A Sketch Of His Life 3
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
The account given by Foxe of Tindale's Oxford days is very slight:
"' Brought up from a child in the university of Oxford, where he, by long continuance, grew up, and increased as well in the knowledge of tongues and other liberal arts, as especially in the knowledge of the Scriptures, whereunto his mind was singularly addicted: insomuch that he, lying then in Magdalen Hall, read privily to certain students and fellows of Magdalen College some parcel of divinity; instructing them in the knowledge and truth of the Scriptures.
His manners also and conversation being correspondent to the same, were such that all they that knew him reputed and esteemed him to be a man of most virtuous disposition and of life unspotted.
Thus he, in the university of Oxford, increasing more and more in learning and proceeding in degrees of the schools, spying his time, removed from thence to the university of Cambridge."'
More precise evidence of Tindale's academic career is afforded by the University Register, which records that on 13th May, 1512, William Hychyns, scholar in arts, supplicated that a study of two years and a term in the University, together with a responsion to one bachelor in Lent, the creation of one general, two variations in Parviso, and an opposition and responsion in Parviso under the Collector might suffice for admittance to the degree of bachelor.
The grace was granted on condition that he determined next Lent and disputed twice beyond the usual requirement.
On 4th July he was admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts and determined in February, 1513. On 2nd July, 1515, he was created
Master of Arts.
Tindale went up to Oxford at one of the most interesting periods in the history of the University.
Though the Arts course was still, in the main, medizval and though the Reformation proper had not yet begun, the new spirit of the Renaissance had been felt in Oxford for some twenty years.
Any consideration of the mental environment into which the young scholar was brought must—as is still the case—do justice both i
WILLIAM TINDALE
to the regular curriculum laid down by statute and to less official but equally important influences.
Before entering the University, a boy must have been grounded in Latin grammar.
Foxe's phrase '"' brought up from a child in the University of Oxford " may imply that Tindale received this early training in the city, possibly at the Grammar School of Magdalen College; though they need mean no more than that he entered the University at the ordinary age of sixteen or less, immediately after childhood.
It is on this assumption that the date of his birth has been placed about 1494, as he matriculated in 1510.
To become a member of the University, the student had to be registered in the roll (matricula) of some regent master, whose lectures he would attend daily, and to reside in a college or hall.
A seven-year course lay before him, four for the first degree of B.A., three more if he aspired to the rank of Master.
The subjects of study were, nominally, the Seven Liberal Arts: Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic, called collectively the Trivium, and the Quadrivium, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy.
To these had been added the Three Philosophies, natural, moral and metaphysical, which, in fact, were taken far more seriously than the subjects of the Quadrivium.
An education which claimed to include literature, mathematics, science and philosophy does not appear narrow. Unfortunately, the books from which the Masters lectured were limited in number, and overmuch attention was given to dialectical skill at the expense of what later ages called a liberal education. For grammar and rhetoric, in the B.A. course, the student read
Donatus and Priscian; for logic, a good deal of Aristotle in Latin, and Boethius; for the mathematical subjects, the Algorismus Integrorum, the Computus Ecclesiasticus and the Tractatus de Sphera.
If he wished to be a Master, he must cover rather more ground during his work for the B.A. Then came three more years of study, by the end of which he must have attended lectures on the books already mentioned and a number of — others in the sphere of the seven Arts (Ovid or Virgil, Euclid and Ptolemy appear in the list), together with the books prescribed for the three philosophies. These were all Aristotelian
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
and comprised the Physics, either the Ethics, Economics or Politics, and the Metaphysics.
Well used, such writings could teach the mind to think and introduce it to a world of lofty speculation. But it was still rather a closed world.
Reading or hearing lectures on these books and disputing frequently to prove that he had assimilated them, Tindale spent the years from 1510 to 1515 as a member of Magdalen
Hall, now Hertford College. In 1512, by a dispensation common in those days, he became a B.A. more than a year early. He kept the full three years for his M.A. and incepted at the Act of 1515.
Far from " going down" at once, the new master was bound, as a " necessary regent" to lecture and assist in University administration for two years.
Once Tindale refers to a pupil, John Tisen, who took his B.C.L. in 1524.1 At the same time he would be expected to read for a higher degree, and there can be little doubt but that he began to study for that of Bachelor of Divinity, a four-years' course. This degree, however, he never took, for reasons which lead us to think of those other influences which surrounded him at Oxford and helped to produce in him one of the. fiercest opponents of medizvalism. The one picture which Foxe gives us of Tindale at Oxford shows him reading '' privily to certain students and fellows of Magdalen College some parcel of divinity, instructing them in the knowledge and truth of the scriptures."
This activity has commonly been ascribed to Lollard influence, but the situation was in reality more complex.
In 1377 Wycliffe had indeed been a power in Oxford, but in 1382 he was expelled from it and by 1420 his writings had been destroyed and his adherents silenced. There were still groups of men in England who met to read the English Bible and cherished
Wycliffe's less abstruse thoughts; and in 1491 Bishop Russell of Lincoln was '' wearied at Oxford with many heretics".
We must therefore admit the possibility that Tindale had been influenced by Lollards, but there is no proof that he had studied Wycliffe's works nor any probability that the Bible which he expounded to Magdalen men was an English version.
1In his letter to Frith, Section II, No. 15, p. 115.
WILLIAM TINDALE
More powerful was the influence of the New Learning.
In 1492 Grocyn was teaching Greek; the scholastic philosophers were being dethroned by Plato; classical authors were being hurried through the press. From 1497 to 1504 Colet lectured on the Pauline Epistles, breaking away from scholastic methods and seeking to expound what St. Paul had really said; and, in 1499, Oxford was visited by Erasmus.
Tindale came to a university invigorated by these men.
Not only did he learn Greek, but he shared fully in the revulsion from the Schoolmen, and, eager to study the Bible without their rules and glosses, he abandoned the pursuit of a degree in divinity. Before long
—exactly when we cannot say—he was drawn to Cambridge where Erasmus had taught from 1510 to 1514.
Details of his stay there are lacking, but before he left it, he may have met the earliest English reformers, Bilney and Barnes, and there too he may have read the earlier works of Luther. It is possible that, while he was at Cambridge or a little later, Tindale was promised a Canonry at Christ Church, Oxford, then being planned by Wolsey.
If so, nothing came of the promise.
In 1 521 or 1522 Tindale went back to Gloucestershire as tutor to the children of Sir John Walsh of Little Sodbury
Manor.
By this time he was in orders, but the date and circumstances of his ordination have not yet been established.
Walsh was a hospitable man, at whose board, Foxe tells us, met "divers great beneficed men, as abbots, deans, archdeacons, and 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."
Tindale was wont to counter their arguments "by open and manifest scripture " until Lady Walsh one day asked him " were it reason that we should believe you before them so great, learned and beneficed men?"
The challenge was accepted not by argument but by calling upon a powerful ally.
'''Then did he translate into * For a possibility see Mozley, William Tyndale, Date
(F 435)
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
English a book calledf as I remember, Enchiridion Militis Christiani.
'The which being translated, he delivered to his master and lady; and after they had read that book, those great prelates were no more so often called to the house, nor when they came, had they 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 Tyndall, and at the last came no more there."
But though he thus gained the support of Walsh, the clergy retaliated by denouncing him for heresy.
He was brought before John Bell, Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester, but nothing was proved against him.
Tindale's answer to his accusers shows where his desires lay:
""T am content that you bring me where you will into any country within England, giving me ten pounds a year to live with, so you bind me to nothing, but to teach children and preach."
Nor did he stay long at Sodbury.
" Soon after,"
Foxe continues, '' Master Tyndall happened to be in the company of a learned man, and in communing and disputing with him drove him to that issue that the learned man said: We were better be without God's law than the pope's.
Master Tyndall, hearing that, answered him: I defy the pope and all his laws; and said:
If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the scripture than thou dost." So minded, his thoughts turned,
'' when I was turmoiled in the country where I was "', to London and to its Bishop, Cuthbert Tunstall, scholar and friend of Erasmus. Walsh let him go, with a letter to Sir Henry Guildford,
Controller of the King's Household.
He reached London in the summer of 1523.
Guildford, to whom Tindale showed his translation of a speech of Isocrates as proof of learning, arranged an interview with the Bishop.
The poor scholar hoped for some position which would allow him to work on a translation of the Bible with episcopal authority, but '' my lord answered me, his house was full", and declared that in London he " could not lack a service".
Though Tunstall approved of the new learning, he was not yet prepared to sanction anything so frowned upon by (F 435)
WILLIAM TINDALE
the Church as an English Bible. However, a service was quickly found. Tindale's sermons at St. Dunstan's in the West attracted the attention of a rich cloth merchant, Humphrey Monmouth,* and for half a year he lived in Monmouth's house, winning respect by his austere and studious habits.
But London conditions were not favourable to his designs, and before he had been a year in the city, he decided to try his lot in Germany.
Monmouth gave'him {10 and took care of £10 more, the gift of "some other men". Leaving his sermons and a copy of the Enchiridion with his benefactor, Tindale set off for Hamburg in the spring of 1524, never to return to his own country.
Within a year, Tindale sent from Hamburg for his £10, but it does not follow that he stayed the whole time in that city. More, supported by Cochlzus and Foxe, affirms that he went to Luther at Wittenberg.
It is true that Tindale denies that he was '' confederate with Luther', but these words do not exclude a meeting.
In 1529, Tindale was entertained at Hamburg by Margaret von Emersen, and since her nephew
Matthias matriculated at Wittenberg on 30th May, 1524, it is a fair conjecture that Tindale came to know the family in 1524 and travelled with Matthias to Wittenberg.2
By about April in the next year he was again in Hamburg. Soon he was joined by William Roye, an Observantine Friar of Greenwich, who had matriculated at Wittenberg on 1oth June, 1525.
Before September the two men were at Cologne.
By this time a translation of the New Testament was ready for the press. It is difficult for us to imagine ourselves without an English Bible; even more difficult, perhaps, to see why it should have been prohibited. The Latin Bible of the medizval church had been, at first, a vernacular translation, and missionary efforts have everywhere called forth translations in the appropriate language. No doubt there will always be argument between those who believe that at least the main truths of the * For Monmouth, see his life in Foxe.
2 Mozley, op. ctt., p. 53.
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
Bible can be understood directly by any sensible man and those who think it so difficult that it is better for the laymen to accept what the expert tells him to be the Church's authoritative summary of Biblical theology.
Wycliffe had taken the first view, with results so little to the taste of the Bishops that in 1408 they forbade both the reading and the making of any
English version without episcopal licence.1
Consequently, though other countries—e.g. France, Germany, Venice—had printed vernacular Bibles in the fifteenth century, England had to be content with such Wycliffite manuscripts as escaped destruction.
Inheriting Wycliffe's purpose, Tindale was able to improve on his achievement by translating not from the Latin Vulgate, but from the original tongues. In 1516, Erasmus edited the first printed Greek Testament, following it, in 1519, with a second edition, and in 1522 with a third, which Tindale used.
Luther's German New Testament appeared in 1522, his version of the whole scripture in 1524.2. Though he was assisted by this and by Erasmus' Latin translation of his Greek text, Tindale translated directly from the Greek, using other aids with critical independence. The Wycliffite Bible he appears not to have used. Its text was unsound and its language archaic.
The first attempt to print his New Testament was made at Cologne, but was interrupted by an enemy of reform, John
Dobneck, called Cochleus.
The printer, probably Peter Quentell, had only started on St. Mark when Cochlzus heard of the venture and reported it to Hermann Rinck who, in turn, reported it to the Senate. The work was forbidden, and Tindale rushed off with the sheets to Worms.
One imperfect copy, eight of the ten sheets, survives. If this quarto edition, with its prologue and glosses, was completed at Worms, all copies have perished.
In the same year or early in 1526, 6000 copies of an octavo edition, without notes, came from the press of Scheeffer at Worms.
These were being sold in England by April, 1526.8
1 Pollard, Records of the English Bible, I.
2 More accurately, the Bible less the Prophets.
The first complete edition of Luther's translation appeared in 1534.
3 For all this see Pollard, Records, [V—XIX.
WILLIAM TINDALE
How Tindale's version circulated in England, how men were tried for possessing it, is too intricate a story to be told here.
Suffice it to say that on 24th October, 1526, Tunstall ordered his archdeacons to secure all copies in the diocese.
Canterbury followed this lead, and in November the Testament was publicly burned at St. Paul's Cross. Tindale stayed some time at Worms.
Late in 1526, Scheffer printed for him an Introduction to the Epistle to the Romans, which is little more than a translation of Luther's introduction, expounding the doctrine of justification by faith.
He was still at Worms in the spring of 1527 when Friar Jerome Barlow passed through the city on his way to Strasbourg.
There follows a period during which Tindale's movements are most obscure.
Great efforts were being made, both in England and abroad, particularly at Antwerp, to destroy all copies of the English New
Testament.
Meanwhile, Tindale was busy on two polemical works, the Parable of the Wicked Mammon and the Obedience of a Christian Man, which appeared in 1528, ostensibly from the press of Hans Luft of Marburg.
It has been proved, however, that the printer was John Hoochstraten of Antwerp.
Yet, though the books were probably printed at Antwerp, it remains possible that Tindale spent some time at Marburg, attracted by the university just founded by the reforming prince Philip of Hesse.
The Wicked Mammon is another exposition of justification by faith, which Tindale always regarded as the key to Scripture.
Again it draws largely on Luther.
Attacked by More and Archbishop Warham, the book was frequently banned. About this time Wolsey was trying to get possession of the English heretics abroad.
The Ambassador, John Hacket, persuaded the Regent of the Netherlands to order the arrest of three men, but two of them, apparently Tindale and Roye, could nowhere be found.1
Later in the same year the Obedience was issued.
This work, consisting mainly of an attack on Papal authority and a whole-hearted defence of complete submission to the civil power, won the approval of Henry VIII, whose attention
+ Letters and Papers, Henry 8, IV, 4431, 4511.
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
ll was drawn to it by Anhe Boleyn.
By the church, however, it was condemned as fully as the Mammon.
Though these two works are of great importance, Tindale's chief occupation at this time must have been the translation of the Pentateuch. Germany provided opportunities of learning
Hebrew of which he availed himself fully.
Early in 1529 Tindale was at Antwerp. How he left it must be told in the words of Foxe.
'" At what time Tyndale had translated the fifth book of Moses called Deuteronomy, minding to print the same at Hamborough, he sailed thereward: where by the way, upon the coast of Holland, he suffered shipwreck, by the which he lost all his books, writings and copies, and so was compelled to begin all again anew, to the hindrance and doubling of his labours.
Thus having lost by that ship both money, his copies and time, he came in another ship to Hamborough, where at his appointment Master Coverdale tarried for him and helped him in the translating the whole five books of Moses, from Easter till December, in the house of a worshipful widow, Mistress Margaret van Emmerson, Anno 1529, a great sweating sickness being the same time in the town.
So having dispatched his business at Hamborough, he returned afterward to Antwerp again." As it happened, the Pentateuch was printed not in Hamburg but in Antwerp, by Hoochstraten, still under the pseudonym of Luft.
The colophon of Genesis is dated 17th January, 1530.
The Pentateuch contained prologues and glosses vigorously expressing Tindale's reforming views.
Indeed, the tide of Lutheranism was now flowing so strongly that Henry summoned a meeting of Bishops and learned clergy, together with More, the Chancellor.
They met on 24th May, 1530, and, though a few, such as Hugh Latimer, desired an English Bible, the assembly issued an Instrument which condemned "the translation also of Scripture corrupted by William Tyndall, as well in the Olde Testamente as in the Newe "' and laid bare the heresies of Tindale, Frith and others. Henry followed this up in June by a proclamation prohibiting "the havinge of holy scripture, translated into the vulgar tongues of englisshe, frenche, or
WILLIAM TINDALE
duche"', and, among other books, Tindale's Mammon and Obedience.
At the same time the King thought it wise to promise an English version once heresy had been exterminated.1
The other work of 1530, the last published by Hoochstraten, was the Practice of Prelates, a bitter work in which two points are outstanding, the one a fierce attack upon the now fallen Wolsey, the other a passage in which the author pronounces against the annulment of Henry's marriage with Catherine.
Henry, incensed, had a placard set up attacking the book, and in November, Tindale's brother John was one of those who were made to process through London, the book tied from their necks and a fire waiting for it at their journey's end.2
But the placard was withdrawn and the King tried other tactics. Stephen Vaughan, formerly a servant of 'Thomas
Cromwell and now a merchant adventurer of Antwerp, was instructed to write to Tindale inviting him to return to England under safe conduct.
'Tindale suspected a trap and refused.
For the moment all Vaughan could do was to send a MS. copy of part of the newly written Answer to More, with his own baseless assurance that "whether he come or not come into England, he will make no more works after this".
But on 17th April, 1531, in a field outside Antwerp, Vaughan spoke with Tindale who again refused to return to England and told him " how he had finished a work against my lord chancellor's book and would not put it in print till such time as your grace had seen it".
As Vaughan showed how much he was attracted by Tindale's character and learning Cromwell replied, at the King's command, that he was to make no further attempt to bring Tindale to England. Cromwell hinted, however, that Vaughan might try again to convert him, promising the royal compassion. The letter in which Vaughan confesses his failure fortunately preserves Tindale's words.
"I assure you, if it would stand with the king's most 1 Pollard, Records, XXII.
* Cal. State Pap., Venetian, 1527-1533, no. 642; Spanish, 1529-30, nos. 509, 539.
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From the original in the Public Record Office [ for the text see pp. 12-13 ] Facing p. 13
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
gracious pleasure to grant only a bare text of the scripture to be put forth among his people, like as is put forth among the subjects of the emperor in these parts, and of other Christian princes, be it of the translation of what person soever shall please his majesty, I shall immediately make faithful promise never to write more, nor abide two days in these parts after the same; but immediately to repair into his realm, and there most humbly submit myself at the feet of his royal majesty, offering my body to suffer what pain or torture, yea, what death his grace will, so this be obtained.
And till that time, I will abide the asperity of all chances, whatsoever shall come, and endure my life in as many pains as it is able to bear and suffer."'
In June the two met once more, but nothing came of their conversation and Vaughan had to admit defeat.+ Tindale's literary activity was now considerable.
Besides translating Jonah, published with a preface which set forth once again the idea of free forgiveness and justification by faith, he wrote a long exposition of I John, emphasizing the same points.
But the chief work of these years is the Answer to More.
In March, 1528, More had been invited to attack the Lutherans by Tunstall, who sent him heretical books to read and also the licence necessary for their possession. Among these books there was, it seems, a copy of Tindale's New
Testament marked by the Bishop.
In the same year, the Mammon and Obedience were published.
In 1529 More published his Dialogue .
. touching the pestilent sect of Luther and Tyndale; three of its four books dealt principally with the English "heretic", who replied, in 1531, with An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue. More continued the controversy with the Confutation of Tyndale and the Apology.
It is not possible here even to summarize their disputes.
Broadly speaking, it was a battle between one who accepted the Scriptures as the supreme and sufficient authority for Christianity and felt free to interpret them for himself; and one who, 1 For this paragraph see L.P. Hen. 8, V, 65, 153, 201, 246-8, 303, 532-3, 574,
618. Tindale's words are in 201 and 246. The passage quoted is shown on Plate II.
WILLIAM TINDALE
while acknowledging that Scripture is in some sense authoritative, respected tradition as well, and believed that the Church has a right both to control the circulation of the Scriptures and also to enforce its interpretation of them upon the layman.
The discussion, therefore, turned not merely upon the advantages and disadvantages of a vernacular Bible, but also upon the nature and authority of the Church; and, more incidentally, upon the value of the institutions and daily life of the Church as Tindale and More knew it.
Meanwhile More was anxious to discover all he could about his adversary's person and way of life.
''In the registers of London," Foxe tells us, "it appeareth manifest how that the bishops and Sir Thomas More, having any poor man under coram to be examined before them, namely such as had been at Antwerp, most studiously would search and examine all things belonging to Tyndale, where and with whom he hosted, whereabouts stood the house, what was his stature, in what apparel he went, what resort he had, &c.
All which things when they had diligently learned, as may appear by the examination of Simon Smith and others, then began they to work their feats, as you shall hear by the relation of his own host.'
What then were these feats?
After an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the Emperor Charles V to send Tindale to him, Henry decided to have him kidnapped.
But Sir Thomas Elyot spent his bribes in vain; Tindale could not be found.
Nor should we be much more fortunate than the ambassador if we tried to trace Tindale's movements up to 1534.
It must be sufficient to say that he continued his literary work from somewhere in the neighbourhood of Antwerp. One such work was the explanation of the will of William
Tracy of Toddington, Gloucestershire, who forbade the purchase of prayers for his soul.
For this heresy his body was exhumed and cast out of consecrated ground.
To this period belongs also the Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, a fine work which makes use of some sermons by Luther.
Tindale was now seriously occupied with sacramental theology.
In October, 1532, his noble young friend, John Frith, was
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE-
imprisoned in the Tower, where he wrote down his views against Transubstantiation.
Though Tindale shared his objections to this doctrine, he wrote (perhaps in January, 1533) to warn Frith to meddle with it as little as possible.
The letter must have arrived too late, for More produced an attack on Frith's treatise in December, 1532, and Frith felt bound to reply.
Tindale now joined in the fray, for on 5th April, there was published an anonymous work, The Supper of the Lord, which may with great probability be ascribed to him. Frith was given opportunities to recant, even to escape, but he held firm, and Tindale, sure of his resolution, wrote a letter of comfort on 9th May.? On 4th July, Frith was burned at Smithfield.
Tindale, who had no desire to force the issue of eucharistic theology, soon produced another moderating book, the Brief Declaration of the Sacraments, which pleads for mutual toleration.
Now at last, but for so short a space, Tindale found a peaceful home.
With the decline of Bruges, Antwerp had become the chief commercial city of the world.
English merchants had been given a house there in the fifteenth century, which cannot now be identified, though the College of St. Ignace includes the house which, from 1558, was the head-quarters of the company of Merchant Adventurers.
When we find that John Lambert, their chaplain, was imprisoned for heresy, and that one of their number, Richard Harman, took part in the circulation of the New Testament and was accused of helping "Willem Tandeloo", we shall not be surprised to learn that Tindale was given a refuge in the English House.
It was Thomas Poyntz, his host, who provided Foxe with much of his narrative of these last years.
'He was a man very frugal and spare of body, a great student, an earnest labourer in the setting forth of the scriptures of God.
He reserved or hallowed to himself two days in the week, which he named his pastime, Monday and 1 Cf. Section II, No. 15, p. 112.
2 Cf. Section II, No. 16, p. 115.
WILLIAM TINDALE
Saturday. On Monday he visited all such poor men and women as were fled out of England, by reason of persecution, into Antwerp; and these, once well understanding their good exercises and qualities, he did very liberally comfort and relieve; and in like manner provided for the sick and diseased persons.
On the Saturday he walked round about the town, seeking every corner and hole where he suspected any poor person to dwell; and where he found any to be well occupied, and yet over-burdened with children, or else were aged and weak, these also he plentifully relieved.
And thus he spent his two days of pastime, as he called them.
And truly his alms were very large, and so they might well be; for his exhibition that he had yearly of the English merchants at Antwerp, when living there, was considerable; and that, for the most part, he bestowed upon the poor. The rest of the days of the week he gave wholly to his book, wherein he most diligently travailed.
When the Sunday came, then went he to some merchant's chamber or other, whither came many other merchants, and unto them would he read some one parcel of scripture: the which proceeded so fruitfully, sweetly and gently from him, much like to the writing of John the Evangelist, that it was a heavenly comfort and joy to the audience to hear him read the scriptures; likewise, after dinner, he spent an hour in the same manner.
He was a good man without any spot or blemish of rancour or malice, full of mercy and compassion, so that no man living was able to reprove him of any sin or crime; although his righteousness and justification depended not thereupon before God, but only upon the blood of Christ, and his faith upon the same."
It was autumn when Tindale went to the English House.
No doubt he had already been working upon the revision of his New Testament, which was published in November,
1534.
'This was preceded by a revision of Genesis, not much changed, but lacking the anti-papal glosses of the 1530 edition.
| An interesting and somewhat pathetic story of pirated editions and quarrels between friends lies behind the revised New
Testament.
An Antwerp printer, Christopher van Endhoven
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
or Ruremond, producéd as early as 1526 a rather careless reprint of the Worms Testament.
Who can tell what parts were played in influencing his action by the hope of gain and the love of the Gospel?
At any rate, he was thrown into a Westminster prison in 1531 for selling his Testaments in England; and there he died.1 The year before, he had issued a second reprint.
Both editions, each of 5000 copies, were sold out by 1533.
For lack of an English press-corrector, these Bibles had been very inaccurate.
Consequently, as Joye tells, "' Tindale was pricked forth to take the testament in hand ... But T. prolonged and deferred so necessary a thing and so just desires of many men, in so much that in the mean season, the Dutch men printed it again the third time .
. but much more false than ever it was before. ...
But yet before this third time of printing the book, the printer desired me to correct it. And I said ... I suppose that T. himself will put it forth more perfect and newly corrected, which if he do, yours shall be naught set by nor never sold.
This notwithstanding yet they printed them and that most false and about 2000 books, and had shortly sold them all. All this long while
T. slept, for nothing came from him as far as I could perceive.
Then the Dutch began to print them the fourth time because they saw no man else going about them .
. and they desired me to correct them their copy, whom I answered as before that if T. amend it with so great diligence as he promiseth, yours will be never sold. Yes, quod they, for if he print 2000 and we as many, what is so little a number for all England?
And we will sell ours better cheap, and therefore we doubt not of the sale: so that I perceived well and was sure that whether I had corrected their copy or not, they had gone forth with their work and had given us 2000 more books falslier printed than ever we had before."
But when this edition was published in August, 1534, by Endhoven's widow, it soon became known to Tindale that Joye had gone beyond the duties of a corrector of proofs.
Not only had he made certain changes in the text, but in several places he had 1Cf, Duff, Westminster and London Printers, pp. 222-7.
WILLIAM TINDALE
replaced Tindale's word " resurrection " by "very life", "life after this" and other paraphrases.
Tindale's anger at these alterations, some of which might lead to suspicion of his orthodoxy concerning the state of the dead before judgmentday, while others betrayed a lack of Greek scholarship or a poor sense of English prose, is manifest in the second preface to his revised New Testament, which, he claimed, was almost ready for the press when Joye's appeared. Published by Martin
Emperour (de Keyser) of Antwerp in November, 1534, it contains an improved text, short marginal notes and some new prologues. Tindale added also a version of " the Epistles taken out of the Old Testament which are read in the Church after the use of Salisbury ". The unhappy story of the quarrel is told, from his own point of view, in Joye's Apology.* Meanwhile, Tindale continued to revise his translation; so that a third edition was printed by de Keyser for the publisher,
Godfried van der Hagen, early in 1535.
It is this text, the last revised by Tindale himself, which was used in the "' Matthew " Bible of 1537.
Tindale's happy days in the English House were now drawing to a close. Besides the revision of the New Testament, he was busy with the translation of another portion of the Old, Joshua to II Chronicles, which he left in manuscript.
He may have been helped in this work by John Rogers, his literary executor, who became chaplain to the merchants on 24th October, 1534.
In England, the demand for an English Bible was now being pressed with energy.
In December, 1534, even the Bishops petitioned "that the king's majesty should think fit to decree that the holy scripture shall be translated into the vulgar English tongue by certain upright
and learned men to be named by the said most illustrious. king and be meted out and delivered to the people for their instruction "', Cranmer intended this to be carried out by the 1 Pollard, Records, XXVII.
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
Bishops themselves, a proposal which came to nothing at the time but was revived by Archbishop Parker.
In the event, the first complete English Bible was the work of Tindale's former associate, Coverdale, and, possibly with the approval and assistance of Cromwell, was printed abroad in 1535.
Though attacked, it was not suppressed.
Indeed, Coverdale ventured to dedicate it to Henry VIII, and by 1537 could claim that it was "set forth with the Kynges moost gracious licence "'.1
Yet qualified approval of an English Bible did not mean acceptance of Lutheran doctrine.
A known heretic, protected from the Emperor's edict of 1529 only by his residence in the English House and the peculiar privileges of Antwerp,
Tindale might fall a victim to treachery.
And so it came to pass.
Richard Phillips, Collector of Customs at Poole and grandfather of the builder of Montacute, had trouble with two of his sons.
'Thomas was accused of gaol-breaking at Ilchester and only saved by the intervention of Cromwell;
Henry, a B.C.L. of Oxford, gambled away some of his father's money and fled abroad in shame. Henry took refuge at Louvain, perhaps early in 1535.
He was a fanatical supporter of the Papacy, so much so that his endeavours against Tindale,
Barnes and Joye may not have been instigated by any more important person, though it has always been felt, if only to explain his money, that he must have had some backing in England.
Pretending to sympathize with religious reform, Phillips went to Antwerp and gained the confidence of 'Tindale.
Poyntz, however, always distrusted him.
Indeed, he believed that Phillips was sounding him, to see if he could be bribed
- to assist in Tindale's arrest. At this time, Charles V was loath to interfere with heresy in Antwerp.
Fearing, no doubt, a blow to the commercial prosperity of the city if it became known as a place of persecution, he had left the matter to the local authorities, who were normally lenient. It appears further that arrests could not or would not have been made inside the English House.
But Phillips went off to Brussels and 1 Pollard, Records, XXXI.
WILLIAM TINDALE
somehow " procured to bring from thence with him to Antwerp that Procureur-General which is the Emperor's attorney, with - certain other officers, as after followeth; the which was not done with small charges or expenses, from whomsoever it came". One day, Poyntz being absent on business at Bergen,
Phillips invited Tindale to dine with him.
'' No, said Master Tyndale; I go forth this day to dinner, and you shall go with me and be my guest, where you shall be welcome.
So when 't was dinner time, Master Tyndale went forth with Phillips and at the going out of Poyntz's house was a long narrow entry, so that two could not go in a front.
Master Tyndale would have put Phillips before him, but Phillips would in no wise, but put Master Tyndale afore, for that he pretended to shew great humanity.
So Master Tyndale, being a man of no great stature, went before, and Phillips, a tall comely person, followed behind him; who had officers on either side of the door upon two seats, which, being there, might see who came in the entry; and coming through the same entry, Phillips pointed with his finger over Master Tyndale's head down to him, that the officers which sat at the door might see that it was he whom they should take; as the officers that took Master
Tyndale afterwards told Poyntz, and said to Poyntz, when they had laid him in prison, that they pitied to see his simplicity when they took him.
Then they took him and brought him to the Emperor's attorney or Procureur-General."
'The arrest took place on or about 23rd May, 1535.
The victim was at once taken to the State prison of the Netherlands at Vilvorde, six miles from Brussels.
Of course, attempts were made to secure his release.
By the help of the English merchants, letters were sent to the court of Brussels, but these were of little avail, though Poyntz declared that the governor of the English House, Walter Marsch, could have done more.
In England, the King could hardly be expected to stir himself in Tindale's favour, but Cromwell might move. He was very slow, being content at first to collect information about Phillips,1 but at the beginning of September
1 Cf. L.P. Hen. 8, VIII, 1151, and Demaus, Tyndale, 396-9.
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
he wrote two letters, one to Carondelet, Archbishop of Palermo and President of the Council of Brabant, the other to the Marquis of Bergen-op-Zoom.
These influential men were asked to procure, by favour, Tindale's release, and to have him sent to England.
The letters were forwarded to the Antwerp merchants, and Poyntz himself rode off with them to the Marquis.
He found him at Alken, but could get no answer till they all reached Mestricht.
There the Marquis wrote to Carondelet, in effect throwing upon him the responsibility of deciding whether or not to intervene.
Poyntz delivered this and Cromwell's letter to the Archbishop, and waited in Brussels for an answer.
One of the Chancery gave him reason to hope for Tindale's release, but Phillips acted again, with the result that Poyntz himself was arrested for heresy. After three months in prison, where he was frequently interrogated concerning his beliefs, Poyntz managed to escape and returned to England.
However persistent he may have been, little else was done to save Tindale.
All that we know is that Stephen Vaughan wrote on 13th April, 1536, to Cromwell, saying (but with what foundation?), "If now you send me but your letter to the privy council, I could deliver Tyndale from the fire, so it come by time, for else it will be too late."
Little is known of Tindale's long imprisonment, which lasted a year and 135 days, as is proved by the payment made to Adolf van Wesele, the lieutenant of Vilvorde Castle, for keeping
Tindale during that period for forty stivers a day." His property —or most of it—had been confiscated.
A pathetic letter survives, asking for warmer clothes and Hebrew books.? Perhaps he hoped even now to finish the translation of the Old Testament, but much of the time must have been spent in preparation for his trial.
Of this, though the official record has not been discovered, we are not altogether ignorant.
While some of his English works were being translated into Latin, Tindale was personally questioned.
He was offered an advocate and a 1j.e. the Council of Brabant.
2 The details are printed as an appendix in Demaus' William Tyndale.
8 Cf, Section II, No. 17, p. 117.
WILLIAM TINDALE
proctor, but refused them, though later he asked to speak with some English divines.
The examination was carried out by members of a special commission appointed by Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands.
It included the Procureur-General, Pierre Dufief; three Doctors of Divinity from the University of Louvain, Ruard Tapper, Jacobus Latomus, both very distinguished theologians, and Jan Doye; William van Caverschoen, secretary to the Inquisitor-apostolic; four councillors and nine minor officials.1_ Tindale was not the man to surrender his beliefs.
'' There was much writing and great disputation to and fro between him and them of the University of Louvain, in such sort that they all had enough to do, and more than they could well wield, to answer the authorities and testimonies of the scripture whereupon he most pithily grounded his doctrine."
It is to Latomus'
Confutationum adversus Guilielmum Tindalum Libri Tres that we owe what knowledge we have of this controversy.
First, it appears, Tindale wrote a book to prove that faith alone justifies and that man can merit no reward by good works; Latomus replied, 'Tindale countered " prolixe", and Latomus answered in a second book, adding a third in which, at Tindale's request, he set out his own belief concerning some of the points at issue.
Finally, in August, 1536, Tindale was condemned and publicly degraded from the priesthood. On 12th August, John Hutton wrote to Cromwell that the Procureur-General " certified me that William Tyndale is degraded and condemned into the hands of the secular power, so that he is like to suffer death this next week "'. But the execution did not take place so soon.
One day early in October (tradition says it was the sixth), he was "' brought forth to the place of execution, was there tied to the stake, and then strangled first by the hangman, and afterwards with fire consumed, in the morning at the town of Vilvorde, A.D. 1536; crying thus at the stake with a fervent zeal and a loud voice:
Lord, open the King of England's eyes."
His prayer was answered.
By his theological works and 1 See the Appendix in Demaus.
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
by his life he had helped to lay the foundation of the English Reformation; but he knew how fruitless all else would be if the Bible could not be freely and constantly read in the mother tongue. Only a year after his death, the Bible called Matthew's was published by royal licence.
It contained Tindale's Pentateuch and New Testament and the version of Joshua to II Chronicles which he left in manuscript, all translated with a scholarship so sure, a taste so strong and delicate, that threequarters of his Old Testament and nine-tenths of his New
Testament was preserved in the Authorized Version.
In September, 1538, certain Royal Injunctions were issued :
"Item, that ye shall provyde on this side the feast of Easter next commyng, one boke of the whole Bible of the largest volume in Englyshe, and the same sett up in summe convenyent place within the said churche that ye have cure of, whereas your parishners may most commodiouslye resort to the same and rede yt; ... Item, that ye discorage no man pryuely or apertly from the readinge or hearing of the same Bible, but shall expresslye provoke, stere, and exhorte every parson to rede the same, as that whyche ys the verye lively worde of God, that every christen man ys bownde to embrace, beleve and followe, yf he look to be saved." + 1Cf, Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church History, No.
LXIII.
; Parson here = person, not cleric.
(F 435)
TINDALE'S RELIGIOUS AND MORAL
TEACHING Z HILE due honour has been paid to Tindale as the translator of the Bible, relatively few know how great a part was played by his theological works in the reform of the English Church.
The frequency with which they were prohibited testifies to the truth of Foxe's words when he writes:
"' These bookes of W. Tyndale being compiled, published and sent over into England, it cannot be spoken what a dore of light they opened' to the eies of the whole English nation; which before were many yeres shut up in darknesse."
What was this new light, and whence did he obtain it?
Although Bristol and Gloucester had been centres of Wycliffism, it would be going beyond the evidence to assume that Tindale had been in contact with any Lollards in his
Gloucestershire home.
It may be so; but it is just as possible that he was brought up in the strictest orthodoxy. At Oxford, the formal training would be orthodox enough, but certain other influences might lead or point in another direction.
It must be remembered that—pace Foxe—Tindale did not take a divinity degree, either at Oxford or Cambridge. For his first five years he was instructed mainly in Latin literature and Aristotelian philosophy.
All this time he would be learning something of the orthodox theology in much the same way as does an Oxford undergraduate of to-day who looks forward to ordination but is not reading for the Honour School of Theology.
And, like the same undergraduate, he might be attracted or repelled by different aspects of the teaching and practice of the Church around him.
'Tindale's own verdict on the curriculum proper is that a man's mind was formed upon a particular philosophy before he ever read the Bible, so that,