CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIII.

ARREST OF TYNDALE

HIS IMPRISONMENT, TRIAL, AND MARTYRDOM.

A.D. 1535—1536

Ever since the middle of 1534, Tyndale had found a home at Antwerp in the house of Thomas Poyntz, one of the EngHsh Merchant Adventurers established in that great mart of commerce.

Antwerp was then at the height of its prosperity, by far the most important commercial city in Europe: and merchants from all parts of the civilised world were welcomed to the gi-eat emporium of trade, and were generously allowed to share in most of the privileges of the citizens.

As far back as the year 1474 the magistrates of the city, in order to encourage the presence of English merchants, had granted them the use of a spacious mansion which had been acquired from a person of rank ; and it was under this roof, beyond a doubt, that Tyndale had found, after so many wanderings, a happy and congenial home.

Time has wrought many changes on the wealthy mistress of the Scheldt; and the bombardments by the Spanish and by the French have destroyed much that the hand of Time might have spared ; still, that quarter of the city in which the English House was situated, retains even in our own day not a little of the appearance which it must have presented in the sixteenth century; and the traveller can still recognise the house in which Tyndale

TyndaWs Home at Antwerp. resided up to the moment of his arrest. In the labyrinth of streets that lie to the north of the Grande Place and the Cathedral, the tourist may easily discover the Rue dc la Vieille

Bourse; and it was in the block bounded by this street on the one side, and Rue Zirck on the other, that the house was situated, where the English merchants were lodged from 1474 to 1558.

The narrow street, overshadowed with lofty houses, which even yet bear traces of their former grandeur, has been comparatively little altered by the lapse of three centuries ; and favoured by the silence which now generally prevails, in what used to be a haunt of bustle, the imagination of the enthusiastic traveller may without difficulty picture the illustrious Translator issuing from the low gateway of the English factory, turning his eyes upwards to contemplate with wonder the matchless grace of the Cathedral tower which rises right in front, and which was then fresh from the hands of "VYaghemakere, or stopping to listen to the music which the silver chimes seemed to be raining down from heaven.-^

His residence with Poyntz not only provided Tyndale with the comforts and the companionship of a home ; it added considerably to his personal safety.

It was amongst the privileges of the citizens of Antwerp that none could be arrested merely on suspicion, or could be imprisoned for more than three days without trial ; and the same privilege was extended to the English merchants resident amongst them.

Here, therefore, provided he exercised ordinary caution, Tyndale might have been considered safe from every danger that could threaten.

And, indeed, he may ' For the identification of the English House I am indebted to the infoi'mation of M. Genard, Archivist of Antwerp, who has published an excellent "J^oftce sur les Arcldtcctcs Herman et Dominique de Wagheinalcere."

The statements in the Memoirs of Sir Thomas Oresham are conaiderablv in error on this point.

Brighter Prospects ui England.

liave begun to hope that the termination of his exile was at hand, and that he might soon he permitted or even invited to visit his native land without any fear of personal danger.

The rigour of the laws against so-called heresy had been relaxed ; men were still dying, it was true, for religion, but it was no longer the Reformers who were led to the stake, it was those who had hitherto been the most prominent defenders of the authority of the Church that were martyred for refusing to acknowledge the royal supremacy.

Tyndale's great antagonist, Sir Thomas More, was disgraced, and imprisoned, and in peril of his life Fisher, another resolute antagonist, shared the same misfortunes and the same dangers

; the men who were highest in royal favour, Cranmer and Cromwell, were every day becoming more friendly to the principles of the Reformers and that great work on which Tyndale had so long laboured, instead of being regarded with bitter hostility had come to be considered as necessary and praiseworthy.

The Convocation which met at the close of 1534, petitioned the King " that the sacred Scriptures should be translated into the English tongue by certain honest and learned men named for that purpose by his Majesty, and should be delivered to the people according to their learning ; " and, for some time Tyndale's former associate, Miles Coverdale, had been busily preparing, unquestionably at the instigation of Cromwell, a translation of the whole of Holy Scripture.

Everything, therefore, seemed auspicious ; the cause against which King and Prelates had so long directed their fiercest opposition was visibly triumphant : and it seemed not a remote contingency that Tyndale might be invited to return to his native land, and might even be promoted to some of those ecclesiastical dignities of which no one v.as more worthy.

The Sovereign who elevated the out-spoken

Penal Laics in the Loic Countries.

Latimer to a bishopric could scarcely have failed to appreciate the boldness and honesty of Tyndale.

If Tyndale had begun to indulge in any pleasant dreams of returning to labour in peace in his native country, those cheering visions were rudely dispelled.

In Antwerp under the shelter of Poyntz' hospitable roof he was apparently safe ; but he was surrounded by dangers, and treachery or carelessness might at any moment place him in the power of his enemies.

In some respects England was now a safer place of refuge than the Low Countries.

The Emperor Charles v. compelled to bow to the force of circumstances in Germany, and to tolerate the Protestants whom he was unable to repress, compounded for this reluctant weakness by treating the Protestants in his hereditary dominions with increased severity.

According to one of the best and most recent historians of Belgium it was Charles that inaugurated the policy which was subsequently matured under the ferocious rule of Philip and the Duke of Alba ; and the reign of the great Emperor is sullied by cruelties which almost rival the merciless regime of his son.^ Penal ordinances of Draconian rigour were enacted year after year, in order to check, if possible, the progi-ess of Lutheran opinions.

In October 1529, it was publicly ordained that the " reading, purchasing, or possessing any proscribed books, or any New Testaments prohibited by the theologians of Louvain; attendance at any meeting of heretics, disputing about Holy Scripture, want of due respect to the images of God and the Saints," were to be treated as crimes for which " men were to be beheaded, women buried alive, and the relapsed burnt."- * A Henne, Histoire du Regne de Charles-Quint.

' Henne, uhi supra : the words of the ordinance are significantly brief:

" Les hommcs par I'^pee, lea femmes par la fosse, lea relaps par le feu."

Persecution In the Low Countries.

In spite of tliese terrible measures, Lutlieranism continued to make rapid progress in the Netherlands ; and the Emperor, in revenge, issued fresh edicts more stringent than before.

Informers were encouraged by the promise of a liberal reward, and a share in the confiscated goods of all convicted heretics ; and lest the government officials should be wanting in severity, it was ordered that all who were remiss should be reported and punished.

The Inquisition, Avhich had been established some years before, was armed with plenary authority to seize all suspected persons, to try, to torture, to confiscate, to execute, without any right of appeal from their sentence ; and these tyrannical powers they exercised with relentless cruelty.

Charles was not one whit less ferocious than his son, though English historians have usually painted him in more favourable colours ; and every fresh visit to the Low Countries Avas signalised by additional edicts against the Reformers and a renewed outl)reak of persecution.

From tliese sanguinary proceedings Tyndale enjoyed, as we have said, a considerable amount of protection by the privileges which the city of Antwerp asserted for its own citizens, and accorded to the merchants who had taken up their residence there.

In spite of the savage edict which ileclared that any printer, who presumed to print without a licence, should be branded with a cross so deeply that it could not be effaced, and should also, at the discretion of the judge, lose an eye or a hand, the printers of Antwerp had successfully asserted their liberty to print the New Testament in any language without asking the permission of any imperial officer.^ And so long as he was within the ' The point is of sufficient importance to justify the following corroborative (luotatiou : " Eogo, utrum liceat sine auctoritate publica Novum

Testamentum imprimere.

Respondit [Etienne Mecrdmann, the Antwerp E E

Plot to arrest Tyndale. shelter of the English House, Tyndale was protected by the privilege which exempted the citizens of Antwerp and strangers resident there, from being arrested in their houses except for some great crime.

Outside of the House, however, he walked in perpetual danger ; he enjoyed no special protection ; he had no house or hired chamber of his own, and might be arrested on mere suspicion at any hour of day or night.^ Hitherto he had led a charmed life, and he had in former years wonderfully escaped the hostility of Henry and Wolsey ; but a more subtle plot was now devised against him by men whose plans were so skilfully laid that it was scarcely possible for them to fail of success.

The secrets of the plot which led to the arrest and the martyrdom of Tyndale have never been, perhaps never will be, completely unravelled ; but there is no difficulty in understanding the rationale of the operations which were adopted against him.

It was not in Belgium, but in England, that the plot was concocted.

Some of those whom his writings had most bitterly offended, hopeless of any opportunity of wreaking their long-cherished vengeance, now that England had thrown off the papal supremacy and was manifestly gravitating towards Protestantism, determined to avail themselves of the bloody edicts of the Emperor to accomplish their purpose.

It was well known that Tyndale was resident in Antwerp, and it was probably not difficult to be introduced to his printer] licere quidem omnino sacras literas imprimere sine ullius hominis coucessu aut prohibitions Addebat quoque nnllas unquam Imperatoris leges editionem sacrarum literarum prohibuisse [i.e., not in Antwerp].

Hano sententiam confirmabat, et suis eb aliornm exemplis, qui in eadem civitate [Antverpiio] Novum Testamentum, in omnibus peue Europa) linguis, typis impressum evulgassent."

The questioner here was Francisco d'Eusinas, who himself published the Now Testament in Spanish at Antwerp.

Mc'moires d'Eusinas, Vol. i. p. 177: published by the Historical Society of Belgium.

^ See Guicciardini's Dcscrijptio totius Beljii.

Arrest of Tyndale.

acquaintance.

Inside the English House, or even in the company of his friend Poyntz, he was safe ; but it was easy to watch an opportunity when he Avas alone ; it was possible to decoy him away from his refuge ; and once seized, and subjected to the operation of the sanguinary laws against heresy, his escape was extremely improbable, his doom was practically settled.

It was assumed that Henry would not actively interfere ; and, if he did, it was hardly likely that the Emperor, irritated by Henry's recent proceedings, would pay much heed to the representations of an *' apostate and adulterous sovereign," who had been solemnly excommunicated by the head . of the Church.

The plot was cunningly contrived, the work, evidently, of one who was no novice in craft ; and agents were speedily found to put it in execution.

How they proceeded in their base and cruel treachery may best be read in the pages of Foxe, who received the narrative from the lips of Poyntz himself.

*' William Tyndale, being in the town of Antwerp, had been lodged about one whole year in the house of Thomas Poyntz, an Englishman, who kept there a house of English merchants [i.e., lived in the English House]. About which time came thither one out of England, whose name

Avas Henry Philips, his father being customer [i.e., employed in the Custom-house] of Poole, a comely fellow, like as he had been a gentleman, having a servant [Gabriel Donne] with him ; but wherefore he came, or for what purpose he was sent thither, no man could tell.

]\Iaster Tyndale divers times was desired forth to dinner and supper among merchants : by the means whereof this Henry Philips became acquainted with him

; so that within short space IVE.

Tyndale had a great confidence in him, and brought him to his lodging to the house of Thomas Poyntz, and had E E 2

Arrest of Tyndale. him also once or twice with him to dinner and supper, and further entered such friendship with him that, through his procurement, he lay in the same house of the said Poyntz: to whom he showed moreover his books and other secrets of his study ; so little did Tyndale then mistrust this traitor,

" But Poyntz, having no great confidence in the fellow, asked Master Tyndale how he came acquainted with this Philips.

Master Tyndale answered, that he was an honest man, handsomely learned, and very conformable [i.e., favourable to Protestant views\ Then Poyntz, perceiving that he bare such favour unto him, said no more thinking that he was brought acquainted with him by some friend of his.

The said Philips, being in the town three or four days, upon a time desired Poyntz to walk with him forth of the town, to show him the commodities thereof; and, in walking together about the town, had communication of divers things, and some of the King's afi'airs.

By the which talk Poyntz as yet suspected nothing ; but after, by the sequel of the matter, he perceived more what he intended.

In the mean time this he well perceived, that he bare no great favour either to the setting forth of any good thing, either to the proceedings of the King of England.

But after, when the time was past, Poyntz perceived this to be his mind,—to feel if he could perceive by him, Avhether he might break with him in the matter, for lucre of money to help him to his purpose ; for he perceived before that he was moneyed [i.e., well provided with money], and would that Poyntz should think no less; but hy whom [i.e., who had provided the money], it was unknown.

For he had desired Poyntz before to help him to divers things; and such things as he named, he required might be of the

Arrest of Tyndale.

best :

' For,' said he, ' I have money enougli.'

But of this talk came nothing, but that men should think he had some things to do ; for nothing else followed of his talk.

So it was to be suspected, that Philips was in doubt to move this matter [i.e., of arresting Tyndale] to any of the rulers or officers of the town of Antwerp, for doubt it should come to the knowledge of some Englishmen, and by the means thereof, Tyndale should have had warning.

"From Antwerp Philips went to the Court of Brussels, which is from thence twenty-four English miles, the King having there no ambassador ; ^ for at that time the King of England and the Emperor were at a controversy for the question betwixt the King and Catherine, who was aunt to the Emperor, and the discord grew so much that it was doubted lest there should have been war ; so that Philips, as a traitor both against God and the King, was there the better retained, as also other traitors more besides him, who, after he had betrayed Master Tyndale into their hands, showed himself likewise against the King's own person, and there set forth things against the King.

To make short, the said Philips did so much there, that he procured to bring from thence with him, to Antwerp, that Procureur-General which is the Emperor's attorney, with other certain officers as after followeth : the which was not done with small charges and expense, from whomsoever it came.

" Within a while after, Poyntz sitting at his door.

Philips' man [i.e., the pretended servant] came unto him, and asked whether Master Tyndale was there

; and said, his master would come to him ; and so departed.

But whether ' Anderson says this was a mistake, for that Vaughan was at Brussels

Foxo is right, however ; Hackett, the ambassador at Brussels, was dead and Vaughau was iu England.

Arrest of Tyndale. his master, Philips, were in the town or not, it was not known ; but at that time Poyntz heard no more, neither of the master nor of the man.

Within three or four days after, Poyntz went forth to the town of Barrow [Bergenop-Zoom], being eighteen English miles from Antwerp, where he had business to do for the space of a month or six weeks ; and in the time of his absence, Henry Philips, came again to Antwerp to the house of Poyntz, and coming in, spake with his wife, asking her for Master

Tyndale, and whether he could dine there with him saying, * What good meat shall we have ?

' She answered, * Such as the market will give.'

Then went he forth again (as it is thought) to provide and set the officers, which he brought with him from Brussels, in the street and about the door.

Then about noon he came again, and went to Master Tyndale, and desired him to lend him forty shillings :

' For,' said he, * I lost my purse this morning, coming over at the passage between this and Mechlin.'

So Master Tyndale took him forty shillings the which was easy to be had of him, if he had it ; for in the wily subtilties of this world he was simple and unexpert.

*' Then said Philips, * Master Tyndale, you shall be my guest here this day.'

* No,' said Master Tyndale, * I go forth this day to dinner ; and you shall go with me, and be my guest, where you shall be welcome.'

So when it was dinner-time. Master Tyndale went forth with Philips and at the going out of Poyntz' house was a long narrow entry, so that two could not go in a front.

Master Tyndale would have put Philips before him, but Philips would in no wise, but put Master Tyndale afore; for that he pretended to show great humanity [i.e., politeness].

So Master Tyndale, being a man of no great stature.

Tyndale Imprisoned at V'dvorde.

went before ; and Philips, a tall comely person, followed behind liim, who had set officers on either side of the door upon two seats (which, being there, might see who came into the entry) ; and coming through the same entry Philips pointed with his finger over Master Tyudale's head down to him, that the officers, which sat at the door, might see that it was he whom they should take ; as the officers that took Master Tj-ndale, afterward told Poyntz ; and said to Poyntz, when they had laid him in prison, that they pitied to see his simplicity when they took him.

Then they brought him to the Emperor's attorney, where he dined.

Then came the said attorney to the house of Poyntz, and sent away all that was there of Master Tyndale's, as well his books as other things : and from thence Tyndale was had to the Castle of Vilfoi*d [Vilvorde], eighteen English miles from Antwerp; and there he remained until he was put to death."

It seems scarcely possible to believe that a plan, so skilfully devised to meet the peculiar circumstances of the time, and carried out moreover at very considerable expense, had originated with this unknown customer of Poole, or even with his more crafty companion, Gabriel Donne, whom he declared to be his sole confidant in the plot.

Some other conspirators, more astute, more profoundly versed in wiles, and more thoroughly acquainted with the secrets of courts, were doubtless behind the scenes to control the movements of the subordinate emissaries, and to supply the necessary funds : but so well has their secret been kept, that no researches amongst State Papers at home or abroad have raised the veil which conceals the prime movers from our view.

It has been surmised that Gardiner was the deviser of the well-laid train ; and in astuteness Gardiner was certainly

Henry no Party to the Plot. without a rival in England ; but it is, to say the least, premature to cast upon him the odium of a suspicion for which not the smallest tittle of evidence has ever yet been adduced, beyond the vague assertion of Hall that, " Tyndale was betrayed and taken, as many said, not without the help and procurement of some Bishoi)s of this realm."

That Tyndale was a thorn in the side of many of the English prelates, we do not need to be told

; that they would gladly avail themselves of any means of terminating his career may be assumed Avithout any breach of charity they would have burned him in England, and they would have no scruples consequently about contributing to seize and burn him in Brabant ; but if they were concerned in the plot, they have certainly shown wonderful skill in obliterating all traces of their participation in it.

It may possibly have occurred to the reader, Avho remembers Henry's former efforts to get Tyndale into his power, to suspect that this plot also may have been devised with the privity of the English Monarch.

On this point, however, there is fortunately no room for doubt.

Philips was a member of that reactionary party in England, who hated Henry as a tyrant and a sacrilegious apostate, and who were at that very time plotting in every corner of his kingdom against his royal authority.

It is quite certain, therefore, that Henry was the very last man in England to act in concert with those who apprehended Tyndale and, indeed, the reader will presently see that, so far from having lent his countenance to the conspiracy against the Eeformer, he co-operated with Cromwell in his efforts to procure the release of the illustrious captive.

Hitherto, the date of Tyndale's arrest has been merely roughly calculated by conjecture; we arc now, however.

Date of Tymlale's Arrest.

able to fix it precisely on the authority of official documents.

There is preserved among the Archives at Brussels the formal entry of the payment to the lieutenant of the Castle of Vilvorde, Adolph Van Wesele, of the expenses incurred during Tyndale's imprisonment of a year and a hundred and thirty-Jive days; and as Tyndale was martyred, according to Foxe's table, on the 6tli of October, 153G, it is not difficult to calculate that he must have been arrested on the 23rd or 24th of May, 1535.1

The Castle of Vilvorde, to which Tyndale was now removed to spend the last sixteen months of his life, was then the great State prison of the Low Countries.

A small town, equi-distant from Brussels, Malines, and Louvain, Vilvorde has never attained any great importance ; yet it is one of the most ancient places in Belgium.

Its history is associated with the conversion of the Franks to Christianity ; it figures in the annals of Charlemagne and Lothair ; English sovereigns have resided within its fortifications ; and it was here that Edward iii. summoned what Froissart calls a imrliament to decide upon his claims to the throne of France.

In 1374, or the following year, Wenceslas, Duke of Brabant, and Count of Louvain, anxious to provide himself with a place of security, erected on the banks of the Sonne, at Vilvorde, a fortress constructed after the model of the Bastile, which had been recently completed in Paris.

It consisted of seven massive towers, connected by lower erections ; and the whole was surrounded by a huge moat, spanned by three drawbridges.

Of this grim and, in those days, impregnable fortress, in which Tyndale found a prison for so many months, and was at length to find a grave, scarce a ^ The document is printed in the Appendix.

Tlic Castle of Vllvorde. vestige now remains; it was demolished at the end of last century, and its site is occupied by the huge whitewashed penitentiary so well known to all travellers between Antwerp and Brussels ; and only a few traces of some of the original dungeons still exist among the arches of the bridge which forms the sole approach to the modern prison.^ The arrest had been contrived so skilfully, and executed so secretly - andpromptly, that any attempt at a rescue was hopeless.

Probably, before the arrest was known to the English merchants in Antwerp, Tyndale was safely immured behind the gloomy towers of the old fortress and it is unlikely that even the household of Poyntz knew anything of what had occurred, till the ProcureurGeneral, the terrible Pierre Dufief, returned to search Tyndale's chamber, and carry off his books and papers, and other effects.

Some days must have elapsed before Poj-ntz could be recalled from Bergen-op-Zoom ; but on his return, the English merchants, who considered themselves aggrieved both by the loss of a friend whom they all esteemed, and by this encroachment upon their rights and privileges, wrote to the Queen Regent, Mary of Hungary, entreating her to release Tyndale.

Their remonstrance was of course unavailing; the arrest of Tyndale, however treacherous, ^ See an admirable description of it in the Histoire des Environs de

Bruxelles par Alphonse Wauters.

There is an excellent water-colour sketch of the old fortress by Witzthumb, preserved in the Roval Library at Brussels, which has been lithographed as the frontispiece of M.

Galesloot's little brochure, Madame DeshouUeres, and from which the woodcut in this volume has been taken.

- As an illustration of tho secrecy it is noticeable that no entry occurs, either amongst tho accounts of the Amman of Brussels, or the Drossart of Antwerp, of any sums expended in the arrest.

Every possible source of information on this point was placed at my disposal by M. Pinchart, and searched for mo by M.

Cuijpers, but not a single entry occurs.

Tho expenses had, perhaps, been supplied from England, and were therefore not entered in any official reckoning.

Ajypeal to Croniicell.

had been legally effected ; the charges advanced against him were considered to be of a grave nature, and required to be investigated according to law; and it was evident that the danger which threatened him, if he was to be tried by a Flemish court on a charge of heresy, was of the most serious character.

The merchants of Antwerp felt that their intervention was not likely to be of much assistance ; if Tyndale was to be rescued from the fate which seemed to menace him, it was necessary to invoke the aid of the great authorities at home.

The rigorous edicts of Charles v. held out small prospect of escape, if the law was to have its due course ; it was impossible to doubt that Tyndale had rendered himself liable to the penalties of the bloody statutes on many counts ; it was idle to ask mercy from the pitiless Dufief or the inflexible Emperor; there was no hope except in some vigorous remonstrance from Henry or Cromwell.

The intelligence was accordingly conveyed to England; and an attempt seems to have been made to interest Cromwell and the Sovereign in the design of securing Tyndale's deliverance by exercising their influence upon the government of the Emperor in the Low Countries.

The time was certainly inauspicious.

Henry and h'is ministers were completely engrossed in their domestic afiairs.

The great crisis, so long anticipated, had come the first great irrevocable step in the grand religious and political movement had been taken ; and Henry and Cromwell were watching the results with intense anxiety.

Royal authority had been substituted for papal supremacy by Act of Parliament ; but it remained to be seen how this measure would be received by that large and influential part of the nation, which had been accustomed to regard the supremacy of the pope as one of the most solemn articles of

State of Affairs in England. their religion.

It was felt by the King and his advisers that everything depended upon the result ; and they awaited with breathless eagerness the operation of the mighty change.

Violent opposition was anticipated ; and Henry was prepared to meet violence with violence.

Smithfield again blazed Avith the fires of martyrdom ; and the headsman was again busy with his bloody work.

The laws against heretics, which for a time had been permitted to slumber, were again awakened into fresh violence ; for Henry, while rejecting the yoke of papal authority, was determined to exhibit, for the confusion of his enemies, unmistakable evidence that he had no intention of deviating into "heresy."

Priests were executed for impugning the Royal supremacy ; laymen were burned for denying the Real Presence.

At the very moment when the intelligence of Tyndale's arrest was conveyed to England, Cromwell was overwhelmed with the perplexity occasioned by the first great difficulty which he had been called upon to confront.

Minor victims had been disposed of with little trouble ; but there remained in prison two men whose disapprobation of Henry's proceedings was as notorious as that of those who had been already sent to the stake ; but whose high character and prominent position might well "give pause " even to the most reckless statesman.

That Cromwell was grievously perplexed how to act towards Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher, his own private memoranda, preserved in the British Museum, sufficiently show.

To endure their conduct was impossible ; to put the law in operation against them was to brave the censure of Euroj)e, and to excite the inextinguishable hatred of their numerous friends and admirers in England.

From a minister thus surrounded on all sides by danger and perplexity, little active interest in Tyndale's misfor-

Tebold sent to make Inquiries.

tune was to be anticipated.

Most inopportunely, therefore, everything seemed to conspire against him ; a circumstance Avhich had clearly not been overlooked by the astute enemies who had conspired to accomplish his arrest.

Vaughan, who had shown himself so friendly to the Reformer, was absent in England ; and Ilackett, the representative in Brussels, had recently died, and was apparently not replaced by any successor.

The head of the company of English merchants in Antwerp was indifl'erent.

England was in bad odour with the Emperor and the Regent.

Cromwell was busied with his own affairs, from which he scarcely dared to withdraw his attention.

Henry was bent upon vindicating his orthodoxy, and was not likely, therefore, to intervene very heartily in behalf of one who was charged with heresy.

Several subjects of the Emperor had just been burned in Smithfield for heretical opinions ; and the Imperial Government might consequently look upon the arrest and execution of Tyndale as a sort of allowable reprisals.

The prospects were as gloomy as could be conceived ; and in no quarter could any ray of hope be descried ; yet Tyndale's friends did not abandon their efforts to save him.

Some directions on the subject seem to have been given to the emissaries of Cromwell on the Continent ; and it is from one of them that we have received Avhat information we possess of the fproceedings at this period.

Thomas Tebold, a godson of Cromwell, and apparently on terms of cordial intimacy both with his patron and with Cranmer, had been despatched to the Continent, presumably in the month of June, and seems to have been commissioned to make inquiries as to the arrest of Tyndale.

His letters form a most valuable supplement to the narrative which has been already quoted from Foxe.

TehukVs Interview with the Traitor.

On the last day of July lie thus writes to Cromwell from Antwerp :— "News here, at this time, be none, but that here is most earnest communication that the French Queen [Leonora, sister of the Emperor, Charles v.] and her sister the Queen of Hungary [the Regent of the Low Countries], shall meet together at Cambray now afore Michaelmas.

All these Low Countries here be most earnest with the Bishop of Rome and his traditions ; and therefore he hath now sweetly rewarded them, sending them his deceitful blessing, with remission of all their sins, so [on the condition that] they fast three days together, and this is given gratis without any money.

Here is an evil market [a bad bargain for the pope], that whereas' he was wont to sell his pardons by great suit and money, now he is glad to offer them for nothing.

And yet a great many make no haste to receive them where they be offered.

I do hear of certain that the Bishop of Rome is contented, and doth desire to have a General Council, and that this matter is earnestly entreated of divers.

I am sure, if this be truth, your Lordship have heard of it or this time, more at large.

^' He that did take Tyndale is abiding at Louvain, with whom I did there sj)eak ; which doth not only there rejoice of that act, hut gocth about to do many more Englishmen like displeaswe ; and did advance this, I being 'present, ivith most railing tvords against our King,

Ids Highness, calling him ' Tyrannum ac expilatorem reipublicae ' [tyrant and robber of the commomcealth].

He is appointed to go shortly from Louvain to Paris in France, and there to tarry, because he fcareth that English merchants that be

Galba, B. x.

: tho letter is dated tho last day of July, tli8 day, we may suppose, when it was finished and sent off; but the greater part seema to have been written on July 15th.

The Traitor Pli'ilips at Louvain.

in Antwerp will hire some men privily to do him some displeasure unawares."

The writer of the letter had been entrusted with some commissions from Cranmcr, and in his communication with the Archbishop he enters into greater detail concerning Tyndale's apprehension.

''Pleaseth it your Grace that I have delivered your letters unto Mr. Thomas Leigh [a merchant held in much esteem by Cranmer and Vaughan], which, according to your writing, hath delivered unto me twenty crowns of the [same], which money, God willing, I will deliver where your Grace hath assigned.

Within these sixteen days I take my journey from Antwerp about the last day of July [letter begun, therefore, July 15th].

And because at* my first arrivance to Antwerp I found company ready to go up withal to Cologne [on his Avay to Nuremberg], I went to see my old acquaintance at Louvain ; whereas [where] I found Doctor Bockenham, sometime prior in the Black Friars in Cambridge, and another of his brethren with him.

I had no leisure to commune long with them ; but he showed me that at his departing from England he went straight to Edinburgh in Scotland, there continuing unto [Easter] last past [IVTarch 28] ; and then came over to Louvain,^ where he and his companions doth continue in '

I am able to give a more full account of Buckenham's movemonta than had come to the ears of Tebold.

Buckenham, it may be promised, was the friar who attempted to reply to Latimer's famous Sermons on the Cards at Cambridge, and who was extinguished by the wit and raillery of his antagonist.

(Seo Dcmaus' Latimer, pp.

77, etc.) Cn his way from Scotland to Louvain ho had resided for some time in London

; and in the State Paper Office I have found the following letter to Cromwell, complaining of Buckenham's seditious language :—" I, William Bull, friar, knowledging myself as one of his Majesty's faithful subjects, to the uttermost of my power doth [sic] certify your goodness of one Doctor Buckenham, which passed the reme [i.e., has gone out of the realm], full undiscreetly to the continuance of his mind, and aid of the abused Bishop of Rome. lie hath, since the time of his departing, sent

Philips at Louvaln. the house of the Black Friars there ; having little acquaintance [or] comfort but for their money ; for they pay for their [meat] and drink a certain sum of money in the year.

All succour that I can perceive them to have is only by him which hath taken Tyndale, called Harry Philips, with whom I had long and familiar communication,

[for] I made him believe that I was minded to tarry and study at Louvain.

I could not perceive the contrary by his communication, hut that Tyndale shall die; which he doth follow, [i.e., urge on], and procureth with all diligent endeavour, rejoicing much therein; saying that he had a commission out also for to have taken Doctor Barnes and George Joye with other.

Then I showed him that it was conceived both in England and in Antwerp that George Joye should be

[i.e., had been] of counsel with him in taking of Tyndale ; and he answered that he never saw George Joye to his knowledge, much less he should know him.

This I do WTite, because George Joye is greatly blamed and abused among merchants, and many other that were his friends, falsely and wrongfully.

*' But this foresaid Harry Philips showed me that there was no man of his counsel but a monk of Stratford Abbey, beside London [Stratford-le-Bow] , called Gabriel Donne, which at that time was student at Louvain, and in house with this foresaid Harry Philips.

But now within these five or six weeks he is come to England, and, by the help of Mr.

Secretary, hath obtained an abbey of a thousand marks by the year in the west country. certain letters whicli were received of one Doctor

Ellis, sometime prior of the Black Friars at Cambridge," etc.

; the writer in fact suggests that the letters might be as offensive as his conversation had been, and hints that it was a matter which ought to be inquired into "for fear of a farther inconvenience."

There is no date to the letter, which was written from the Black Friars in London ; but its exact place in the narrative can be assigned with almost perfect certainty.

Chapter-house Fa-pers.

PhiUps at Louvain.

" This said Philips is greatly afraid, (in so much as I can perceive), that the English merchants that he in Antwerp, mil lay watch to do him some displeasure privily.

Wherefore of truth he hath sold his hooks in Louvain, to the value of twenty marks' worth sterling, intending to go hence to Paris ; and doth tarry here upon nothing hut of the return of his servant ichich lie has long since sent to England icith letters.

And by cause of liis long tarrying, he is marvellously afraid lest he he taken and come into Master Secretary's liandling, icith his letters.

Either this Philips hath great friends in England to maintain him here ; or else, as he showed me, he is well beneficed in the bishopric of Exeter.

He raileth at Louvain and in the Queen of Hungary's Court, most shamefully against our King his Grace and others [Cranmer and Cromwell probably].

For, I being present, he called our King his Highness, tyrannum, expilatorem reipuhliccs, with many other railing words, rejoicing that he trusteth to see the Emperor to scourge his Highness with his Council and friends.

Also he saith, that Mr.

Secretary hath privily gone about matters here in Flanders and Brabant, which are secretly come to the knowledge of the Queen of Hungary, the Governess here, which she reckoneth, one day, at her pleasure and time, to declare to his rebuke.

What this meaneth I cannot tell, neither I could hear no farther but if I had tarried there any time, I should have heard more," etc.

"Written at Antwerp the last day of July, by your bedeman and servant, ever to my small power,— Thomas Tebold."

In spite of the express assertion of Philips that " there was no man of his counsel but Gabriel Donne," it is 1 Cotton MSS., Galla, B. x.

Donne rewarded in England. impossible to read Theobald's letter without an increasing suspicion that the whole plot had been concocted in England; why else should the servant, who had been accessory to the arrest, be despatched so promptly with letters to England ? and why should Philips be so agitated by the fear that both servant and letters had fallen into the hands of Cromwell ?

It is also equally evident that the plot had been devised entirely without the privity either of Henry or of any of his advisers ; that in fact it was the device of what may be termed the " opposition party," and that it had been all along most carefully concealed from Cromwell.

It was certainly not a little strange that Cromwell should in any way have been accessory to the rewarding of the only person who had shared with Philips in the treacherous design ; but it is quite evident from the letters, that it was in total ignorance of Donne's share, real or alleged in the plot, that the Secretary had promoted him to the " Abbey in the west country."

It was to the abbey of Buckfastleigh, in Devonshire, that this traitorous friar was appointed ; Cromwell, doubtless, merely acceding to the wish of Donne's friends ; and the mere fact of such a valuable preferment being bestowed seems to confirm the suspicion that the whole plot had originated with men of position and influence in England, who could substantially reward the services of their emissaries.

Poyntz and the other friendly Antwerp merchants were, of course, aware of Theobald's communications with Cromwell and Cranmer, and hoped that this might lead to the effectual intervention of the English Sovereign in favour of the important captive.

Indeed it was reported in Antwerp that Henry had actually written in Tyndale's favour to the Government of the Low Countries ; but in all probability the " wish was father to the thought."

Poyntz waited in

Poyntz atteiii'pts to save Tyndale.

hope till his patience Avas completely exhausted ; and then on the 25th of August he wrote to his brother, John Poyntz, of Ockenden, in Essex, who had been long in the royal household, and was therefore likely to have access to the King; and his letter contains an interesting testimony of Tyndale's character from one who had unusual opportunities of judging.^ " Brother, the [cause] of my writing to you at this time is, as seems to me, for a great matter concerning to the King's Grace.

For though I am herein [in Antwerp] abiding, yet of very natural love to the country that I was born in, so also for the oath and obedience the which every true subject is bound by the law of God to have to his prince, compels me to write that thing [which I] knoAV or perceive might be prejudicial or hurtful to his most noble Grace; which may come through counsel of them that seek to bring their own appointments to pass, under colour of pretending the King's honour, and yet be as the thorns under a goodly rose ; I might say very traitors in their hearts, reckoning at length to bring their purpose to pass, as they have always done, through such means.

Who they be, I name no man, bi\t it is good to perceive it must be the Papists, which have always been the deceivers of the world, by their craft and juggling.

For whereas it was said here the King had granted his gracious letters in the favour of one William Tyndale, for to have been sent hither; the which is hi iirisoii and like to suffer death, except it be through his gracious help ; it is thought those letters be stopped.

This man was lodged with me three quarters of a year, and was taken out of my house by a sergeant-of-arms, otherwise called a dore-icardore, and the Procureur-General of Brabant ; the which was done hy ^ Cotton MSS., Galba, B. x.

: a few words are destroyed.

F F 2

43G Poyntz attempts to save Tyndale. procurement out of England, and, as I suppose, unknown to the King's Grace till it was done.

For I know well, if it had pleased his Grace to have sent him a commandment to come into England, he would not have disobeyed it, to have put his life in jeopardy [i.e., even if obedience had exposed his life to danger] .

But now these privy lurkers, perceiving that his Grace, of his entire will would have sent for him [so at least Poyntz imagined] , by the means whereof, it is to be thought, they fear that if his Grace (as no doubt but his abundant goodness is such, he would) charitably hear him, then it might be the frowardest fate for their purpose they went about.

Wherefore it is presupposed, that they have solicited this to his Grace or to his Council ; that the putting to death of this man here, in this country, might be to the King's high honour, making greatly for his purpose in time to come, when his matter [i.e., the divorce] shall be disputed, if it come thereto.'

Wherefore, if it be their persuading, they know themselves it can stand in none effect to [their] purpose, but might be greatly against his Grace, in that and other things.

Whether this be their device, or be what other mischievous mean [?] I cannot tell ; but be whatsoever it be, if a poor man might and durst boldly reason with them, I think if they had either fear of God, their Prince, or shame of the world, they should be [ashamed] ever they did go about to procure such a thing.

For they would that the King should highly favour them, because they can prevent such things for his Grace, and be the means whereof they may come to high promotions and stand fast in them

; and so as they may bring that to pass they care not.

. When ^ All this, it must again be repeated, is mere conjecture ou Poyntz' part : he was disappointed at what seemed the indifFerenco of the English authorities, and he frames this theory to explain it.

Poyntz attempts to save Tyndale.

these crafty fellows meet they do jest and pout at him that they have so cleanly deceived, and though afterward it be known, yet they care not, for it shall be reckoned, among such as they be, for great Avisdom.

Wherefore they be past shame, and the party past his remedy.

But a poor man that has no promotion, nor looks for none, having no quality whereby he might obtain honour, but of a very natural zeal, and fear of God and his Prince had lever [rather] live a beggar all days of his life, and put himself in jeopardy to die, rather than to live and see those lying [leering ?] counsellors to have their purpose ; for some men perceive more than they can express by words, the which sorrow it inwardly till they see remedy.

" And by the means that this poor man, William Tyndale, hath lain in my house three-quarters of a year, I know that the King has never a truer-hearted subject to his Grace this day living ; and for that he does know that he is bound by the law of God to obey his Prince, I wot it well, he would not do the contrary, to be made lord of the world, howsoever the King's Grace be informed.

But what care these papists for that ?

For their pomps and high authority has always been holden up, by murder and shedding the blood of innocents, causing princes, by one mean or other, to consent with them to the same.

" Brother, about eighteen or twenty years agone, they at Ptome, to magnify the King's Grace in his style

[his titles], gave him the name " Defender of the Faith."

The which may be likened to the prophecy of Caiaphas when he said, " It is expedient for us that one man die for the people that all do not perish."

That prophecy was true, but yet contrary to his meaning.

So likewise, they thought by the mean thereof [i.e., of the title], he should be a great maintainer of their abominations.

Howbeit, God, the which

Poijiitz attempts to save Tyndale. sees all tilings, lias entered bis Grace witli the right battle, according to that style, as never prince has done so nobly since Christ died ; in the which I beseech God give him victory : and that his Grace be not persuaded to let be undone what might greatly prevail thereto [to victory], by the death of this man, [which] should be a great hindrance to the Gospel, and, to the enemies of it, one of the highest pleasures.

But and it would please the King's Highness to send for this man, so that he might dispute his articles with them at large, which they lay to him, it might by the mean thereof, be so opened to the Court and the Council of this country, that they would be at another point with the Bishop of Rome, within a short space.

And I think he [Tyndale] shall he shortly at a j^oint to he condemned ; for there are two Englishmen at Louvain, that do and have applied it sore, taking great pains to translate out of English into Latin those things that may make against him ; so that the clergy here may understand it, and to condemn him, as they have done all others, for keeping opinions contrary to their business, the which they call 'the order of Holy Church.'

" Brother, the knowledge that I have of this man, causes me to write as my conscience bids me : for the King's Grace should have of him, at this day, as high a treasure as of any one man living that has been of no greater reputation.

Therefore I desire you that this matter may be solicited to his Grace for this man, with as good effect as shall be in you, or by your means to be done

; for, in my conscience, there be not many [perfecter] men this day living, as knows God.

Brother, I think if that Walter Marsch, now being governor [of the merchant adventurers in Antwerp], had done his duty effectually here at this time, there would have been a remedy found for this man.

Cromivell at last intervenes.

There be many men care not for a matter, so as they may do ought to make their own seem fair, in avoiding themselves that they be not spied."

It is not impossible that it was this letter which at last compelled the English authorities to move.

Cromwell, however, must have known that the matter was by no means so simple as it seemed to the sanguine judgment of Poyntz.

From the ordinary course of law nothing could be hoped ; the statutes were clear and inflexibly rigorous ; it was not doubtful that Tyndale's writings contained many statements which the theologians of the day would condemn as heretical ; it was difficult to see on what grounds the English Sovereign could intervene ; and it was only from the special favour of the authorities in the Low Countries that any possibility of escape could be derived.

This only hope Cromwell was willing to try.

Within a few days of the dispatch of Poyntz' letter^ letters were prepared for two of the most influential members of the Imperial Government, Carondolet, Arch bishop of Palermo, the President of the Council, and ths Marquis of Bergen-op-Zoom.

These letters before being dispatched were submitted to the judgment of the man in England best acquainted with the policy of the Low

Countries, Stephen Vaughan, who, on the 4th of September, acknowledges the receipt of Cromwell's " two letters devised for Tyndale," which he promised to send to Flanders with all speed ; adding with a true appreciation of the gravity of the case, " it were good the King had one living in Flanders that were a man of reputation."'

Cromwell's letters have not been preserved, or, at least, have not been recovered, but it is not very difficult to conjecture what must have been their tenor.

The admirers of ' Clmpter-house Papers :

State Paper Office.

CromivelVs Intercession for Tyndale.

Tynclale have inveighed against the coolness and indifference of Henry and his ministers ; hut, in truth, however much Henry and Cromwell may have sympathised with the Reformer in his misfortunes, they had positively no ground whatever on which to interfere in his hehalf, and would only have precipitated his fate hy the active interference which the Reformer's biographers have counselled.

Nothing could be demanded as a matter of right except that Tyndale should have a legal trial : the only hope of escape lay in propitiating the favour of the Marquis of Bergen and the Archbishop of Palermo.

With both personages Cromwell had been associated in many friendly relations : a few months before, the English Secretary and the Archbishop had been named joint executors of the ambassador Hackett ;^ and from the friendship of two men of such influence in the Low Countries some effectual intervention might be hoped for.

The letters were sent to an English merchant in Antwerp, Robert Flegge, who was occasionally a correspondent of Cromwell," and from him we have the following account of the manner in which they were forwarded to their destination :—" Pleaseth it your Mastership to understand that the tenth day of this present month of September, was brought to me, by one George Collins, two letters sent by your Mastership as he reported, the one thereof directed

^ So it is stated in a letter of Thomas Leigh, Cotton MSS., GaTba, B. x.

^ On the 5th of September he had written to Cromwell an account of a " slanderous sermon " preached by a Black

Fi-iar in Antwerp, on the previous Sunday, August 29th.

The Sunday was the feast of the Decollation of John the Baptist ; and the preacher, in illustrating the Gospel for the day, had boldly compared Henry and Anne Boleyn to Herod and Herodias' daughter.

Flcggo remonstrated with the prior of the monastery, and by dint of determination and perseverance, he compelled the friar to appear again in the same pulpit the succeeding Sunday, and recant and apologise for the insults which ho had offered to the King and Queen of England.

See Cotton MSS., Oalba, B. x.

Can this have been another escapade of our old acquaintance, Doctor Buckenham ?

Result of CromwelVs Intercession.

to the Marquis of Barough [i.e., Bergen-op-Zoom], and the other to the Bishop [should be the Archbishop] of Palermo.

And when I understood that the said letters came from your Mastership, I did my best diligence to make inquiry Avhether the said lords were in the Court or not.

Then I was informed that the Marquis of Barough was departed two days before, towards Dutchland [German^'], as governor and ruler of the Princess of Denmark, to conduct her to her husband the Palsgrave.

And as I understood that he was so departed, then I could do no less, supposing that the said letters were of importance ; so have I sent one of our merchants [Poyntz, as will appear] after him with the said letters for the more surety to be delivered, and to bring the answer thereof.

Also I have written to the said Lord Marquis a letter, desiring him that in case there were in your said letters any matter of charge that your Mastership required to be done by him, then I desired him right humbly that he would vouchsafe to write to such of his friends in the Court, the which should do for you as much in his absence as [if] he were there present in person, in all such causes as your Mastership should have to do before the Queen of Hungary and the Council.

"Whereupon I have received a letter from the said Lord Marquis, wherein he writeth me that he is very sorry that it is his chance to be absent from the Court at this time, so that he cannot do for the King's Highness and for you such service as his good mind and will is to do

; and according to the tenor of your said letter also, he wrote me in his said letter that, according to my desire, he had written to his great friend the Bishop of Palermo, concerning your causes, in everything that he should for his sake in his absence do therein like as the matter extended to his own person ; for he is the man that may do most in this matter

Result of CromwelVs Intercession. of any other resident in the Court at this present time.

And so is come from my Lord the man that I sent the letters by, the bringer hereof, and brought with him both your letters and the Lord Marquis's, and delivered them to the said Lord of Palermo; desiring him of [i.e., for] his loving answer and expedition of the same.

Whereupon the Lord of Palermo spake with the Queen and the Council; and thereupon hath made you such answer by writing as this bringer shall deliver you ; the which I pray God may be to the King's pleasure and yours .... At Antwerp, the 22nd day of September, Anno. 1535."

Circumstances, it will be perceived, still seemed to conspire against Tyndale. Of Cromwell's friends only one was present on the spot to be of any service, and he the one who from education and profession was least likely to exercise his influence in the Reformer's favour.

Flegge's letter, it is clear, was not written in any spirit of confidence ; there was nothing indeed to encourage any sanguine anticipations of success ; and the cautious merchant could venture no higher than a hope that the letters which he transmitted to Cromwell might be to " the King's pleasure and his," a plain indication, it may be remarked in passing, that Cromwell had not moved in the matter without Henry's consent.

Poyntz, indefatigable in his efforts to save the life of his friend, had been employed to carry Cromwell's letters to the Marquis of Bergen, and his account, preserved in Foxe, is even more despondent in its tone than that of Flegge.

It is needless to make any pretensions to originality where every detail must be borrowed from the Martyrologist ; and the reader will doubtless prefer to peruse the nai-rative in the simple ' Cotton MSS., Galla, B. x.

The letter has been printed in a very mutilated form in Anderson's Annals, Vol. i. p. 429.

Poyntz' Attempt to save Tyndale.

phraseology in which Foxe has related it from the information of Poyntz himself:

** Not long after [the dispatch of letters from the Antwerp merchants soliciting the intervention of Henry], letters were directed out of England to the Council at Brussels, [^to two chief members of the Council], and sent to the merchants adventurers at Antwerp, commanding them to see that with speed they should be delivered.

Then such of the chiefest of the merchants as were there at that time, being called together, required the said Poyntz to take in hand the delivery of those letters, with letters also from them in the favour of Master Tyndale, to the Lord of Barrowe and others ; the which Lord of Barrowe (as it was told Poyntz by the way) at that time was departed from Brussels, as the chiefest conductor of the eldest daughter of the King of Denmark to be married to the Palsgrave, whose mother was sister to the Emperor, she being chief Princess of Denmark; who, after he heard of his departure, did ride after, the next [^nearest] way, and overtook him at Akon,^ where he delivered to him his letters the which when he had received and read, he made no direct answer, but somewhat objecting said, ' There were of their countrymen that were burned in England, not long before [May 25] ;' as indeed there were Anabaptists burnt in Smithfield ; and so Poyntz said to him, * Howbeit,' said he, * whatsover the crime was, if his Lordship or any other nobleman had written, requiring to have had them, he thought they should not have been denied.'

* Well,' said he, * I have no leisure to write ; for the Princess is ready to ride.'

Then said Ponytz, * If it shall please your Lordship, I will attend upon you unto the next baiting-place

; which was at Maestricht.

* If you so do,' said the Lord, ^ Akon, that is, Aiken, about fifteen miles from Maestricht.

44-1 Poyntz' attempt to save Tyndale.

* I will advise myself by the way, what to write.'

So Poyntz followed him from Akon [Aiken] to Maestricht, the which are fifteen English miles asunder ; and there he received letters of him, one to the Council there

[i.e., in Brussels], another to the company of the merchants adventurers, and another also to the Lord Cromwell.

So Poyntz rode from thence to Brussels, and then and there delivered to the Council the letters out of England, with the Lord of Barrowe's letters also ; and received eftsoons answer into England of the same by letters, which he brought to Antwerp to the English merchants, who required him to go with them into England ; and he, very desirous to have master Tyndale out of prison, let not for to take pains, with loss of time in his own business and occupying

; but diligently followed with the said letters, which he there delivered to the Council, and was commanded by them to tarry until he had other letters, of the which he was not dispatched thence in a month after, [i.e., not till the end of October] .

At length, the letters being delivered him, he returned again, and delivered them to the Emperor's Council at Brussels, and there tarried for answer of the same.

" When the said Poyntz had tarried three or four days, it was told him, of one that belonged to the chancery, that master Tyndale should have been delivered to him according to the tenor of the letters ; but Philips, being there, followed the suit against master Tyndale, and hearing that he should be delivered to Poyntz, and doubting lest he should be put from his purpose, he knew none other remedy but to accuse Poyntz, saying, that he was a dweller in the town of Antwerp, and there had been a succourer of Tyndale, and was one of the same opinion, and that all this was only his own labour and suit, to have master Tyndale at liberty, and no man's else.

Poyntz Himself imprisoned.

" Thus, upon his information and accusation, Poyntz was attached by the Procureur-General, and delivered to the keeping of two serjeants-of-arms ; and the same evening was sent to him one of the chancery with the ProcureurOeneral, who ministered unto him an oath, that he should truly make answer to all such things as should be inquired of him ; thinking they would have had no other examinations of him, but of his message.

The next day likewise they came again, and had him in examination, and so five or six days, one after another, upon not so few as an hundred articles, as well of the King's affairs as of the message concerning Tyndale, of his aiders and of his religion.

Out of the which examinations the Procureur-General drew twenty-three or twenty-four articles, and declared the same against the said Poyntz : the copy whereof he delivered to him to make answer thereunto, and permitted him to have an advocate and proctor.

And order was taken, that eight days after he should deliver unto them his answer ; and from eight days to eight days to proceed, till the process were ended; also that he should send no messenger to Antwerp, where his house was, nor to any other place but by the post of the town of Brussels; nor to send any letters, nor any to be delivered to him, but written in Dutch [Flemish] ; and the Procureur-General, who was party against him, to read them, to peruse, and examine them thoroughly, contrary to all right and equity, before they were sent or delivered.

Neither might any be suffered to speak or talk with Poyntz in any other tongue or language, except only in the Dutch tongue, so that his keepers, who were Dutchmen, might understand what the contents of the letters or talk should be ; saving that at one certain time the provincial of the White Friars came to dinner where

Poyntz was prisoner, and brought with him a young novice,

Poyntz imprisoned. being an Englishman, whom the provincial, after dinner, of his own accord did bid to talk with the said Poyntz, and so with him he was licensed to talk.

The purpose, and great policy therein, was easy to be perceived.

'"Between Poyntz and the novice was much pretty talk, as of Sir Thomas More, and of the Bishop of Rochester, and of their putting to death ; whose death he [the novice] seemed greatly to lament, especially dying in such a quarrel, worthy, as he said, to be accounted for martyrs with other noble doctrine, and deep learning in divinity, meet to feed swine withal [this is Foxe's remark not Poyntz'] : such blindness then in those days reigned amongst them.

"The eighth day, the commissioners that were ajipointed came to the house where Poyntz was kept, to have had his answer in writing.

He, making no great haste in proceeding, answereth them with a dilatory, saying, he was there a prisoner, and might not go abroad, so as, although he have appointed and named who to be a counsel with him, they came not to him, nor he could not go to them

; *nor none may come to give counsel in this matter, but such as be licensed and named by you.'

Then they gav& him a day to make answer against the next eighth day.

And Poyntz drew his own mind [stated his own opinions], answering to the whole declaration generally ; the which, at the next coming, he delivered them : but that answer they would not take, saying, he must answer to every article particularly : and so they took order, that he should make it ready against the next coming, thus he trifled them off from Hallowtidc [November 1] until Christmaseven, with dilatories from eighth day to eighth day.

And upon Christmas-even, in the morning, they came to him to have had answer, the which was not made, nor any

Trial of Poyntz.

counsel came to liim in all that time ; liowbeit tliey would delay the time no longer, Lut said they, ' Bring in your answer this day, or else ye shall be put from it.'

So he perceived that if it were not brought in that night he should have been condemned Avithout answer.

So then, mth much ado, he got the advocate to help him in ordering of his answer ; but it was long or [ere] he came, so that it was past eight o'clock of Christmas-even before his answer were delivered to the Procureur-General. And then after, as the time served, at the days appointed, went forth with replication duplic, [answers, and replies to answers] with other answers each to other, in writing what they could in answering to the Emperor's ordinances.

And at such time as the commissioners came to Poyntz, that traitor Philips accompanied them to the door in following the process against him, an lie also did against Master Tyndale, as they who had Poyntz in keeping showed him.

" The process being ended, as the order is there, either party delivered up to the commissioners a bag, with his process in writing, and took an inventory of every parcel [piece] of writing that was within the bag.

So it rested in their hands : but upon sentence, Poyntz required in tho time of process, that he might put in surety and to be at liberty : the which they granted him at the first time ; but afterwards they denied to take surety for his body.

And then [i.e., at the first time when they were willing to take security] he sent a post from the town of Brussels [where he was confined] to Antwerp to the English merchants, thinking they would not let him have stick for lack of their, help in putting in sureties for him, considering the cause with the circumstance ; and for that they put him thereto themselves [i.e., they had themselves set him to that work], although they had \j.e., as they declared] made him no

Poyntz determines to escape from Prison. promise for liis charges and pains taken, as Poyntz reportetli of them that they did indeed, the which as yet he hath to make it appear [i.e., he can still show written proof that they had promised to defray his charges]

" But, to pass over this and to make the matter short ; if the foresaid merchants such as were of the town of Antwerp had, at the time, been surety for him, then the matter had been altered from crime to civil; but when Poyntz had delivered to them his answer, they demanded of him for his charges [expenses of keeping him], money or sureties.

The charges was much to reckon for the two officers' meat and drink and wages, besides his own charges ; so as it was about five shillings every day.

For all the while he was prisoner, he was not in a common prison, but in the keeping of two ofiicers in one of their houses.

So they demanded sureties to be brought within eight days for the charges ; but then they denied him to take surety for his body [i.e., declined to release him on bail] to make answer at liberty.

Poyntz, considering that they altered in their purposes, as well by more [i.e. in other particulars] as in that; and perceiving by other things, as also it was told in secret, it would have cost him his life if he had tarried ; yet Poyntz granted them to put in sureties, requiring of them to have a messenger to send not for that he reckoned to have any, but to make dilatory, or else they would have sent him to a stronger prison.

But Poyntz delayed them, thinking, if he could, to make a scape ; yet he did make a good face, as though he reckoned to have been in no danger, which if he had not so done, it was very unlike he should have escaped with his life out of their hands.

And at the eighth day, the commissioners came again to Poyntz and there received both their bags, with the process, one of the Procureur-General and one of

Poyntz escapes from Prison.

Poyntz, delivering either of tliern an inventory of sucli pieces of writing as were delivered in the hags ; and demanded sureties of Poyntz, according to the order they took when they were last with him.

Poyntz alleged that he had divers times required them which had him in keeping to get him a messenger ; as he also had done, hut made no great haste to have any, for he reckoned it should he a sufficient dilatory, wherehy to have another day.

And with such alleging of the impossibility for that he could get no messenger to send forth, at the last they put him apart and agreed to give him a day eight days after, and called him in again, and commanded the officer to get him one ; as they did.

And so Poyntz sent him with letters to the English merchants, the which at that time were at Barrow [at the fairs probably].

Howbeit he reckoned to prove [i.e., to try] to get away before the return again of the messenger, for he perceived his tarrying there should have been his death ; and therefore, to put in a venture to get away, and so he might save himself ; for if he had been taken [in his attempt to escape], it would have been but death, for he had been prisoner there in their hands at that time about twelve or thirteen weeks.

So he tarried not the coming again of the messenger, but, in a night, by a mean, he conveyed himself, and so by God's help, at the opening of the town gate in the morning gat away.

And when it was perceived that he was gone, there was horse sent out after him, but by the means that he knew well the country, he escaped and came into England."'

Such was the abortive termination of Poyntz' determined effijrt to save the life of Tyndale.

To rescue his friend from the danger that threatened him, he had spared no pains, and he had shrunk from no peril.

Dis- * Foxe : first edition.

G G

Failure of the Attempt to save Tymlalc. regarcTiug liis own mercantile pursuits, lie had been during the months of September and October completely engrossed in furthering the efforts of Cromwell to procure Tyndale's release.

The whole labour of communicating with the Marquis of Barrow and the Council at Brussels had been devolved upon him, and he had cheerfully undertaken it.

We are disposed to believe that he was misled by his own ardent wishes when he imagined that there was any real prospect of Tyndale's release ; but it is clear that he was the soul of all the attempts that were made to procure the Reformer's liberty.

No other was willing to undergo labour or loss, or to incur personal dangers ; and when he was imprisoned all active efforts to release Tyndale seem to have been suspended if not abandoned.

Everything, it will be seen, still combined to make the prospects of Tyndale's escape as gloomy as possible.

The English Sovereign, it must be repeated, had no legitimate ground for interfering

; and his conduct in executing several of the Emperor's subjects for heresy was, of course, a fatal obstacle to the success of his intervention in the present instance, however earnestly he might plead for mere}-.

The regent of the Low Countries was evidently offended at Cromwell's foreign policy ; the Archbishop of Palermo and the Marquis of Barrow were too skilful courtiers to sacrifice the goodwill of the Emperor by extending their patronage to a "heretic; " and the arrest of Poyntz completed the overthrow of Tyndale's hopes by removing from the scene the most active and energetic of all his friends.

The narrative of Poyntz' proceedings has been given at full length, notwithstanding the somewhat prolix and uninteresting style in which Foxe has related it, partly as a fitting tribute to the disinterested friend who so nobly adventured his own life to save that of Tyndale, and partly

Failure of the Attempt to save Tyndalc.

because it contains numerous and authentic details of the customary process in trials for heresy, which arc doubly interesting in the absence of any contemporary account of the trial of the illustrious translator.

Poyntz seems to have been imprisoned for nearly four months, from the middle of November 1535, to the middle of March 1536; and among the Archives of the Council of Brabant there is still preserved one interesting souvenir of his escape, in the shape of a fine of eighty pounds inflicted upon his jailer, John Baers, for having through " carelessness and negligence," allowed him to break out and get away.^ On his escape he returned to England, and doubtless watched for any opportunity of again renevring his eiforts for Tyndale's release ; but all was vain.

Cromwell had done what he could, without effect ; and Henry was too busy in the pursuit of his matrimonial adventures, to listen to any proposals for interesting himself once more in the Reformer's favour. In the first year of the reign of Edward vi.

Poyntz succeeded his brother John in his Manor of North Ockenden, in Essex, and here he resided till 1562

; but he never forgot his association ^vith Tyndale, and his epitaph records the dangers to which he had been exposed by his zeal for the cause of the Gospel, and gratefully recognises the Divine Providence which saved him from imminent death."

To return to Tyndale thus left helpless in Vilvorde, it * The original -will he found with tho other Flemish documents in tho

Appendix : and I have to express my obligations for tho discovery of this small but nob uninteresting fact, which so completely corroborates the narrative of Foxo, to the kind courtesy of II.

Piot of tho Ai-chives, Brussels.

- " Hie pro fidelissimo principia sui servitio, ac ardentissimA. evangelica) veritatis professionc, vinculaet incarcorationes intransmarinis rcgionibus passus est, adeo ut csedi jam plan5 destinatus esset, nisi DivinA. frctua providcntiA, occasiono o carccro mirilicii sibi prospexisset."

See tho family history at greater length in Anderson's Annals, Vol.

I., pp. 521', etc.

G G 2

Trial of Ttjiulalc. is evident tliat his trial had been considerably delayed by the difiBculty of procuring evidence against him.

Doubtless Dufief had seized among his books many of the prohibited works of the German Reformers, the possession of Avhich would expose him to the penalties of the persecuting edicts of Charles v.

; but it was further deemed necessary to procure evidence of his heretical opinions from his own writings, and as these were exclusively in English, they were inaccessible to the theologians of the Low

Countries.

Some considerable time, therefore, must have been spent in translating Tyndale's works from English into Latin but, this once accomplished, the Doctors of Louvain would not have much difficulty in selecting passages that were inconsistent with the doctrines and practices of the Church of Rome.

" The Wicked Mammon," " The Obedience,"

" The Practice of Prelates," " The Answer to Sir Thomas More," abounded with doctrinal statements which the Church of Rome had frequently condemned as heresy, and still more with sharp and sweeping denunciations of rites and ordinances which the Church maintained to be laudable and edifying.

It was an easy task, therefore, to draw up articles against him, such as would leave little doubt of the issue of a trial conducted by Romanists, bound to judge by the recognised standards of Romish teaching.

By the ordinances of the Emperor the trial of cases of heresy was withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the ordinary local magistrates, and was assigned to special commissioners nominated b}^ the Emperor himself or his representative, and generally consisting of some of the members of the Council of Brabant, some local authorities, and a few theologians to aid the laymen by their special knowledge of the subjects contro-

Commission to try Tyndale.

vertecT.* In the case of Tyndale, the commission was nominated by the Regent, Mary of Hungary, and the names of its chief members, hitherto unsuspected in England, Ave are now fortunately able to give from official documents.From the Council of Brabant, the customary number of four members was selected, Godefroid de Meyere, Charles T'Serraets, Theobald Cotereau, and Jacques Boonen some local dignitaries, probably from Antwerp, were added and four theologians completed the list.

These last were taken from the neighbouring University of Louvain, then, as now, the great head-quarters and metropolis of the Catholicism of the Low Countries ; and two of their number, the chief opponents of Tyndale, were men of sufficient reputation to justify a short sketch of their history and character Foremost among the accusers of Tyndale, and most unrelenting in his opposition to him, was Ruwart Tapper, Doctor of Theology, Chancellor of the University of Louvain, and Dean of the chief church of the city, that noble Church of St.

Peter, Avhose unlinished and half-ruinous tower forms such a picturesque contrast to the exquisite beauty of the Hotel de Yille which lies at its base.

Born at Enkhuisen, in Holland, about 1488, and therefore nearly * In May, 1534, exactly a ycai* before Tyiulale'a an-est, tlio sheriffs of Mons had addressed a rcmonstranco to tlie Emperor against what they considered the extravagant assumptions of the special commissioners at)pointed to try heretics, who claimed the right of judging without the intervention of the local magistrates.

Charles, however, would not accede to the prayer of their letter, but reiterated his appointment that the commissioners should enjoy the powers which they claimed : ho at the same time seems so far to have modified his opinion as usually to join a few of the local magistrates with the commissioners.

MiUnolres d' Eusinas :

Pieces JusHficatives, No. i.

The ordinary form of an ordinance for nominating a commission for the trial of heretics is given in the same volume, in the original Flemish, with a translation, p. 290.

- The document is among the Archives in the Chambre des Cornptes at Brussels ; and is given in the Appendix, iu the original, with a translation.

Character of Tapper. of the same age as Tyndale, he had distinguished himself at the University of Louvain by his devotion to the study of theology, and speedily acquired a great reputation for learning in this department.

** His house," says an admirer, ''was the oracle of the whole of Belgium ; " and Avhen he was subsequently sent to assist in the deliberations of the Council of Trent, he was, out of compliment to his learning, usually asked to deliver his opinions immediately after the pontifical theologians.

But above everything he was conspicuous for his untiring and unsparing zeal in opposing and suppressing the encroachments of Protestantism.

This was the one great purpose of his life.

The only reformation that was needed, in his opinion, was the strict and relentless enforcement of the discipline which the ancient canons of the Church had enacted.

He hated all novelty ; and he spared none who presumed to diverge, in doctrine or practice, from the narrow groove of the Church's traditions.

Even his panegyrists admit that he was commonly charged with extreme severity ; and he is said to have openly avowed the maxim, "It is no great matter, whether they that die on account of religion be guilty or innocent, provided we terrify the people by such examples ; which generally succeeds best when persons eminent for learning, riches, nobility, or high station, are thus sacrificed."

It was in the spirit of this abominable maxim that he acted ; and from such a man Tyndale had little mercy to expect.

His portrait, arrayed in his robes as Chancellor of the University, still hangs on the walls of the entrance-hall of the Library at Louvain ; and the narrow intolerant face presents to the eye, even of an unpractised physiognomist, indisputable confirmation of the popular theory of his character.

He looks the heau-ideal of an inquisitor

Tapper and Lathomus.

and, indeed, within a few months of Tyndale's death, and probably by way of reward for his prominent share in that transaction, he was appointed by the pope chief inquisitor in the Low Countries ; and the annals of his achievements in this capacity were written in terrible characters of blood and fire, which long secured for his memory an unhappy notoriety.^ With Ruwart Tapper was associated one even more celebrated for his skill in theological dialectics, Jacques Masson or Lathomus.

A native of Hainault, and some thirteen years older than Tapper, he had at first prosecuted his studies at the University of Paris.

He subsequently, hov/ever, removed to Louvain, where he took his degree of Doctor of Theology in 1519, with the greatest eclat, the whole of the expense being defrayed by the zeal of his scholars.

**A pigmy in body, he was," says a modern enthusiastic student of Louvain, " a giant in intellect."

He was the very impersonation of scholasticism ; a subtle, hardheaded. Doctor of the schools, whom no theological refinements could perplex, and no antagonist could silence.

His grim and austere portrait impresses the beholder with the idea that he must have been a merciless enemy, and such is the character given of him by some of the contemporary

* I have thought it not nndesirablo, for tho purpose of the biography, to insert this notice of the character of a man so intimately connected with Tyndale's trial and death, and who, though well known in the literature of the Low Countries seems absolutely unknown in England.

Materials for a life of him may bo found in Foppens, Miraeus, Lindanus, and others ; and a very readable, though of course extravagantly panegj^rical

<Sloge, was inserted in the Annuaire de V Universitf^ Catholique dc Lotivain for 1854.

Tapper died of chagrin, it is said, at the cavalier treatment he received from PhiliiJ ii., and was buried in the choir of his church at Louvain : his monument has long since disappeared, and his epitaph exists only in the pages of Foppens.

He bequeathed his library to the University, and I at ono time hoped to find some of Tyndale's missing papers among his collection ; but all has long since been carried off.

I must not omit to express my gratitude for tho courtesy of the llev.

Professor lluescns, the librarian of the University.

Dufief, the ProcureiirGeneral.

Protestants of the Low Countries.

It is only justice, however, to Lathomus, to admit that in his controversy with Tyndale he exhibits none of that bitterness and ferocity then only too common in all theological debates.

Possibly this may have been owing to the favourable impression which Tyndale's transparent simplicity and honesty seem to have made on all who came into personal contact with him ; indeed, if we may believe contemporaiy authorities, Tyndale's words produced a deep and ineffaceable result on the mind of Lathomus ; and in his last moments he was overwhelmed with regret at the recollection of the part which he had then undertaken to play.^

Pierre Dufief, the Procureur-General, was almost officially bound to be rigorous and severe in the prosecution of heretics ; he was certainly doubly interested in procuring a conviction, for he thus at once secured the favour of the Emperor, and obtained a share in the confiscated goods of the condemned.

Contemporaries who suffered, themselves or their friends, from his rigour, have painted him in terrible colours :

Eusinas, who had too good reason for knowing him, calls him "a bloody beast," "a man whose cruelty was equal to his wickedness : " and modern historians are inclined to believe that these charges, '

I repeat the anecdote without vouching for its truth.

"Jacobus Lathomus, omnium theologorum Lovaniensium, sine coutroversia, princeps, posteaquam stulta et puerili concione quam Bruxella) habuit coram Imperatore, se toti aula> ridendum exhibuisset, mox ubi Lovaninm rediit, pernicioso qnodam furore correptus, coepit insanire, ac in ipsa etiam publicA pra>lectione voces edere plenas desperationis atque impietatis.

Quod cum cajteri theologi animadvertissent, pra3cipue Ruardus Enchusanus [i.e., Tapper], homo miserabili balbutie, et crudelitate atque impietate inaudita, apprehenderunt furentem Lathomum, eumque domi clausum tenuerunt.

Ab eo tempore usque ad postremum. spiritum nihil aliud clamavit Lathomus quam "se condemnatum esse, se a Deo rejectum esse, nee ullam spom salutis aut venial sibi amplius esse rcliquam, ut qui veritatem agnitam impugnasset."

This ancedote, which undoubtedly refers to Tyndale, is given by H.

Janssen, in his Jacobus rrw;positus, on the authority of Diaz.

Trial of Tyndale.

though probably exaggerated, rest on a foimdation of fact.^ It was he that was entrusted with the prosecution of Tyndale, as it was he that had by an unworthy stratagem, seized him at Antwerp, and it was not likely that in such hands the trial would be characterised by any excessive clemency to the unfortunate prisoner.

The records of the inquisitions for heresy in the Low Countries of that period have in general been preserved among the Archives of Belgium.

The Court proceeded with the customary forms of law, and all its transactions were recorded with the ordinary copiousness of legal documents.

Beyond any question, this practice was followed in the process against Tyndale ; but hitherto, the most careful research has failed to discover this official contemporary account of his trial.

It does not exist among the records of the Council of Brabant at Brussels ; it may have been, for some special reasons, destroyed ; or it may have been removed and lost in the confusion incident to a country which has had four changes of masters since Tyndale's time ; but it does not seem absurd to hope that it may yet be by some happy accident recovered.

Meantime, in the absence of this actual authentic record of the trial, as it was, we are compelled to describe it as it may have been.

And for this purpose materials of unquestionable authority fortunately exist in abundance.

The narrative of Poyntz, as given by Foxe, makes sufficiently clear the general order that was observed ; records of

Mc'mcires d'Eusinas:, p. 95. M. Campaii, tlio editor, admits that tliero are good grounds for tho accusation : and M.

Galesloot believes that he was compelled to resign his office for extortion and peculation

: La Dame de Grand-Bigard, p. 22.

- The Archives at Brnsscls havo been carefully searched by M.

Galesloot, whoso article on Tyndale in tho Revue 'I'riinestrielle, might well put to shame the ijjnorant presumption of many of Tyndale's countrymen.

Procedure in Trials for Heresy. similar trials have been preserved ; and, what is of special value, we possess authentic accounts by an eye-witness, of trials conducted by the same prosecutor, aided by the same theologians, before some of the same judges, for the same offence, only seven years after Tyndale's martyrdom, and therefore so closely corresponding in most of the essential circumstances, that they may be employed with confidence to fill up the meagi-e outline which alone has come down to us of the last scenes of the great Reformer's life.i The following description, for example, of the trial of a priest for heresy, may with scarce a single variation be received as applicable to Tyndale.

" To inspire terror into the people it was resolved to produce the accused in public.

For this purpose a large hall in the castle was prepared, in the midst of which a platform of some elevation was erected, that the people might the more easily witness what was to be transacted.

And as the judges were apprehensive of disturbance from the bystanders, who v.-ere somewhat inclined to the opinions of the Eeformers, and were well aware that they were hated by the common people, they procured the assistance of the magistrates to protect them with an armed guard.

When all preparations were finished, the unfortunate accused was led on to the platform, accompanied by a crowd of armed men

: a man of diminutive stature, with a long beard, pale, thin, almost exhausted by distress and insufiicient food, more like a ^ I refer to the Memoirs of Etisinas, published by the Historical Society of Belgium, under the editorial care of M. Campan, and provided with an ample appendix of illustrative documents of great interest and unquestionable authority.

I make no apology for referring so frequently to a work of so much value, especially as it is of extreme rarity.

The work of Pantallon in which it appeared iu the sixteenth century is not to be found either in the British iluscum or iu the Bodleian.

Procedure in Trials for Heresy.

dead body or a shadow than a living man.^ He was followed by the Rectors of the University, and by Jacques Lathomns and Ruwart Tapper. A crowd of spectators were present at the scene.

The distinguished Doctors and other judges took their seats on the platform; the rest sat around them ; and the accused was placed in the midst.

Silence was proclaimed ; and then the president stated the cause of the Assembly, and recapitulated the offences with which the accused was charged.

He had been arrested for many great heresies ; his chamber had been searched, and prohibited books had been found in great numbers

; and he had himself composed many treatises containing heretical opinions, which had been widely circulated.

The articles alleged against him were then recited :

"First, he had maintained that faith alone justifies ; Second, he maintained that to believe in the forgiveness of sins and to embrace the mercy offered in the Gospel, was enough for salvation ; Third, he averred that human traditions cannot bind the conscience, except where their neglect might occasion scandal

Fourth, he denied the freedom of the will Fifth, he denied that there is any purgatory

Sixth, he affirmed that neither the Virgin nor the Saints pray for us in their own person Seventh, he asserted that neither the Virgin nor the Saints should be invoked by us."

That these and many more articles, judged heretical, could be selected from the Vvi-itings of Tyndale, no one who has read this biography can be ignorant

; these formed '

It was Paul do Roovere, ono of tho chaplains of St.

Peter's, at Lonvain, that Eusinas saw, but every word of the description applies literally to Tyndale :

I subjoin tho original, " Homo, porpusillus, barbi prominent!, cxsanguis, niacilentus, dolore atque inediii pene consuniptus, qucm tabefactum cadaver aut umbram homiuis non hominem jure appellaro potuisses."

Process ogaliist Tyndale. a prominent part of the religious teaching which his countrymen had for some years been accustomed to associate with his name, and must of necessity have formed as prominent a part of any accusation of heresy brought against him.

On this point, however, we do not need to rely upon inferences even from the best-informed contemporaries; evidence of a more direct kind will speedily be produced.

According to the customary process of justice then followed, Tyndale was offered the services of an advocate and an attorney, that he might avail himself of every possibility of escape which legal ingenuity could discover during the course of the trial.

He declined, however, to employ their services ; the hour had come which he had so long anticipated, and he was prepared, with God's help, to act in accordance with the counsel which, three years before, he had given to his " dearly beloved son in the faith," John Fryth.

He resolved, therefore, to defend himself; and as the whole process was conducted in writing, some months were occupied in paper warfare between him and the theologians of Louvain.

"There was much writing," says Foxe, "and great disputation to and fro between him and them of the University of Louvain, in such sort that they all had enough to do, and more than they could well wield, to answer the authorities and testimonies of the Scripture, whereupon he most pithily grounded his doctrine."

Tyndale's part in this discussion has not been preserved, at least has not been recovered ; but the reply of his chief antagonist, Lathomus, has been printed among his collected writings, and from this treatise, with the help of a little patience and ingenuity, we are able to give a brief summary of the disputation which issued in Tyndale's condemnation and martyrdom.

AH'icles against Tymlale.

It was the old question of justification by faith whicli had formed the chief theme of discussion, and this was apparently the sole subject of the first treatise which Tyndale wrote in his own defence.

Faith alone justifies before God (Fides sola justificat apud Deum).

Such was the motto of Tyndale's treatise ; and he treated this fundamental assertion as he had already done in his "Parable of the Wicked Mammon," maintaining that it was the cardinal axiom of the New Testament, and applying it to the question of human merit with the most fearless and rigorous logic.

" The key of the saving knowledge of Scripture," he asserts, **is this: God gives us all things freely through Christ without regard to our works ; or in other words, faith in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ, by the grace and works of Christ, and without any regard to any merit or goodness of our works, alone justifies us in the sight of God."

This assertion he perpetually repeated in his treatise as the foundation of all his religious system ; he defended it with clear and cogent arguments ; and he pushed it to its logical conclusions with a boldness from which many who hold the doctrine of justification by faith would, now-adays, be inclined to shrink.

He denied any distinction between works whicli preceded justification and those which followed it, as regarded their power to merit anything from God {vim et efiicaciam merendi) ; for works which followed justification did not increase the inward goodness of a man but only manifested it openly.

" The fruit that grows on a tree," he said, " does not make a tree good or bad, it only makes known Avhether the tree is a good or a bad tree ; and works do not make a man good or bad, they only make it plain to other men whether

Tyndalc's Defence of Illinsclf. tlio man who performs them is good or had.

There is an inward justification of a man before God which is by faith alone ; works serve only to make his justification known ; " and it was this distinction, Tyndale mainbefore men tained, which explained the apparent discrepancy between the teaching of St. Paul and St.

James; for the one spoke of inward justification before God, the other of outward justification before men.

As to human merit, Tyndale asserted that it was not only denied by Scripture, in express words, but that it was inconsistent with reason.

" How could man merit anything from God ?" he asked.

** God needs not our works they confer no benefit upon Him ; they are all His gifts, and it is we alone who derive any advantage from them.

What claim, therefore, can we have to be rewarded by God for them ?

The patient who drinks a bitter draught deserves nothing from the physician on that account ; he has conferred no benefit upon the physician ; it is the patient, in fact, that reaps all the good, how then can he establish any ground of merit with the physician ?

And if we perform some difficult and disagreeable duty which the great Physician assigns to us, how can we thereby merit any reward from Him ?

He is not benefited thereby ; it is He that has enabled us to perform the duty, and the performance of it redounds not to His advantage but to ours."

Such were the main topics of Tyndale's defence of his opinions, as they can be gleaned from the refutation of his opponent.

Lathomus, the champion of Louvain, replied, in a brief treatise, characterised by singular clearness and by a tone of moderation towards his antagonist which was as laudable as it was rare in those days of fierce debate.

To a lp.rge extent, much larger than would be quite agreeable to his brother theologians at Louvain, he admitted

Reply of LatJiomus.

tliat he agreed with Tyndale on the subject debated ; but he joined issue with him on the question of the merit of good works.

** Scripture," he maintained, *' repeatedly spoke of human actions as meriting reward ; our Lord had taught that the hibourers in His vineyard would at last receive their hire, and had promised a reward in heaven to those who were persecuted for Him on earth

; St. Paul had declared that God would render to every man according to his deeds, he had animated the Galatians by the assurance that in due season they should reap if they fainted not, and he had encouraged the Hebrews to bear their trials with patience by having regard to the "great recompense of reward^ He denied as strongly as T3'ndale had done that any amount of good works could in any sense merit justification ; but he maintained that in the passages he had quoted.

Scripture was speaking of good works done' after justification ; and these, he asserted, merited the reward of heaven.^ His reply to Tyndale's illustration of the tree and its fruit was unwontedly weak; but his treatment of the other illustration, the physician and his patient, is more creditable to his skill as a theological disputant.

"If," says he, "the physician in your illustration be a King, and if he has solemnly promised that he will make any one who entrusts himself to bo healed by his only son, co-heir with that son, that he will treat him as a friend, that he will admit him to his table and will bestow other blessings upon him simply because it is his good pleasure so to do ; in this case the sick man who obeys this law deserves the inheritance, and demands it as of right; not because, in submitting himself to be * He says, very concisely, oipera prcecedentia non mercntur justifica' tionem, opera vero sequentia merentur heatitvdinem.

Reply of Lathomus. curetT and in voluntarily taking the medicines to cure him, he does anything that henefits the King, but because he has complied with the express will of the King."

" Moreover," he proceeded, " unless you admit the truth of this reasoning you will be unable to defend the merits of the man Christ Jesus, which you so properly preach and magnify; for He came into the world to fulfil the will of the Father, not to confer upon the Father any benefit, for nothing would have been wanting to the Father's happiness if Christ had never become man, and He might have saved man in other ways."

It was also derogatory to the justice of God, he objected, to assert that God renders nothing for good merits ; for in this case God's justice at the great day would be manifested only towards the had, whom he would punish justly according to their deserts, whereas the good would be rewarded altogether without any regard to their works.

These are the main positions in Lathomus's reply to Tyndale ; and they are enforced and illustrated chiefly by quotations from Scripture, (interpreted, it is true, sometimes in a somewhat peculiar manner) ; for it is not unworthy of note that the Fathers are veiy rarely referred to or cited, Lathomus had commenced his reply by enumerating in detail the various points of the controversy on which he was perfectly agreed with Tyndale; and the reader is probably of opinion that by the help of a little care in defining the terms employed, even a still greater amount of unanimity might have been achieved.

This, however, was but one of almost innumerable points of difference, practical as well as doctrinal, which separated

Tyndale from the Church of Rome.

In replying to Lathomus, accordingly, which he did at

Tyndale's Ilejo'inder to Lathomiis.

considerable length/ Tyndale not only re-stated his arguments on faith and good works with fresh illustrations but entered into the general controversy, and expressed his mind freely on all those great questions which for many years had occupied his thoughts.

On the former subject of debate he repeated, in still more explicit terms than before, his fundamental proposition that God the Father gives us all things for Christ so freely, that He gives nothing from regard to any work of ours, whether internal or external.*

Instead of conceding anything to Lathomus, or indicating any desire to draw nearer to him in his opinions, he repudiated more forcibly than ever the idea that man, whether before or after justification, could do anything that had merit before God.

Such an opinion seemed to him absolutel}' incompatible with the relation of dependence subsisting between man and God ; it seemed to imply that man could do something without the help of the grace of God, or could perform something more than he was bound to perform towards God.

Putting his case in the strongest and boldest manner he declared that, if God had bestowed upon St.

Paul immediately after his conversion all the perfection which his soul now enjoys or will enjoy after the resurrection, and yet had determined that he should still continue in the world and do what he actually did in his career as a teacher, he would not by all his works have merited anything in the sight of God, any more than the angels in heaven merit anything by their ministering to us in our salvation.

"It is the grace of God," he again and again repeated, "that does everything; '

Prolixe, says Lathomus in his answer.

' Tyndale's words had been :

" Deus Pater omnia dat ita gratia per Christum, ut nullius oiJoris respectu, sive propter nulhim opus internum

Tel externum quicquam det."

I havo not thouglit it necessary to print all that I havo gleaned as Tyndale's words from Lathomus, but I havo in no case ascribed anything to Tyndale without the fullest warrant.

H H

46G Tyndalc^s Eejoincle)' to Lathomus. without Him we can do nothing ; it is God that works ; we are but the instruments, we deserve no reward for what God does by us, and can claim no merit for it, any more than we should dream of ascribing any merit to the sling and stone and sword with which David slew Goliath."

He had no wish, he protested, to wrangle about words ; but when Scripture said so plainly that God bestowed upon men eternal life of His free grace ; when it was so obviously true that we owed to God everything that we could do, and that He would be inflicting no injustice upon us in refusing to give us eternal life; how could it be with any conscience pretended that man, even after he was justified, could claim heaven as of right, or could suppose that anything he did had any merit in God's sight ?

The word merit, as used by his antagonist, was employed, he averred, in a corrupted sense, different from that in which it was customarily used among men, and therefore he called upon Lathomus to define accurately what he meant by merit, that his language might no longer deceive his hearers.

Finally, he concludes this branch of his argument with the assertion, ** Works are the very last things which the law requires of us, and they do not fulfil the law of God ; in our work we are always sinning, and our thoughts are impure ; that charity which should fulfil the law is colder in us than ice; it is only hy faith, therefore, that we live whilst we are in the flesh ; it is by faith we overcome the world ; for this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith in God through Jesus Christ, that His love who overcame all the temptations of the devil shall be imputed to us : the promise, therefore, is of faith, that it may be sure to all believers, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified before God."

The other subjects disputed between Tyndale and the

TyndaWs Rejoinder to Lathomus.

theologians are very briefly indicated by Lathomus ; the reader, if he has not entirely forgotten the "Obedience" and " The Practice of Prelates," will scarcely need to be told what they were, or how Tyndale had expressed himself upon them.

The i^oicer of the keys had been debated ; and Tyndale, it seems, had given offence by declaring that those only who possessed charity and the graces of the Christian life could have the power of the keys ; and he had even maintained that a layman who showed to a sinner the just sentence of condemnation, and thus made him flee to the grace of God, possessed the power of opening and shutting the kingdom of heaven as truly as any of the clergy.

He had maintained that a bishop Avho, instead of being blameless, was a drunkard, or a striker, or unchaste, either ceased to be a bishop, or at least ceased to have any claim upon the obedience of the laity.

The subject of voics had been discussed, and fasting, and invocation of the saints, and reverencing the relics of saints, and images, and purgatory, and the supremacy of the pope ; and we do not need to be told what opinions

Tyndale entertained on such subjects as these ; it is superfluous to say that on such topics Tyndale was irreconcilably at variance with those who Avere now sitting in judgment upon him, with full power of life and death.

The reply of Lathomus to this second defence was by no means equal to his previous production.

It is, perhaps, slightly more bitter in its tone towards Tyndale, though still most commendably free from the prevalent exasperation of theological controversy; but there is also an absence of that closeness of argumentation by which his former work hud been distinguished.

He does not grapple so closely as before with the question of merit, feeling probably that between him and Tyndale there was an H H 2

l>clay hi Tyndale's Trial. irreconcilable difference on this point which argument could not hope to reach ; and on the other vast branch of the controversy he contents himself -with repeating, in somewhat i)ompous but unimpressive language, the tenets of the " Catholic, orthodox, Roman Church."

So long as the discussion was confined to doctrinal questions a skilful disputant was able to prolong it indefinitely; one text of Scripture could be quoted against another

; one system of interpretation could be set in array against another ; objections could be started, weak points might be assaulted, difficulties could be evaded ; but against such an antagonist as Tyndale it was hopeless to think of defending the manifold practical abuses that had so long deformed the fiice of religion.

Sir Thomas More had not ventured upon the task, and Lathomus was too wise to undertake it.

These abuses could not be defended except by violence and force ; nothing could be said in their favour except that the Church had sanctioned them, and that the State threatened the severest penalties against any one who presumed to call them in question.

These discussions must necessarily have occupied a considerable time.

The process had not begun for some months after Tyndale's arrest, apparently not till after the seizure of Poyntz ; and, making due allowance for the customary slow progress of the Council in such proceedings, it seems not improbable that this written discussion occupied the gi-eater part of the commencement of the year 1536.

In courts where evei-ything was conducted in writing, the progress Avas of necessity slow ; and no doubt Cromwell's intervention had caused more deliberation than usual in Tyndale's case.

Still, all this delay, it must have been evident, could only protract the sentence without in anv wav altering its character.

It was certain

The End approaching.

and indisputable from the first that, according to their definition of heresy, Tyndale was a heretic ; they could scarcely expect from his antecedent career that he would retract his opinions ; and it must, therefore, have been evident from the beginning that the trial could have no other issue than that to which, after long discussion, it was manifestly approaching.

Even if his judges had wished to save him there was no loophole of escape : acting as administrators of the law, the case was to them one of perfect simplicity; the sovereign as the fountain of justice and mercy might use his prerogative in Tyndale's favour, but subordinate officers had no course open to them except to pronounce that Tyndale had clearly broken the law, and had, in consequence, exposed himself to all its penalties.

There was small probability that the Emperor would relent ; every year he was waxing more fierce and sanguinary in his treatment of all who differed from the Church: but if we may judge from the narrative of Foxe, there seems to have been a reluctance on the part of some of those concerned in the trial to proceed to extremities ; and but for the persistent instigation of Philips, who, " with constant diligence to and fro, and from Louvain to Brussels and to Vilvorde " kept urging on the process, the prosecution might have been suspended, and the prisoner after some delay might have been released.

The reader will naturally inquire whether in the meantime England had entirely forgotten Tyndale, and whether the authorities had during this long interval made no further efi'ort to obtain his release.

And, we fear, it must be replied, that those in England who alone could render him any assistance, were so much engrossed in their own affairs, that they allowed matters in the Low Countries to take their own course.

Any intervention, except that of

CromwelVs Attempt to seize Philips.

Henry or of Cromwell, would have been hopelessly futile and in those long weary months of the spring of 1536, when Tyndale was painfully debating with the Louvain Doctors, Henry was flirting with Jane Seymour, and organising schemes for detecting and punishing the real or alleged guilt of Anne Boleyn ; and Cromwell, whose master, Wolsey, had been shipwrecked by Henry's former matrimonial difficulties, was too painfully aware of the critical position in which he was placed, to have either leisure or inclination to occupy himself seriously with Tyndale's misfortunes.

One party in England might, indeed, have done something to deliver the Eeformer from the unrelenting persecution of Philips.

The extreme Komish party who had doubtless set this bloodhound on the track, and who supplied him with funds, might have withdrawn his resources and so at once paralysed his efforts ; but from them, of course, no such intervention was to be expected.

Probably of all the schemes for aiding Tyndale, this last was at once the simplest and the most likely to succeed.

It was the malice of an individual that had set in motion the machinery of the lav/ against the Reformer, and if that individual could be cut off from the necessary supply of money, the proceedings might possibly enough have droj)ped.

Cromwell's sagacity had not overlooked this probability.

After his communications with the Marquis of Bergen and the Archbishop of Palermo had failed, he had in the close of 1535 dispatched a Cambridge scholar to Louvain to act as a spy upon Philips, and ascertain, if possible, from what sources he was supplied with funds.

By means of this agent, Ptobert Farryngton, it was discovered that " Philips had two benefices and a prebend when he went over the sea; " and the friends whom he left behind doubtless took good care that the revenues of this pluralist were

Attempt to sc'ue Philips.

duly transmitted to him on the Continent.

It was, therefore, the funds of the Church of England, those funds which the piety of previous generations had consecrated for the perpetual religious benefit of the community, which were employed in doing to death the man who has bestowed upon the people of England the greatest religious blessing that they enjoy.

The same emissaiy ojBfered to continue his services, but it does not appear that any further use was made of them.

Another more effectual method of cutting short the career of Philips was next to be tried, though this also was of no avail to rescue Tyndale.^

Philips, it will be remembered, belonged to the party who hated Henry, and, according to Theobald, he had given vent to his feelings both at Louvain and in the Court of the Queen-Regent by denouncing his own Sovereign in bitter and violent language as " a tyrant and a plunderer of the country."

Such language was treasonable ; and by the old arrangement subsisting between England and Germany since the days of Maximilian, Henry might demand the arrest and extradition of any traitor.

Letters were, therefore, directed to the magistrates of some of the chief ' I give the part of the letter y?hicli refers to the subject

:—" Picaseth it your very good Mastership that I might bo ascertained by this bearer, my Cousin llichmoud, or clso by some other at your pleasure, •whether id may please you to command mo any moi'O service in the matter that I did show your Mastership u-hcn I came from Louvain; and I shall bo glad witli all my heart to give all diligence to accomplish your jjleasure therein, or elso that it may pleaso your goodness that I might have licence to depart from Cambridge to my friends."

Ho adds a postscript, by far the most important part of his communication :—" Pleaseth it your Mastership, as I am credibly informed, Philips had two benefices and a prebend, when ho went over the sea; what order his friends have taken with them since his departing, your Mastership may have soon knowledge."

The letter was written from Cambridge, January 12 ; no year is given, but 1536 is clearly the date : it is preserved in the Chajptcrhouse Papers.

The name of this agent has been hitherto unknown : thero is much still to bo learned in the State Paper

Office, if only tho documents were more easily accessible.

VaugJuin's last Remonstrance. cities in Germany, tlirougli which he was likely to pass, describing him as "a most perfidious man, guilty of the most heinous crime of treason," and entreating them to apprehend him and his associates, and send them to the King of England, who would repay all expenses incurred, and liberally recompense them for their trouble.^ Philips, however, had remained long enough at Louvain to accomplish his treacherous mission ; and he contrived to elude the vigilance of the emissaries of his angry Sovereign.

Vaughan, also, Tyndale's former friend and admirer, was again in Antwerp in the spring of 1536, and was anxious to do what seemed possible to release the illustrious prisoner.

"Writing to Cromwell from Antwerp, April 13, he says with great urgency, "If noiv yon scud me hut your letter to the Privy Council [of Brabant], I could deliver Tyndale from the fire : see it come by time, for else it will be too late.^'"

The friendly envoy does not, however, state the grounds on which he entertained such pleasing hopes and we are strongly inclined to believe that he was deluded by his own kindly feelings.

The truth is that a very considerable amount of misapprehension seems to prevail as to Tyndale's death which it is desirable, if possible, to dispel.

To some Avriters the imprisonment and martyrdom of Tyndale seem to be a stupendous and unprecedented crime, surrounded by inscrutable mystery ; and they have inveighed against Henry, and Cromwell, and Cranmer, and Enghshmen in general, as guilty of an extreme dereliction of duty which was almost equivalent to being accessory to the great Translator's death.

Nothing could be farther from the truth than such a view of the transaction ; and, indeed, to any one who will calmly attend to the various features of ' Cotton MSS., VitelUus, B. xxi.

" State Papers, Vol. vii. p. 665.

Tyndale's Prison-Life,

the occurreuce nothing could stand in less need of explanation than Tyndale's martyrdom.

The laws of the Emperor against heretics were as precise as language could make them ; and it was perfectly certain that Tyndale had hroken these laws, and was amenable to the penalty that had been enacted as their sanction. Once apprehended, therefore, and subjected to the ordinary course of justice, it is difficult to see what hope of escape was left for him.

Henry could not demand that he should be delivered up to the English authorities, for his offence had been committed against the laws of the Emperor.

Indeed, if Tyndale had been sent to England to be tried, his fate would probably have been the same ; for he was far in advance of the incipient Protestantism of Henry and his iidvisers, and he would probably have perished at Smithiield as his former associate, John Lambert, did two years later for maintaining the same opinions.

Cromwell and Cranmer may have felt some considerable sympathy for one who had so successfully laboured in that work of translating Scripture, in which they W'ere both so deeply interested ; but they were far from sharing Tyndale's views, and far from entertaining for him that high esteem which we have learned to regard as due to his transcendent merits.

Our reverence for Tyndale, and our horror for the sanguinary laws which consigned a man to death for his religious opinions, invest his case with a profound interest which his contemporaries did not in general feel and could not have understood ; to them it was simply the case of a good and learned man who had dared to condemn and oppose the teaching of the Church, and who, almost as a matter of course, fell a victim to the familiar rigour of the laws Of Tyndale's life during this long imprisonment, Foxe,

Tyndale's Prison-Life. our sole authority hitherto, has simply recorded that " such was the power of his doctrine and the sincerity of his life, that during the time of his imprisonment, which endured a year and a half [very nearly], it is said, he conTerted his keeper, the keeper's daughter, and others of his household.

Also the rest that were with Tyndale conTersaut in the castle, reported of him that if he were not a good Christian man, they could not tell whom to trust."

To many writers the amount of liberty thus implied seems so incredible, that they have rejected the story as intrinsically improbable : curiously enough, however, we have the means of establishing the probability of Foxe's statement by evidence which no one will presume to dispute.

Eusinas, who was imprisoned for heresy a few years later, makes the very singular complaint that he was somewhat interrupted in his labour of compiling prayers from the Book of Psalms, by the number of visitors vrho were permitted to see and talk with him.

From the town of Brussels alone he had upvvards of eighty visitors, who discussed with him matters of religion, and who, as he quaintly remarks, were at more liberty to consider those matters in that place, because it vras a prison, and therefore free from interruption.^ And the testimony of Eusinas as to the liberty enjoyed in prison, is confirmed by the evidence of of&cial papers preserved among the Ai-chives of Belgium.All prisons were probably not so laxly superintended as the Vrunte, in Brussels, where Ensinas was confined ; but there is, it is thus evident, nothing impossible in Foxe's story, and we are at liberty to believe that 1 Mdmoires d'Eusinas, Vol. ii., pp, 81, 93, 121, etc.

^ Tho Kcgime de lajprison de la Vrvnte, is printed in tlie Appendix to the Mdmoires d'Eusinas, IHoces JusUjicatives, Number 5 : and taken from tho State Po.pcrs in Brussels, OJjicc Fiscal de Brahant.

On the history of the Vrunte, the reader is referred to the admirable Histoire de Bruxelles, by Messrs. Henno and Wauters, a work which I^nglishmen may well envy.

Autograph Letter of Tyndale.

the tedium of Tyndale's imprisonment was relieved by kindly Christian intercourse with those around him, on the matters most deeply interesting to his heart.

To this meagi-e statement of the Martyrologist, however, we are now able to add, for the first time in this country, information of the highest interest from the pen of Tyndale himself.

The admirers of the great Translator have long regretted, that not a single letter or document of any kind has been ascertained to be in existence, that was unquestionably written with Tyndale's own hand.

The industry of a foreign investigator has at length been successful in discovering an original letter which was Vv'ritten by Tyndale himself, and which at once invests the whole narrative of his imprisonment with that "touch of nature" that appeals irresistibly to human sympathies.^ It would be unfair to the reader to withhold from him Tyndale's own original Latin ; and we therefore place it here in the text with a literal rendering subjoined.

The letter, it may be premised, has neither date nor superscription, but there is not the slightest doubt that it was written at Vilvordo in the winter of 1535, and that it was addressed to the Governor of the castle, who was no other than that very Marquis of Bergen-op-Zoom with whom Cromwell had already interceded in Tyndale's favour."

*' Credo non latere te, vir pra3stantissime, quid de me statutum sit.

Quam ob rem, tuam dominationem rogatum habeo, idque per Dominum Jesum, ut si mihi per hiemem ^ Tho letter has been found in the Archives of the Council of Brabant, by tho learned and indefatigable M.

Galesloot.

With tho kind permission of the ever-courteous M. Gachard, the precious document has been photographed at tho expense of Mr. Fry, of Bristol, and a copy, an exact fac-simile of the original, which no Englishman but myself has seen, lies before mo as I write.

* Antoine de Berghes Marquis of Berg-op-Zoom, was appointed Governor in 1530.

Adolpho Van Wcsclo was Lieutenant of the castle.

Tyndale's Letter from his Prison. hie manendum sit, solicites apucl clominum commissarium, si forte diguari velit, de rebus meis quas habet, mittere calidiorem birettum ; frigus enim patior in capite nimium, oppressus perpetuo catarro qui sub testitudine nonnibil augetur.

Calidiorem quoque tunicam, nam, baec quam babeo admodum tenuis est.

Item pannum ad caligas reficiendas.

Duplois [stein original by mistake for diplois] detrita est ; camisere detritae sunt etiam.

Camiseam laneam babet, si mittere velit.

Habeo quoque apud eum caligas ex crassiori panno ad superius induendum ; nocturna biretta calidiora habet etiam : utque vesperi lucernam habere liceat ; tediosum quidem est per tenebras solitarie sedere.

Maxime autem omnium tuam clementiam rogo atque obsecro ut ex animo agerc velit apud dominum commissarium quatenus dignari velit mihi concedere BihUa7n Hehraicam, Granimaticam Hchraicam, et Vocahularium Ilebraicum, ut eo studio tempus conteram.

Sic tibi obtingat quod maxime optasmodocum animaetuas salute fiat Verum si aliud consilium de me ceptum [.sic] est, hiemem j)erficiendum omnem, patiens ero, Dei expectans voluntatem, ad gloriam gratife Domini mei Jesu Christi, Cujus

Spiritus tuum semper regat pectus. Amen. W. Tindalus." ^ Which may be translated thus :

"I believe, right worshipful, that you are not ignorant of what has been determined concerning me [by the Council of Brabant] ; therefore I entreat your Lordship and that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here [in Vilvorde] during the winter, you will request the Procureur to be kind enough to send me from my goods which he has in his possession, a warmer cap, for I suffer ^ As this biography has not been produced for philological purposes,

I have given Tyndale's letter in the ordinary orthography :

I may mention, however, that the original presents scarce any deviation from that above, except in using the single e instead of the diphthong ce.

Tyiulale's Letter from his Prison.

extremely from cold in the head, being afflicted with a perpetual catarrh, which is considerably increased in the cell.

A warmer coat also, for that which I have is very thin : also a piece of cloth to patch my leggings : my overcoat has been worn out ; my shirts are also worn out.

He has a woollen shirt of mine, if he will be kind enough to send it.

I have also with him leggings of thicker cloth for putting on above ; he also has warmer caps for wearing at night.

I wish also his permission to have a candle in the evening, for it is wearisome to sit alone in the dark.

But above all, I entreat and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the Procureur that he may kindly X>ermit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may spend my time with that study.

And in return, may you obtain your dearest wish, provided always it be consistent with the salvation of your soul.

But if any other resolution has been come to concerning mo, that I must remain during the whole winter,

I shall be patient, abiding the will of God to the glory of the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, whose

Spirit, I pray, may ever direct your heart.

Amen.—W. Tyndale."

The picture, presented in this letter, of the illustrious Martyr, sitting cold and dark and solitary in the damp cells of Vilvorde during the long cheerless nights of winter, and earnestly soliciting the favour of light, and warm clothing, and above all, of books to solace him, must surely have reminded the reader of the great Apostle of the Gentiles sending for his *' cloke and his books but especially the parchments," to defend him against the damp and the tedium of his gloomy Mamertinc dungeon

; and it appeals irresistibly to the sympathies of every man who is not utterly destitute of human feelings.

It adds not a little to the interest of this letter, that it

TyndaWs Prison-Life. silences for ever the idle objection so often repeated by writers who take notrouble to examine into facts, that Tyndale was absolutely ignorant of HebreAV, and was incapable either of reading or of rendering the Old Testament in its original language.

To scholars, indeed, that question had long ago been set at rest by the examination of Tyndale's Version of the Pentateuch ; and the testimony of Herman Buschius was scarcely needed to assure them, that Tyndale was quite sufficiently versed in Hebrew for the Avork that he had undertaken.

Surely, however, after this pathetic request in the Translator's own words, the groundless calumny will disappear for ever from our literature.

We take for granted that the modest requests of Tyndale were acceded to ; this much, at least, the Marquis of Berg could scarcely refuse to one for whom Cromwell had interceded

; and until the actual business of the trial commenced and occupied all his energies, we may suppose that Tyndale was engaged on what had been the labour of his life, the translation of Holy Scripture into the English language.

The Venerable Bede, dictating his translation of St. John on his death-bed, has been deemed a subject worthy of the highest art, a theme for the highest flights of poetry ; will no genius be fired to commemorate in verse or on canvas the only worthy pendent which our literary annals present, Tyndale in the gloomy vaults at Vilvorde, toiling bravely to finish his great work ?

Hov/ much he was able to accomplish of his task in the dreary confinement of his prison we have no means of ascertaining with any very definite precision ; but there seems no reason whatever for disbelieving the uniform tradition which affirms, that before his death he had completed the translation of the Old Testament to the end of the Books of Chronicles.

This part of his work, it is said, was trans-

Trial of Tyndale.

mitted to bis formei" associate in Antwerp, John Eogers, and was printed by bim along with tbe previous translations by Tyndale of tbe Pentateuch and tbe New Testament, in what is usually known as Mattbews's Bible. ^

Of all this, direct proof cannot be given ; but tbe presumption in its favour, from evidence both internal and external, js sufficiently strong to warrant its implicit reception.

Tbe trial of Tyndale was, we believe, not begun till tbe commencement of 153G, and it had been unusually protracted.

The process of written attack and defence, must of necessity have occupied a considerable time ; and it may have been midsummer before the trial was concluded.

The verdict had been foreseen by tbe judges from tbe commencement, and was inevitable ; but before pronouncing it, we cannot doubt, that the question was once again submitted to tbe supreme authorities

; that not only the Regent Mary of Hungary, but the Emperor also, were asked to decide whether in this instance the statutes against heretics were to be enforced with full rigour, or whether the prerogative of mercy was to be exercised.

Charles and Mary were not ignorant of tbe interest which Henry and Cromwell felt in Tyndale ; and with them it rested to decide whether tbe prisoner was to be set free, or to die the death of a heretic.

They weighed the case doubtless with care, and took into consideration tbe comparative advantages of tbe two courses of conduct that were open to them.

To pardon a convicted heretic v.'ould offend the clergy, and would stultify the legislation of many years against heresy : to give bim up to death, was to run the risk of offending Henry, or at least of disobliging

Henry's potent minister.

As a question of ^ See Westcott on the subject ; I have not entered into the examinatiou of any of the alleged posthumous works of Tyndale.

Sentence of Death x>i'onounccd. interest, the decision was only too likely to be unfavourable to Tyndale, and the consciences of the two supreme authorities would still further incline the verdict against him.

No words of mercy came from those with whom the prerogative of mercy was lodged ; and nothing remained for the ijCouncil of Brabant but to act as the law required.^

Sentence of death would, therefore, be pronounced against Tyndale at Vilvorde by the ProcureurGeneral in the usual manner.

The exact date of Tyndale's condemnation we have been able to ascertain from the despatch of John

Hutton, one of Cromwell's envoys in the Low Countries.

Writing from Antwerp on the 12th of August he informs the Secretary, "So it is that on the tenth day of this present the Procureur-General, which is the Emperor's attorney for these parts, dined with me here in the English House, who satisfied me that William Tyndale is degraded and condemned into the hands of the secular power, so that he is very like to suffer death this next week.

As to the Articles upon which he is condemned, I cannot as yet obtain [them], albeit I have a grant [a promise], which, once obtained, shall be sent your Lordship by the first."« According to Foxe, Tyndale had a respite of nearly two months between his condemnation and his martyrdom; and one hopes that, after the solemn mummeries of degradation were duly accomplished, the calm interval of preparation was not interrupted by the officious ministrations of the priests and confessors who were usually intruded upon condemned heretics, to convince them, if possible, at the last moment, of their errors, and to induce them to ' I have searclied in vain for tho correspondence wliicli rimst Lave passed between Mary and Charles but I do not despair of being able at some future time to recover it.

" State Papers, Vol. vii. p. G(35.

Preparations for Martyrdom.

recant.

Tyndale, it must have been manifest, was not likely to be influenced by such agents, and one would gladly believe, therefore, that he was spared this annoyance, and that he was permitted to prepare himself in peace for that dread ordeal of which he had before said to Fryth, "Let not j-our body faint; he that endureth to the end shall be saved; if the pain be above your strength, remember, * Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name I will give it you,' and pray to your Father in that name, and He shall ease your pain or shorten it."

The death which he had to face was not, however, quite so terrible as that of Fryth ; by the laws of the Emperor Anabaptists alone were burned alive ; and though Tyndale's body was to be consumed, it would not be till after he had been reft of life by a mode of death much more speedy than the painful one of burning.

He was to be strangled, and his dead body was then to be burned.

Friday the 6th of October was fixed as the day of his execution.

The place was, doubtless, some spot on that side of the castle next the town, where it could easily be witnessed from the churchyard and from the walls that ran in front of what is now the Hue des Moines Blancs.

No record of the martyrdom has been given by any eyewitness ; but the description given by Ensinas of an execution precisely similar may be here quoted as probably in almost all its details applicable to the case of Tyndale.

*' A space was enclosed with palisades, and all were excluded except those who had to play apart in the martyrdom.

In the midst of the enclosure was erected a large piece of wood in the shape of a cross as high as a man, and firmly fixed in the ground to the same depth.

On the top was an iron chain fixed to the Avood, and a hole in which a rope of hemp was inserted : and near the foot was piled an I I

Martyrdom of Tyndale. immense lieap of brushwood. When all was ready the Procureur-General and the rest of the judges were conducted to the place that was prepared for them in the immediate neighbourhood of the fatal spot.

Finally, the prisoner was led out, and was permitted to engage for a few moments in prayer."

" He cried," says Foxe, in the sole detail he has given of Tj^ndale's death, "at the stake with a fervent zeal and a loud voice, * Lord, open the King of England's eyes !

' "

** This prayer finished, he was immediately led by the executioner to the stake ; his feet were bound to the stake the iron chain which hung from the top was fastened round his neck, along with the hemp rope loosely tied in a noose.

The faggots were piled around with quantities of straw, and heaped up till the victim almost seemed enclosed in a little hut.

Then, at a signal from the Procureur, the executioner stepped behind and tightened the rope with great force, so as in a few moments to strangle the victim.

When life was extinct, the Procureur seized a torch and kindled the pile, which blazed forth with fury, and in a very short space completely consumed the body."^

Such was the end of William Tyndale.

"If they shall burn me," he had said eight years before, *' they shall do none other thing than that I look for."

" There is none other way into the kingdom of life than through persecution and suffering of pain, and of very death, after the ensample of Christ."^ And now after a ^ Mdmoires d'Ensinas, Vol. i. p. dl.

It is of the martyrs of Loavain that Ensinas is here speaking, and he adds (what

I have omitted) the famous description of Dufief's cruelty : " Videor mihi adhuc habere in conspectu distortum illud crudelissimi hominis os, ex quo flammas spirabat, quam ipsa fax incensa, horribilioi-es ; faciem truculentam et prs3 furore ardontem, truces oculos, totum denique corporis habitum, qui latcntes animi furias omni gestu et sermone sic representabat, ut vero credam, eo tempore a diabolo obsessum fuisse, cujus instinctu sine ullS. dnbitatione agebatur."

^ Wicked Mammon and Obedience.

Character of Tyndalc.

long interval the death which he had so long hefore anticipated had overtaken him; the untiring malice of his enemies had at length succeeded in cutting short his life but his work was beyond their power.

The spot where his ashes rest is unknown ; but that Avork for which he lived and died has, like the seed in the parable, grown up into the mightiest of trees.

There is scarcely a corner of the habitable globe into which English energy has not penetrated ; and wherever the English language is heard, there the words in which Tyndale gave the Holy Scripture to his countrj^men are repeated with heartfelt reverence as the holiest and yet the most familiar of all words.

They are the first that the opening intellect of the child receives with wondering faith from the lips of its mother they are the last that tremble on the tongue of the dying as he commends his soul to God.

Assuredly it will not tend to diminish the reverence with which the universal Englishspeaking people regard their Bible, if they read a little more carefully the life of the heroic and simple-minded man to whose labour the English Bible was chiefly owing, and whose spirit still seems to reside in its grave, impressive sentences.

No laboured peroration is needed to set forth the character and virtues of Tyndale.

This biography must have been unsuccessful, indeed, if it has not presented a portrait which the reader has long ago recognised as that of a true Christian hero.

Heroic is, in truth, the appropriate epithet for the character of Tyndale ; and heroic in the noblest and highest sense of that somewhat misused word.

One feels instinctively that he was no ordinary commonplace man, no mere scholar, or active, energetic priest.

He was no shrewd man of the world, but was ignorant as a child of the ordinary acts by which favour is propitiated and popularity so frequently won.

His sim-

Character of Tijndale. plicity, his earnestness, his noble unselfishness, his love of truth, his independence, his clearness and force of mind, his invincible energy and power,—these mark him out as a true hero, one of those great men specially raised up and qualified for a noble work, whose lives always constitute a landmark in the annals of hunaan history.

Of the excellence of his moral character, fortunately, na defence has ever been required. The Procureur-General is reported to have described him as " a learned, good, and godly man ;" and friends and enemies, in his own time and in subsequent ages, have with one unvarying consent repeated the same encomium.

No voice of scandal has ever been raised against him ; and there are no black spots in his life which it is the duty of a biographer to attempt to whitewash.

The extent of his influence upon the Eeformation in England was more fully and more justly recognised by his contemporaries than it has in general been by subsequent writers.

Sir Thomas More was too sagacious not to perceive that Tyndale was the true pioneer in England of that movement which he regarded with so much aversion.

Others had, indeed, anticipated Tyndale in condemning the doctrines and practices of the Church as unscriptural and superstitious, but their voices were feeble and ineffectual ; his was the first voice that was raised in accents loud and clear enough to penetrate the ears and touch thehearts of the nation.

The violence with which his works were condemned, and the zeal Avith which they were sought after and burnt by the great ecclesiastical authorities, sufficiently attest the estimate they had formed of the importance of his writings.

It would be difficult to name any more powerful attack upon all that was at the time most generally practised in the Church of Rome than is contained in " The Obedience,"

" The Practice of Pre-

Character of Tyndale.

lates," and '* The Answer to Sir Thomas More."

Never had the corruptions in doctrine, the abuses in worship, the ignorance and worldliness of the clergy, been exposed with such clearness of argument, such force of language, such vehemence of moral indignation ; the impression made was deep, the result was memorable.

And, as we have already noticed, his influence was not that of a mere hostile critic, holding up errors and abuses to reprobation and public scorn; a mere inarticulate protest against the sins and vices of the Church would not, however strong, have availed to produce a Reformation in religion.

Tyndale not only pointed out with terrible clearness what was wrong, he indicated with equal plainness the only remedies that could meet the emergency.

The supremacy of Holy Scripture in all matters of faith, the supremacy of the civil law in all matters of discipline, such were the remedies which Tyndale recommended to his countrymen as the only effectual means of redressing the intolerable grievances under which they were groaning ; and these are, in fact, the two pillars on which the Reformation in England was subsequently established.

This, however, was after all but a subordinate part of Tyndale's work ; that with which his name will be for ever associated, and for which his memory will be for ever revered, is his translation of Holy Scripture.

Of the merits of the English Bible and of its influence upon all Englishspeaking people who is able adequately to treat ?

And this English Bible, it must once more be repeated, is the work of Tyndale ; is for the greater part exactly what he made it, and in every part speaks in that style which he infused into it.

That exquisite felicity of language which has made it dear to the hearts of all classes, which has constituted it a true national treasure, it owes to Tyndale.

His translation was no dead piece of learned labour; it

48G Character of Tyndale. was instinct with the life of the man that produced it ; it was the "Word of God transmitted through the agency of one to whom that Word was not an outward letter, but the very life of his soul.

It is on this account that the individuality of Tyndale is inseparably associated with the English Bible; its tone and spirit have, in a certain sense, come from him no revision has ever presumed to touch what Tyndale has stamped on it ; no progress of scholarship is ever likely to efface from it that which makes it truly Tyndale's work.

It has been reserved for some of his own countrymen to impugn the scholarship of the great Translator.

Perhaps, their discovery that a translation whose pre-eminent merit it is that it so closely represents the original, was made by a man incompetent to render from the original, may be esteemed the highest and most curious achievement of literary stupidity in our times.

But to state such a preposterous objection is to refute it.

Such calumnies can do no injury to the memory of Tyndale : they prove nothing but the ignorance and the recklessness of those who make them.

Truth alone can stand the test of time and of research ; and the more thoroughly that the life of Tyndale is examined, the more has he hitherto been found to be deserving of the love and veneration of his countrymen.

The more that his character and work are investigated, the more conspicuous is his Christian heroism.

There is nothing to alloy the admiration with which we regard him, no taint of weakness, no suspicion of selfishness, no parade of pride.

Humble and irreproachable in his life, zealous and devoted in his work, beloved by his friends, respected by his enemies, faithful unto death, where among the army of martyrs shall we find a nobler than William Tyndale ?

APPENDIX.

I. MR. ANDERSONS ACCOUNT

OF THE FIRST INTRODUCTION OF TYNDALE'S

NEW TESTAMENT INTO ENGLAND.

Anderson's " Annals of the English Bible " contributed so substantially to enlarge our knowledge of the early liistory of the Bible in England, and displayed such a considerable amount of research into materials that had not been previously explored, that the work has justly acquired a very high reputation, and has been extensively used as a sort of Uterary quarry, from which subsequent writers have borrowed their -information without deeming it necessary to subject it to any further scrutiny.

And it would betoken at once ingratitude and ignorance to speak with disrespect of Anderson's work, or to overlook the important service which it has rendered to all who, since its publication, have imdertaken to prosecute their researclies in the same field.

At the same time it is useless to deny that the "Annals of the Eaglish Bible " labours under several not unimportant defects, wliich make it impossible to receive the writer's conclusions with implicit faith, or even to feel assured that his quotations and translations can be depended upon as accurate.

Andei-son was too ready to arrive precipitately at a conclusion on insufficient evidence and having once satisfied himself that some particular theory was probable, he forthwith assumes that it is certain and indisputable and thus throughout his book confounds theories with facts, probabilities with certainties, in a manner seriously to detract from the value of his history.

It is also evident to anyone who follows in liis wake, and carefully examines the documents which he professes to quote and to translate, that Anderson's scliolarship was deficient, and that he was somewhat careless in deciphering and transcribing manuscripts and other authorities.

He knew nothing of German, a great misfortune where several questions of the utmost importance could not possibly be determined without some ac-

Anderso}iS Account of the quaintancc with that language.'

His acquaintance with Latin was not such as to enable him to read that language with facUity, or to translate it with accuracy'

; and he lacked the necessary patience without which old and carelessly-written manuscripts can seldom be examined and deciphered to much purpose.

In inquiries such as those with which Anderson's " Annals " are occupied, nothing is more important or more difficult, than the ascertaining of any precise dates to govern the arrangement of events ; and it is in this most of all that liis habit of hasty theorising has led Mr. Anderson astray.

Many minor faults of this kind are noticed in the i)revious pages ; but there is one error which pervades his whole narrative of the years 1524—1528, and which is of such great consequence that it seems desirable to explain at length on what grounds liis arrangement is set aside and an entirely difierent one adopted in this biographj'.

Anderson commences his history of the year

in the following language :

" That interesting period when the Word of God, printed in our native tongue was first found in England, had now arrived.

It was in January 1526.

The earliest importations of these precious volumes would furnish a very curious subject of inquiry.

. But the materials have never yet been examined and compared, with that regard to accuracy as to names, and succession as to events, which would have brought out some of the finest specimens of faith and fortitude and perseveiing zeal."

He then proceeds to " examine and compare the materials," and it is by this examination that nearly the whole of the dates in his history for several years have been determined.

First of all he quotes from Foxe the articles alleged against Garret, Curate to Dr. Forman, the Rector of All Hallows in Honey

Lane, of whom Foxe says " About the year 1526, Master Garret came unto Oxford, and brought with him sundry books in Latin, treating of the Scripture .

• . and Tyndalesfirst translation oftheNeiv Testament in EnfjUsh, the which books he sold to divers scholars in Oxford."

"After he had been there a while, and despatched those books, news came that he was searched for through all London to be apprehended and taken as a heretic, and to be imprisoned for selling icflf., Whether Ty)ulalc knew German, and how far he was indebted to Luther's translation, are questions really of prime consequence in the Annals of the English

Jiible, to which Anderson was unable to return any intelligent answer.

^ It is an unpleasant task to expose another's deficiencies, but anj'one who will take the trouble to read what Mr. Anderson calls a translation of Rinck s letter to Wolsey

(Annals I. pp. 202, etc.) will scarcely need any other evidence to convince him of the serious defects of Anderson's scholarship:

Introduction of TyndaWs New Testament.

tliose heretical books."

All this must have happened very early in January if not before ; for after the search in London had proved fruitless, he was searched for in Oxford where, according to Anderson's theor}-, he visited one of the students on the 1th of February, was taken prisoner on the 9th, escaped again, and was recaptured, and all his friends in the University, including Fryth, were immediately arrested.

All this it is assumed happened in 152G ; and as it is distinctly specified that he had been searched for in London before he was sought for in Oxford, and moreover that, the search in London did not take place till a "while after" he had come to Oxford with Tyndale's Testaments, Anderson is compelled to conclude that the books had arrived in England in tlie very commencement of 152G ; and even the month of January is evidently too late to meet the requirements of the case.

But if the printed Testament was in Oxford in the bcgining of January 1520, it must have left Worms at least a month before, in tliose days of slow locomotion : and as it was scarcelj' i)Ossible that the printing could have been finished in less than three or four months, it follows that Tyndale must have arrived at Worms not later than August 1525.

This is, of course, totally inconsistent with the narrative of Cochloeus who expressly says that " Luther had written to the King" before he had made the discovery that Tj'ndale and lloye were engaged in printing the New Testament at Cologne, and consequently before they fled to AVorms ; and Luther's letter was dated 1st September.

But Anderson, compelled by his theory, hints that this was a mistake of memory on the part of Cochloeus (Annals p.

59, note 12) ; and gathering courage as he proceeds, he speaks of English New Testaments as being imported in the end of 1525

(p. 112) ; and still more boldly declares that lloye left Tyndale at Worms" in the summer of 1525," by which time, of course, the New Testament was finished

(p.

138).

It was a necessary result of the same theory that all Tyndale's works are considerably antedated ; for unfortunately the date of lloye's departure is the only point from which we can calculate the time of their first issue ; and Anderson being compelled by his theory to suppose that Roye left Worms in the summer of

is equally compelled to believe in an imaginary edition of "The Wicked Mammon" published in May 1527

(p. 138, note G), The date of Fryth's arrival on the Continent, also, and in fact, almost every date between 1525 and 1528 is more or less affected by the theory which he has built upon Garret's apprehension at Oxford.

Now it is peculiarly fortunate that aU the materials necessary to

Anderson's Account of the illustrate tliis part of the narrative have been preserved, and are indeed all accessible in print,' and nothing can be more certain than that it was in 152S not 1520 that Garret was apprehended.

If space allowed, the whole transaction might be printed from contemporary documents of unquestionable authority, but we must content ourselves with a brief outUne of the main features of the occurrence, accompanied by such notes " as to succession of events " as may suffice to sec the question finally at rest.

As stated in the text {ante, p. 15!)) the clue to the secret distribution of the English New Testament seems to have been in Wolsey's possession about the close of 1527 or the commencement of 1528; and naturally enough it was from Wolsey that the first hint came to arrest Garret.

From this point the story may be told in the words of the original actors, and a wonderfully interesting story it is.

Dr. London, Warden of New College, Oxford, writes thus from Oxford, to Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, on the 24th of February

" It may please you to understand that Mr. Dean [Dr. Higdon, Dean of Wolsey's College] at lais coming home brought to the Commissary [Dr.

Cottisford] secret commandment from my Lord Cardinal's Grace, to attach one Mr. Garret lurking at Oxford at one Radley's house, which was greatly suspect of heresy.

Upon Saturday last past [February 22ud] the Commissary took him in the said house, and kept him secret in his OM'n chamber, willing next morning early to send him unto my Lord's Grace by one of the proctors and Mr. Standish.

As Mr. Commissary was at even-song Mr.

Garret picked the lock of Mr.

Commissary's door, went immediately to Gloster College^ and without delay there took a secular scholar's coat and went away with all the speed he might."

Tliis secular scholar was Anthony Dalaber to whose nari'ative we shall now turn.

Dalaber had Imown Garret for some time, and in spite of the secrecy observed, they were both aware of the intended search, and had deliberated about the best method of shielding Gan-et from danger.

After some consultation, with other friends in the University, they had agreed that Garret should change his name and go into Dorsetshire, to act as Curate to Dalaber's brother until a suitable opportunity occiu'red for leaving England altogether.

In accordance with this resoludou Garret had left Oxford in the morning of the Wednesday before Shrovetide, i.e., February 1!) : but his ' In Foxe, with the valuable docuincnts pinntcd in Towusend's Appendix from the Chaptar-hmtse Papers.

'> Wow Worcester College.

Introduction of TyndaU's New Testament.

courage failing liim he had returned again on the Friday and was apprehended at Radley's house.

Dalaber, ignorant of his friend's return, had moved from St. Alban's Hall to Gloucester College, and was sitting quietly reading one of the prohibited books, when he was startled by a violent knocking at the door of his chamber.

On opening it " there was Master Garret as a mazed man," apcompanied by a college-servant who had shown him the way to Dalaber's new rooms.

In the excitement of the moment Garret revealed the secret of his apprehension and escape in the hearing of the servant, who, of course, subsequently informed the authorities.

Entering liis fiiend's chamber, Garret hurriedly told what had occurred, his flight, his return, his apprehension, and how when the Commissary had gone to even-song, " hearing nobody stirring in the College, he put back the bar of the lock with his fmger and so came oft'."

It was impossible for him to remain in Oxford, he had no hope but in immediate flight; " and so," writes Dalaber in his beautiful narrative,

"with deep sighs and plenty of tears he prayed me. to.help to convey him away ; and so he cast ofl" his hood and his gown wherein he came unto me, and desired me to give him a coat with sleeves, if I had any ; and told me that he would go into Wales and thence convey himself to Germany if he might.

Then I put on liim a sleeved coat of mine, of fme cloth in grain, which my mother had given me.

He would have anotlier manner of cap of me, but I had none but priest-hke, such as his own was.

Then kneeled we both down together on our Imees, lifting up our hearts and hands to God our Heavenly Father, desiring Him with plenty of tears so to conduct and prosper him in his journey, that he might well escape the danger of all his enemies, to the glory of His Holy name, if His good pleasure and will so were.

And then we embraced and kissed one the other .... and so he departed from me apparelled in my coat."

After Garret had left, Dalaber sat down to read that tenth chapter of St. Matthew, which contains our Lord's, instruction to His disciples and His forewarning of the treatment they might expect from men ; and having carefully concealed his books, he sallied forth to see what was stirring in the University.

" I went stiaight to Frideswide [Wolsey's College] and even-song was begun, and the Dean and other Canons were there in their grey amices : they were almost at Mafjiiifunt before I came thither.

I stood at the quiredoor and heard Master Tavemer play .... as I thus stood, in Cometh Dr. Cottisford, the Commissary, as fast as ever he could go. bareheaded, as pale as ashes (I knew his gi-ief well enough) and to

Anderson's Account of the the Dean he goeth into the choir, where he was sitting in Ids stall, and talked witli him very sorrowfully, what, I knew not ; but whereof, I might and did weU and truly guess.

I went aside from the quiredoor, to see and hear more.

The Commissary and Dean came out of the quire wonderfully troubled, as it seemed.

About the middle of the church met them Dr. London, pufling, blustering, and blowing, like an hungry and greedy lion seeking his prey."

To this "blustering" Dr. London's letter we now return.

"The Commissary ' made as much search as he could, and at the last learned where he escaped, and took the scholar whose coat he had and [he being] examined, hath confessed his books of heresy written with his own hand, and is in prison.

This ^Monday, the VigU of St. Matthias," the Commissary showed me of tliis matter, and he and Mr. Dean desired me to help what I could to try out more of this thing.

We have this Monday searched Radley's house, and some books Mr. Garret had there left behind him : and some I had at a bookbinder's;

. and certain other books we had of the scholar wliich did lend to Mr. Garret his coat," [and found, in fact, that Garret had brought three hundred and fifty-four books with liim as per list annexed to the letter in the original].

" Mr. Garret came to Oxford upon Christ's Nativity even, and hath been lurking there ever since.

In this Uttle time he hath done much hurt.

After this Mr. Garret escaped, the Commissary being in extreme pensiveness, knew no other remedy but this extraordinary, and caused a figure to be made by one expert in astronomy, and his judgment doth continually persist upon this that he fled in a tawny coat south-eastward, and is in the middle of London, and will shortly to the seaside.

He was curate unto the parson of Honey Lane.

Anthony Dalaber, the scholar that hath helped to convey Mr. Garret, is marvellous obstinate, and that [what] is gotten of him is with much difficulty ; he will not confess of any lecture he had in Oxford but of Mr. Clarke, which, as he saith, read Paul's epistles in liis chamber to him and all such as would come, upon a year past

Two days later the same correspondent writes again with further ' The Commissary, as Dalaber has just mentioned, was Br. Cottisford, who acted in this capacity from Dec.

7, 1527, to August 26, 1532 : hence these occurrences could not have taken place in 1520, as Anderson has supposed.

* This expression fixes the date of the letter : St. Matthias' Day is February 24th ; in 1520 this fell on a Saturday, and the Vigil consequently would be Friday, not Monday, as Dr. London says: in 1628, being Leap year, St. Matthias' Day fell on the 25th, which was a Ihiesday, and the Vigil was Monday.

This places the date beyond dispute.

3 Chapter-honsc Papers : printed in Townsend's Foxe, Vol. v.

Introduction of Tyndale's New Testament.

intelligence of Garret's doings in Oxford:—"Tliis unhappyMr. Garret was in Oxford at Easter [April 21, 1527], and after that a season : at his being there he sought out aU such as were given to Greek, Hebrew, and the polite Latin tongue, and pretended he woiild learn Hebrew and Greek ; and brought books of new things to allure them.

After that he procured a gi-eat number of corrupt books, and secretly did distribute them among his new acquaintance in sundry colleges and halls.

I fear Mr.

Clarke was his caller unto Oxford,* for he was of his familiar acquaintance.

And it is evidently proved that Mr. Clarke hath read in his chamber Paul's epistles to young men and such as were of two, thi-ee, or four years' continuance in the University.

Would God my Lord's Grace had never been motioned to call him nor any other Canibridge man unto liis most towardly CoUege ! " * Bishop Longland next takes up the tale, and thus communicates the sad intelligence of the spread of heresy in Oxford to Wolsey

" Pleaseth it your Grace to understand since I ^^Tote last unto you of the matters of Oxford, I have had divers knowledges from thence to my heaviness, of such chance of the great corruption of youth there by Master Garret witli such erroneous books as he brought thither.

There are a marvellous sort of books found which were hid under the earth and otherwise secretly conveyed from place to place.

Tlie cliief that were familiarly acquainted in this matter with Master Garret was Master Clarke, Master Freer, Sir Fryth,

Sir Dyott, Anthony Dalaber."^ Fryth, therefore, was not at Marburg with Tyndale at tliis time, as Anderson supposes, but still at Oxford, and for some months after this he was not at liberty to leave England.

Longland wrote from his palace at Holbom on the 3rd of March, and was sore distressed at not having heard any report of Garret's apprehension.

Garret, however, was already taken, as the next witness will show.

John Fooke, vicar of All Saints, Bristol, thus hastens to communicate the news of Garret's apprehension to the Commissary, whose remissness had given Garret the opportunity to escape :

" Briitolli raptiin prima die Martii, post vesperas," [At Bristol in • This affords another proof of the date

; Clarke was not incorporated at Oxford til!

Kov. 5, 1525, and hence could not have called Garret to Oxford the Easter before all this, it is clear, occurred in 1528, not in 1620.

' The letter is dated At:h Wednesday, yi\\\c\\i\m% fell after St. Matthias' Day in the year of the arrest of Garret : now in 1526 Ash-Wednesday fell on the 14th of February, i.e., beforeSt. Matthias' Day : in 1528 it fell on February 26th, two days after St. Matthias" Day.

' Chapter-house Paiers.

Anderson's Account of the haste, the first tlay of March after even-song,] " Pleaseth it you to understand that by the diligence and effectuous means of Mr. Wilkins, chapman of Bristol, father-in-law to Mr. Cole, one of your proctors,

Mr. Garret was taken in a little town called Bedminster, a mile from Bristol, the last night before this -wTiting

[i.e. Feb. 2'J, as we reckon,] upon suspicion of heresy.

Whereupon the said Mr. Wilkins and I resorted to him this day ; where we heard him examined before one of the Justices of the Peace of Somersetshire, to whom he openly confessed that his name is Tliomas Garret, priest. Master of Arts and Fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford, and that he brake out of your chamber with everything as ye writ in your late letter to me directed."

Poor Garret found himself so closely watched that he had no chance of escape ; the authorities at all the outports had been warned, he was dogged at every turn, and at length hunted down just outside the city of Bristol, where the Mayor was on the look-out for him.

There is no link wanting, it will be seen, in the chain, and if necessary the story might be continued still further by the testimony of the same witnesses and of others of equal authority ^

; what has been here for the first time presented in a connected form, proves beyond possibility of further dispute, that the occurrences at Oxford belong to the year 1528, not to 1520, as Anderson has erroneously maintained.

The sequel of Garret's story may best be given in the picturesque language of Froude :—" The brethren at Oxford were soon dispersed : some were sent home to their friends— others, Anthony Dalaber among them, were placed on their trial, and, being terrified at their position, recanted, and were sentenced to do penance.

Ferrars was brought to Oxford for the occasion, and we discern indistinctly (for the mere fact is all wliicli survives) a great fire at Carfax a crowd of spectators, and a procession of students marched up HighStreet with fagots on their shoulders, the solemn beadles leading them with gowns and maces.

They were taken three times round the fire, throwing in each first their fagot, and then some one of the ofi"ending boolcs, in token that they repented and renounced their errors.

Thus wns Oxford purged of heresy.

The state of innocence, which Dr. London pathetically lamented, was restored, and the heads of houses had peace till their rest was broken by a ruder storm." *

Wo assume, therefore, as certain and indisputable, that it was not ' Chapter-house Pajyers. s e.g., ArchI)ishop Warliam, whose letter of March 8th is incorrectly assigned by Anderson to 1526, and still more incorrectly by Sir Henry Ellis to 1521.

3 Froude, Vol. II. p. 70.

Introduction of TyndaWs New Testament.

till

that Garret was arrested at Oxford ; and as the whole theory of the arrival of the New Testament in January, 1520, or even December, 1525, rests exclusively upon the case of Garret, it is thus entirel3'demolished.

If this were merely an instance of a conflict of one modern theory with another, it might be objected that too much time has been devoted to it

; but in truth the matter is of much more serious consequence.

The great fault of the " Annals of the English Bible " is, that it has set up modern theories in opposition to ancient facts

; and everything is of consequence that tends to confirm the veracity of the older authorities, and thus to establish the truth of history.

Mr. Anderson's theories about Tyndale's residence in Hamburg, his ignorance of German, his never having met Luther, etc., are theories adopted in the face of all ancient testimony—they are little better than fancies ; and when these are received, as they have been by subsequent writers as probable or as ascertained facts, a serious injury is inflicted on the credibility of liistorj^ conjecture is elevated above testimony, and the inferences of a modern theorist are valued above the evidence of a contemporary witness.

It is for this reason that the question has been investigated in detaU ; and as truth is always consistent and harmonious, we have not only shown that there is no reason for believing that the New

Testament was in Oxford in January, 1520, but, what is of far more importance, have shown that there is no reason for discrediting the evidence of Cocliloeus as to the time when Tyndale was compelled to leave Cologne for Worms.

We have shown in fact that there is no necessity for doing violence to the words of those contemporaries who have left a record of the proceedings of Tyndale's life, that, on the contrary, what they have stated is in exact accordance vaih. all that has since been discovered.

One other argument of Anderson may also here be appropriately answered, as it is introduced by him apparently to corroborate his theory of the early circulation of the English Testament.

Henry viri., in the preface to the English edition of his answer to Luther's letter of September 1st, 1525, after alluding to the translation of the New Testament into English, " as well with many corruptions of that holy text, as certain prefaces and other pestilent glosses in the marfjln," declared for the information of his " dearly beloved people" that, " with the deliberate advice " of Wolsey and others, he had determined " the said untrue translation should be burned."

" Here then," says Anderson, anxiously seeking for confirmation of his theory, "was evidently Tyndale's quarto New Testament, with

Anderson's Account, etc. glosses, and denounced so early as the 20th of March, 152()."

To prove this curious theory he remarks ' that while the Latin edition of Henry's reply had no date, " so eager was the King, that it liad been translated into English, and by himself ... In the English edition the King's answer begins thus :

' Your letters written the first September we have received the 20th day of March.' "

Evidently, therefore, Anderson believes that, on the very day on which Henrj' received Luther's letter, he wrote a reply to it in English, denouncing the New Testament ; for only on this supposition could it be inferred that the book had been denounced so early as the 20th of March.

That Henry should have replied to a Latin letter by issuing an English answer, addressed to his subjects rather than to Luther, is on the face of it, sufficiently incredible ; but what is still more extraordinary is, that on the very same page in Herbert's " Ames," on which Mr. Anderson found the extract from Henry's preface which he has printed, he might have found an account of the matter by Henry himself which totally contradicts all the theories advanced in the " Annals."

Henry proceeds :

" We had intended to leave Luther to his lewdness, without any further writing ; yet, for the frustrating and avoiding [making void] of his malicious fraud, whereby he intendeth to abuse the world into a false opinion of our favour toward him, we letted not eftsoons to write him an answer of his, more subtle than either true or wise writing.

After tvhich letter written and sent him, sith we perceived and considered farther, that he had by sundry false inventions laboured to sow some of his venomous seeds among you our well-beloved people ... we therefore

. have of our es]5ecial favour toward you translated for you, and given out unto you as well Ms said letter written to us as our answer also made unto the same.""

So that, according to Henry's own statement, his EngUsli translation was not made till his Latin reply to Luther was -wnttenand sent ; and we know, from the " State Papers," that it was not sent at the end of August, and indeed it seems probable that it was not dispatched till the month of November.'

So much for Mr. Anderson's inference, which is again a setting up of modern theory against ancient fact.

> Annals, Vol.

I. p. 113, notes 25 and 2G.

2 Dibdin's Edition of Herbert's Ames, Vol. II. p. 488.

3 See State Papers, Vol.

I. pp.

173—175 ; also in Cotton MSS., ViteUius, xxi.

Sir John Wallop to Wolsey, I find the followins, date November 30, 1526 : " I have delivered the King's Highness' letter to Sir Herman Kinck, xcith the two jMckeU of Luther's matters,'" the packets being addressed to the Duke of Saxony and the Archbishop of Mayence ; and in the same volume is a letter from Rinck to Henry assuring him that he had sent the letters to the proper quarters by trusty servants.

Documents from the Belgian Archives.

I have said nothing of the occurrences at Cambridge in 152(), because there is no evidence to show that Tyndale's New Testament was then at Cambridge : in truth the affair is already perfectly well known, and had nothing whatever to do with the English Bible.'

11. FLEMISH DOCUMENTS.

1. The Escape of Poyntz.

Archives du Royaume de Belgique.

Gluimhre des Comptes, No. 21,7 1 !(.

Eekenninge Loys Van Heylwj^gen radt ordinaris ons Heeren des Keysers ende Ontfanger van den exploicten, penen ende amenden verschenen in Zynder Majesteits Raidt van Brabant, van alle 't gene dat hy ontfangen, ende unytgegeven heeft zyndert den iersten dacli van Octobri anno xv*= xxxv., totten lesten dach van Septembri anno xv^xxxvij. incluys : welcke rekenninge gemaect is in ponden, stuuvers, ende deniers, Artois.

Folio xi. [Ontfanck] Van Janne Baers, die midts zeekcren mesuse ende neghgentien, by hem gecommitteert in 't bewaeren van eenen gevangenen, die geacuseert was van Lutcrye, genompt Thomas Poinctz, Ingelsman, unytgebrooken ende ontloopen, dyen hy hadde ten bevele van den Procureur-Generaelaenverdttebewaerene, dairaff hy hadde verworffven remissie belast mit amende civile, soe es dezelve amende getaxeert by den Baide, xiiij. Julii, totter sommen van

Ixxx. £ gr Ixxx. i'.

Translation.

Accounts of Louis Van Heylwygen, Counsellor in ordinary of the Emperor, and receiver of the escheats, fines, and amends pronounced in His Majesty's Council of Brabant, of all that he has received and expended from the first day of October 1535, to the last day of September

inclusive; which account is made in pounds, shillings and pence Artois.

Fol. xi. Received from John Baers for certain carelessness, abuse, and negligence committed by him in keeping a prisoner who was accused of Lutheranism, named Thomas Poyntz, an Englishman, broken out and escaped, whom he had received to keep by the orders of the ProcureurGeneral, of which [negligence] he had received forgiveness charged with amende civile, which amende has been taxed

' See Demaus' Life of Latimer, p. 50, etc.

E E

Documents from the Belgian Archives. the by Council, July 14, to the sum of eighty pounds, litres de gros.

^80.'

2. Bill of the Lieutenant of the Castle of Vilvorde roa THE Maintenance of Tyndale during his Imprisonment.

Archives de Bclgique : Chambre des Comptes, No. 19,022.

Rekenninge meester Lodewyck Van Heylwygen van de geconfisqueerde goeden van den Luteranen ende quaden Secten, beghinnende vanden jaere xv'xxxiii., ende eyndende anno xv<=

Fol. viii, Vuytgheven in vacatien ende andere costen van justicien van Lutheranen.

Adolff van Wesele, ter saken van vacatien by hem gedaen soe in 't bewaeren van zekeren gevangenen, genoempt

Willem Tintalus^ Lutriaen, als van synen verleegde penningen, daerinne gedaen ende verleeght ten versuecke van den Procureur-Generael van een jaer hondert vyffendertich daigen te xl s. t'sdaichs blyckende byder taxatien, assignatie, ende quitancie daertoe dienende, soe hior...cii. £

Translation.

Accoimt of Master Ludwig Van Ileylwygen of the confiscated goods of the Lutherans and heretical sects beginning from the year

1533, and ending in 15 Fol. viii.

Expenses in vacation and other expenses in affairs of justice of the Lutherans.

Paid to Adolph Van Wesele on account of the business done by him as well in keeping of a certain prisoner named William Tyndale, a Lutheran, as for his money expended, done and expended therein at the request of the Procureur-General, for a year and one hundred and thirty-five days, at forty stivers the day, as appears by the taxation, assignment and quittance pertaining thereto, the sum of i'102.- 3.

Expenses connected with the Trial and Execution of Tyndale, and Distribution of Money to those who were engaged therein.

Archives de Belgiquc : Chambre des ComjJtes, No. 19,062.

Fol. viii. verso.

" Den Procureur-Generael van Brabant voer hem 1 1 express my ohlisation for the translations to the kindness of my friend

M. leopold Van Hollebeke of the State Paper Otfice, Brussels.

2 Forty stivers were equal to five shillinRS of English money ; and it is worth noticing that Ave shillings a day was the cost, accordins to Toxe, of Poyntz' maintenance in prison This included not merely the expense of providinir the prisoner with food, but also the expenses of the guards who were set to watch him.

Documents from the Belgian Archives.

selven cxxvnii.' : viii.'

: vi.'' ; als voer meesteren Ruwart Tapper, decken van Sinte Peters tot Loevene, Jacques Lathomi, Jan Doye, canonicken aldaer, alle docteurs inder Godtheyt, Willem van Caversclioen, dragende voer hem licden clxix.'

: Godevaert de Mayere liv.':

Chaerle T'Serraets v.': viii/:

Thibault Cotereau vi.': vi.':

Meester Jacop Boonen x.': x.": raiden in Brabant: Meester Hendrick ^'ander Zypen iii.': xii ': Marcellis Van Immerseel iv.': x.*: Peeter de

Brier vi.': x.*: CornelisVander Bruggen ii.': Hendrick Van Pel [len'.'j x'

: x»: Bertolomeus Vander Broecke, Nicolaes Borreman, Jan Vander Biest ende Dierick Cappellemans vi.'

: xv.*, executeurs ende boeden [vanden] raide, die gevacheert hebben, ter ordonnantien vander Coninginnen, soe sy seggen, int vervolgende vander saken byden voirscreven Procureur gehadt tegen heeren WUlemme Tindalus, priestere, gevangen Lutriaen, ende merten vyer [a clerical error for metten vj'er'], tot Vilvorden geexecuteert, als qualicken gevuelen laden lieeligen Kersten geloeff, soe dat liy daer tot Vilvorden ende elders hebben gevacheert op diversche daigen, nairder begrepen in heur declaratie van vacatien blj'ckende, dragende alle de selve vacation ter sommen van ni.'= xii.'

: ix.': vi.**, ende darenboven nocli totter soraraen van xvi.' noch tot behoeft' vander docteurs alliene, blyckende 't selve byder declaratien, taxatie ende assignatie, quitancie daer toe behoorende, 't samen iv.' vii.'

: ix.': vi."* Translation.

Paid to the Procureur-General of Brabant for himself ^128 8s. 6d. also for Mr. Ruwart Tapper, Dean of St. Peter's at Louvain, Jacques

Lathomus, Jan Doye, canons there, all Doctors in theology, William Van Caversclioen, amounting for them all to £14!) : to Godfrey de Mayere i'oi ; Charles T'Serraets i'5 8s.

; Theobald Cotereau i'Ci (is.

Mr. Jacob Boonen i:10

10s.

; Councillors in Brabant : to Mr. Henry Vander Zypen i;;i 12s.

; to INIarcellis van Immerseel £-i 10s.

; Peter de Brier i;(5 10s.

; Cornelius Vander Bruggen £.2

; Henry Van Pellen X'lO 10s.

; Bartholomew Vander Broecke, Nicolas Borreman, Jan Vander Biest and Dierick Cappellemans i'O 15s.

: executioners and messengers of the Council, who have been engaged, by the ordinance of tlie Queen [Mary of Hungary] as they say, in prosecution of the 1 " Hereby hangs a tale."

Hie present document having been somewliat hurriedly transcribed some years ago, this passage was misunderstood as if it meant tliat along witli Tyndale another person called Martin Vyer had also been put to death.

A new victim was thus added to the niartyrology of the Low Countries which, alas

! stands in little need of additions to its terrible calendar.

The incident affords a curious illustration of the simple manner in which grave mistakes may arise.

Documents from the Belr/ian Archives. process directed, by the said Procureur-General against William Tyndale, a priest, a Lutheran prisoner, and executed by fire at Vilvorde for entertaining certain wicked opinions touching the Holy Catholic faith ; so that they have been occupied at Vilvorde and elsewhere on different days, as appears from the contents of tlieir declaration of their engagements, amounting for the said engagements to the sum of ^312 "Js. Cd., and over and above to the sum of i'K) for behoof of the Doctors only : this appearing from the declaration, taxation and assignment and receipt thereto belonging in all to i-407 9s. Od,'

' I do not pretend to understand tlie mysteries of Ludwig van Ileylwygen's bills ; but I have no doubt they were all correct or they never would have been i)aid.

III. ADDENDUM

On the New Testament of 1535.

One point connected with this New Testament has been accidentally omitted in the description given in the text, pp. 410—412. No copy of that edition has yet been discovered with a title-page and imprint

; and it is, therefore, uncertain where or by whom it was printed.

I beheve, however, that it was printed by Yorstermann in Antwerp. A careful comparison of the mutilated Testament of 1535 in the British Museum with Vorstermann's Dutch Bible, printed the year before, shows that most of the ornamental letters, the small capitals, and the headings of the books used by Tyndale occur also in Yorstermann.

The handsome ten-line initial P which stands at the commencement of St.

Paul's Epistles in both works, would almost alone suffice to determine this point.

It is, moreover, to be remembered that, as has been already shown, Tyndale had previously had dealings with Yorstermann, from whom he purchased [see p.

227) tlie blocks which were used for illustrating the Pentateuch, and I believe also some of the type used for printing that work.

On the whole, therefore, the interesting New Testament of 1535 may, with little hesitation, be assigned to the press of Yorstermann.

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re(juvpe&.<Couritita&atbj>nj3en«>t bavyniiei}i» even rt«<itbi0 b^gumie rArt?ert^ fynneflVb.

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Atwb'c^ J6nococtranfUteb At rl>e ienQtl)C/ ^to ^euely^btwbercit w requyreJ) / iinb to fcfcioe' rtayncpbccdmozcpiopet cni^lyflVe / ^nt> tottb a, table rcejtpoubc t^e i»022>e6u;^i'd?rt re nottc^^ mmlypf€&/an&fbett?ebot»ctt>ercripturcvf<rtb jtirtny tt7O2be0/i»bid7«wt»otb«f wyfc un?)er|t^ on^eoftb« comen people : 5t>to b^p^ witb ,;i be^ ciarrtcionioJKre otterongetAfc^rtott anotbcr.

;2tnd coill «n&epcc ouce (dvi&/a» it were tofet^e itbetter/anJ>tomAfe itm<?2e Apte fox t\>ewMfe fTonw&e«:&ef)?tyn3etbemtbatArelearfie£>/4ni> abk/to remembet tl^ziv buette/ Anb to belpe fb< ecerntoianbto be |1:0tt>e vnto tbe eJ)yfyt0e

^f(Cb-2tflt« bo&v C u?bi47 (s tbecojjre?

^<tci'on oftt>emtt)^tbel«we)ti?o^ fc gyftC5 tx>l)yd) tbey b*»ve rcce4i!7«5 ofQob foi tbe f<:^rnepucpore.^b«0i^ 4cetbattfometb^f Cb^jtbetoftbtpe tpatU>t>e bimi. p2^VefO!2V^.

INDEX.

Anderson's Annals nf the English Cologne, Tyndale's residence there, Bible, 4,j^2, 60, 91, 115, 116, 125, 103.

Coverdale, said to have met Tyndale at Hamburg, 229 ; translates the Bible, 415.

Cranmer, one of Fryth's judges, 130, 142, 145, 147, 158, 219, 232, a59» ^65, 390, 399, 412, 421, 442, 451.

Appendix i.

Antwerp, Tyndale's adventure with

; attempts to save Fryth, 371.

Cromwell attempts to save TynTunstal there,

; Tyndale's manner of life there,

; the English House there, 413.

Arber's reprint of the quarto New dale, 439.

Donne, Gabriel, assists in seizing Tyndale, 419, 432 ; rewarded for Testament of Cologne, 123, note.

Barclay, supposed to be one of Tyndale's associates, 166.

Barlowe joins Tyndale at Worms, it, 434.

Dufief, the Procureur - General, seizes Tyndale,

; his character,456,482, notej pronounces sentence on Tyndale, 480.

144; pursued by Rinck, 165; betrays Lambert, 313, and note.

Barnes sells Tyndale's "Testaments, Elyot sent to apprehend Tyndale,

; meets Tyndale at Marburg, 328; fails to find him, 342; complains of his losses in the attempt, 345.

Ensinas, Memoirs of, 418, 453, 456, 457. 458, 459.474, 48', 4^2. note.

Erasmus studies at Oxford,

goes to Cambridge, 3 1 ; recommends the translation of Scripture into the vulgar tongue, 32 ; his Enchiridion, 47, etc.

; a hot Lutheran,

threatened with arrest by Philips, 432.

Bayfield introduces Tyndale's works,

; burnt for heresy, 314.

Berkeley Castle, 11.

Bilney at Cambridge with Tyndale,

; tried for heresy,

; strengthened by Tyndale's Obedience, aio ; burnt, 314.

Boleyn, Anne, protects Herman, 400; her New Testament, 401.

Buschius, his high opinion of Tyndale's learning, 128; with Tyndale at Marburg, 170.

Farryngton employed as a spy on Philips, 470.

Foxe, his account of Tyndale's youth, 19; his narrative of Tyndale's life at Sodbury, 44, etc., his account of Tyndale's translations,

; his account of Tyndale's shipwreck,

; of Fryth's martyrdom, 373 ; of Tyndale's life in Antwerp, 379; of Tyndale's arrest, 421 ; of Poyntz'

Charles v., his edicts against the Protestants, 416.

Cochloeus discovers the printing of Tyndale's Testament, and stops it, 108, 113, "7, 246,387.

Colet, Dean, his lectures at Oxford,

; accused of heresy, 30; his sermon before Convocation, 31.

I effort to release him, 443 ; of Tyndale's last words, 481.

K K 2

Index.

Jonah, Tyndale's Exposition of, Froude's opinion of Tyndale'B Translation, 132.

Fry, his fac-simile of the Octavo New Testament of Worms, 124, note ; his fac-simile of Tyndale's Jonah, 317.

Fryth, John, his early days, 34; meets Tyndale in London,

; arrested at Oxford, 159; arrives 316.

Joye, his testimony to Tyndale's learning, 127; accuses Tyndale of indolence, 216 ; his account of the editions of Tyndale's New Testament, 383, etc.; his own edition of the New Testament,

; his controversy with Tynat Marburg, 1 74 ; visits England, dale, 403 ; accused of conspiring against Tyndale, 432.

; Vaughan instructed to gain him over, 304,

; his second visit to England,

; seized, 357; controversy with Lambert of Avignon, professor at Marburg, 170, 172, 246.

Lambert, John, betrayed by Barlowe, 313.

Lathomus, his history and chaSir Thomas More, 358, 364; his opinion of Tyndale, 365 ; brought before Cranmer, 370 ; offered the opportunity of escape, 371 ; marracter, 455 ; his answer to Tyndale's treatise, 463.

Latimer, Hugh, his Life quoted, 33, tyred, 373.

Fuller disparagesTyndale's scholar74,248,257,312, 313, 314.356, ship, 126.

431, 497 ; his account of Humphrey Monmouth, 74.

Latimer, William, 60, note.

Lee, Dr., warns Hem-y against Tyndale's New Testament, 117.

Lemparenr, printer at Antwerp, Gardiner tries and condemns Fryth, 370, 373 ; said to have been the contriver of the plot for seizing Tyndale, 424.

Hall's account of Tyndale's intercourse with Tunstal in Antwerp, 317, 393- .

Luft, printer at Marburg, 175, 187, 221.

Hallam, his strange description of 231.

Luther, 96, 129, 146, 177, 237, 347.

Tyndale's New Testament, 126.

Hamilton, Patrick, the Scottish martyr, 172.

Henry viii. orders the New TestaMagdalen Hall, Oxford, 18.

Mammon, The Wiclced, Parable of 176, etc.

Marburg, town and university of, ment to be burnt,

; reads Tyndale's Obedience, 214; invites Tyndale to return to England,

; conference at, 228.

Monmouth, Humphrey, his cha-

; wishes to seize Tyndale, racter, 74; hears Tyndale preach,

; not concerned in the suc-

; his narrative of Tyndale's cessful plot against Tyndale, life in London, 80 ; his benefac424; joins Cromwell in seeking tions to learned men, 8 3 ; helps Tyndale to go abroad, 93 ; hears Tunstal denoimce the New Testament of Tyndale, 152.

More, Sir Thomas, at Oxford, 27 ; his opinion of Tunstal, 77 ; his testimony to Tyndale's chato release Tyndale, 442.

Hook, Dean, disparages Tyndale's scholarship, 127; his strange account of the Bible-burning, 127, note.

Hunt's Court, alleged birth-place of Tyndale, 3.

Jerome : see Barlowe. racter, 81 ; declares that Tyndale went to Luther,

; admits Tyndale's learning,

; his account of Tyndale's change of Jolvn, Tyndale's Exposition of his Epistles, 321.

Index.

Quentel, printer for Tyndale at Cologne, 107. opinion on the Sacrament, 171 ; censures the Wicked Mammon, 186; censures the Obedience,

; ridicules Tunstal's purchase of Bibles, 224 ; condemns TynRidley, chaplain to Tunstal, criticises Tyndale's New Testament, 153Rinck, Senator of Cologne, interrupts Tyndale's work in that dale's Matrimony, 21-9; condemns the Practice of Prelates,

his controversy with Tyndale, city, 112; employed by Wolsey to seize Tyndale, 161,497.

Roberts, Oade, an alleged collaa6i, etc.

; his Dialogue, 265 ; his Confutation, 281 ; his monument in Chelsea Church,

; his censure of Tyndale 'sJona/i, 316; his censure of Tyndale's St. John,

; his controversy with Fryth, teral descendant of Tyndale, 3 (note).

Rogers, Chaplain at Antwerp,

; obtains Tyndale's manu-

; his imprisonment, 399, 428. scripts, 479.

Roye, Tyndale's amanuensis, 103 ; his satire on Cochloeus,

; dismissed by Tyndale,

; saNorth Nibley, residence of the Tyndales, 3. tirises Wolsey, 144 ; his account of the reception of Tyndale's Testament by the Bishops, 149.

Obedience of a Christian Ma/n, 188, etc.

Offor, George, his supposed discovery of the date of Tyndale's ordination, 3 5 ; imagines that Tyndale was a monk,

; says that Tyndale's Translation was begun in 1502, 63, note.

Schoeffer, printer for Tyndale at Worms, 115.

Sermon on the Mount, Exposition of, 345, etc.

Slymbridge, probable birthplace of Tyndale, 9.

Sodbury Manor House, 39.

Tapper Ruwart, one of Tyndale's judges, 453.

Tebold, (see Theobald).

Packington with Tyndale at Antwerp, 221.

Parker, Chancellor of Worcester,

; summons Tyndale before him, 57.

Pentateuch printed,

; revised, Testament New, translated by Tyndale from the third edition of Erasmus, 99 ; printing begun at Cologne, 107; removed to Worms, 115; account of the first quarto, 122 : of the first octavo,

; reprinted by Christopher of Endhoven, 157; surreptitious editions,

; Joyo's edition, 387; Tyndale's revision of 1534,

; jDresented to Anne Boleyn,

; revision of 1535, 411, 500.

Theobald employed to keep watch 382.

Philip, Landgrave of Hesse Casscl, 167.

Philips, Henry, the traitor who seized Tyndale, 419 ; at Louvain University,

; procijres the arrest of Poyntz, 445 ; urges on the trial of Tyndale, 447, 469 ; watched by Cromwell's spies,

; a reward offered for his apprehension, 472.

Poyntz, Tyndale's host at Antwerp, upon Philips who seized Tyndale, 430, 431, Trevisa, Vicar of Berkeley, 12.

Tunstal, Bishop of London,

his interview with Tyndale, 77 ; ho preaches against Tyndale's 41 3 ; attempts to save Tyndale,

; arrested for heresy,

; tried, 447 ; escapes from prison,

; dies at Ockenden, in Essex, 45'Practice of Prelates, 248, etc.

Index.

Testament, 1 50 ; prohibits it, 1 5 1 buys Testaments in Antwerp,

; bums them publicly, 224 Tyndales of Hunt's Court,

; of Slymbridge, 4.

Tyndale, Edward, of the Pull, brother of the martyr,

; John, brother of the martyr, 17, 293.

Tyndale, William ; his birthplace, his Jonah, 317; his Exposition of St.

John's Epistles, 321 ; supposed to have visited Nuremberg, 344 ; writes Exposition of Sermon on the Mount,

letters toPryth, 359, 374 ; treatise on the Lord's Supper, 367; his life at Antwerp, 380 ; revises the Pentateuch,, 372 ; the New Testament,

; his controversy with Joye, 403 ; his last edition of the New Testament, 411, 500 his residence with Poyntz, 413; seized, 419 ; imprisoned at Vilvorde, 423 ; his defence against the Louvain Doctors,

; his prison life, 474 ; his letter from prison,

; sentenced and degraded,

; strangled and burnt, 482; his character, 483.

; his date of birth, 9 ; goes to Oxford, i8; graduates,

j removes to Cambridge,

; supposed time of his ordination, 35 ; was never a monk,

; leaves Cambridge,

; at Little Sodbury,

; translates the Enchiridion of Erasmus, 47 ; summoned before the Chancellor of "Worcester, 57 ; resolves to translate the New Testament, 6r ; goes to London, 66 ; has an interview with Tunstal, 77 ; lives with Humphrey Monmouth,

j leaves London,

; arrives in Hamburg, 91 ; goes to Wittemberg,

; returns to Hamburg, 102 J begins to print at Cologne, 107; has to flee to Worms,

; prints his Testament at Worms, 113; specimens of his Vaughan, the English envoy at Antwerp, letters from, 289, 291, ?94.

295.

330, 338, 383.

472; invites Tyndale to return to England,

; his interviews with Tyndale, 296, 308,

praises Barnes' works, 329; protests in favour of clemency, 330 ; intercedes for Latimer, 356, note for Tyndale, 472.

Vilvorde, Castle of, 425. first Testament, 133; his address to the reader, 137; separates from Eoye,

; writes the Introduction to the Eoma/ns,

pursued by Rinck,

; goes to Marburg, 167 ; writes The Wicked Mcvmmon, 175; the Obedience, Walsh, Sir John, of Little Sodbury, 37, 41Warham, interdicts the New Testaments,

152; buys them up to bum them, 158.

Webb, Richard, probably Foxe's informant about Tyndale's early 189; the Matrimony 219; his visit to Antwerp ,

; purchases blocks from Vorstermann,

; prints the Pentateuch, 231 ; the Practice of Prelates, 248 ; his controversy with Sir Thomas More, 270; invited to return to England,

; interviews with Vaughan, 296, 308, 310 ; prints life, 44.

Wesele Van, jailer of Vilvorde, 452, and Appendix.

Westcott, his History of the English Bible quoted, 131, 135, 146, 237, 389. 395, 399, 412, 479Wolsey, 68, 71, 254.

Dedicated by express permission to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

HUGH LATIMER.

BIOGRAPHY.

BY THE

KEY. EOBEKT DEMAUS,

M.A.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

" We congratulate the Religious Tract Society on having brought out this carefully written life of the most popular of our Reformation worthies,

'Bravo old Latimer.'

It marks a signal advance on the sort of 'good books,' which, in its earlier years, the Society deemed good enough for circulation among the middle classes.

It really deserves to take rank among works of original research and sound literary workmanship.

Mr.

Demaus is no mere compiler or indiscriminate panegyrist.

He ha.s sought his materials among the MSS. of the State Paper OflBce and the British Museum, as well as in many an obscure publication of the Reformation period

; and his endeavour has evidently been to produce a fair and honest portraiture of the great preacher of that stirring time.

We take leave of this interesting book by expressing the hope that it may find a wide circle of readers."

The Athenwum, Nov. 27tli, 18G9.

" This is a good, readable, well-executed work, and Mr. Demaus has brought together a large mass of information from sources hitherto unused."

Tlue Literary Churchman.

" A full and careful life of this distinguished Reformer has been needed, and it is now presented to us by the competent author, who has spared no pains to render his pagss worthy of their subject.

Relying no more on moderns than they deserve, Mr. Demaus has gone to the original wells ; he has read Latimer's contemporaries, and explored the precious manuscript treasures of our repositories (now so accessible), and all the important references are duly placed at the foot.

This biography, therefore, is to bo considered a first-hand and learned work, quite worthy of being consulted by the Church Historians."

The Contemxxyrary lievlcv:.

" This biography is at once full, accurate, and picturescjuo ; marked by much careful research, and that genuine love of his subject which a biographer should always have. ....

The young student, desirous of gaining an accurate knowledge of the rise and progress of the Reformation, and of tlie important part played in it by one of the noblest of our martyrs, cannot do better than consult this well-written history.

The story of the Martyrdom is told with much feeling and power."

The Standard.

" This is an exceedingly good biography.

Modem authorities, whether friendly or unfriendly, have been very little consulted ; the aim of the author being to look at Latimer as his contemporaries saw him, and to

Critical Notices of Hugh Latimee—continued. reproduce the man as be spoke, acted, and Buffered, throe hundred years ago.

It is impossible to rise from the perusal of this interesting volume, without feeling that Mr. Demaus has unquestionably done a service to English Literature, and also to his hero's memory."

—TIce Literary World.

"A very excellent biography of Iluf^h Latimer.

Avery complete account of the life and deeds of one who should always hold a foremost place in the estimation of Englishmen."

The Daily News.

" Hitherto there has been no separate biography of Latimer w^orthy of the name.

Mr. Demaus has left little to be desired on that score.

He has gone fully into the labours of his predecessors, he has acquainted himself competently with the history of the period ; but he has done more.

He has grudged no labour on his work; he has examined MS., authorities, verified old facts, and enriched his pages with much that is new, fresh and striking ; while he has brought together all that was really valuable and trustworthy from the labours of those who have gone before him."

" We can honestly, and do earnestly, commend this volume as a careful, painstaking, and every way admirable production."

The Weekly Heviev;.

" A good biography of ' Stout Hugh Latimer ' has long been needed and we gladly welcome the handsome volume which the Tract Society has produced, as worthy of being the standard Life of the distinguished

Reformer.

There is not an uninteresting page in the whole work."

The Freeman.

" Our summary is a very imperfect one of the contents of this extremely interesting arid well-timed volume : we commend it heartily to the perusal of our readers."

The Christian Observer.

" A careful and well-written Life of ' Stout Hugh Latimer.' "

The Morning Advertiser.

" This is the first Life of Latimer which has clone full justice to a great and good man. ....

The volume contains much that will be new to the general reader, and comes very opportunely."

Tlie Watchman.

"A volume which supplies a desideratum in our literature, and will long remaim the standard book on the noble life whose story it tells so well."

The English Independent.

" This appears to be by far the most reliable of all biographies of this glorious and stainless Martyr.

The value of this work is in the main historical, compiled as it has been almost exclusively, ' in its framework and details ' from contemporary documents."

The Roclc.

"Written with peculiar candour and force, compiled almost exclusively from contemporary documents and MSS. in the State Paper Office and the British Museum, this work must commend itself to all who are interested in the Life of Latimer

, .

We heartily commend to our readers this carefully written Life of one of England's bravest Martyrs, and we trust this very valuable and most interesting book will find an extensive circulation, especially among the young."

The Church Association Monthly Intelligencer, February, 1870.

THE WISDOM OF OUR FATHERS.

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Each Volume 2s. 6d., in glazed cloth boards.

I. Selections from the Miscellaneous Works of Archbishop Leighton.

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His sermons were, in their way admirable.

His writings are beaten gold, and his life was that of a man who had pitched his camp onthevery precincts of the eternal world."

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"Tlicse selections are made with skill and judgment, and convey a full Idea of the stately force and copious wealth of this gi-eat preacher.

Many who would

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God.

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Man's Creation in a Holy hut Mutable State.

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