the Cotton List, seems to be the British or Welsh New
Testament, corrected by Morgan, Bishop of St. Asaph. 16q3
124. B. " The Bible." Genevan. Cotton's List. Tlio. Harris, Esq.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. 
125. B. The same, with Tomson's revision of New Testament.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. 
126. B. "The Bible," Genevan version, entire. Geo. Offor, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. 
127. B. "The Bible." The same, in Roman letter.
Canter-bury Library. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 8°. —
125. T. The New Testament of Tyndale, as by Jugge, with port, of
Edward VI., printed by the assignee of Robert Barker. See
No. 72. St. Paul's Library. Ty. D. of Barker 12°. 1605
128. B. " The Bible." Genevan version. King of Wirtemberg.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. —
129. B. " The Holy Bible." The Bishops' version. Late Sussex Library. Bps. R. Barker fol. 1606
'' The Genevan version. Late Sussex Lib. Ge. R. Barker fol. —
' Genevan version. King of Wirtemberg.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. —
' with Tomson's revision. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°, —
' Genevan version, entire. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 8". —
' Roman type. Tomson's revision of New
Oriel College, Oxford. Sion College.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker fol. 1607
' The Genevan, entire. Cotton's List.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4° —
136. B. "The Bible." Genevan. Distinct edition. Geo Offor, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. —
137. B. " The Bible." Genevan version. Balliol College, Oxford. Ge. R. Barker 8°. —
126. T. The New Testament. Bishops' version. Cotton's List. Bps. R. Barker 8°. 1608
127. T. The New Testament. Genevan version. Rev. Br. Lee Ge. R. Barker 12°. —
138. B. The Bible. The Genevan. Balliol College, Oxford.
Bristol Museum Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. —
139. B. "The Bible," with Tomson's revision of the New Test.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. —
140. B. " The Bible," of the Genevan, entire. Roman. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 8°. —
128. T. The New Testament, Genevan, this year, but dated also at the
end 1610. Cotton's List. Earl of Bridgewater. Ge. R. Barker 4°. 1609
129. T. The New Testament. Tomson's revision. King of Wirtemberg. To. R. Barker 8". —
141. B. " The Bible." Roman letter, with Tomson's revision of
New Testament. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. —
130. T. The New Testament. Tomson's revision. British Museum.
Lea Wilson, Esq. To. R. Barker 12° 161
142. B. " The Bible. That is, the Holy Scriptvres. At Edin
burgh, Printed by Andro Hart, and are to be sold at his
Buith, on the North side of the gate, a little beneath the
CrosBe." Raman. See before, p. 571. Queen's Col. Oxford.
Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. A. Hart fol. —
131. T. The New Testament of this edition sold separately ?
Geo. Chalmers, Esq. Ge. A. Hart fol. —
143. B. " The Bible," with Tomson's revision.
Earl of Bridgewater: Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker fol. -
U U 2

130. B.
131. B. '

"The Bible.'
" The Bible.'1

132. B. " The Bible,'
133. B. "The Bible.'
134. B. "The Bible.'
Testament.

135. B.

" The Bible.'

660 INDEX  LIST OP BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. [1610 — 1611.
DESCRIPTION. PRINTER. YEAR.
144. B. " The Bible." Roman type, but the same version,
AU Souls College, Oxford. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4°. 1610
145. B. " The Bible," of tho Genevan, entire Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 8°. —
146. B. "The Bible." The Genevan, wilh Tomson's revision of
the New Testament. Bodleian Lambeth. Sion College.
AU Souls College, Oxford. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker fol. 1611
147. B. "The Bible." The Genevan version, entire.
British Mvjieum. Lambeth. Lea Wilson, Esq. Ge. R. Barker 4". —

The first edition of our present Version.

B. " The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New : Newly Translated out of the
Originali tongues : and with the former Translations diligently compared and revised, by his
Maiesties speciali Comandement. Appointed to be read in churcheB. Imprinted at London
by Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Maiestie. Anno Dom. 1611."— N.B.—
It has been said that the British Museum has two editions of this year ; but this is a mistake.
The title of 1611 has been affixed to the editions of 1613, 1617, 1634, and even 1640, to make
apparently fine copies of the first, but there certainly was no second edition in 1611.*
T. " The New Testament of our Lord and Sauiour Jesvs Christ. Newly translated," &c. Oar
present version in the same year, very rare. An. 1611. 12mo.
King James's Translators to the Reader.
"We are so far off from condemning any of their labours that traveiled before
us in this kind, either in this land, or beyond sea, either in King Henry's time— or
Queen Elizabeth's — that we acknowledge them to have been raised up of God, for
the building and furnishing of His Church, and they deserve to be had of us, and of
posterity in everlasting remembrance. "
' ' Therefore, blessed be they, and honoured be their name, that brake the ice, and
gave the onset upon that which helpeth forward to the saving of souls ! Now, what
can be more available thereto, than to deliver God's book unto God's people in a
tongue which they understand ?"
" Truly, good Christian Reader, we never thought from the beginning, that we
should need to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good, but
to make a good one better ; or out of many good ones, one principal good one, not
justly to be excepted against ; that hath been our endeavour, that our mark. To
that purpose there were many chosen, that were greater in other men's eyes than
their own, and that sought the truth, rather than their own praise. "+

* After several years' research, the author was still of opinion there was but one edition of the
Bible of 1 611 ; but found that a distinct text of the same size type exists, with the date of 1611 on
the New Testament title, and without the line "Appointed to be read in Churches;" but out of
ten such copies, not one has a priuted title of the Old Testament, dated 1611. The copper-plate
title contains no proof, but of these ten, six have no title, and four have printed titles, dated 1613.
All this confirms the correctness of the history already given, that the English Bible of 1611 was a
book in the hands of the patentee.
t It is well that these translators so expressed themselves, as they could not consistently have
spoken otherwise. For whatever were the instructions given to them, such was the adherence
to the language of the former Versions, that very happily, the translation is not in their own
style. It is not Ihe language of their own preface, nor of the reign of James I. The style they
found in their prototypes, the diction and phraseology they adopted from their predecessora in
translation.

INDEX  LIST OF BIBLES AND TESTAMENTS. 661

In the preceding List, it may have been observed, there are no questionable
books, and yet in the course of eighty-six years, or up to the period in which our
present Version was first 'published, there had been 278 editions of Bibles and
New Testaments separately. This gives an average of more than three editions
annually. Could, however, all the editions, particularly of Tyndale's New Testa
ment, be verified, of which, to a certainty, a number exist, still unascertained, we
are now fully persuaded that the average would, at .the least, amount to four
editions every year. All the volumes preceding the year 1560, must be contem
plated as one would so many ancient Warriors, after a long and severe conflict.
Even their mutilated remains are to be venerated, after having in their own day
and generation, proved so many witnesses for the truth ; but having sustained the
loss of their title-page, or colophon, they could not be called up to the present
muster. Though, therefore, we have, with some research, brought about an
hundred more into the field than ever were before, their number may yet be
increased. An average, however, is not the only view which should be taken of the entire period.
Each reign is considered by the historian as having a character of its own. Thus,
in the reign of Henry, from 1525 to 1541, after which he began to frown, the
average of publication was fully three editions annually. Before ever he listened,
or before he was over-ruled, of the New Testament there had been at least 24
editions ! During the long reign of Elizabeth, the average was about the same, or
above three issues annually. The brightest period was that of Edward VI., when
there were about eight editions for every year he reigned. Eor the striking dis
parity between this brief reign and that of his sister EUzabeth, as to the New
Testament, see the preceding history.
We have ascertained a larger number of the Bishops ' Version than has ever before
been mentioned, or 32 distinct issues. But it may now be observed, that instead
of thirty editions in folio, quarto, and octavo, of the Genevan Version, printed from
1560 to 1616, as Lewis reported, and Newcome, with many others, have repeated
down to this day, we may now very safely assert that by that year there had been
at least one hundred and fifty editions of Bibles and New Testaments, of which the
reader has the proof before him of one hundred and twenty-niue editions, even by
the year 1611.
The Bible of Parker, or the Bishops' Version, was never again printed after that
year, though of the New Testament there were editions by Barker in 1614, 1615,
1617, and 1618. But the Genevan Bible still continued to be issued, and by the
King's printer, as well as at Edinburgh and Amsterdam. Thus, besides four
editions of the New Testament, we have the Genevan version in 4to, reprinted in
1613 both at London and Edinburgh. Again at London in 1614, and two editions
in 1613. Again in folio, and by Barker still, in 1616. In quarto, at Amsterdam,
in 1633, and six other editions, all antedated, a3 if in London, and in 1599. Again
in folio, at Amsterdam, 1640, and two editions in 1644. In 1649 the present
Version was printed with the Genevan notes by way of pushing it into favour, but
about this period it prevailed, and took the place it has occupied ever since.

historical SJntreji;

THE ANNALS OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.

" It is a very striking circumstance, that the high-minded inventors of this great art tried at the
very outset so bold a flight as the printing an entire Bible, and executed it with astonishing success.
We may see, in imagination, this venerable and splendid Volume (though in Latin) leading up the
crowded myriads of its followers, and imploring, as it were, a blessing on the new art, by dedi
cating its first-fruits to the service of Heaven." — Hallam. For its description, see our IntroduC'
tion, xlviii. xlix.
" Truth is the daughter of time, and time is the mother of truth. And whatsoever is besieged of
truth, cannot long continue ; and upon whose side truth doth stand, that ought not to be thought
transitory, or that it will ever fall. All things consist not in painted eloquence, and strength or
authority. For the Truth is of so great power, strength, and efficacity, that it can neither be
defended with words, nor be overcome with any strength : but after she hath hidden herself long,
at length she putteth up her head — and appeareth ! " — Edward Fox, the King's Almoner, and Bishop
of Hereford, anno 1536 ; this being the first diocese in England in which the daily reading of the
Scriptures in English was enforced on the vicars and curates, through Dx. Curwen, the Dean of
that day, and afterwards Bishop of Oxford under Elizabeth. See p. 256.

PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
Certain statements as to the English Scriptures have been given iu past
times by John Bale, in his Centuries of Writers, and John Foxe in his Acts
and Monuments; by Father Simon, in his Critical History, and Le Long, in
his Bibliotheca Sacra ; by Strype, in his Memorials of Cranmer, and Anthony
Johnson, in his Historical Account of Translations. To these may be added the
accounts given by Lewis and Newcome, by Macknight and Herbert Marsh,
by Cruttwell, in his preface to Wilson's Bible, and Gray, in the introduction
before his Key to the Old Testament. Not to mention others, an eye has been
kept on them all; but their statements, on the whole, are so defective and
contradictory, that they, and those who refer to them as authority, require to be
read with caution. The confusion and inaccuracy which have reigned throughout
the whole, may be traced to one cause. The respective authors had not the
Books before them, and probably not one had ever seen, much less inspected, the
tenth part of the volumes at which he pointed. In the preceding History and
Index-List, on the contrary, all the books have been seen and examined. No
reliance has been placed on any loose previous statement, since there occurred
such frequent reason to distrust every one of them ; and as yet, from all that the
Author has learned or read, he has had no occasion to question the general accu
racy of either the History or the List of Bibles. No authentic addition has been
discovered to the latter, but in the following Index, advantage is taken to insert
several items, illustrative or confirmatory of both. It may be added that in the
last edition of "The Introduction to the Study and Knowledge of the Scrip-

664 HISTORICAL INDEX.
tures," by Mr. Hart well Home, he has corrected his notices of the English
Scriptures by the preceding Annals.
Another subject, by way of addition to this history, has been suggested, but
the Author has abstained, on principle, from all verbal criticism as to the English
Bible. As far as man is concerned, imperfection attends him at every step, and
the shamefully incorrect manner in which the Scriptures were too often printed,
especially in former days, as well as the tardiness to correct remaining minor
imperfections in the Sacred text itself, greatly illustrate the forbearance of Heaven :
but in these volumes we have the past and present state of Britain, and British
Christians with the Scriptures in their hands, before us, such as they have been,
and now are ; and these, for the present, demand deliberate and exclusive respect.
To have entered on the verbal differences, whether in the English Bible, from
Tyndale's down to our present version, or those which have been observed in
manuscripts of the Sacred text since examined, would have been only diverting
away the mind to a subject altogether foreign to the nature and design of this
work. Here, the past will be allowed, as in some other histories, to form the best
indication or discoverer of the future. Now in tracing out a series of authenticated
events, extending over more than three Centuries, the writer was early struck
with a vein in the history peculiar to itself, and the more so, as it firmly continued
to exhibit this characteristic down to the present day — a species of commanding
supremacy, amidst various attempts to control, and peculiar to this kingdom.
On the whole, therefore, it is presumed, the mind cannot escape from frequently
observing a distinguishing feature, which, at the close, among other reflections or
inquiries, leads so forcibly to one — What does this history portend ? So secretly
imported from abroad, as these Scriptures were, into England and Scotland, at
the beginning, preserved so independent of control from every section of the
British community, multiplied as they have been, and now so widely dispersed,
the entire narrative carries every appearance of steady and determined approach —
but it is to some one point, never yet gained. Has then some great moral lesson,
not yet learned, been thus patiently held up to view, from age to age, but espe
cially to the present? Has some cardinal principle, not yet understood, been
waiting for adoption ? Whatever that be, it remains for reflection, whether the
History itself be not pressing forward, irresistibly, towards a period, when Sacred
Scripture will have become the only authoritative source of Christian knowledge,
faith, and practice? when the Sacred Volume will have gained that throne of
Supremacy, to which many incidents in every stage of its providential history have
been pointing so long ?
Meanwhile, in the history of the transmission of ancient Books to modern times,
there is absolutely nothing, in our language, to be placed in comparison with the
introduction and conveyance of the Enghsh Scriptures to our times ; thus rendering
not only deep interest to all the past, but such ample ground for anticipation as to
the future. In all ages, according to the magnitude and importance of its ultimate
object, has been the compass fetched by the all-wise providence of God.

HISTORICAL INDEX.

665

Abbot, George, afterwards archbishop,
one of the translators of the Bible,
479.
Address or Prologue — forming the first
language of Tyndale, in print, to the
people of God in England — unknown to
history for above three hundred years,
and but recently discovered, 46. — f or a
facsimile of the first page, and of the
first New Testaments, see Appendix.
Adolphus of Mentz, patron to Gutenberg.
Introd. xlix. — takes Mentz by storm, L
Aglionby, Dr. John, one of the translators
of the Bible, 479.
Aitken, Robert, printer of the first English
Bible in America, 592.
Alarm, the very great and simultaneous,
in London, Oxford, and Cambridge, on
first receiving from abroad the New
Testament in the English language, 51-
62. — the first alarm in Scotland from
the same cause, 501. — the panic among
the bishops in Edinburgh, and all their
churches dosed, when the English Bible
was first proclaimed as free to all
readers, 556-560.
Aldus, the prince of Venetian printers,
Introd. liv.
Ales or Aless, Alexander, (Alesius,)
his history and exertions hitherto un
known ; born April anno 1500, and in
Edinburgh, 512.— student at St. An
drews, ib. — cruelly used in the dun
geon there, still in existence, 514. —
escapes to Dundee — shielded by the
Provost there — embarks for the Con
tinent, 515. — the author of the first
printed controversy in Britain as to
reading the Scriptures — his memorable
letter to his King, James V., 516. —
attacked by Cochlaeus, 517.— was tri
umphantly answered by Aless, 521. —
his curious and significant interview
with Herman, the Archbishop of Co
logne, 523.— Aless, the first man, by
many years, who pleaded for the Scrip
tures to be read at home round the
household fire in Scotland, 525.— Crum

well invites him into the Convocation,
252. — the first man, therefore, who, on
British ground, argued for Baptism and
the Lord's Supper to be the only ordi
nances under the New Testament, 255,
256. — Cranmer and the bishops afraid
of his counsel, 257. — by the King's
order sent to Cambridge, to expound
Scripture, 533. — prevented, he studies
medicine in London, id. — escapes again
to Germany, id. — made professor of
divinity at Frankfort on the Oder, id. —
often employed in discussion, id. — pub
lished various expositions of Scripture,
534. — his wife and children, id. — Pro
fessor for twenty -three years at Leipsic,
and where, in 1565, he died in peace,
id. — taking the precedence of all other
eminent Scotsmen, and pleading for his
Country long before any other voice
was heard, some suitable Memorial is
now due to his character and exertions,
but more especially in Edinburgh, his
native city, 534
Alfred the Great, Introd. xxxi.
America, North, the Bible first seen by
its natives, an English one, 5S8. —after
wards carried there by the Pilgrim
Fathers, 589. — but printing it there
not permitted by Britain, id. — all must
use an imported Bible, for more than
160 years, 590. — the first open imprint,
in defiance of Britain, by a Scotsman
there, 591. — the first in folio and quarto,
not till 1791, 592.— conveyance from
and then to a distance, a very notable
peculiarity as to the English Scriptures,
for above two centuries and a half, id.
Andreas, John, secretary to the Vatican,
promotes the press in Rome, introd. li.
Andrews, Dr. L., translator of our present
version, 477.
Andrews, Dr. R. , translator of our present
version, 478.
Angus, Earl of, head of the English party
in Scotland, 494, 501.
Ann of Luxemburg, a reader of Wickliff »
Testament, Introd. xiii.

666

HISTORICAL INDEX.

Antwerp, first English New Testaments
burnt there, 79. — persecution, through
the English Ambassador, for printing
an edition there, 76, 77. —or importing
them to Britain, 110. — nobly resisted
by the citizens, 77-79, 110-112.—
Tunstal's visit to buy up Testaments,
122.— a new English Ambassador sent,
150. — his bold remonstrance with Crum
well against persecution, 170. — various
editions printed there, 278.
Arbuthnot, Alex., printer of the first
English Bible in Scotland, 571.
Arran, Earl of, head of his party, 494.' —
protector of Scotland, 554. — succumbs
to Beaton, 565.
Arrival, the first, of the English New
Testament in London, Oxford, and
Cambridge, 50-60. — the first in Edin
burgh and St. Andrews, 497, 498.
Arundel, Archbishop, stirs persecution
against the Wickliflites, Introd.
xliii.
Askew, Anne, her heroic behaviour under
examination, 393. — the cruel torture
inflicted, id. — her eminent character,
and testimony to the all-sufficiency of
the Scripture before death ; her mar
tyrdom, forming the climax of cruelty
under Henry VIII., 394, 395.
Audley, Chancellor, on receiving the
Great Seal relaxes persecution, 107.
Authority of Scripture, supreme and ex
clusive, might have been the pole-star
of Britain for three centuries past, 627.
— but afraid to follow it, id. — though
this be the highest of all sacred social
questions, and must be settled, if even
the providential history of the English
Bible itself be any guide, 628, 629.
Bainham, his examination, 179. — confes
sion before the Congregation in Bow
Lane, 180. — his martyrdom, id.
Barbo, Peter, the Venetian pontiff. — See
Paul II.
Badius Conrad, printer of the first Geneva
Bible, 451.
Barker, Christopher, first patentee of the
English Bible, 467. — his selfish policy,
471. — secures the patent to his son
Robert, 467.

Barker, Robert, is at the cost of the pre-
sent version, 483.' — secures the patent
to his family for generations, id.
Barker, family of, as patentees, 466-471.
Barlow, Jerome, Roye's associate, 28. —
pursued by Wolsey, 110, 114.
Barlow, Bishop, one of the translators of
our version, 480.
Barlow, Dr. , Ambassador of Henry VEIL
to Scotland, his report of the state of
things there, 539, 541.
Barnes, Robert, 60. — the first recantation,
64. — escapes to the Continent, 66.
Bassandyn, Thomas, first printer of the
Scriptures in Scotland, 571.
Bayfield's history, 164. — zealous importer
of books, 165, 166. — his cruel usage and
martyrdom by Stokesly, 167.
Beaton, Archbishop, in disgrace and con
cealment at the moment when the
English New Testament first arrived in
Scotland, 494-500. — the mover of Sir
Patrick Hamilton's death, the proto-
martyr, 505.
Beaton, Cardinal, aims after unlimited
authority in Scotland, 546-549. — in
prison, when parliament proclaimed the
Sacred Scriptures to be free to all men,
554-560. — his cruelty, 565. — his own
death by violence, 566.
Becon, Thomas, his testimony to free
perusal of the Scriptures in 1542, 376.
Bedwell, Dr. , one of the translators of our
present version, 478.
Benedict XIII. grants six rides for the
establishment of St. Andrew's Univer
sity, 490. — his favour for Scotland, 491.
Bible — the first ever printed was in Latin ;
long unnoticed and unknown, till dis
covered by De Bure in the Mazarine
Library at Paris ; and hence it has
been sometimes called the Mazarine
Bible, Introd. xlviii. xlix.
Bible in English, without note or com
ment, was that for which Tyndale so
boldly pleaded, 43. — in this he was
joined by Fryth, and these two men,
thus early, stood alone, the purest
martyrs for the Word of God, 44, 199,
268.
Bible alone, without note oj- comment,

HISTORICAL INDEX.

667

the perfect rule of faith and practice,
though never yet fairly tested, 627.
Bible, without note or comment, the mere
proposal so to circulate it in all lan
guages, at once conveyed an impulse,
the most powerful and extensive which
British Christians have ever felt, 640.
Bible in English now, the only version in
existence on which the sun never sets,
Preface. — it has arrived at this extent,
not by any united effort so much as by
regular sale and dispersion, 603. — rapid
ity of its issue from the press, Preface,
628.
Bible Society, the first, 597. — the second,
id. — the third, or British and Foreign,
599-611.
Bilney, his conversion, 59. — first ensnared,
60. — he recants, 90. — preaches, 162. —
died a genuine martyr, 163.
Bishops of England — they denounced as
poison, and ordered to be delivered up,
the first printed New Testaments in
English, 72. — they had before been
burning them in public, after a sermon,
65. — they are arraigned by Tyndale as
the very fountain and spring, or well
head of all mischief and disorder, 85. —
they unite, under Warham their pri.
mate, in buying up English New Testa
ments for destruction, and at consider
able expense, 88. — Tunstal of London,
two years after this, purchases more
copies at Antwerp, 122. — their second
grand burning at Paul's Cross, Tunstal
of Durham presiding for Stokesly of
London, 144. — at their first Convoca
tion, the former cement of the Bishops
mutually cleaving to each other having
lost its power, they divide, as nine to
nine, 249-252. — but they are all at
last signally overruled to receive that
Bible, the New Testament of which,
and even the owners of it, they had so
often denounced and burnt, 301-305.
—four years after, certain bishops, led
on by Gardiner, were longing to discuss
and alter the Sacred text, 372, 373. —
once assembled and wrangling over it,
the King takes the English Bible out of
their hands, and while they are yet

sitting in Convocation, he published his
decided sanction in favour of a citizen
of London, who had nobly advanced
the great cost of many already in print,
374. — that version frequently styled
" the Bishops' Bible " was never ordered
by Queen Elizabeth, 462. — nor ever
marked by any pubhc or formal sanc
tion of the Crown, 463. —the authority
it carried being that of the bishops only,
465. — the bishops under King James,
though applied to for some pecuniary
aid in regard to our present version,
returned no answer, 477, 481. — if they
were unwilling, the King himself was
unable, 483.- — thus the English Bible of
our own day, stands as independent of
all such aid from authority, as it had
done, since its origin, of all Royal or
ecclesiastical control, 484.
Bishops of Scotland — in alarm, 501. —
equally hostile to the Scriptures as in
England, 534. — all reading of them
publicly denounced, 540. — but in vain,
549. — they oppose in parliament, 559,
— but alike in vain, 560.
Blayney, his corrected edition of the
English Bible, 582.
Boccaccio, Introd. xxxiii.
Bodley, John, an exile during Mary's
reign, 456. — publishes the Geneva ver
sion on English ground, 459. — obtains
a patent for it from Elizabeth, 458.
Bodley, Sir Thomas, son of the above
founder of the Bodleian Library, 457.
Bois or Boys, John, one of the translators
of our version, n. 480. — his notes during
the translating, 482.
Boleyn, Queen Anne, read Tyndale's
writings, 124. — her marriage, 197. — she
justifies the importation of Tyndale's
New Testaments, 224.— no man ever
dared so to speak out while the trans
lator lived, 225.— her own copy, now
in existence, 227. —her cruel death, 245.
Bonner, Edmund, in Paris, (and now a
bishop), 315, 316.— his vile hypocrisy,
367.— sent abroad, 381.— after disgrace
under Edward, reinstated by Mary,
420.— he and Gardiner now in union,
427, 428. — Bonner the slaughter-man of

668

HISTORICAL INDEX.

England, 425, 441.— his cruelty sin
gularly arrested, 425.
Bracciolini, Introd. xxxiii.
Bradford, Rudolph, zealous in dispersing
New Testaments, Latimer's chaplain, 70.
Brainerd, David, Missionary, 590.
Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suffolk, his
death, 385.
Brett, Dr., one of the translators of our
present version, 479.
Buchanan, George, obliged to leave Scot
land, 548. — quoted, 550.
Buckingham, Prior, inveighs against Dr.
Barnes, 61. — in the pay of Tyndale's
betrayers, 234. — at Louvain, 239, 536.
Burghley, Lord, his estimate of the num
ber of martyrs in the reign of Mary,
423.
Burleigh, Dr. Francis, one of the transla
tors of our present version, 478.
Buschius, Herman, his testimony to Tyn
dale's learning, 220.
Byng, Dr. Andrew, one of the translators
of our present version, 478.
Cambridge, great alarm there, on first
receiving the English New Testament
in print, from abroad, 59-63. — the first
Testament known to have been printed
there, see Index-List, No. 105 ; the
first Bible, No. 89.
Campeggio, Cardinal, his arrival in Eng
land, 108. — his departure, 125.
Canne, John, his Bible with notes and
references, n. 581.
Canne, John, his editions of the English
Bible, 581.
Cardinal College, Oxford, by Wolsey, his
original and insidious design, 22, 23. —
rendered abortive by the perusal of
Tyndale's New Testaments, 56—59.
Carey, William, the Tyndale of India, 598.
Carondelet, Archbishop of Palermo and
President of the Brabant Council, 236.
— presided as such at the time of Tyn
dale's imprisonment and mock trial
before his martyrdom, 266.
Castro, Alphonso de, Philip's confessor. —
his sermon against persecution, 291.
Chaderton, Dr. Laurence, one of the
translators of the authorised version,
478.

Charles, Thomas, of Bala, at the founding
of the Bible Society, 602.
Church, our own Church, of whatever
form, not the highest point to which,
for three centuries, Providence has been
inviting the supreme regard of British
Christians, 625.
Clark, Dr. Richard, one of the translators
of our present version, 477.
Cochkeus, the grand continental opponent
of Scripture, 31. — interrupts Tyndale at
the press in Cologne, 33, 36. — alarms
the English government, 33. — enraged
at Alexander Aless, and writes to
James V. of Scotland, 517. — actually
sent his servant with his tract to Edin
burgh, who was richly rewarded, 529.
— triumphantly answered by Aless, 521-
529.— his death, 534
Congregation in Bow Lane, Cheapside —
was it the earliest resemblance, even
under Henry VIII., of a Christian
Church founded on the Scriptures ? 181,
188. — see it again, under Queen Mary,
425, 426.
Constantyne, George, a very zealous im
porter of Tyndale's New Testament,
106. — caught and put in irons by Sir T.
More, 306. — escapes to Antwerp, 168.
— in England again, 170. — and becomes
a vicar, 338. — dies abroad, but his son-
in-law became Archbishop of York, and
President of the Council of the North I
339.
Coverdale, Myles, his first appearance,
64. — sent abroad, to sound Tyndale,
135. — his version of the English Bible,
244. — compared with Tyndale's, 281-
293, 305.— Coverdale in Paris, editing
the second edition of the latter, 314-
318. — his second and singular escape to
the Continent, under Mary, 433-440.
Coxe, Leonard, schoolmaster at Heading,
rescues Fryth from the stocks, 185.
Cranmer sent to the Emperor, with Sir T.
Elyot, then in pursuit of Tyndale, 176-
178. — Fryth stands before him and
other bishops, 200-202.— refers to the
death of Fryth by fire, 202.— fully in
formed of Tyndale's imprisonment at
Vilvorde, but does nothing, 234, 235. —

HISTORICAL INDEX.

669

he is overruled to receive Tyndale's
version of the Bible, 296-301.— his first
edition of it was in 1540, 347-349. —
accused by the Council but hi vain,
386-389. — one valuable trait in bis pro
cedure, 412, 414 — his martyrdom,
442.
Crumwell, Thomas, his pursuit after Tyn
dale, 240, 269-278.— all in vain, 279.
— fully informed of Tyndale's imprison
ment at Vilvorde, but, like Cranmer,
he does nothing to shield him from the
persecutors, 234 263. — constrained at
last to seem interested, 236. — but ac
complishes nothing, 237. — presides as
Vicegerent and Vicar-General in the
first convocation under Henry, 249-
261. — he is overruled to accept of Tyn
dale's version of the Bible, 299, 305.—
his base subserviency, 311.— his first
injunctions enforcing, not Cranmer's,
but Tyndale's Bible, 319.— his headlong
cruelty, to please his avaricious master,
333. — his zeal and energy as to the
Scriptures, admits of but one interpre
tation, 341-345, 359.— his death, 352.
— his character, id.
Dakins, William, B.D., one of the trans
lators of our present version, 480.
Delaber, Antony, a student at Oxford
and confessor of Christ, 55, 56.
Distance, conveyance first from, and then
" to a distance, a marked feature in the
history of the English Bible, for above
250 years! 592.
Divine revelation, or the voice of God to
man, however unheeded, knows no
pause by night or day, in the English
language, Preface, x. xi 631-634
Dominion of Britain, its highest import,
or what it involves of imperative duty,
ii. 636-638.
Donne, Gabriel, the Monk of Stratford
Abbey, and the basest betrayer of Tyn
dale, his strange and hitherto unknown
history, 232, 239, 274-276.
Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow, inter
poses some check to Beaton's power,
but yields, 545. — protests against the
free reading of the Scriptures, 559.
Eduiburgh, its state, when the reading of

the Scriptures was first freely allowed,
ii. 555-559.
Edward VI., the contrast to his father,
ii. 409. — Scriptures printed under his
reign, 410-414. — but still an under
taking separate from the reigning au
thorities, 415, 417. — Edward's personal
character and death, 416.
Edwards, President, 590.
Eliot, John, Missionary to the Indians,
590.
Elizabeth, Queen, her cautious policy at
first, extending even to the Scriptures,
453. — yet, by a, distinct patent, sanc
tioned the Genevan version of the
EngUsh Bible, 456. — Parker's proposal
to interfere with it, in vain, 461. — the
English Bible printing at Rouen as well
as in London, id. — Parker's version not
ordered by the Queen, 463. — never
authorised, nor even specially noticed
by her, 465. — patents, their strange
origin and history, 466. — Bibles under
Elizabeth's reign, far more numerous
than ever before imagined, 468. — the
cause of this explained, 470.
Elyot, Sir Thomas, employed in pursuit
of Tyndale, by the King's order, though
still in vain, 175-179.
Endhoven, Christopher, printer of Tyn
dale's Testaments at Antwerp, 78.
England, hostile to Tyndale's design, 21-
23. — the first arrivals, the Scriptures,
and effects, 49-64. — the first burning
of books, 65. — persecution, 100-107.—
arrested by pestilence at home, 108. —
persecution again, 120. — the King, par
hament, and bishops, alike hostile to
the truth, 128-134. — opposed by Lati
mer, 142-144. — warned by Tyndale
from abroad, 159. — persecution at home,
179-182. — Henry and his counsellors
signally overruled to receive the Bible,
301—304 — character of the King's par
liaments and convocations, 328. — death
of Henry, 403.— retrospect of his reign,
405-408. — England under Edward the
Sixth, 409-418.— under Mary, 418-451.
—under Elizabeth, 452-474 — under
James I. to the Commonwealth, 474-
488.

670

HISTORICAL INDEX.

Erasmus, his New Testament, the instru
ment of Bilney' s conversion, 59. — Eras
mus describes the character of the Bra
bant Privy Council, under whom Tyn
dale suffered, 266.
Fairclough, Dr., one of the translators of
the authorised version, 479.
Fisher, bishop of Rochester, preaches in
1526, before the first burning of books
seized, 65.' — his violence in parliament,
127.
Fitzralph, Richard, the precursor of
Wickliffe. Introd.
Forrest, Henry, a Scottish Martyr, 521.
Forret, Dean, his trial and martyrdom,
544, 545.
Pox, Bishop of Hereford, his noble address
to convocation, 256.
France, its early and promising condition
as to the Sacred Scriptures, 504. — its
state for two centuries past, 504-506.
¦ — the French revolution, and its effect
on Britain and her colonies, 505.
Frankfort fair, searching for Tyndale
there, in vain, 114-116. — the troubles
of Frankfort, 449. — the troubles over
ruled for good, as to the English Scrip
tures, 449-451.
Fryth, John, born at Westerham, Kent,
95. — scholar at Eton, and King's Col
lege, Cambridge, id. — escapes from the
dungeon below Cardinal College, 57. —
reaches Tyndale abroad, though ambas
sadors covdd never find him out, 82. —
Fryth's first printed tract, under the
name of Brightwell, 119. — comes to
England, 175. — he is in peril, 185. — in
the Tower of London, for the word of
God, 187. — Tyndale's letters to him,
190, 196. — who writes and publishes in
his defence, 191. — Fryth's noble hero
ism, 199, 201. — his martyrdom, the
first in England, without one syllable of
recantation, 203. — signal effects, 205,
336.
Fysh, Simon, his ' ' Supplication of Beg
gars," 51. — its veiy powerful effect, 52.
— he escapes abroad, but returns, 105.
— is hunted after by Sir T. More, but
sees the King, and soon after dies of
the plague in London, 147.

Gardiner, Stephen, bishop of Winchester,
he and others denounced Scripture in
the language of the people, 141, 142.—
thirsted after the destruction of Tyn
dale, 231. — recalled, when persecution
is advised, 307. — and soon resumed,
310. — Gardiner's curious colloquy with
the King and Cranmer, 349. — his viru
lent opposition to Scripture, 373. — in
vain, 374 — he is quite ready to have
sacrificed Queen Catherine had not
Henry relented, 402. — Gardiner him
self in trouble, id. — quite out of Henry's
favour, id. — he is restored by Queen
Mary, 420.— completely foiled by Tyn
dale's friend, John Rogers the martyr,
when under examination, 430, 435438.
Garrett, Thomas, persecuted for dissem
inating the New Testament, 54-56. —
abjures, 73. — suffered martyrdom with
Dr. Barnes.
Geneva, the English New Testament re
vised, and first printed there, different
from the version in the Bible following,
450. — three members of the English
Church in exile at Geneva, revise the
English Bible, and print it" there ; one
other member bearing the chief cost ;
it became the household Bible of Britain
for about eighty years, 454-459. —
patent for printing it in England, 458.
— dedicated to Elizabeth, and addressed
to "the Brethren of England, Scotland,
Ireland," &c. 357.
Gilby, Dr., one of the exile translators of
the Geneva New Testament, 456.
Grafton, Richard, first printer of Tyn
dale's Bible, 294, 297, 300.— and of the
second edition in Paris, 314. — of others,
with his usual partner, Whitchurch,
356, 369.— his last Bible was the first
in 8vo, 462.
Greek Church, Introd. xxxvi. — more cor
rectly, it had not, in so many words,
interdicted the Scriptures, but it had
added to them the canons of the first
seven General Councils ; it was then
sunk into barbarism, and greatly fallen
under the power of the Latin Church.
Grindal's fidelity, cruelly resented by
Elizabeth, 471.

HISTORICAL INDEX.

671

Grossteste, Robert, an early precursor of
Wicliffe, and promoter of the transla
tion of the Scriptures, Introd. xxxiii.
Gutenberg and Fust, inventors of the art
of printing, Introd. xlviii.
Gutenberg of Mentz, inventor of printing,
Introd. xlviii.
Hackett, John, Henry's Envoy in Flan
ders, commissioned to destroy English
New Testaments there, 76-93. — arrested
for false imprisonment, 112.
Hamburg, where Tyndale first arrived
from England, 24. — remained for one
year, where he had already been at the
printing press, 27-30. — moved to Co
logne, 30.
Hamilton, Sir Patrick, the proto-martyr
for the word of God in Scotland — his
history, and death by fire, 502-507. —
the powerful effect, 508.
Harding, Dr. J., one of the translators of
the English Bible, 479.
Harman, Richard, a memorable importer
of the New Testament by Tyndale, 51.
— Wolsey very eager to seize him, 109.
— he and his lady imprisoned at Ant
werp, 110. — released at last, 111. — the
English ambassador in trouble for his
pains, 112. — and he must remove to
Mechlin, id. — five years after, Mr. Har
man restored to favour in England by
Queen Anne Boleyn, 224-226.
Harmar, Dr. John, another of the trans
lators, 480.
Harrison, Thomas, another of the transla
tors, 478.
Hart, Andro, printer of the second Bible
put forth in Scotland, 571.
Henry VH"I. hostile to the entrance of
divine truth, 22. — his wrath, and de
nunciation of the first English New
Testament, 68, 69. — his parliament hos
tile to the truth, 12S.— the bishops,
with Henry, cordially agreed in this,
131, 132. — the King and prelates unite
in persecution, 141, 148.— this is fol
lowed up after the same temper by
Crumwell and his royal master, 149. —
he exchanges heresy for treason, as the
great leading crime of his subjects, 222.
—marries a third time, and the day after

his second Queen's murder, 245. — the
pontiff, Paul III., aware, and before
her death, of the plot against Queen
Anne, id. — Henry overrules his first
and unprecedented Convocation, 258. — •
but he himself, as well as all around
him, overruled to receive the Bible of
Tyndale, as soon as presented, 301-305.
¦ — character of the King's parliaments,
328-330. — his address for the free use of
the English Bible, 344 — gross histo
rical mistake as to the Crown, in con
nexion with the Bible, 355. — his in
junctions as to religion, so called, now
owned by himself to have been disre
garded, or of no effect, 383, 398. —
lecturing first his privy-counciL then
his parliament, 389, 390. — displeased
with members of his council, or Wri
othesly and Gardiner, Norfolk and
Surrey, 402. —his miserable death, 404.
— retrospect of his reign, 405-408.
Hepburn, Prior of Arbroath, his persecu
tion of Ales, 514.
Herman, Count de Wied, Archbishop of
Cologne, interview with Ales, 523 and
n. 523.
Holland, Roger, an eminent martyr in the
reign of Mary, 425.
Holland, Dr. Thomas, one of the trans
lators of the authorised version, 479.
Holland, Roger, a memorable martyr, by
Bonner, 425. — its powerful effect in
restraining that cruel persecutor, 426.
Hollybushe, assumed name put on some of
Coverdale's Bibles, 321.
Hughes, Joseph, the founder of the
British and Foreign Bible Society, 602.
Hutchinson, Dr. Ralph, one of the trans
lators of the English Bible, 480.
Hutton, Dr. Leonard, another of the
translators, 480.
James, his accession to the throne of Eli
zabeth, 475. — his expenditure, 476. —
conference with him at Hampton Court
explained, 476. — present version of the
Bible did not originate with him, 476. — ¦
the bishops requested by him to lend
pecuniary aid for its execution, 477,
481. — but none ever came from any
one, 482. —nor from the King himself,

672

HISTORICAL INDEX.

483. — the expenses of the revisers,
properly so called, were defrayed by
the patentee, 483. — whose patent had
been purchased from the King, id. —
the entire procedure being simply a
business transaction, as far as the
Crown is concerned, 484. — there was no
proclamation, no royal orders, 485. —
and the version, though finished at
press in 1611, did not come into general
acceptance and usage throughout Bri
tain till about forty years after, 486-
488. — the very singular period when it
did so, by no human authority what
ever, 488, 574
James II., his attempt to introduce the
"Old learning," 580.
Jerome, Friar, see Barlow.
Jews employed as agents in forwarding
the first English New Testaments into
England and Scotland, 115, 512.
Joye, George, some account of him, 217.
— his ungracious and ignorant inter
ference with Tyndale's version, 218-221.
— his attestation to Tyndale's learning
in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, 220.
Jugge, Richard, the printer of Parker's
Bishops' Bible, 467.
John of Gaunt, Wicliffe's protector,
Introd. xxxvii. xiii.
Kilby, Dr. Richard, one of the translators
of the present version, 479.
King, Dr. Geoffry, another of the trans
lators, 478.
"King's own Book " — a phrase which has
been strangely applied to the English
Bible from sheer ignorance, and even in
courts of law, though in no sense correct
or true, from Henry VIII. down to
King James, inclusive, 355, 366, 367,
484
Knox, John, the mistake, that he had any
concern in the Genevan version of the
English Bible, corrected, 456. — first
began to study Hebrew, he bears wit
ness to the importation of the Enghsh
Scriptures into Scotland long before his
own day, 563, 564. — read for an entire
generation, or above thirty years before
he settled in his native land, in use
during all the lifetime of Knox, were

imported, the first Bible prmted on Scot
tish ground, not published till seven
years after his death, 569.
Koberger, of Nuremberg, the greatest
printer of the 15th century, Introd.
liv.
Lambert, a convert of Bilney, his shame
ful persecution, mock trial before
Henry, and martyrdom, 309-311.
Larfield, Dr. John, another of the trans
lators, 478.
Lascelles, fellow martyr with Anne
Askew, 394
Lasco, John a-, the uncle of the King of
Poland, a minister in London, his es
cape and subsequent troubles, 421.
Latimer, Hugh, called before Wolsey, 73.
— licensed by him to preach, id. —
preaching before Henry, 142. — his bold
and faithful letter to the King, 143.—
pleads intrepidly for Scripture in Eng
lish, summoned before Stokesly, 143.
—he falters, 181, 182.— his ever-me
morable sermon before the bishops in
St. Paul's, 247-249.— he lays aside his
robes as a bishop, and among all his
fellows stands alone, 337.— imprisoned
and most shamefully treated by Henry,
338. — under examination again, 395.—
but no recanting now, 397. — released
by King Edward, 307.— under Mary he
died in triumph at the stake, 441.
Latimer, William, the Greek scholar,
advises young Tyndale to caution, 19.
Le Fevre, the venerable French translator
of Scripture, his great age and affecting
death, 5.
Lekprevik, Robert, the first printer in
Scotland, licensed to print the Bible,
574
Lewis, John, author of History of the
Translations of the Bible, quoted 585.
Lindsay, Sir David, saved from Beaton
by the king's favour, 548.
Literature, Early English, Introd. xxxiii.
—early Scottish, 489-492, 572.
Livlie, Edward, one of King James's
translators, 478.
London— great alarm there on first receiv-
ing the English New Testament, in
print, from abroad, 52.— the first New

HISTORICAL INDEX.

673

Testament in Enghsh printed there,
after full ten years of bitter and burn
ing opposition, 279.
Longland, Bishop, his notable letter as to
Wolsey's insidious designs, 22.
Luft, Hans, of Marburg, printer of Tyn
dale's works, 94.
Luther — Tyndale did not repair to him on
leaving England, 24 — but he entered
Worms four years after Luther, and
there finished at the press the first
English New Testaments, 39. — letter of
Luther to Henry VIII., 111. — never
sent by him to the King, id.
Maccabeus, John, translator of the
Danish Bible, and brother-in-law to
Coverdale, 440.
Marler, Anthony, the ever-to-be-remem
bered citizen and haberdasher of Lon
don, presents Henry VIII. with the
English Bible, printed on vellum, 360. —
a generous, though unnoticed character
in history, id. — because hitherto over
shadowed by the King and Cranmer,
365. — yet he it was who bore the ex
pense of these large folio Bibles, in six
distinct editions ! neither the King,
Cranmer nor Crumwell being proprie
tors, or even contributors, 365-369, 374.
Mary Queen of England — bloodshed pre
vented for a year and a half, 419. —
thus there was time for escape, exiles
to the Continent, 420-422. — martyrs,
423-426. — but the Scriptures wonder
fully preserved, 444-446. — and never,
even under this reign, denounced by
name, as they had been under Henry,
her father, 443. — martyrdom of Sogers,
and the singular escape of Coverdale,
explained, 427-440. — the martyrdoms
of Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer, 441,
442. — but the New Testament had been
again revising and printing abroad, 446.
— nay, already it was coming into
England, under Mary, 447. — the revi
sion was by Whittingham, then in
exile, at Geneva, 448-451. — a triumph
analogous to that of Tyndale, over
Henry, 448.
Mary Queen of Scots, born, 549. — history
of the Bible in her reign, 553.

Mather, Cotton, author of "Essays to do
good," &c, 590.
Matthew's Bible is not a new translation,
but made of Tyndale's, with part of the
Old Testament of Coverdale, though ¦
with various amendments of the latter,
by John Rogers, the reviser and super
intendent of the whole, 294-296. — [See
Lewis, pp. 107, 224 ; this being the first
adventure of Grafton and Whitchurch,
and the first in which we have any cer
tain account of Grafton being engaged.
See Herbert's Ames, pp. 511, 539.]
Maxwell, Lord, who moved in the Scottish
parliament that the Scriptures in Eng
lish should be open to all, 557.
Mentz or Mayence, the mother city of
printing, Introd. xlvii.
Mistake, a gross historical, as to the
English Bible, 355, 366, 367, 484
More, Sir Thomas, cross-examining
Scripture readers, 104. — sent to France,
121. — Lord Chancellor, 125. — he ad
vises persecution, 128, 130-133. — he has
been over-eulogised, 139. — he denounces
the writings of Tyndale, 141. — Tyndale
answers his calumnies, 155-158. — More
writing again, 183. — resigns the great
seal, but remains Chancellor for some
time, 197. — he is assailed by Saintger
man, 207-210. — his prodigious efforts in
writing against Tyndale, 211. — he is
finally overcome in argument, and not
read, 213, 214
Mumford, James, Jesuit author under the
patronage of James II. , 580.
Munmouth, Humphrey, the host and bene
factor of Tyndale, 21. — in trouble on
his account, 25, 103, 105.
Necton, Robert, disclosures concerning
the distribution of the Scriptures, 105.
Nicolas de Cusa, Cardinal, first brought
the press to Rome, Introd. li.
Nicolas de Lyra's, the first printed com
mentary on the Scriptures, Introd.
liii.
Norfolk, Duke of, his party dominant,
364. — he and his son the Earl of Surrey
arraigned, 401. — narrowly escaped the
block by the King's death, 403.
Norwich, Bishop of, cheerfully contributes
X X

674

HISTORICAL INDEX.

to buying up the New Testament for
destruction, 89. — he thinks the English
Scriptures will ruin the hierarchy ! 141.
Nycolson, James, printer of Coverdale's
Bible, 291, 293.
Obligation of British Christians, now to
convey Divine Revelation to other
nations, at once primary and momen
tous, 635-641.
Overall, Dr. John, one of King James's
translators, 477-
Oxford, the great alarm there, on first re
ceiving the English New Testament, in
print, from abroad, 54-58. — the printing
press there of the present day, a lesson
to be drawn from it, not of encourage
ment only, but of warning, 628.
Packington, A., merchant, buys up New
Testaments in Antwerp for Tunstal,
122, 145.
Paris and London, at one era, in contrast,
314 — the second English Bible, print
ing in the former, and finished in the
latter, 314-318.
Parker, Archbishop, his version of the
Bible, 462-464 — not undertaken by
royal command, nor ever peculiarly
sanctioned by Elizabeth, 463-465. — Par
ker's editions of the Bible compared
with those of the Genevan Version,
463-466.
Parker, Dr., Chancellor of the diocese of
Gloucester, Tyndale brought before
him, 18.
Patents or Monopolies, for printing the
Bible, peculiar to this country, their
origin and history, 466-468. — the "Pa
tent of privilege" seems to vitiate all
that have followed it, 467.
Patmore, Thomas, merchant, persecuted
for distributing New Testaments, 161,
223.
Paul II. , or Peter Barbo, the Venetian,
and reigning pontiff, blindly amusing
himself, by poring over the printers
when at work in Rome, not once fore
seeing the consequences of the art,
Introd. Iii.
Petrarch and Italian literature, Introd.
xxxiii.
Philips, Henry, the hired betrayer of Tyn

dale, at Antwerp, and his more guilty
associate Gabriel Donne, 232-235. — he
remains at Brussels, to persecute him,
and raging also against his king, was
evidently an agent of "the Old Learn
ing'' party, 262, 263. — his future history
and death, 274.
Philips, Thomas, complaint against
Stokesley and is released, 223.
Pole, Cardinal, cousin of Henry VIII.,
and educated by him, 233. — the cruelty
of Pole in England under Mary, 426.
Pontiffs during the great schism, 490.
Poyntz, Thomas, the noble and disin
terested friend of Tyndale unto death,
232, 233.— his earnest letter in his
favour, and personal exertions to rescue
him, 235-238. — obliged to escape for
his own life, 238. — his future history,
his family, and his tomb in North Oken
don Church in Essex, 271-273.
Printing, invention of, Introd. xlvii. —
Bible, the first book printed, xlviii.—
no one adverted to the ultimate results
of the art, not even the pontiff or car
dinals, li. — nay, one cardinal, and the
Librarian of the Vatican, particularly
zealous, id. — nearly a thousand works
printed at Rome, including Lyra's com
mentary on the Bible, but all in learned
languages, before anno 1500, hi., liii.—
the restrictions of the press under Queen
Elizabeth, 459.
Pursuit after Tyndale on the Continent,
first by Wolsey, through Hackett, .the
English envoy at Antwerp and others,
100-111, 115-117.— then by the King
and Crumwell, through Vaughan, a
second ambassador, 149-155.— alludes to
some other out in pursuit, 151.— finally
by a third, if not fourth, or Sir T. Elyot,
and by the King's order, 175-179.— all
these attempts having failed, our trans
lator of the Bible is at last ensnared,
and basely betrayed, through two agents
of the Bishops in England, 230-233.
Pykas, John, an early reader of the New
Testament, 104
Quentel, Peter, of Cologne, the first man
employed by Tyndale to print the New
Testament, 32-36.

HISTORICAL INDEX.

675

Bainolds, John, who first suggested our
present version of the English Bible, to
which King James, at Hampton Court,
agreed, 476-479.
Kavis, Dr. Thomas, one of King James's
translators, 479.
Readers of Scripture, the earliest, 98. —
cross-examined and persecuted, 100-
108. — the present readers addressed,
631.
Revolution, the French, and its results,
494-596.
Richardson, Dr. John, another of the
translators, 478.
Ridley, Nicholas, his martyrdom, 441.
Ridley, Robert, the uncle of Nicholas, 86.
— his violent letter, the first mentioning
Tyndale by name : he is very hostile to
the English New Testament, and urges
most determined opposition, 87.
Rincke, Herman, of Cologne, the coad
jutor of Cochkeus against Tyndale, 33.
— employed by Wolsey to apprehend
Tyndale, Roye, Constantyne, &c, 114.
— he is searching for them at Frankfort,
in vain, 115. — buys up Roye's Satire
from Scott of Strasburg, the printer,
but can find neither Tyndale nor Roye,
114116.
Rogers, John, the convert, the disciple
and friend of Tyndale, 268. — the reviser
and superintendent of his Bible, 294
295. — apprehended under Queen Mary
and cruelly treated, 419. — his wife and
ten children, 429-431. — his memorable
examination, when Stephen Gardiner
was so completely foiled, 431-438. — the
martyrdom of Rogers, 433.
Rome, Bibles in all vernacular tongues
prohibited hy her, as early as anno 1229,
Introd. — especially from the first list
issued by Paul IV. in 1559, enumerat
ing 48 editions ; but still more pointedly
in our own day, and for the last thirty
years, by four pontiffs, including the
present Pius IX., 630, 631.
Rough, J., a native of Scotland, the man
who called Knox to the ministry, a
memorable martyr in London, and
shockingly treated by Bonner, 425.
Roye, William, the amanuensis of Tyn

dale, 27. — dismissed by him, 84. — Wol
sey bent on seizing Roye, 109. — for his
stinging Satire, 83-115. — the printer of
it not before known, 116. — and revisited
England even in Wolsey's hfetime, 116.
Sabbath of the English Bible — a day with
out night, 632.— the Sabbath of Britain
happily distinguishable from that of the
Continent, 634
Sacred Scriptures, the, as printed in Eng
lish, not the production of any Church,
as such, Preface. — thus printed, and
viewed historically, they stand above
the sphere of all churches, or bodies
styled ecclesiastical, in Britain, Preface,
xviii., xix., 623, 624 — in this historical
event, there is a principle involved,
which demands the supreme regard of
British Christians, 624, 625, 627.
Sacred Scriptures printed in English, the
origin by Tyndale at Hamburg, 28. —
progress at Cologne, 30, 31. — thwarted
by Cochkeus, who alarms the Enghsh
Government, 32. — progress at Worms,
38. — the first arrivals in England, 49. —
first alarm in London, 51. — first alarm
in Oxford, 55. — first in Cambridge, 59.
— first burning of books, 65. — Warham
of Canterbury in fear, 67. — the King's
wrath, 68. — Henry's denunciation of
Tyndale's quarto Testament, 69. — Tun
stal's injunction as to the first two
Testaments, 72. — Warham's mandate,
id. — all in vain, the Testaments they
judge must be bought up, 88. — this first
undertaken by Warham himself, and as
primate, 89. — still in vain, as more
copies arrived from abroad and in the
most singular way, 91. — early readers,
98. — cross-examined and persecuted,
100-108. — importers caught and pun
ished, 110-112. — Tunstal going to Ant
werp, must now buy up New Testa
ments, 122. — this only helped forward
the cause, 145. — parliament and the
bishops arrayed against Divine Truth,
128. — the King cordially unites, 132. —
the Pentateuch by Tyndale, now ready,
1 37. — the rage of the King and his pre
lates, 141-148. — Bishop of Norwich in
great alarm, 141. — Latimer's bold remon-

676

HISTORICAL INDEX.

strance, 143. — second public burning of
the Scriptures, 144. — persecution once
more, 179-182. — one chief importer re
stored to honour by Queen Anne
Boleyn, 224. — her own Enghsh New
Testament, in vellum, unique, 227. —
the first New Testament printed on
English ground, 278. — Coverdale's ver
sion of the Bible, 281-292. — remarkable
and sudden change in favour of Tyn
dale's Bible, 292.— its arrival, 297.—
cordially received by Cranmer, 298. —
the King and his counsellors signally
overruled to receive and prefer it, 301-
304. — the second edition is printed in
Paris, 314. — the Inquisition interferes,
316. — but is foiled, 317. — nay, their inter
ference greatly contributed to the print
ing of more English Bibles in London,
and by French types and artists, 318. —
joy in England on receiving the Bible,
323. — particulars as to various editions,
341-349. — but after the Bible had been
thus received independently of the
bishops as a body, it is now brought
before the Convocation, as they imagined,
to be discussed, 372. — Gardiner's wild
and wicked attempt to corrupt- the
version, 373. — but by such men it was
not to be judged, 374. — the Convocation,
though yet sitting, very signally con
demned and overruled by the King, as
he himself had been, and still was, 375.
— next Convocation still wickedly op
posed to the Scriptures, 377. — enmity
to the Truth once more, 39S. — but in
vain, and Henry at last confesses even
his own impotence in all his injunctions
or denunciations, id. — Edward VI.
under his brief reign, the numerous
editions of the Sacred Scriptures, 408-
418. — Mary, Queen, the Scriptures
wonderfully preserved, 419, 445. — and
never, even under this reign, denounced
by name, as they had often been under
her father, 443. — New Testament re
vised abroad once more, and sent into
England before her death, 446-451. —
Elizabeth, very cautious at first, and
even as to the Scriptures in English,
453. — first injunction, id. — yet she at

once sanctioned the Genevan English
version, and by special patent, 456. —
singularly compliant here, 459. — Par
ker's proposed interference with it in
vain, 461. —Parker's or the Bishops'
version was not ordered by the Queen,
463. — Elizabeth's patents, their strange
origin and history, 466. — Bibles under
this reign, especially the Genevan ver
sion, far more numerous than were ever
before imagined, 469. — James I. Con
ference at Hampton Court explained,
476. — our present version did not origi
nate with royalty or the prelates, 476. —
the bishops lent no pecuniary aid, 477-
482. — the revisers, 477-480.— the entire
procedure a business transaction, 484. —
no proclamation, no royal injunctions,
485. — our present version became the
general one, but through no royal no
human authority, and not till about
forty years after it was first printed, 488.
Sacred Scriptures in English, sent from the
Continent into Scotland. Tyndale's
New Testaments, their first arrivals,
497. — the authorities in alarm, 501. —
they are equally hostile with those in
England, 534. — reading the Scriptures
denounced, 540. — but though contrary
to their law, not a few persist in reading
secretly, and for sixteen years, 549, 562.
¦ — state of Edinburgh at the moment of
general allowance, 557. — the Scriptures
proclaimed to be free to all, a step never
revoked, at least as it was in England,
559. — the Scots, to their honour, called
New Teslamenlers, 569. — the Bible first
prmted in Scotland, 570. — the money
furnished by the people before the Bibles
were delivered, or even finished at
press ! 571. — the second Bible, id. — the
supply from abroad truly remarkable,
572-574. — at what period the present
version became universal, 575.
Sadler, Sir Ralph, his testimony to the
reading of the Scriptures in Scotland, 524.
Saintgerman, Christopher, author of "the
Pacifies" against Sir Thomas More,
208.
Sanderson, Dr. Thomas, one of the
translators of our present version, 480.

HISTORICAL INDEX.

677

Saravia, Dr. Adrian, another of the
translators, 477.
Satire, the severe poetical, on Wolsey, by
Roye, 113, 115.
Savile, Sir Henry, another of the transla
tors, 479.
Schoeffer, Peter, an early printer of the
Scriptures, Introd. xlix. — his son prints
Tyndale's first Testaments at Worms,
42.
Scotland, brief notice of, in the 14th and
15th centuries, 489-492. — her commerce
with Flanders favourable to their intro
duction, 497. — the first arrivals, 498. —
in the same year as in England, 499. —
authorities in fear, 501. — first martyr,
502-507. — Seton, Aless, and others
escape, 510, 515. — other martyrs, 521.
— England and Scotland then equally
opposed to the Scriptures, 534. — reading
them in Scotland in 1536 prohibited by
open proclamation, 540. — bitter perse
cution, 543-546. — yet the Scriptures had
been read in secret and for sixteen years,
550, 562. — state of Edinburgh when this
favour was allowed to all 558-560. —
thus Scotland, at the moment, had ad
vanced before England, 560, 561. — Sir
Ralph Sadler then gives the proof, 562.
— and in process of time, nearly twenty
years after, John Knox comes forward
with evidence, 564 — Bible first printed
in Scotland, 571. — the second, id. — the
supply of Scriptures imported from time
to time very memorable, 572. — the era
when the present version came into
general usage, 575. — hostility to the
Scriptures by James II. strikingly
evinced before that event, 578-581.
Secret search, and at one time, for books,
in London, in Oxford, and Cambridge,
22, 53-62.
Seton, Alexander, persecuted by Beaton,
but escapes, 509-511.
Smith, Dr. Miles, one of King James's
translators, 479, 483.
Spalding, Dr. Robert, another of the
translators, 478.
Spencer, Dr. John, another of the trans
lators, 480.
Stokesly, Bishop of London, hand in hand

with Sir Thomas More, 160, 168, 179. —
opposed to Latimer, 181. — resists Cran
mer most resolutely as to the Scriptures,
241. — in the Convocation he is incensed
with Alexander Aless, 255. — though
when Tyndale's Bible arrived, he must
be silent, 303. — yet he persecutes again,
309.
Strype, his_ testimony to the joy with
which the Scriptures were received, 323.
" Supplication of Beggars," 52.
"Supplication of the poor Commons" be
fore Henry's death, 399-401.
Surrey, Earl of, his undeserved death, 402.
Symson, Cuthbert, a memorable martyr in
London, 425.
Taverner, Richard, an Sieve of Crumwell,
his editions of the English Bible, 56-7, 342.
Testament, the English New, the first,
29-37.— the second, 39-41.— the third,
75-80. — part of the first two burnt in
London, 65. — and abroad in Antwerp,
79.— the fourth edition, 92.— the fifth,
135. — singular importations, 91. — the
first New Testament printed on Enghsh
ground, 278. — the first divided into
verses was printed in Geneva, in the
reign of Mary, 447, 450.
Tewkesbury, John, examined and abjures,
120. — confesses and is martyred, 168.
Theobald, the confidential agent of Cran
mer and Crumwell : he informs both of
Tyndale being in prison, 234, 235. — the
second visit of Theobald to the Conti
nent after Tyndale's martyrdom, 262. —
he describes the misery of Philips, one
of the betrayers, 274.
Thomson, Richard, one of the translators
of our present version, 478.
Tighe, Dr. Robert, another of the transla
tors, 478.
Tomson, Dr. Giles, another of the trans
lators, 479.
Tunstal, Cuthbert, Bishop of London;
Tyndale's significant interview with him
before going abroad, 20. — Tunstal was
not in England when the first New
Testaments arrived, 49. — his injunction
denouncing them after his return from
Spain, 72. — he entangles Bilney, 90.—
cross-examining and persecuting the

678

HISTORICAL INDEX.

readers of Scripture, 100-107. — busy at
Antwerp in buying up English New
Testaments, 122. — burning them at
Paul's Cross, 144. — Tunstal feignedly
sanctions the Bible, 362, 364
Tybal, John, an early reader of the New
Testament, 104.
Tyndale — his proper contemporaries, 2, 3.
— born in Gloucestershire, 5 . — his family
ancestors, 6-8. — his education at Oxford
and Cambridge, 10, 11. — had been ex
pounding Scripture at both Universities,
12. — returns to his native county, 12. —
tutor in Little Sodbury Manor, 13-19. —
discussions at the dinner-table, 16. —
Tyndale now translating the ' ' Christian
Soldier's Manual," by Erasmus, but re
solves to translate the Scriptures into
English, 16, 17. — he is summoned before
his Chancellor, 17. — his defiance of the
pontiff, and firm resolve as to transla
tion, 19. — leaves Sodbury for London,
20. — his abode there in Munmouth's
house, and after his significant inter
view with Tunstal, the future enemy,
21. — all England hostile to the fixed
design of Tyndale, 21-23.— he embarks
for Hamburg, 24 — there, he is already
at the press, 27, 28. — proceeds to
Cologne, 30. — basely interrupted by
Cochlseus, 31-35. — his actual commence
ment at the press, 36. — proceeds to
Worms, with his printed sheets, 37. —
his first two New Testaments, 31-45. —
his first language in print to the people of
God in England, 46. — the first arrivals
of the New Testament in England, 49-
60.— the first in Scotland, 497. — Roye,
an amanuensis, soon dismissed, 83. —
Tyndale's "Parable of the Wicked
Mammon," 84-86. — his "Obedience of
a Christian Man," 85. — it is read in the
King's palace, 124. — marked out for
persecution, 110. — Wolsey's pursuit
after him, vain, 111-117. — Coverdale
sent to Hamburg to sound Tyndale,
135. — their first and last interview, and
its real intent, id. — the Pentateuch by
Tyndale published, 137.— his "Practice
of Prelates," id. — the King and Crum
weU's pursuit after him, 148-155. — his

Answer to Sir Thomas More, 155-158. —
the scholarship of Tyndale, 10, 220. —
his address to England in the prologue
to Jonah, 158. — he is again pursued, at
the King's request, by Sir T. Elyot, 379.
— his first letter to Fryth, now in the
Tower of London, 190. — writing in his
aid, and against Sir T. More, 191, 195.
— one distinguishing feature in Tyndale's
character and conduct, 192. — his second
letter to Fryth, 196. — the interference
of George Joye explained, 217-220. —
corrected edition of the New Testament,
218. — the latest printed words, while
yet the translator was at liberty, 221. —
the apprehension of Tyndale at last,
231.— his two hired betrayers, 232-239,
274-276. — Cranmer and CrumweU fully
apprised, but they take not one step for
his reUef, 234 236, 265.— Tyndale in
prison at VUvorde, 239. — his martyr
dom there, 268. — his New Testament,
in foUo, printing in London, and by the
King's printer, about the same moment !
278. — being the first printed upon
English ground, 279. — Tyndale's cha
racter, 269. — his reward, 270. — his Bible
entire, arrives in London next year, or
about ten months after his death at the
stake, 294298. — it is immediately sanc
tioned, the King and his council being
alike overruled to accept of it, 301-305.
— the second edition printing in Paris,
a signal second triumph, 313-317. — but
his translation, as such, again de
nounced, 378, 398. — though it was
actuaUy now in wide circulation, under
the names of Matthew, Cranmer, Taver
ner, and even Tunstal, 379.— fifty-six
editions of his New Testament ascer
tained, and about fourteen issues of the
Bible entire. See the Index List.
Tyndale, John, a brother of WiUiam,
persecuted for assisting his brother, 161.
Underhill, a gentleman-usher of Queen
Mary, who buUt up his books, to pre
serve them tiU better days, 445.
Vaughan, Stephen, the English ambas
sador to Brabant, 150. — searching for
Tyndale, 151. — alludes to some other
person out in pursuit, id. — singular in-

HISTORICAL INDEX.

679

terview between Tyndale and Vaughan,
but not until it was offered by the
former, 152. — CrumweU rates the am
bassador for being too favourable to the
translator, 154. — the second interview
with Tyndale, id. — Vaughan's bold
remonstrance, as to the procedure of
CrumweU, the King, and Sir Thomas
More, or the extreme foUy of persecu
tion, and of Tyndale in particular, 169-
172. — yet on his recaU in 1536, (perhaps
afraid to speak out once more,) he
leaves our Translator in prison, 265.
Venice — distinguished for early and beau
tifid printing, Introd. Uv.
Voltaire, leader of the confederacy
against Divine truth, 595.
Vulgate or Latin Bible, translated into
English by Wickliffe, Introd. xxxix. —
why it had the precedence of the origi
nal Hebrew and Greek, id.
Waldenses, their spirited exertions were
the special occasion of the earliest inter
diction of the reading of Scripture,
Introd. xxxi. xxxvii.
Waldenses or Vaudois, no connection
between them and Wickliffe proved,
Introd. xxxvii.
Walsh, Sir John ; Tyndale tutor to his
chUdren, 14 — under his roof he first
resolved to translate the Scriptures into
English, 17. — the manor-house stiU
standing, 13, 15, 18.
Walsingham, patron to Christopher Bar
ker, the patentee, 467.
Warham of Canterbury, his anxious letter
about Oxford to the Cardinal, 67. — his
mandate to deUver up the New Testa
ment, 72. — the first man who was busily
engaged in buying up Tyndale's New
Testament for destruction, 88. — at a
cost of nearly a thousand pounds of our
present money, 89. — but the other
bishops aided him, id.
West, Friar, Wolsey's agent in pursuit
after Tyndale, 114-117.
Whitchurch, Edward, the printer ; see his
partner Grafton, 294 360.
Whittingham, WiUiam, his famUy, 448. —
leaves England, 449. — at Frankfort, id.
—retired to Geneva, and the happy

consequences, 450. — he there revises the
English'New Testament, and publishes
it, with a preface by his brother-in-law,
John Calvin, id. — he, with Gilby and
Sampson, revise and edit the EngUsh
Bible entire, the Exile English Church
at Geneva bearing the whole cost, 454.
Wickliffe, John, his translation of the
Scriptures, Introd. xxxv. — xiv.
WiUiams, Roger, the founder and Legis
lator of Rhode Island, 590.
Wishart, George, his martyrdom, Beaton's
own act, 566.
Wolsey, Thomas, the Cardinal, Lord
ChanceUor, &c, his artful project to
exclude the knowledge of Divine truth,
22. — he is greatly alarmed, 53. — his
secret search for books, and at one time,
in London, Oxford, and Cambridge, 53-
60. — in great pomp burning them at St.
Paul's, and Fisher preaching, 65. — he
is eager to seize Tyndale, 109-116. —
but in vain, 123-125. — the Cardinal's
career, 218-220.
Works of Tyndale ; his New Testam ent,
31-45. — Pentateuch, 137. — exposition of
1 John, 158. — Jonah, with * prologue,
159. — our Lord's sermon on the mount,
173. — his Bible by Rogers, under the
name of Matthew, 294— "Parable of
the Wicked Mammon," 8486.— " Obe
dience of a Christian Man," 85, (for a
translation of this, in MS., even into
Italian, by S. Roccatagliata, anno 1559,
see Casley's Cat. 14. A. vi., British
Museum.)— " Practice of Prelates," 137.
— answer to Sir Thomas More, 155-158.
Worms, where Luther appeared before the
Emperor, and from whence he retired to
translate the New Testament — the same
place where Tyndale stood — within five
years after him, and completed at press
his first two editions of the English New
Testament, 37-42.
Wriothesly advising the murder of Bea
ton, 392.— examining Anne Askew by
torture, 393.— in disgrace, 402.
Zuingle, the contemporaiy of Tyndale, 2, 3.
Zuphten, a martyr at Mehldorf, near
Hamburg, 27.

680 VARIOUS READINGS IN

THE ENGLISH BIBLE.
Though far from being insensible to the charms of Biblical Criticism, far from
wishing, in the slightest degree, to depreciate the subject of Various Readings,
either in the several revisions of our English Bible down to our present Version, or
in the Manuscripts since examined ; but, on the contrary, urging every student to
their careful observation ; stiU, at the close of such a work as the present, the
consequence of minute attention to both these departments ought to be known
to all.
With regard to verbal differences, for they are nothing more, in our Enghsh
Bible, from Tyndale downwards, these are to be found noted in the Bible pub
Ushed by WUson, the Bishop of Sodor and Man, in 3 vols, quarto, 1785. But by
far the best survey of the New Testament has but recently commenced, in a work
of which the first volume only has yet appeared. It is rather quaintly entitled —
"A Supplement to the Authorised English Version of the New Testament," &c,
by the Rev. F. H. Scrivener, M. A. of Trinity CoUege, Cambridge. It is intended
to form a critical iUustration of all the early EngUsh Versions, the present volume
reaching to the end of Matthew. In the interesting and valuable Introduction,
after stating that "a formal critique of our present Version it is not his province
to attempt," the author adds — " It is enough if I have afforded to others the
means of forming a more exact estimate of its worth, than can be gathered from
the vague encomiums of our popular writers. Yet I should be acting wrongfully
both to my theme and to myself, were I to suppress the conviction which the
devotion of several years to this employment has fixed on my mind : that if faith
fulness and perspicuity ; if energy of tone, and simplicity of language, be the tnie
tests of merit in a translation of Holy Scripture, our authorised Bible is in no wise
inferior to the most exceUent of the other versions with which I am acquainted."
HEBREW AND GREEK ORIGINAL SCRIPTURES.
It has been not unusual for some men, deeply read in these tongues, to dweU upon
the great progress that has been made in Scholarship since the days of our early
Translators, and to depreciate their acquirements, though simply because of their
not being in possession of those ample means that are now enjoyed for translating
the Scriptures from the original. These languages, they have said, have been
much more cultivated, and far better understood since the year 1600. The great
acquisitions in literature, in respeot not only of languages, but also of antiquities
and criticism ; as weU as the varieties discovered in the Manuscripts of the original
text, since our present translation was made, have aU been reiterated ; and that
sometimes by men who have ventured on the attempt of only a single book, or a
part of the Bible, in English.
The welcome, and very singular result, therefore, up to this hour, of many years
of laborious attention paid to aU the existing Manuscripts of the Scriptures, both
in Hebrew and Greek, must not be withheld here even from the general reader, as
it is so well fitted to send him with double relish to his English Bible.
Modern scholars tell us that "the manhood of criticism" began with Mill's
edition of the Greek New Testament, in folio, 1707. It was finished only fourteen
days before his death, after thirty years of incessant appUcation, and contains
thirty thousand various readings ! HappUy, then hved ' ' the greatest of English
critics in this, or possibly any other age, " Richard Bentley, who caref uUy dwelt
on the result. Profoundly acquainted, and almost literally, with every word in the

THEIR FINAL RESULT. 681
Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac Scriptures, though he did not succeed in publishing
his intended edition of the Greek New Testament, he again and again gave to the
world the fruit of aU his own experience as far as he had gone. On one occasion,
it was in these expressive terms : —
"The 30,000 various lections, then, are allowed and confessed; and if more
copies yet are coUected, the sum wiU stiU moimt higher. It is good, therefore, to
have more anchors than one ; and another Manuscript would give more authority,
as well as security. It is a good providence, and a great blessing, that so many
Manuscripts of the New Testament are still among us ; some procured from Egypt,
others from Asia, others found in the Western Churches. For the very distance
of the places, as weU as numbers of the books, demonstrate, that there could be no
coUusion, no altering, or interpolating one copy by another, nor aU by any of
them. Not frighted, therefore, with the 30,000, I, for my part, and, as I beheve,
many others, would not lament, if out of the old Manuscripts yet untouched,
10,000 more were faithfully coUected ; some of which, without question, would
render the text more beautiful, just, and exact : though of no consequence to the
main ofBeligionj nay, perhaps wholly synonymous in the view of common readers,
and quite insensible in any modern version."
Since the days of Bentley, however, far greater progress has been made, and stiU
ampler opportunities for examination have been enjoyed ; and what, then, is the
dehberate judgment at which our most distinguished Scholars have now arrived?
The conclusion of the whole matter, we prefer, on several accounts, to give in the
language of an Author recently presented to the pubhc.
"We may weU inquire," says he, "what has been the result of this laborious
and acute research, — of this toilsome coUation of Manuscripts of every age, of the
many theories for classifying critical documents ; in fine, of aU the years which
able and learned men have dedicated to the zealous task of amending and perfecting
the Sacred Book ? Why, truly, if we exclude the great and important conclusions
which we have at present in view, the result is so trifling, that we should say there
had been much unthrifty squandering of time and talents thereupon. Not, indeed,
that there has been lack of abundant differences of readings ; on the contrary, the
number is overpowering. Mill's first effort produced 30,000, and the number may
be said daily to increase. But in aU this mass, although every attainable source
has been exhausted ; although the Fathers of every age have been gleaned for
their readings; although the versions of every nation, Arabic, Syrian, Coptic,
Armenian, and Ethiopian, have been ransacked for their renderings ; although
Manuscripts of every age, from the sixteenth upwards to the third, and of every
country, have been again and again visited to rifle them of their treasures ;
although, having exhausted the stores of the West, critics have traveUed, Uke
naturalists, into distant lands, to discover new specimens,— have visited, like
Scholz, or Sebastiani, the recesses of Mount Athos, or the unexplored libraries of
the Egyptian and Syrian deserts— yet has nothing been discovered-nno, not one_
single various reading which can throw doubt upon any passage before considered
certain or decisive in favour of any important doctrine. These various readings,
almost without an exception, leave untouched the essential parts of any sentence,
and only interfere with points of secondary importance, the insertion or omission
of an article, or conjunction, or the forms rather than the substance of words.
" This result is precisely the same as has been obtained from the critical study
of the Old Testament.— But once more returning to the New, and the critical
attention paid to its text, the advantages which this has procured to us are far
from stopping at the assurance, that nothing has been yet discovered which shoidd
y y

682 VARIOUS READINGS IN
shake our beUef in the purity of our Sacred books. This "advantage was but the
first step gained by it, in the earliest labours of Mill and Wetstein. Griesbach,
with whose name I closed my list, went much farther ; he gave us, in addition, a
security for the future — and this important step has received important modifica
tions, aU tending to simpUfy it farther.
"Thus, may we say, that critical science has not only overthrown every
objection drawn from documents already in our possession, but has given us fuU
security against any that may be yet discovered ; and has, at the same time, placed
in our hands simple and easy rules for deciding compUcated points of difference.
And these results wiU be still more within our reach, when a new edition
(the Codex Vaticanus), now preparing, shaU have appeared, in which only select
readings, examined with great care, and given with great accuracy, shall have been
completed." How memorable and confirmatory is this beautiful summing up of evidence from
the Ups of such a man ! And yet why should we, by the same pen, be so painfuUy
reminded of the ancient Bishop of Durham, Richard de Bury, as far back as the
fourteenth century, of whom an old Annalist has said, that "he is somewhat
to be remembered for example to others ; " but who, while lamenting the total
ignorance of the Greek language among his brethren, yet scrupled not to affirm —
' ' Laid omnium librorum communione indigni sunt, " — regarding the laity as un
worthy to be admitted to any commerce with books. To his select audience in
London, it is true, and we are to presume in Rome also, our Lecturer concludes by
presenting the foUowing testimony : —
" The study of God's Word, and the meditation upon its truths, surely forms our noblest occu.
pation. But when that study is conducted upon severe principles, and with the aid of deep
research, it will be found to combine the intellectual enjoyment of the mathematician, with the
rapture of^the poet, and ever to open new sources of edification and delight."
This witness is true ; nor is there one word of limitation here. Yet, alas ! it
appears elsewhere, that this noble satisfaction he would not, even in a humble
degree, extend to all. But thus it is, and ever has been, that God rides and over
rules all things and aU men, even men of research, for His own glory. We have
used the term "overrule," as the reader, if he be not already aware of the fact, wiU
scarcely credit us when we tell him, that the testimonies last given are in the words
of an author (Cardinal Wiseman), in a deUghtful work on " The Connexion between
Science and Religion," who is opposed to the general circulation of the Bible in any
tongue intelligible to the people ! Recently, under the mistaken notion, that the
present wide dispersion of the Scriptures has been the effect merely of men combined
for that end ; yes, and of men under the strange impression that the mere distribu
tion of the Bible is God's appointed way of conversion ; he regards the entire pro
cedure as altogether in vain, if not unwarrantable ! ! Of course no such impression
exists, as our readers have been perfectly aware, nor has any combination, any
united body of men, effected the dispersion of the Sacred Volume, at least in
English, to its present extent. To this mistaken idea we must again aUude pre
sently ; but who can suppress the sincere and earnest wish, that this Writer may
be induced to reconsider the entire movement of our age, as a movement, in aU its
bearings, and be led at last to adopt the motto inserted at the close of some of our
ancient folio Bibles — "A Domino factum est istud." Few such able men existed in
the days of our first Translator, though if there had, this would have only increased
his astonishment over those who spoke against the Bible "to be had in every
tongue, and that 0/ every man."

THEIR FINAL RESULT. 683
In regard to the Hebrew and Greek original Scriptures, we formerly glanced at
the memorable fact — that no Government on earth, however absolute, has ever been
permitted to restrain them ! But when to this we now join the result of aU the deep
research into both texts, and remember, as Bentley has insisted, that the same thing
cannot be asserted of any other species of ancient Manuscript, may we not exclaim —
" Who is so great a God as our God!" When the quantity of writing contained in
every single manuscript is considered, this conclusion becomes not only wonderful
in itself, and greatly welcome to the general reader, but it may lead him to look
with stiU greater veneration on the Divine Word so providentiaUy watched over,
and of which so many myriads now possess such an exceUent translation in their
hands — beyond conception the most weighty and valuable of aU deposits.
VERBT/M DOMINI MANET IN vETERNUM.