CHAPTER II

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER II.

TYNDALE'S LIFE AT LITTLE SODBURY.

A.D. 1521—1523.

The manor-house of Little Sodbury, where Tyndale was first introduced to the realities of life outside the walls of the .University, was in his native county of Gloucester, almost within sight of the spot where he had spent the • years of his childhood.

The house is charmingly situated on the south-western slope of the Cotswolds, and enjoys a magnificent prospect over the richly-wooded vale of the Severn, to the distant hills of Wales.

Though somewhat shorn of its former dignity, and only in part inhabited, the house is still, in the main, intact ; time, indeed, has dealt gently with it, and has added to the beauties of its graceful and varied architecture those mellowing touches which delight the eye of the lover of the picturesque.

It is evidently in no material respect' altered since the time when Tyndale and his pupils used to issue from its spacious porch to climb the Cotswolds, or to ramble across the fields to the neighbouring village of Chipping Sodbury

; and the original arrangement and destination of the various apartments are tolerably obvious to the glance even of the least practised antiquary.

The great dining-hall, in which Tyndale's voice was so often heard debating theological questions with the clergy of the neighbourhood, around the hospitable board of Sir John Walsh, wants little but

TyndaWs Life at Little Sodhury. appropriate furniture to recall its former appearance ; and the whole mansion furnishes unmistakable proof that it was the residence of a gentleman of considerable wealth and position in the county.

One most interesting appendage of the old manor-house has, unfortunately, been destroyed within the last few years.

The little church of St. Adeline, which stood close behind the house, and in which Tyndale, beyond any doubt, must have officiated, and made his earliest appearance as a preacher, was taken down so recently as 1858, and rebuilt in a situation more convenient for the parishioners ; but part of the western entrance, and two magnificent yew-trees, which must have been large even in Tyndale's time, still remain to mark the spot.^ Behind the manor-house the hill rises almost perpendicularly, completely prohibiting the approach of the bleak north-eastern blasts.

A few minutes' exertion conveys the traveller to the crest of the breezy Cotswolds, crowned with picturesque clumps of beeches visible for miles ; and from the table-land on the summit, where Margaret of Anjou encamped before the fatal field of Tewkesbury, Tyndale must often have looked upon the wooded heights of Nibley and Stinchcombe, and the level vale beyond, where his relations were then established.

Altogether the manorhouse of Little Sodbury is the most interesting, as it is the most authentic locality associated with Tyndale's active life in England.

It is the only place of which we can definitely affirm, " under this very roof Tyndale spent several of the most important months of his life ; " and it was in this house that he formed and first announced his great purpose, if God spared him, to translate the Holy Scriptures 1 A careful drawing of the interesting church was fortunately made, under the care of Mr. Fry of Bristol, to whom I am indebted for a copy.

The Walshes of Little Sodhwy.

into his native tongue, that what had hitherto been confined to the learned, might be open to all who could read.^ The Walshes of Little Sodbury were one of the rising and prosperous families of the county of Gloucester.

John Walsh had, in 1485, come into possession of the manorhouse by his marriage to the heiress of the property.

His son, the patron and employer of Tyndale, a stalwart and expert man-at-arms, had been champion to Henry viii. on some occasions ; and having been fortunate enough to secure the good graces of his sovereign, he was knighted, and received the more substantial reward of the neighbouring manor of Old Sodbury, which had devolved to the crown from Ann, Countess of Warwick.

The handsome royal favourite had still further improved his position in the county by marrying Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Poyntz of Iron-Acton, a neighbouring family of ancient lineage, which could boast of alliances with some of the best blood in England.

In consequence of these fortunate matrimonial alliances, and of the generous favour of the sovereign, Sir John Walsh was a man of very considerable importance ; a point of no small consequence to Tyndale, as it subsequently secured him a powerful protector when the boldness of his opinions had excited the hostility of the neighbouring clergy.

Tyndale's position at the manor-house of Little Sodbury must have been that of chaplain rather than of tutor ; in fact, we are probably doing no injustice to Sir John Walsh and his lady, if we consider the employment of a distin1 The mauor-house is easily accessible either from Bath or Bristol.

It is about an hour's walk from Yato, a station on the Bristol and Gloucester railway, the road leading through the old-fashioned village of Chipping

Sodbury and across the fields.

The view and the inspection of the house will abundantly repay all who admire the beautiful and picturesque, or are interested in the history of one of England's noblest worthies.

Tyndale's Life at Little Sodbury. guislied scholar from the University in the capacity of chaplain as a piece of ambitious ostentation on their part, which was intended to mark their sense of the high position at which they had now arrived.

Their children were mere infants, more likely to profit from their nurse than from a learned tutor.

We have no means of determining the precise time at which Tyndale entered upon this new employment ;^ but there seems no sufficient reason for believing that he resided more than two years at Little Sodbury, and as he was certainly in London before the close of 1523, it may be assumed that it was some time towards the close of the year 1521 that he became tutor to Sir John's children.

And even at the close of 1521, the eldest of Sir John's sons was only six years of age, and little likely, therefore, to give any very serious employment to Tyndale's energies, at least as an instructor.

Tyndale would thus have ample time for reading and reflection and in a house such as that of Sir John Walsh, constantly resorted to by the gentlemen and clerical dignitaries of the neighbourhood, much must have been daily seen and heard to excite reflection in any earnest soul.

Since the time when Tyndale left his home to reside in the Universities, no improvement had taken place in the religious condition of his native county.

The bishop of ^ Anderson (Annals, Vol. i. 30) quotes Sayers as declaring that Tyndale preached in Bristol "about a.d.

1520;" and infers that he must have been at Little Sodbury in that year.

Sayers says so, it is true ; not however, as Anderson by mistake asserts " from old authorities," but simply from conjecture, as may be seen by examining the passage in his Memoirs of Brist'd, Vol. II. p. 215. Through the courtesy of the treasurer of Bristol,

I have been permitted to examine the oldest kalendar of that city, that called the Mayor's Kalendar ; and I have also inspected another preserved in the Subscription Library, but neither of these makes the slightest allusion to Tyndale, nor is there any authority for assigning his residence at Sodbury to such an early period as 1520, v?hen his pupils could scarce walk alone.

The Diocese of Worcester.

the diocese, who was responsible for the spiritual oversight of its population, resided a thousand miles off, in Italy ; indeed there was no resident bishop from 1512, when Sylvester de

Gigliis retired to Kome, till 1535 when Hugh Latimer was consecrated the first reforming prelate of the long-neglected

See.

In the absence of the chief ecclesiastical authority who ought to have provided for the religious wants of the counties of Gloucester and Worcester, his duties were divided between Cardinal Wolsey, who was also, of course, non-resident, and far too deeply engrossed in other matters to pay much heed to them, and the Chancellor of the Diocese, who, during Tyndale's residence at Little Sodbuiy, was Dr.

Parker, a furious bigot, whom we shall speedily meet again in this biography.

In 1521, the bishop of the diocese died at Rome, but his place was filled by another Italian prelate, no other than Julio de Medici, who as Clement vii., was subsequently appealed to in the momentous question of Henry's divorce.

On his resignation of the See, after a few mouths' episcopate, the bishopric was once more conferred upon a non-resident Italian prelate, Jerome de Ghinucci.

The time had gone by when such a scandalous state of affairs could exist unquestioned.

Fear of authority might suppress any practical manifestation of insubordination ; but authority could not restrain the shrewd remarks of intelligent observers ; nor could it prevent men perceiving that even the highest dignitaries of the Church, in their anxiety to increase their revenues, thought little of the most flagrant disregard of the most sacred duties.

The county of Gloucester, moreover, though far removed from the Metropolis and the Universities, had not escaped the influence of that great intellectual revival which had re-awakened the nations of Europe to mental activity.

Bristol, then the second city

Tyndale's Life at Little Sodhury. in England, had given a favouraltle reception to the Lollard preachers ; the merchants of the city were conspicuous for their energy ; and the citizens were at all times distinguished for the freedom of their opinions, and the zeal with which they entered upon the discussion of all religious questions.

Lutheran books, though rigorously prohibited, were probably not unknown amongst the imports that floated up the Avon to the warehouses of the Bristol merchants.

Amongst the neighbouring gentry were several men of high character and considerable learning ; and religion was the all-engrossing theme of the time, so that Tyndale found himself surrounded at Sir John Walsh's table, by the same atmosphere of theological controversy in which he had moved at the University.

Of this interesting period of Tyndale' s life Foxe has fortunately preserved an unusually copious and trustworthy account.

Even as perused in the ordinary editions of the Acts and Monuments, the narrative strikes the attentive reader as the authentic record of a contemporary : but the first English edition of Foxe, that of 1563, makes it quite clear that this part of the work was supplied to the Martyrologist by one who had it from Tyndale's own lips.

Foxe has not mentioned his authority, but we feel strongly convinced that his informant was Kichard Webb, a native of the village of Chipping Sodbury, and subsequently a servant of Latimer, whose rectory of West Kington was only a few miles distant.

This Webb may possibly have been a convert of Tyndale's ; in

he was brought before Sir Thomas More for circulating prohibited books in Bristol and he was alive when Foxe wrotehis Acts and Monuments, and furnished him, as he acknowledges, with some valuable materials.^ But whoever was Foxe's informant, it is most

• Foxe, Vol. IV. p. 129.

More's Confutation, p. 727.

Discussions at Little Sodhury.

important to observe that his record of Tyndale's life at Little Sodbury rests upon the authority of a reporter who had it from Tyndale himself, and is therefore entitled to the highest credit.

In the following extracts the words of the original narrator are introduced as given in Foxe's first edition, instead of the less graphic narrative which the Martyrologist substituted in his later editions " The said Tyndale being schoolmaster to the said Master Walsh's children, and being in good favour with his master, sat most commonly at his own table, which kept a good ordinary, having resort to him many times divers greatbeneficed men as abbots, deans, archdeacons, and other divers doctors and learned men. Amongst whom commonly was talk of learning, as well of Luther and Erasmus Roterodamus, as of opinions in the Scripture.

The said Master Tyndale being learned, and which had been a student of divinity in Cambridge, and had therein taken degree of school, did many times therein shew his mind and learning.

Wherein as those men and Master Tyndale did vary in opinions and judgments, then Master Tyndale would shew them on the book the places by open and manifest Scripture ; the which continued for a certain season divers and sundry times, until in the continuance thereof those great beneficed doctors waxed weary and bear [bore] a secret grudge in their hearts against Master Tyndale."^

We can easily realise the scene which the rough graphic language of the narrator here depicts.

Beneficed clergymen and lordly abbots, whose learning had become rusty from disuse, and who hated the teaching of Erasmus and Luther as odious and heretical novelties, must have been sadly disconcerted by the shrewd and determined " schoolmaster," fresh from the University, an expert theological 1 Foxe, p. 514; Edition of 1563.

Tyndale's Life at Little Sodhury. controversialist with his terrible matter-of-fact habit of confronting their opinions with the plain and manifest words of Scripture printed in "the book."

That in such encounters he should generally remain master of the field we can perfectly believe : and that his antagonists, annoyed at the presumption of the young scholar who dared to controvert the opinions of wealthy ecclesiastical dignitaries, and confounded by his arguments, should bear a secret grudge against him, is only too truly in keeping with human nature to excite any doubt.

The narrative resumes *' So upon a time some of those beneficed doctors had Master Walsh and the lady his wife, at a supper or banquet, there having among them talk at will without any gainsaying : and the supper or banquet being done, and Master

Walsh and the lady his wife come home, they called for Master Tyndale, and talked with him of such communication as had been, where they came fro,

[from] and of their opinions. Master Tyndale thereunto made answer agreeable to the truth of God's Word, and in reproving of their false opinions.

The lady Walsh being a stout woman, and as Master Tyndale did report her to be wise, being there no more but they three. Master Walsh, his wife and Master

Tyndale :

' Well,' said she, ' there was such a doctor, he may dispend [spend] two hundred pound by the year, another, one hundred pound, and another, three hundred pound ; and what think ye, were it reason that we should believe you before them so great, learned, and beneficed men ?

' Master Tyndale, hearing her, gave her no answer nor after that had but small arguments against such, for he perceived it would not help in efi"ect to the contrary."

Tyndale had the good sense to perceive that there was small hope of persuading such a disputant by appealing merely to reason and Scripture.

There was another argu-

The ^^Enchiridion" of Erasmus.

ment more likely to impress persons who estimated the soundness of opinions by the annual income of those who entertained them ; he might appeal to the authority of a great name.

Erasmus was still the great model of Tyndale's opinions ; and if it could he shown beyond any doubt, that those very doctrines and opinions which the neighbouring abbots and wealthy doctors condemned, were maintained by the illustrious scholar—with whose praises all Europe was ringing, who was in high favour with many of the most exalted rank in England, and especially with the primate and the king—then it might be hoped that even

Lady Walsh would begin to appreciate the force of arguments which came recommended by such weight.

It was probably, therefore, as an important measure of self-defence that Tyndale undertook the translation of one of the most popular of the works of Erasmus —the " Enchiridion Militis Christiana," or. Manual of a Christian Soldier.

This little treatise had been originally written in 1501, shortly after Erasmus' first visit to England ; and it was one of the earliest of that long series of works in which, with terse and graceful Latinity, the author attempted to ridicule the popular misconception which placed religion in scholastic dogmas and ritual observances.

As originally issued the work was remarkable rather for the graces of its style than for the strength of its opinions ; but when the controversy between Luther and the Pope had deeply excited the minds of all thinking men, Erasmus re-issued it with a fresh preface, written in a style of boldness and fire which must in calmer moments have alarmed the author himself, and which is in truth not altogether in keeping with the sober, rhetorical, halfclassical, half-Christian manual to which it is prefixed.

Thus re -introduced to public notice the book became

Tynclale's Life at Little Sodhury. immensely popular ; it was translated into many languages and exercised a wonderful influence all over Europe.^

Of a book thus famous in its day, which was evidently highly valued by Tyndale, and on which he first employed his skill and learning as a translator, the reader will not disdain to peruse a very few sentences.

The original work had been censured because it did not treat its subject according to the methods of the schoolmen ; the author thus defends himself in his new preface :

" I am content that my book be deficient in acuteness if only it be pious.

Let it not train men for the discussions of the Sorbonne^, provided it train them for Christian peace.

Let it be unserviceable for theological debating, provided it be useful for religious living.

Besides, what is the use of discussing what everyone discusses ?

Who is not engaged now-a-days in theological questions ?

What else do the swarms of scholastics do ?

There are almost as many commentaries on the " Sentences" ^ as there are names of theologians.

What limit is there to the number of compilers, men who mingle over again various matters, and like chemists manufacture new things out of old, old out of new, one out of many, and again many out of one ?

How is it possible that a huge mass of such books can train men up to live well, when the whole of one's life would not suffice to read them ?

As if a doctor were to prescribe to a man labouring under a rapid disease, that he must read the works oi Jacobus apartlhus and all similar treatises, in order to discover in them how to restore his health, while in the mean time death will have carried him ofl", and there will be no possibility of helping anyone at that rate. ... To say ^ See Seebohm's Oxford Reformers.

- The Divinity School in Paris, -the headquarters of Scholasticism.

^ A compilation by Peter Lombard, who was usuallycalled in consequence the Master of the Sentences; the Bible, in fact, of the schoolmen.

Tyndale's Translation of the ^'Enchiridion.''

notliing of their treating things in a meagre and cold manner, how many people have leisure to read so many volumes, or who could carry about with him the works of Thomas Aquinas ?

And yet everyone is bound to live well, and Christ has wished the way to good living to be easy to all ; not through the trackless labyrinths of debates, but through sincere faith and love unfeigned, accompanied by the * hope which maketh not ashamed.'

Finally, let the great Rabbis, who must, of course, be few, study those huge volumes ; but, nevertheless, we must in the mean time provide for the ignorant multitude for whom also Christ died."

" Would anyone," he asks, " attempt to convert the Turks to the Christian religion by submitting to them the I works of Occam, or Durandus, or Scotus, or Gabriel, or Alvarus ?

[All great scholastic doctors.] What will they think when they shall have heard those difficult and perplexing subtleties about form and essence and relation; especially when they see that on these points, so far are those gi*eat professors of religion from agreeing, that they contend with each other till they are pale in the face, till they scold each other, spit upon each other, even till they attack each other with their fists—when they see the Dominicans fighting in all manner of ways for their beloved Thomas [Aquinas], the Franciscans on the other hand, with joined shields defending the most subtle doctor, and the Seraphic doctor [Scotus and Bonaventura] ; some speaking as nominalists some as realists ?

Christ has not died in order that wealth, abundance, arms, and the rest of the pomp of an earthly kingdom, which formerly were possessed by heathen, or at least Gentile princes, should now be in the possession of a few priests not unlike heathens .... In my opinion, it would

TyndaWs Life at Little Sodhury. be a far more appropriate plan for converting the Turks if we were to devolve upon some pious and learned men the duty of compiling from the perfectly pure fountains of the Evangelists and the Apostles, and the most approved commentators, an abridgment of the whole philosophy of Christ, simple yet learned, brief but not obscure.

Those things which pertain to faith, let them be expressed in the fewest possible articles ; those which pertain to good living, let them also be expressed in few words, and so expressed that men may understand that the yoke of Christ is easy and light, and not harsh ; that they may see that in the clergy they have found fathers and not tyrants, pastors and not robbers, that they are invited to salvation, and not dragged to slavery.

. Amid the general darkness that prevails, amid such tumults in the world, in such a conflict of human opinions, to what refuge shall we flee sooner than to that truly sacred anchorage of Evangelical doctrine?

What man of real piety does not perceive with sighs that this is far the most corrupt of all ages ?

When did ever tyranny or avarice prevail more widely or with gi*eater impunity ?

When was more importance ever attached to mere ceremonies ?

When did iniquity abound with more licentiousness ?

When was charity so cold ?

What is said, what is read, what is heard, what is decreed, except that which savours of ambition and gain ? "

With equal boldness, Erasmus proceeds to indicate the vices to which the clergy of all ranks were liable, and by which they were losing the respect of the thinking men amongst the laity: the greed of the bishops who were perpetually plundering their dioceses by their exactions, the superstition and hypocrisy of the religious orders, the avarice and ambition of the preachers, the wrangling of the theologians.

Above all, he poured out his severest censure

The "Enchiridion:'

upon that one unviersal fault which affected all ranks of ecclesiastics, the wretched perversion of judgment, which led them to consider the violation of any of the ceremonies and ordinances of the Church as involving a far greater amount of delinquency, than the grossest neglect of all the ordinary obligations of Christian morality.

A priest might be a gambler, a fighter, totally ignorant, entirely immersed in secular affairs, a sycophant, a liar, a calumniator, and yet might escape blame if only he were careful to observe that enforced law of celibacy, which, though a law of the Church only and not an ordinance of Cod, was deemed of more consequence than any other qualification in the clergy.

"If," says he, with truth, "it had been only a slight danger to religion that lay concealed in ceremonies, Paul would not have spoken so sharply against them in all his epistles.

Not that we in all cases condemn ceremonies when used in moderation, but that we deny that the begin-, ning and ending of religion consist in them.

St. Augustine even forbade the clergy, that he brought up in his house, to Avear any special dress ; and said, that if they wished to be commended to the people it should be by their life and not by their dress.

Now-a-days, what new, what extravagant ceremonies !

Yet this is not what I find fault with ; what I am surprised at is, that too much importance is attached to those things which, perhaps, ought to be blamed, and too little to those which alone ought to be looked to.

I am not abusing the Franciscans or the Benedictines for embracing the rule of their order, but because some of them value their rule above the Gospel.

I am not abusing them because some live on fish, others on vegetables, others on eggs, but I warn them that they are seriously mistaken if, like the Jews of old, they look E 2

Tyndale's Life at Little Sodhury. upon such things as these as proofs of their hohness, and set themselves ahove others on account of trifles of this sort, invented hy men of little minds ; whilst they consider it as no fault at all to assail a man's good name with lies.

Neither Christ nor his Apostles have anywhere given directions ahout the choice of food; St.

Paul frequently despises it : but Christ does condemn all violent slander ; the writings of the Apostles ahhor it ; and yet on the one matter of no importance we wish to appear scrupulously religious, on the other of great moment we are bold and fearless."

Erasmus was well aware that for thus writing he would be charged with instigating the laity to rebel against their ecclesiastical guides ; but he was not to be deterred by the fear of any such imputations.

It was all very well, he said, for the clergy to praise the virtue of obedience ; but Christians were called to liberty ; and it was both impossible and unnatural to attempt to keep men for ever in the ignorance and submission of children.

As to religious vows, Erasmus wished that it was forbidden by law that anyone should bind himself by such obligations till he had reached the age of thirty, when he might be supposed capable of knowing himself, and understanding the real power of religion ; and even with this enactment there was no fear, he suggests, of the monasteries failing to find inhabitants, as there were plenty of fools in the world, to replenish them.

And as to the vow of chastity in particular, he did not hesitate to say that there was very little difference in point of merit between celibacy and chaste matrimony.

"In fine," he concludes, "let no one foolishly pride himself because his way of living difi'ers from others ; but in every species of life let this be the common desire of all, prosecuted with all their energy, to reach that goal which Christ has set before all men ; and when everyone has done

The "Enchiridion."

his best, let him not be like the Pharisee in the Gospel who boasts of his good deeds before God, ' I fast twice in the week, etc.,' but let him, according to the advice of Christ, say, and say from his heart, and for himself not for others, ' I am an unprofitable servant, I have done what it was my duty to do.'

No one more truly possesses faith than the man who thus distrusts himself ; no one is farther removed from true religion than the man who seems to himself to be extremely religious."

To appreciate aright the boldness of such words as these, we must remember that when they were written, Luther still spoke of Leo x. as " our most Holy Lord ;" and professed himself willing to throw himself at the feet of his Holiness, and to submit implicitly to his judgment and it was not till two months after the writing of this preface that Luther took the first of his bold steps and appealed from " the most Holy Father, the Pope, illinformed, to the most Holy Loi-d and Father in Christ Leo, tenth of that name, better informed."

The treatise to which the preface was prefixed, being an early production of its author, bore several marks of less mature intellect.

It is written with excellent sense, in scrupulously Ciceronian Latin, and is remarkable mainly for the extraordinary contempt with which Erasmus speaks of the literal intefpretatiou of Scripture, and the undue value which he attaches to its spiritual or allegorical signification.^ Yet even in this treatise, written so early as 1501, Erasmus expressed himself with the same clearness on the superstition and uselessness of many of the ceremonies of religion and the observances of the monks.

" Monkery," said he, " is not piety ; it is merely a manner of life which may be useful or useless, according to the temperament of * " Citra allegoriam sterilis est Scriptura," says he.

Tyndale's Life at Little Sodhury. body and mind of the man who adopts it ; piety consists neither in food nor in dress, nor in any outward observance."

These brief extracts will have made it sufficiently evident to the reader, that Tyndale could scarcely have found any better means of supporting those opinions of his which had given so much umbrage to the neighbouring clergy.

Whether he wished to assert the supremacy of Scripture or to censure the laborious trifling of the schoolmen, to attack the gross abuses of the religious orders or to condemn the extravagant importance that was attached to ceremonies and ritual observances, he could boldly appeal to Erasmus as unquestionably pronouncing in his favour

; and opinions which might have seemed rash and ignorant in a young scholar fresh from the University, would gain an enormous accession of weight when supported by the authority of the most illustrious scholar in Europe.

It seems natural to conclude that the translation of the "Enchiridion" was intended by Tyndale to be at some convenient time committed to the press ; but there is no record of its ever having been printed.

He took his manuscript with him to London ; and Humphrey Monmouth, who so kindly entertained him in the metropolis, speaks of two copies of the book which had been extensively circulated amongst the clergj' and others without exciting any opposition ; but these were, beyond question, consigned to the flames along with Tyndale's sermons and letters, when he had been publicly denounced as a heretic, and it was dangerous to be in possession of any of his writings.^

The temporary and immediate purpose, however, for which Tyndale had undertaken the translation, was most ^ Herbert in liis edition of Ames (Vol. i. p. 189) mentions an English translation of the Enchiridion, printed in 1532 by Wynken deWorde, and ascribes it to Tyndale ; but this is clearly a mistake.

Tyndale preaching in Bnstol.

successfully accomplished.

In the words of the old narrator, *' Then did he translate into English a book called, as I remember, "Enchiridion Militis Christian!," the which being translated [he] delivered to his master and lady.

And after they had read that book, those great prelates were no more so often called to the house, nor, when they came, had the cheer nor countenance as they were wont to have

; the which they did well perceive, and that it was by the means and incensing of Master Tyndale, and at last came no more there."

Such was the issue of Tyndale's first appearance in public as a theological disputant.

His opponents were discomfited, and Sir John Walsh and his lady were gained over to his opinions.

By this victory Tyndale had considerably improved his own position, and secured for himself peace and respect in the Manor-house where he resided ; whilst he was well aware at the same time that he had provoked the bitter resentment of the clergy, and that he must be prepared toli&ce the consequences of their indignation.

The ignominious repulse at Sir John Walsh's dinnertable was not the only provocation of which the neighbouring priests had to complain.

His duties as instructor of the very juvenile family at Sodbury-manor could not have occupied much of the time of an energetic man like Tyndale ; nor would his ministrations as family chaplain in the quaint little church behind the Manor-house be any very serious tax upon his industry.

A larger field of labour lay close at hand ; he began to preach in the adjacent villages, and used also to repair to the great city of Bristol, and preach to the crowd that collected around him on the College-green.

Such a proceeding was sure to be warmly resented by men who were still sore from the chagrin of their recent discomfiture.

His conduct and his

5Q TyndaWs Life at Little Sodburij. opinions were freely canvassed by no friendly critics.

"These blind and rude priests," says Foxe, "flocking together to the alehouse, for that was their preachingplace, raged and railed against him ; affirming that his sayings were heresy, adding moreover unto his sayings, of their own heads, more than ever he spake." ^

They determined accordingly to avail themselves of the power which the ecclesiastical organisation of the country placed within their grasp, for silencing the voice of this troublesome preacher.

The bishop of the diocese, who would naturally have been invoked to protect the Church against this threatened inroad of heresy, was, as has been already remarked, nonresident ; and Wolsey, who farmed the bishopric, was also at a distance, and not likely to pay much heed to what would seem to him a mere trifling squabble amongst some country clergy.

But a new Chancellor, Parker, had recently been elevated to the chief local administration of the diocese and his violent temper and hatred of all innovations pointed him out as exceedingly likely to welcome any accusations of heresy, and to treat with sufficient severity any suspected persons.

Tyndale was accordingly secretly accused to the Chancellor ; and preparations were made in the same clandestine manner for securing his condemnation.

A sitting of the Chancellor was appointed, at which all the priests of the neighbourhood were summoned to appear, Tyndale, of course, being summoned with the rest.

He was not aware of the accusations that had been lodged against him, but he had some misgivings that evil was designed.

"Whether," says Foxe, in the words of his informant, "he had ' Pose, Vol. V. p. 117.

Latimer, who lived in the same neighbourhood some ten years later, speaks of the charges against him as having also oiiginated in the alehouse, inter pocula.

Tyndale accused of Heresy.

knowledge by [i.e. of] their threatenings, or that he did suspect that they would lay to his charge, it is not now 'perfectly in my mind; hut thus he told me, that he doubted their examinations ; so that he, in his going thitherwards, prayed in his mind heartily to God to strengthen him to stand fast in the truth of His Word."

Tyndale himself has given us a brief account of this his first experience of the danger which he was incurring by his opinions.

" When I came before the Chancellor, he threatened me grievously, and reviled me, and rated me as though I had been a dog ; and laid to my charge [things] whereof there could be none accuser brought forth, as their manner is not to bring forth the accuser ; and yet all the priests of the country were the same day there." ^ The violence here ascribed to the Chancellor, it may be remarked, is in perfect keeping with all that we know from other sources of his character.

This, it is believed, was the only occasion previous to his last trial, on which Tyndale was brought before any ecclesiastical ofiicer on the charge of heretical teaching.

Sir Thomas IVTore, indeed, asserts that " he sometime savoured so shrewdly of heresy that he was once or tivice examined thereof;"- but there is no record of any other examination than this informal and futile one before Parker.

That there were some prima facie grounds for suspecting him of heresy we may well believe ; and that he would have some difficulty in showing that the opinions which he had uttered were in accordance with the recognised standard of orthodoxy, may also betaken for granted; but, on the whole, his defence seems to have been ably and successfully conducted ; and he left the court neither branded as a heretic, nor yet trammelled by any oath of * Preface to the five Books of Moses, ' Wcrlts, Vol. i. p. 391.

Sir Thomas More's Worls, Edition 1557, p. 2«3.

Tyndale's Life at Little Sodbury. abjuration.

His antagonist More, it is true, insinuated that because he had " glosed his words with a better sense, and said and swore that he meant no harm, folk were glad to take all to the best;"^ but Tyudale roundly declares that he not only never took any oath, but never was asked to take any.Though he had thus come uninjured out of what might have been a most formidable danger, yet Tyndale must have perceived the risk to which he was likely to expose himself by continuing openly to propagate the opinions which had given so much offence.

He could not prevent suspicions being entertained, except by a cowardly reticence which was altogether alien to his temper ; still he seems to have acted with sufficient caution to give his enemies no hold over him.

But the whole transaction was calculated to excite serious reflection in his mind.

The opinions which had given so much offence to the neighbouring clergy were taken from that Sacred Book which was admitted to be the perfect standard of truth ; and they were supported by the authority of the fathers and of the great scholars of the day, whose words were usually cited with reverence.

Why, then, had they been greeted with such general dislike ?

TjTidale became every day more convinced that this opposition resulted from the extreme ignorance of the clergy with whom he came in contact.

They were " a full igno- ; " men who knew no more Latin than was rant sort contained in the missal, and who did not always know even that; whose reading lay principally in an indecent medical treatise, and in the digest of the Constitutions of the Archbishops of Canterbury, which was carefully studied that they might know what amount of "tythes, mortuaries,

^ Sir Thomas Moro's Works, p. 283.

- Tyndale's Answer to More, Works, Vol. iii. p. 213.

Perplexity of Tyndale.

ofterings, customs, and other pillage," might lawfully be claimed as the heritage of God and of holy Church.^

That such opponents should pervert and misunderstand his meaning, and denounce him at every alehouse as a heretic, was not surprising ; it was inevitable ; yet it was most melancholy.

More melancholy even than this was the fact daily becoming more apparent to Tyndale, that these men were only too faithful representatives of the spirit that was predominant amongst the rulers of the Church.

If he could defend himself by the authority of Holy Scripture and the early -fathers, they could allege in support of their views the undeviating practice of several centuries, and the open countenance of all the great dignitaries of the Church.

In spite of their ignorance they evidently understood better than he did the actual intentions of the Church's rulers, and were more truly actuated by their spirit.

Even with all their ignorance they were better exponents of the current of what was deemed orthodox teaching in the Church than he was

: he stood almost alone in his opinions ; they were sure of the sympathy and approbation of multitudes.

Had there been, then, a general declension of the Church from its original institution ?

Were the great authorities in the Church acting in open violation of what seemed to be the plain letter of Scripture?

Tyndale knew not what to think, or how to answer questions such as these which now began to force themselves upon him; and in his difficulty he went to consult " a certain doctor that dwelt not far oflf, and had been an old chancellor before to a bishop."

Tyndale had already been on terms of familiar acquaintance with him, and knew that he might expect a friendly reception from him, and he therefore frankly disclosed to him the serious 1 Preface to The Pentateuch, Works, Yol. i. p. 394.

TyndaWs Life at Little Sodhiirij. doubts which were beginning to rise in his mind.

His doubts were resolved in a most unexpected manner.

" Do you not know," said the doctor, " that the Pope is the very antichrist which the Scripture speaketh of ?

But beware what you say ; for if you shall be perceived to be of that opinion, it will cost you your life.

I have been an officer of his," he added, " but I have given it up and defy him and all his works."

^ Such an answer formed an epoch in the spiritual life of Tyndale; these bold words gave definite expression to what he had begun to suspect ; and the idea thus suggested was ever after held by him as one of the axioms of his religious creed.

In the light of this belief, much that had long been obscure and perplexing became clear and intelligible.

If the Pope was in very deed the antichrist foretold by the apostles, then it was not surprising that he should use every effort to keep the people in ignorance of that Divine rule which would so completely expose the baselessness of his pretensions ; it was only natural that the Holy Scriptures should be buried in unknown tongues, and that the meaning of the passages which occurred in the services of the Church should be obscured by whimsical, allegorical interpretations.

Tyndale had a clear, logical head, and was not likely to shrink from the practical conclusion to which these reflections seemed to conduct him.

Gradually he would become familiarised Avith the contemplation of that great work to which his life was to be consecrated, and with which his name will be for ever associated.

For it was to his own diligent study of the Word of God that he himself owed all his superior enlightenment ; and there was every ' Foxe,Yo\. V.

Anderson guesses that this was William Latimer, rector of Weston-sub-Edge, near Toddington.

Tyndale certainly knew Tracy of Toddington, and may, therefore, have occasionally been near Weston, thongh it is a long way from Sodbury.

Tyndale^s Resolution to translate Scripture.

reason, he might conchide, to believe that others would come to adopt his opinions, if they were equally able to consult the Divine oracles.

It was under the influence of these reflections, therefore, that Tyndale began seriously to contemplate the translation r of the New Testament into the English tongue, as the noblest service that he could render to his country, and an indispensable preliminary to any possible reformation of the abuses which abounded in the Church. To us this remedy seems so natural and obvious that we are liable to fail in appreciating its merit and boldness ; but in Tyndale' s time, such an undertaking would be considered hardly less novel and adventurous than the voyage of Sebastian Cabot from the neighbouring port of Bristol to discover unknown lands beyond untraversed oceans.

As yet the Reformation had not produced any vernacular version of Holy Scripture; Luther's translation indeed appeared in September, 1522, about the same time perhaps when Tyndale had formed his purpose ; but there is no reason to believe that it had reached

England, or that it in any way suggested Tyndale's work.

Tyndale has himself recorded the circumstances which led him to entertain his great design:

"I perceived by experience how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother-tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text ; for else, whatsoever truth is taught them, these enemies of all truth quench it again, partly with the smoke of their bottomless pit, whereof thou readest in Apocalypse, chap, ix., that is with apparent [i.e., seeming, not real] reasons of sophistry, and traditions of their own making, founded without gi'ound of Scripture, and partly in juggling with the text, expounding it in such a sense as is im-

TyndaWs Life at Little Sodhury. possible to gather of the text, if thou see the process, order, and meaning thereof." ^ Tyndale, it will be perceived, expresses himself with considerable vehemence, for he was at all times bold and outspoken, even to bitterness ; but it must be remembered that when he penned those words of indignant remonstrance, he had been for years an exile, hunted from place to place by the implacable resentment of his enemies, and stung to the quick by the fierce and dishonest denunciations which were fulminated by the gi-eat dignitaries of the Church against his translation of the New Testament.

In the same strain of indignant protest he declares, " In this they be all agreed, to drive you from the knowledge of the Scripture, and that ye shall not have the text thereof in the mother-tongue, and to keep the world still in darkness, to the intent they might sit in the consciences of the people, through vain superstition and false doctrine, to satisfy their filthy lusts, their proud ambition, and unsatiable covetousness, and to exalt their own honour above king and emperor, yea, and above God Himself. A thousand books had they lever [rather] to be put forth against their abominable doings and doctrine, than that the Scripture should come to light.

For as long as they may keep that down, they will so darken the right way with the mist of their sophistry ; and so tangle them that either rebuke or despise their abominations with arguments of philosophy, and with worldly similitudes and apparent reasons of natural wisdom, and with wresting the Scripture unto their ovv-n purpose, clean contrary unto the process, order, and meaning of the text ; and so delude them in descanting upon it with allegories, and amaze them, expoundingit in many senses before the unlearned lay people, when it '

Preface to The Pentateuch, Works, Vol. i. p. 394.

Tyndale resolves to translate Scripture.

hath but one simple, literal sense, whose light the owls cannot abide, that though thou feel in thine heart, and art sure, how that all is ftilse that they say, yet couldst thou not solve their subtle riddles.

Which tiling only moved mc to translate the New Testament."^ It was scarcely to be expected that a man of Tyndale's temperament should be able to suppress all mention of the great design on which all his thoughts were now concentrated.

In spite of the obloquy and danger to which the declaration of his intentions was sure to expose him, he was provoked in the heat of controversy to reveal his secret.

"Communing and disputing," says Foxe, "with a certain learned man in whose company he happened to be, he drove him to that issue, that the learned man said * we were better be without God's laws than the Pope's.'

Master Tyndale hearing that, answered him, * I defy the Pope and all his laws,' and said, ' If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a hoy that driveth the plough shall knoiv more of the ScriptiLre than thou doest.'^

Tyndale, in this famous declaration, was simply re-echoing the noble sentiment of Erasmus already quoted

; and not only was Erasmus still, so to speak, his spiritual guide, but the work which he was contemplating must have brought

Preface to The Pentateuch, Worlcs, Vol. i. p. 393:

Thoro is no doubt that in his reference to " sophistry "

" arguments of phih)sophy " and " subtle riddles," Tyndalo was obliquely censuring

Sir Tliomas More'a Dialo'jue, which had shortly before been printed, and which is certainly a most ingenious and subtle defence of the doctiiiies of the Church of Rome.

The last words, "

Wlticli, tiling only moved ine to trarislate the New Testament," are important.

They indicate that Tyndale's intention to translate was adopted just about the time when he left Little Sodbury, that is, about the end of 1522 or beginning of 1523.

Hence they form an incoQtrovertible reason for rejecting Mr. Offer's theory that Tyndale was the author of a translation of part of the New Testament dated 1502.

There seems little reason indeed to doubt that Mr. Offor's fragment, which has unfortunately deceived some writers, is simply a forgery, as Dr. Westcott plainly asserts.

- Foxe, Edition of 15G3.

TyndaWs Life at Little Sodhury. him afresh to the study of the writings of the great scholar.

For, as became an accomplished Greek scholar, Tyndale was resolved to translate the New Testament from the original language, and not, as Wickliffe had done, from the Latin Vulgate ; and the only edition of the Greek text which had yet appeared, the only one at least likely to be in Tyndale's possession, was that issued by Erasmus at Basle, the elegant Latin version of which had attracted the notice of Bilney, and had so unexpectedly been blessed to his soul.

The work of Erasmus was, therefore, the constant study of Tj'ndale in his leisure hours.

Perhaps he may have actually commenced at Little Sodbury the first rude draughts of what was to grow into the noblest of English books ; and most unquestionably, whether in his study (which is said to have been at the back of the Manor-house, looking out blank upon a patch of steep hill), or in his daily rambles over the Cotswolds, his thoughts were busily engaged upon his great undertaking, calmly and deliberately weighing the many questions involved in its successful accomplishment.

It needs not be added that the secret of his intentions, when disclosed by him, was speedily published all over the neighbourhood, and that it Avas not likely to diminish the hostile feeling already entertained towards him.

The priests waxed fiercer in their opposition, and loudly charged him with heresy; hinting, at the same time, that "though he bare himself bold of the gentlemen there in that country, yet notwithstanding, shortly, he should be otherwise talked withal."^ The Tyndales, it will be remembered, occupied a respectable position in the neighbourhood ; his brother had very recently been appointed receiver of the crown-rents for the manor of Berkeley ; Sir John Walsh was a person Foxe, Vol. V. p. 117.

Tyndale determines to go to London.

of distinction, whose anger was not to be lightly provoked; and it is evident also that Tyndale's arguments had made a profound impression upon several other gentlemen of influence in the vicinityBut however powerful Tj-ndale's friends might he to protect him against any mere casual ebullition of clerical spite, they were quite powerless to shield him from any regularly organised proceedings by the great ecclesiastical authorities of the day.

Tyndale himself was not insensible of his danger : he replied boldly to the priests that they might "remove him into any county in all England, giving him ten pounds a-year to live with, and binding him to no more but to teach children and to preach."^ Bat it was evident that matters were growing to a crisis ; and Tyndale saw too clearly that it would be impossible for him to remain at Little Sodbury in peaceful prosecution of his great purpose.

This purpose, however, he was determined to prosecute, whatever inconvenience or danger it might bring upon him ; and it seemed to him not impossible that he might find in some other part of England that liberty which was no longer attainable at Sodbury.

He resolved, therefore, to give up the post which he held in the family of Sir John Walsh.

' I perceive,' " he said to his patron, " 'that I shall not be suffered to tarry long here in this country, nor you shall be able to keep me out of their hands ;, and what displeasui'e you might have thereby is hard to know, for the which I should be right sorry.'

So with the goodwill of his master he departed from him to London.""

Several considerations suggested London as the most suitable place to which Tyndale might repair in his difficulties.

If he succeeded in finishing his translation, it was of course desirable that it should be printed, in order that it might > ¥oxe, Vol. V. p. 117.

- Fore, Edition of 15G3.

Tyndale's Life at Little Sodbury.

> be within the reach of those for whom it was intended ; and the metropolis offered gi-eater facilities for printing than any town in England.

Moreover, the old Bishop of London, the ignorant Fitz-James, who had attempted to punish Colet, and who had rigorously prosecuted all heretics, was recently dead ; and the vacant see was filled by a young accomplished prelate, a distinguished scholar, the friend of More and Erasmus, from whom, if from any one, Tyndale might expect sympathy and patronage.

To London, therefore, Tyndale resolved to go, hoping to find in Tunstal o liberal patron under whose protection his worK might be prosecuted.

With the simple enthusiasm of a scholar, he immediately set about the translation into English of one of the orations of Isocrates, feeling confident that such a conspicuous proof of his knowledge of Greek would be the surest passport to the favour of a Bishop, who was famed for his love of learning and his liberality to scholars.

Sir John Walsh, Avhose experience of the world enabled him more correctly to appreciate what was likely to secure the notice of the Bishop, furnished him with a letter of introduction to his friend Sir Harry Guildford, Controller of the Royal Household, and high in favour with the Sovereign, whose recommendation therefore would probably be of more service to an unknown scholar than any possible evidences of unquestionable learning.

Thus provided, and carrying with him, doubtless, his copy of Erasmus' Greek Testament and his manuscripts, Tyndale, after taking farewell of his relations and his pupils, turned his back on the smiling vale of Berkeley, which he was never to behold again, and set out on his journey to London, full of those bright visions of hope which the name of the mighty metropolis has so often conjured up in the bosom of inexperienced youth.

CHAPTEE III.

TYNDALE'S LIFE

IN LONDON.

A.B. 1523—1524.

The date of Tyndale's arrival in London can be ascertained with tolerable accuracy.

His friend Humphrey Monmouth, when arrested for assisting him, gave a full and interesting account of his whole intercourse with the Reformer, to which we shall presently advert, and from which it is not difficult to determine within very narrow limits the precise time when Tyndale came to the metropolis.

In his petition to Wolsey, written in May, 1528, Monmouth admits that "four years before " he had given money to Tyndale to help him to go abroad.

The month of May, 1524, therefore, was the date of Tyndale's leaving London ; and as, according to his own confession, he " abode in London almost a year," we can hardly be mistaken in believing that he arrived there in the month of July or August, 1523.

It was at a most eventful period that Tyndale came to London.

The reign of Henry had hitherto been prosperous and popular; and the authority of his great minister Wolsey had lasted for ten years almost without a single murmur.

Difficulties were now, however, beginning to make their appearance.

The wars with France and Scotland, and the profuse extravagance of a young and pleasure-loving monarch, had emptied the exchequer, and had dissipated F 2

TyndaWs Life in London. the enormous treasures accumulated by the penurious Henry vii.

Wolsey disliked parliaments; but all other means of replenishing the royal coffers being exhausted, there was no resoui'ce but to summon one, and on the 15th of April, 1523, Parliament met for the first time since December,

1516.

The parliaments of Henry have been censured for their extreme servility ; and they did unquestionably, on many occasions, exhibit an obsequiousness that is scarcely intelligible in free Englishmen ; but there were points on which the members were too deeply interested to be servile.

They lent their assistance with perfect composure, while Henry sacrificed to his necessities or his vengeance some of the noblest blood in England ; but they were touched to the quick by the extravagance of the monarch.

Already, in addition to the burden of military service which weighed heavily on them, they had paid vast sums by way of forced loans or benevolences, and they were by no means disposed tamely to endure any farther exactions.

But Henry's necessities were urgent, and neither he nor his minister was inclined to submit to be thwarted.

Wolsey came down to the House of Commons and demanded from them a subsidy of eight hundred thousand pounds

; a small sum perhaps in the eyes of modern readers, accustomed to the prodigious estimates of the present day, but whose magnitude may be understood from the fact that it was considered equivalent to a tax of four shillings in the pound on all the property in the kingdom, and was, indeed, supposed to exceed the entire currency then circulating in England.

The demand was fiercely resisted ; Sir Thomas More, who had been elected Speaker, attempted to calm the storm, and insinuated, in his bland and plausible manner, that " of duty men ought not to deny to pay four ; " but the Commons were not to be shillings in the pound

TyndaU^s Arrival in London.

persuaded by any eloquence to such an unpleasant exercise of self-denial.

A discussion of unprecedented bitterness and leugtli ensued, lasting for sixteen days ; and in spite of the efforts of Wolsey and the court to cajole and to overawe the members, it was finally agreed to grant the King only half of what had been demanded, and that to be payable not at once, but in two years.

Sentiments of discontent were loudly expressed on all sides ; whispers of resistance w^ere muttered ; and affairs wore such a menacing aspect, that Wolsey induced Henry to dissolve the recalcitrant assembly in August, and no Parliament assembled again in England till the downfall of the arbitrary minister.

It was during the agitation of this famous debate that Tyndale arrived in London, when the arrogance of Wolsey was the universal theme of conversation, and the faults of the Cardinal were not likely to be extenuated or defended by men Avho considered themselves pillaged by his exorbitant demands.

So far as has been ascertained, it was Tyndale's first introduction to the capital

; he had hitherto known life only in the Universities and in the provinces the pomp and splendour of courts, the intrigues and factions of statesmen, the pride and worldliness of the great rulers of the Church, these had been known to him only by report.

This, therefore, was his first actual experience of the " practice of prelates ; " and the sight was not lost upon him.

He had already been disenchanted of that almost divine reverence with which he had in childhood been taught to regard the spiritual fathers and bishops of the Church ; and his keen observing eyes marked and noted the strange sights passing around him, as food for reflection, and materials for future use.

"I marked the course of the w'orld," says he, in subsequently recounting the

Tyndale^s Life in London. experience of this period of liis life, "and beard our praters (I would say our preachers), how they boasted themselves and their high authority ; and beheld the pomp of our prelates, and how busy they were, as they yet are, to set peace and unity in the world [said ironically, as will be seen presently] , and saw things whereof I defer to speak at this time."^ It was, as has been said, a time when public indignation was strongly excited against Wolsey, when his whole past procedure would be severely criticised, and every indication of pomp and extravagance on his part would be repeated with triumphant glee.

Tyndale would thus hear, on all hands, loud complaints against those endless intrigues by which Wolsey had engaged England in almost constant war ever since Henry's accession to the throne.

The capricious dec ^^iration of war with France, the vast treasure supplied to then drerman emperor, the whimsical conclusion of peace, the ridiculous parade of " The Field of the Cloth of Gold," the secret treaties—everything, in fact, that had for years cost the nation so much blood and money, was popularly ascribed, and not without very good reason, to the machinations of Wolsey.

It was he, men said, who misled the king; and the affairs of England, it was complained, were administered by him and his brother prelates, without any regard to the real interests of the nation, but solely for the promotion of the interests of the Papal See, and the gratification of Wolsey's private piques.

And the magnificence of the Cardinal was too obtrusive to escape the sharpest animadversion.

His pomp, in truth, exceeded all bounds, throwing even royalty into the shade ; and his love of parade seems to have been marked by several elements of childish weakness, of which many strange ' Preface to The Fentateuch, Works :

Vrl. i. p. 3DG.

The Worship of the CardinaVs Hat.

stories were circulated in London, and were treasured up by Tyndale in a singularly retentive memory.

The reader may imagine, for example, the feeling of infinite scorn with which Tyndale, who had already begun to believe that the Pope was antichrist, would listen to the story current in London as to the manner in which Wolsey had caused the Cardinal's hat which was sent him from Eome, to be solemnly received.

Some commonplace messenger had originally brought it to Westminster under his cloak without any ceremony, so Tyndale tells the story, but this unceremonious proceeding did not accord with the Cardinal's ideas of propriety, so "he clothed the messenger in rich array, and sent him back to Dover again, and appointed the Bishop of Canterbury to meet him,^ and then another company of lords and gentles, I wot not how oft, ere it came to Westminster, where it was set on a cupboard, and tapers about, so that the greatest duke in the land must make courtesy thereto, yea, and to his empty seat, he being away." "

Wolsey, doubtless, had several good points in his character, but at the time of Tyndale' residence in London, nothing was heard but the strongest condemnation of his intrigues and extravagance; and Tyndale, breathing this atmosphere for nearly a year, spoke and wrote of Wolsey at all times as " the falsest and vainest Cardinal that ever was."

If in such times of excitement any other topic could succeed in securing a share of public attention, it was what was considered the alarming spread of heretical opinions.

The Reformation in Germany had grown into great dimensions ; it was no longer a mere local dispute, but a great movement, the pulses of which were felt in * Wolsey', though only Archbishop of York, was as legate a latere superior to the primate, and took this opportunity of humbling him.

- Tyndalo's Fractice of Prelates.

Tyndale's Life in London. every part of Western Europe.

The works of Luther were widely circulated, and found everywhere admiring and sympathising readers.

Two years before Tyndale's arrival in London, it was discovered that Luther's books had been imported in such numbers, that Wolsey issued a proclamation peremptorily requiring all who possessed any copies of the writings of that arch-heretic to deliver them up to the custody of the ecclesiastical authorities ; but in spite of his prohibition we know that the books continued to be imported by the merchants who traded with the low countries.

Henry himself, who loved theological controversy, and who prided himself on his orthodox}-, had entered the lists against the German heresiarch, and had been rewarded for his zeal by the title of " Defender of the Faith," still fondly cherished as the most honourable of all the distinctions of our sovereigns.

The example of the king vas, of course, emulated by the clergy ; the pulpits resounded Avith fierce denunciations of the "detestable and damnable heresies" of that "child of the devil," who had ventured to resist the authority of the Pope, and to impugn the teacliing of the Church ; and the most learned of th:; prelates was busily occupied in composing an elaborate refutation of the doctrines of the German Eeformer.

Even in the midst of all the fierce excitement of the summer of 1523, the attention of Parliament was directed to the reported spread of Lutheraiiism in the University of Cambridge, and it was proposed to institute an episcojJal visitation of the suspected colleges, which might have produced disastrous consequences, had not "Wolsey unexpectedly intervened and forbidden the meditated inquisition."

^ Such, therefore, was the position of public affairs when ^ See Demaus, Life of Latimer, p. 31.

Reception in London.

Tyndale came to London, expecting to find in the recentlyai)pointed bislioiJ of the diocese a sympathising scholar who would appreciate his learning, and would generously befriend and protect him.

For some time, however, Tunstal was unapproachable ; the pressure of more important business probably i-endering it impossible to obtain any interview with him.

Meantime Tyndale waited patiently for the opportunity which was, as he fondly imagined, to crown his hopes with success.

He came to Sir Harry Guildford, the master of the Horse, and presented the letter of introduction with which Sir John Walsh had furnished him ; submitting to him at the same time that " Oration of Isocrates," which he had translated into English, and which Sir Harry, as a correspondent of Erasmus, and a lover of learning, might be expected to appreciate at its true value as a credential of Tyndale's scholarship.

Sir Harry received him courteously, promised to speak in his favour to Tunstal, and recommended that he should write to the Bishop and obtain, if possible, an interview with him.

Tyndale followed the advice thus given ; he wrote his epistle, and took it to the episcopal residence—old London House, in St.

Paul's Churchyard, in all probability, where he found in the Bishop's employment a former acquaintance of his own, one AVilliam Hebilthwayte, to whom he entrusted the letter on which so much depended.^ Pending arrangements for his interview with Tunstal, Tyndale naturally enough sought employment as a preacher in London, and was allowed, or perhaps engaged, to preach

* Of Hebilthwayte, who was possibly an old university acquaintance of Tyndale's, nothing is known ; but Koger Ascham, writinrr from Augsburg in January, 1551, speaks of the Landgrave of Hesse as "lusty, well-favoured, something like Mr. Hebilthwayte in the face."

This may have been Tyndale's friend.

See Giles's Ascham, Vol. i. Part u. p. 243.

TyndaWs Life in London. in St. Dunstan's-in-the-West.

His religious opinions were evidently still so far in accordance with what was deemed orthodox, that he was not debarred from preaching and yet not improbably it was some subtle flavour of heresy in his sermons that especially gratified one hearer who was destined to be of essential service to Tyndale, whom, indeed, we may justly regard as providentially raised up for his assistance in a critical emergency.

Humphrey Monmouth, a wealthy cloth-merchant, who resided in the parish of All Hallows, Barking, at the extreme east of London, as St. Dunstan's was then in the extreme west, happened to be amongst the audience when Tyndale was preaching.

It is not impossible that he may have known something of Tyndale's family, or may have had business connections with them ; for he probably came from the county of Monmouth, close to Tyndale's birthplace ; his brother was, we know, settled in Worcestershire, and Tyndale's relations were engaged in the cloth manufacture in Gloucestershire.

As this worthy citizen is intimately associated with the life of Tyndale, the reader will be pleased to be introduced to him by no less a personage than Hugh Latimer, who was subsequently one of Monmouth's dearest friends.

In one of his sermons on the Lord's prayer, Latimer relates the following incident as characteristic of the generous mer- ' chant:

"In expounding the Epistle to the Komans, Master Stafford,^ coming to that place where St.

Paul saitli that we shall 'overcome our enemy with welldoing, and so heap up hot coals upon his head,' brought in an example, saying that he knew in London a great merchant, which merchant had a very poor neigh- ^ One of Latimer's contemporaries at Cambridge, and a zealons Reformer.

Sec Demaus, Life of Latimer, p. 62.

Humphrey Monmouth.

hour, yet for all liis poverty lie loved him very well, and lent bim money at his need, and let him to come to his table whensoever he would.

It was even at that time when Dr.

Colet was in trouble, and should have been burnt if God had not turned the king's heart to the contrary.

Now the rich man began to be a Scriptureman, he began to smell the Gospel ; the poor man was a papist still.

It chanced on a time when the rich man talked of the Gospel, sitting at his table, where he reproved Popery, and such kind of things, the poor man being then present took a great displeasure against the rich man ; insomuch that he would come no more to his house, he would borrow no more money of him as he was wont to do beforetimes ; yea, and conceived such hatred and malice against him that he went and accused him before the bishops.

Now the rich man, not knowing any such displeasure, offered many times to talk with him and set him at quiet ; but it would not be : the poor man had such a stomach that he would not vouchsafe to speak with him ; if he met the rich man in the street he I would go out of his way.

One time it happened that ho met him in so narrow a street that he could not avoid but come near him ; yet for all that, this poor man had such a stomach against the rich man, I say, that he was minded to go forward and not to speak with him.

The rich man perceiving that, catcheth him by the hand, and asked him saying, ' Neighbour, what is come into your heart to take such displeasure with me ?

What have I done against you ?

Tell me, and I will be ready at all times to make you amends.'

Finally, he spake so gently, so charitably, so lovingly and friendly, that it wrought in the poor man's heart, that by-and-bye he fell down upon his knees, and asked him forgiveness.

The rich man

Tyndale's Life iti London. forgave liim, and so took him again to his favour, and they loved as Avell as ever they did afore."

It may have been by mere accident that Monmouth was present on the first occasion in St. Dunstan's-in-the-West; but it must surely have been some more powerful motive that induced him to return to that Church from his own home in the other extremity of London.

Poor, and savouring of Lutheranism, Tyndale had probably excited the sympathy of the generous merchant who himself had begun

"to be a Scripture-man," and whose special pleasure it was to assist needy scholars.

But we shall allow him to tell the story in his own words :

" Upon four years and a-half past and more," he writes to Wolsey, in May, 1528, " I heard the foresaid Sir William^ preach two or three sermons at St. Dunstan'sin-the-West in London ; and after that I chanced to meet with him, and with communication I examined him, what living he had.

He said he had none at all ; but he trusted to be with my lord of London in his service ; and, therefore, I had the better fantasy to him.

And afterwards he went to my lord, and spake to him as he told me, and my lord of London answered him that he had chaplains enough, and he said to him that he would have no more at that time."

But the narrative of Tyndale's abortive interview with Tunstal must not be dismissed thus briefly.

For some time Tyndale had looked forward to it as th'e great hope of his life.

It seemed to him that, under the protection of a prelate who loved learning, he might enjoy the peace and leisure without which it appeared impossible that his great design could ever be successfully accomplished.

So T^-ndale thought; but God had ordained that not in the learned leisure of a palace, but amid the dangers and priva- '

Sir was the common designation of a priest, just as reverend is now.

Interview with Tunstal.

tioii of exile should the English Bible be produced.

Other qualifications were necessary to make him a worthy translator of Holy Scripture than mere grammatical scholarship ; qualifications little likely to be acquired in palaces

; to be learned rather in that stern school of injury and suffering through which the writers of the New Testament themselves had passed.

These qualifications Tyndale as yet wanted, and they were not to be acquired in the palace of the Bishop of London.

" God saw that I was beguiled," he confesses, in subsequently looking back upon the transaction, "and that that counsel was not the next

[nearest] way to my purpose ; and, therefore. He gat me no favour in my lord's sight."

At the time he bitterly felt what seemed to be the total disappointment of all his hopes but he afterwards learnt to trace in what appeared a misfortune the fatherly guidance of God

; and this very disappointment, which compelled him to seek his whole comfort in the Word of God, tended to qualify him for the worthy performance of his great work.

At last the long-anticipated interview took place, with such results as any one but an enthusiast like Tyndale might have foreseen.

Tunstal, though an accomplished scholar, "a man, doubtless, out of comparison,"^ according to Sir Thomas More, was at the same time a cautious and courtly prelate, little likely to sympathise with the noble enthusiasm of the scholar who stood before him.

Tunstal was a man of the Avorld, a man born to shine in courts, "right meet, and convenient," as Warham assured Wolsey, " to entertain ambassadors and other noble strangers at that notable and honourable city [London], in the absence of the king's most noble grace."- * More's Utopia.

Balph Robinson's translation.

- Hook's Arclihishops of Canterbury, Vol. vi. p. 213.

Tyndale's Life in London.

Upon this reserved and dignified prelate Tyndale was almost certain to make an unfavourable impression.

He was, according to his own confession, " evil-favoured in this world, and without grace in the sight of men, speechless and rude, dull and slow-witted."^

It is evident that at the first glance the bishop and the scholar mutually distrusted each other.

Tunstal felt that he might be compromised by the incaution of the youthful enthusiast

; and Tyndale was repelled by the cold and silent manner of the bishop, whom he describes as a " still Saturn, that so seldom speaketh, but walketh up and down all day musing, a ducking hypocrite made to dissemble."Tunstal's courtesy was reserved for ambassadors and for scholars who had secured the patronage of kings ; for the unknown scholar who stood disconcerted before him, with his translation of " Isocrates " in his hand, and proposals for an English Bible on his lips, he had nothing but that chilling official reserve, which, more even than opposition, crushes the generous enthusiasm of youth.

With difficulty Tyndale explained the errand on which he had come ; he produced what he had brought with him as a proof of his scholarship ; he spoke of the greater design which he hoped to accomplish in London ; he requested the Bishop's patronage that he might have the means of subsistence during the performance of his work.

But Tunstal had no wish for any further connection with Tyndale.

He acknowledged, indeed, the scholarship of the new candidate for his patronage ; but he declined that personal protection which Tyndale had solicited.

" My lord answered me," says Tyndale, " his house was full ; he had more than he could well find [provide for] ; and 1 See his letter to Fryth, infra.

2 Practice of Prelates : Tyndale'a Works, Yol. it. p. 337.

Tyndale coldly repidsed hy Tunstal.

advised me to seek in London, where, be said, I could not lack a service."^ And so they parted, never to meet again.

Tunstal seems speedily to have lost all recollection of the interview; but Tyndale never forgot the cold ungenerous reception which had well-nigh broken his heart.

It has been doubted whether at this interview Tyndale made any allusion to his intention of translating the Holy Scriptures into English; and assuredly the mention of such a design would by no means tend to propitiate Tunstal's favour.

But on the whole it seems probable that Tyndale did communicate his intention to Tunstal.

There was no reason for bringing his translation of *' Isocrates " to London' except as evidence of his ability to accomplish a similar work; and though the translation of any part of Holy Scripture into the English tongue had been forbidden to be undertaken by any man of his own authority, it was expressly provided that the " ordinary of the place " might approve and sanction such a translation; and it was, therefore, not altogether absurd to hope that Tunstal might be induced to give this sanction.Tyndale's own words, moreover, seem to make it quite clear that he spoke of this work to Tunstal, for he says he intended to have made his translation "in the bishop of London's house; "^ from which it seems natural to infer that he had mentioned his intention to Tunstal ; for he could never have dreamed of accomplishing it without his consent and knowledge.

Disappointed in his hopes of assistance from the Bishop of London, he had still one friend in the metropolis who was willing and ready to help him.

" The priest came to me again," to resume Monmouth's ' Preface to The Pentateuch : Works, Vol. i. p. 306.

- See the Act of Couvocation in Wilkins, Vol. in. p. 317.

^ Preface to The Pentateuch :

Works, Vol. i. p. 394.

Tyiidale's Life in London. interesting memoir, " and besought me to help him : and so I took him into my house half-a-ycar ; and there he lived like a good priest as methought.

He studied most part of the day and of the night at his hook ; and he would eat but sodden meat by his good will, and driiik Ijut small single beer.

I never saw him wear linen about him in the space he was with me [always "odious in woollen"].

I did promise him ten pounds sterling, to pray for my father and mother their souls, and all Christian souls.

I did pay it him when he made his exchange to Hamburg ; and afterwards he got of some other men ten pounds sterling more, the which he left with me.

. The foresaid Sir AVilliam left me an English book called " Enchii-idion," the which book the Abbess of Denneye [in Cambridgeshire] desired it of me and I lent it to her.

Another book I had of the same copy ; ^ a friar of Greenwich desired it of me, and I gave it him,^ I think my lord of Kochester hath it [i.e., that Fisher had seized it.] ...

I have showed the book called the " Enchiridion " to Mr. Doctor Watson [one of Henry's chaplains], and to Mr. Doctor Slockhouse, pastor of Lavenham in Suffolk, and to many other that never found fault in him to my knowledge, and to the father confessor of Sion [religious house on the Thames above Brentford], and to Mr.

Martin, priest and parson of Totingbeke.

. When I heard my lord of London preach at Paul's Cross that Sir William Tyndale had translated the New Testament in English, and [that it] was naughtily translated, that was the first time that ever I suspected or knew any evil by him.

And shortly after, all ^ This book is mentioned in such a way as to suggest that it was printed, but of this there is no proof; nor, indeed, all things considered does it seem probable.

2 Possibly this was either Roye or Jerome, who were subsequently associated with Tyndale on the Continent.

MonmoutlCs Account of Tyndale.

the letters and treatises that he sent me, with divers copies of hooks that my servant did write, and the sermons that the priest did make at St. Dunstan's, I did burn them in my house.

He that did write them did see it ; I did burn them for fear of the translator more than for any ill that I knew by [of] them."^ We have given at full length the parts of Monmouth's narrative that refer to Tyndale and his proceedings during his residence in Loudon ; for after the conjectures and uncertainties which have constituted so large a portion of his biography up to this point, it is impossible to overestimate the value of the information which the narrative contains.

Monmouth's letter furnishes us with an authentic sketch of Tyndale's habits and manner of life, drawn by the hand of the man who knew him best.

And the picture thus sketched is that of a scholar of simple tastes and ardent love of learning, one who, unfettered by any vow, practised of his own accord that abnegation of the pleasures of life, which was, or at least was supposed to be, practised in the cloister as a wonderful attainment in religious perfection.

The picture, moreover, though drawn by a loving hand, is not exaggerated through the influence of flattering affection ; for Sir Thomas More, a bitter enemy, confirms it in all essential particulars ; while inveighing fiercely against Tyndale's doctrines he admits that "before he went over the sea he was well-known for a man of right good living, studious and well-learned in Scripture, and looked and preached holily."

His enemies never attempted to deny his great learning ; and no imputation was ever made against the rectitude of his moral character.

It does not appear that Tyndale procured that " service "

^ Feiition of Humphrey Monmouth to Wolsey, Harleian MSS. p. 425; printed by Strype, with occasional errors as usual.

Tyndale's Life in London. in London, which Tunstal had assured him a man of his ability would have no difficulty in finding ; at least, there is no record of his officiating as a preacher elsewhere than in the Church of St. Dunstan's.

Probably, indeed, the "praying for the souls of the father and mother of Humphrey Monmouth," which formed the ostensible ground of connection between him and his generous patron, was performed in the chux-ch of the parish where the worthy merchant resided : and it seems also to be implied in the words of Monmouth's narrative, that Tyndale continued, at least for a time, to preach in St. Dunstan's, carefully writing out his sermons with the anxiety of one who wished to discharge his duty well.

These, however, seem to have been the whole of Tyndale' s official engagements in the metropolis.

London needed the labours of so well qualified a teacher ; but a stranger, on whom the bishop had looked with suspicion, was little likely to find encouragement there.

Tyndale was no adept in the arts of popularity, and London was not likely to recognise in the quiet austere-looking priest, hurrying along Fleet Street to St. Dunstan's, the man whose words were to be associated for centuries Vtdth all that is noblest in tlie spiritual life of England.

Whatever discouragement he might meet with elsewhere, he was cordially welcomed under the hospitable roof of the wealthy cloth-merchant ; and, indeed, all things considered, it may be doubted whether even Tunstal's palace would have afforded greater advantages than were to be enjoyed in the home of Humphrey Monmouth.

For Monmouth was no ordinary man, no mere common-place trafficker, whose ideas never rose beyond the state of the market.

He occupied a position of high respectability, and was afterwards alderman and sheriff. He had travelled and seen the world to an extent quite unusual in those days ; he had not only gone

TyndaWs Intercourse ivltk Monmouth.

to Rome, then the ordinary limit even of the most adventurous travellers, but had also visited Jerusalem.

His patronage of men of letters was marked by a generous liberality almost certainly unequalled in England at that time.

His liberality to Tyndale we have already seen : he provided him at once with ten pounds a year, equal, probably, to a hundred pounds in our day, besides receiving him to reside in his house.

This, however, was only one out of many similar instances of generosity.

" I have given more exhibitions to scholars," he declares in his petition, "in my days than to that priest ; Mr. Doctor Royston, chaplain to my lord of London, hath cost me more than forty or fifty pounds sterling [more than five hundred pounds of our money], and also Mr. Doctor Wooderall, Provincial of Friars Austines, hath cost me as much or more; Mr. Doctor Watson, chaplain to the King's good grace, hath cost me somewhat; and somewhat I have given to scholars, at his request, and to divers priests and friars." Even this list, it may be assumed, by no means exhausts his benefactions to men of learning

: for it must be remembered that when he wrote his petition, he was under arrest for assisting Tyndale and others condemned as heretics, and he is, therefore, cautious not to mention any of his proteges who might be looked upon by the authorities as tainted with the infection of heresy.

At Monmouth's table Tyndale would be sure to meet many of the most learned men in London ; for priests of all grades, friars of all orders, priors and abbesses in numbers, were amongst the familiar friends of the worthy merchant.

Perhaps Tyndale may have had to fight over again some of the same battles which he had fought with the priests at the table of Sir John Walsh

; more probably he would find the enlightened company that assembled around . Monmouth's board, ready to join with him in G 2

Tyndale's Life in London. bewailing the lamentable corruptions that prevailed in the Church, and eagerly longing for some extensive reform of abuses that were becoming intolerable.

It is quite certain that Monmouth himself was considerably influenced by the opinions of Luther.

He still, apparently, believed in purgatory and prayers for the dead, as did also Tyndale ^ ; but he bought and studied the works of Luther ; and he was substequently charged with eating flesh in Lent, with speaking disrespectfully of the pardons granted by the Pope and the Bishops, and with denying the utility of pilgrimages and ofl'erings before the images of the saints : all the customary indications, in fact, of one who adhered to what was then styled the "detestable sect of the Lutherans."

It was in Monmouth's house, beyond a doubt, that Tj-ndale heard most of that secret history of the transactions of Henry's reign, which he afterwards repeated in his Practice of Prelates ; it was here, unquestionably, that he met with many of those men who were subsequently associated with him in his labours on the Continent; and it was here also that he would first have an opportunity of perusing those writings of Luther which had already withdrawn half of Germany from its obedience to the Papal See.

The great work of Luther, and the wonderful progress of the Reformation in Germany, Switzerland, and France, had been but vaguely known to him as to most Englishmen before ; but at the table of a merchant who traded with those countries, and where native merchants were frequently to be met, he would hear all the details narrated with the accuracy and impresgiveness that belong only to eye-witnesses.

All this was not, of course, inoperative upon Tyndale.

It lias been suggested that the " praying for the souls " spoken of in tlio petition was a more form of speech not to be interpreted strictly ; but surely this is to prove a man orthodox at the expense of his honesty.

Tynclale's Intimacy ivith Fryth.

r Hitherto, he seems to have looked up to Erasmus as the great Hght and guide of the age, and the true Keformer of religion ; now he heard of a greater Reformer, whose woi-ds of more impressive eloquence, and, still more, whose conduct of more resolute determination, had achieved what Erasmus had rather recommended than attempted.

Tyndale was too independent to be the mere echo or imitator of anyone, however illustrious ; but there can be no question that from this time onwards Luther occupied the highest place in his esteem, and exercised very considerable influence over his opinions.

To this period of Tyndale's life also may be, with little hesitation, referred his intercourse with one who was afterwards for some time the dearest of his earthly friends, John Fryth.

For the tradition which represents the two martyrs as having been in residence together in Cambridge, may be set aside as having neither evidence nor probability in its favour.

Fryth certainly did not enter Cambridge till the commencement of 1522, by which time it is agreed on all hands that Tyndale must have left the University for Little Sodbury.

It was in London, probably, therefore, that Fryth met Tyndale and heard from him, those words of persuasiveness and power which first implanted " in his heart the seed of the Gospel and sincere godliness."

It must have been in London also that those conferences took place between them, in which they discoursed of the necessity for Scripture being " turned into the vulgar speech, that the poor people might also read and see the simple, plain word of God."

Fryth was considerably younger than Tyndale, but there was something in his earnestness and love of learning which at once secured Tyndale's afl'ection ; and to the close of Fryth's brief career Tyndale never wavered in his attachment to his " dear son in the faith."

Tyndale^s Life in London.

Amid these various occupations in London, Tyndale did not lose sight of the great purpose for which he had come 'to the metropohs, and to which he felt impelled as the gi-and work of his life.

No question would be more earnestly weighed in his own mind, or more eagerly discussed with the sympathising visitors at Monmouth's table, than the question whether it was likely that the consent of the Authorities of the Church could be obtained to the issuing of a translation of the Word of God in the English language.

Practicalhj, the use of the Word of God in their native tongue was forbidden to the people ; although theoretically, and according to the strict letter of the law, what was forbidden was the reading of any translation of Holy Scripture "until the said translation be approved by the ordinary of the place, or, if the case so require, by the council provincial."'

Men were not absolutely forbidden to translate Holy Scripture; they were forbidden to translate it of their own authority ; and a hope was thus apparently held out of the possibility of some translation being produced under the sanction of the Bishops.

This was, however, only a vain delusive promise.

More than a century had passed since the enactment of this Constitution-; the Bishops had been unceasing and unrelenting in their severity towards all who dared to read the Word of God in the version of Wycliffe; but they had taken no steps whatever for supplying the imperfections of that version by the production of a better.

The only existing version was rigorously prohibited under pain of " the greater excommunication ; " no version which men might freely read was as yet issued.

Tunstal had evidently given Tyndale no encouragement to proceed in his work; and the momentous question was therefore to be decided, whether there was any hope or any pos1 Wilkins, Vol. ni. p. 317.

- Passed at Oxford iu 1108.

Tijmlale compelled to leave England.

sibility of his obtaining that episcopal approbation without which his translation could neither be printed nor read, without exposing all concerned to the penalties of the law.

Such a question involved far too serious issues to be speedily or lightly determined. Long and earnestly, we may be sure, it was canvassed.

The possibility of Tunstal's relenting ; the hope of Convocation seriously addressing itself to the remedy of those abuses in the Church which it had so often bewailed ; the likelihood of Wolsey putting into execution any of the reforms which he meditated, and overriding the opposition of the Bishops by the exercise of his plenary authority as legate ; the fond expectation that some prelate more liberal than Tunstal might be found who would grant the necessary approbation for his work : all these contingencies, we may be sure, were carefully weighed ; but at the last Tyndale sorrowfully " understood not only that there was no room in my lord of London's palace to translate the New Testament, but, also, that there was no place to do it in all England.!"

What then was to be done ?

Was he to abandon his cherished undertaking as impracticable, and patiently wait in hope of better times ?

Such might have been the solution of the difficulty that he would have adopted in Little Sodbury ; but in Monmouth's house, surrounded by men to whom the state of the Continent was familiarly known, another solution was suggested to him.

It was clearly impossible to translate the New Testament in England ; but there was no difficulty in translating it abroad, in some of those countries where the Reformation had established itself.

Printers abounded on the Continent, who would cheerfully undertake to print the work if there was any reasonable prospect of being reimbursed for their labour ; and Monmouth '

Preface to The Pentateuch ; Works, Vol i. p. 396.

TyndaWs Life hi London. would take a pleasure in pointing out the endless expedients, by which the energy of mercantile enterprise might be able to import the work into England with very little risk of its being discovered by the authorities.

Money alone was wanting ; but for this the liberality of Monmouth might be depended upon : and there were other friends, whose names unfortunately are unknown, who gave Tyndale the considerable sum of ten pounds, almost enough in those days to defray the expense of printing an edition of the New Testament.

To Tyndale, who was an intense patriot, the thought of thus exiling himself from his native land would bring a load of distress, which nothing but his fixed determination to accomplish the great purpose of his life, could have enabled him to sustain.

No other way, however, seemed open; if he was to accomplish that work to which he felt that God had called him, if by his instrumentality England was to receive what he believed to be the greatest blessing that could be bestowed upon it, he must be ready to sacrifice the endearments of home and native land, and to face the unknown dangers of exile in a foreign country.

The trial was great ; but Tyndale was strengthened to bear it.

He recognised the guidance of Providence, and though the way was rough, he prepared to follow it.

Whatever information he required for the direction of his journey his host was well able to supply, for his trade lay chiefly with those very countries towards which Tyndale was about to proceed.

For a man of Tyndale's simple habits few preparations were necessary.

Most of his books he left with Monmouth; but his copy of Erasmus' New Testament, and possibly some crude first sketches of his translation, he carried with him; and somewhere about the month of May, 1524, he sailed to Hamburg, never to set foot on his native land again.

Tyndale sails for Hamburg.

Scarcely a year before, he had come up to London bright with anticipations of success, hoping to find in the patronage of a learned and liberal prelate that protection which had been denied him in a remote and less enlightened diocese.

All his anticipations had been cruelly disappointed, and now in sorrow and sadness he was sailing forth on the untried dangers of solitude and exile.

Still his faith sustained him, and even hope did not desert him, for it seems clear that he left his residence with Monmouth in the expectation of returning again in peace.

Blessed was the Providence that concealed from him the future ; hope seemed to him to brighten the dark cloud that hovered over him.

Had he been able to read the future that awaited him, and which he subsequently so pathetically bewailed, the "poverty, the long exile from his own native land, the bitter absence from his friends, the hunger, the thirst, the cold, the great danger wherewith he was everywhere compassed, the innumerable other hard and sharp ; " had he been able to fightings which he had to endure foresee all this, doubtless his gentle and loving soul would have been melted with the spectacle; and yet the stout heart would have gone forward " hoping with his labours to do honour to God, true service to his Prince, and pleasure to his Commons."^ ' Lotter of Vaughan to Henry viii.

: Cotton MSS., Tit>j.s.

↑ Back to top