Selections From His Works 75
SELECTIONS FROM HIS WORKS
ae 2.
Genesis, xlix. 1-27
THE BLESSING OF JACOB
From the Pentateuch of 1530 And Jacob called for his sonnes and sayde: come together/ that I maye tell you what shall happen you in the last dayes.
Gather you together and heare ye sonnes of Jacob/ and herken unto Israel youre father.
Ruben/ thou art myne eldest sonne/ my myghte and the begynnynge of my strength/ chefe in receauynge and chefe in power.
As vnstable as water wast thou: thou shalt therfore not be the chefest/ for thou wenst vp vpon thy fathers bedd/ and than defyledest thou my couche with goynge vppe.
The brethern Simeon and Leui/ weked instrumentes are their wepons.
In to their secrettes come not my soule/ and vnto their congregation be my honoure not coupled: for in their wrath they slewe a man/ and in their selfewill they houghed an oxe.
Cursed be their wrath for it was stronge/ and their fearsnes for it was cruell. I will therfore deuyde them in Jacob/ and scater them in Israel.
Juda/ thy brethern shall prayse the/ and thine hande shalbe in the necke of thyne enimies/ and thy fathers childern shall stoupe vnto the.
Juda is a lions whelpe.
From spoyle my sonne thou art come an hye: he layde him downe and couched himself as a lion/ and as a lionesse. Who dare stere' him vp? The sceptre shall not departe from Juda/ nor a ruelar from betwene his legges/ untill Silo come/ vnto whome the people shall herken.
He shall bynde his fole vnto the vine/ and his asses colt vnto the vyne braunche/ and shall wash his garment in wyne and his mantell in the bloud of grapes/ his eyes are roudier than wyne/ and his teeth whitter then mylke.
Zabulon shall dwell in the hauen of the see and in the porte of shippes/ and shall reache vnto Sidon.
Isachar is a stronge asse/ he couched him doune between two borders/ and sawe that rest was good and the lande that it was pleasant/ and bowed his shulder to beare/ and became a servaunte vnto trybute.
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Dan shall judge his people, as one of the trybes of Israel.
Dan shalbe a serpent in the waye/ and an edder in the path/ and byte the horse heles/ so yt his ryder shall fall backwarde.
After thy sauynge loke I LORde.
Gad/ men of warre shall invade him. And he shall turne them to flyght.
Off Asser cometh fatt breed/ and he shall geue pleasures for a kynge.
Nepthall is a swyft hynde/ and geueth goodly wordes.
That florishynge childe Joseph/ that florishing childe and goodly vn to the eye: the doughters come forth to bere ruele.
The shoters have envyed him and chyde with him and hated him/ and yet his bowe bode fast/ and his armes and his handes were stronge/ by the handes of the myghtye God of Jacob: out of him shall come an herde man a stone in Israel.
Thi fathers God shall helpe the/ and the almightie shall blesse the with blessinges from heaven aboue/ and with blessinges of the water that lieth vnder/ and with blessinges of the brestes and of the wombes. The blessinges of thy father were stronge: euen as the blessinges of my elders/ after the desyre of the hiest in the worlde/ and these blessinges shall fall on the head of Joseph/ and on the toppe of the head of him yt was separat from his brethern.
Ben Jamin is a raueshynge wolfe.
In the mornynge he shall deuoure his praye/ and at nyghte he shall deuyde his spoyle.
Exodus, vii. 14-25 THE First PLAGUE From the Pentateuch of 1530 Than sayde the Lorde vnto Moses.
Pharaos herte is hardened, and he refuseth to let the people goo.
Get the vnto Pharao in the mornynge, for he will come vnto the water, and stonde thou apon the ryuers brynke agenst he come, and the rodd whiche turned to a serpente take in thine hande.
And saye vnto him: the Lorde God of the Hebrues hath sente me vnto the saynge: let my people goo, that they maye
SELECTIONS FROM HIS WORKS
serue me in the wildérnes: but hither to thou woldest not heare. wherfore thus sayth the Lorde: hereby thou shalt knowe that I am the Lord. Behold, I will smyte with the staffe that is in myne hand apon the waters that are in the ryuer, and they shall turne to bloude.
And the fishe that is in the riuer shall dye, and the riuer shall stinke: so that it shall greue the Egiptians to drinke of the water of the ryuer.
And the Lorde spake vnto Moses, saye vnto Aaron: take thy staffe and stretch out thyne hande ouer the waters of Egipte, ouer their streames, ryuers, pondes and all pooles off water, that they maye be bloude, and that there may be bloude in all the lande of Egipte: both in vessells of wodd and also of stone.
And Moses and Aaron dyd euen as the Lord commaunded.
And he lifte vp the staffe and smote the waters that were in the riuer, in the syghte of Pharao and in the syghte of his servauntes, and all the water that was in the ryuer, turned in to bloude. And the fish that was in the riuer dyed, and the ryuer stanke: so that the Egiptians coude not drinke of the water of the ryuer. And there was bloude thorowe out all the lande of Egipte.
And the Enchaunters of Egipte dyd lyke wyse with their enchauntmentes, so that Pharaos herte was hardened and dyd not regarde them as the Lorde had sayde. And Pharao turned him selfe and went in to his housse, and set not his herte there ynto.
And the Egiptians dygged round aboute the ryuer for water to drynke, for they coude not drynke of the water of the ryuer. And it contynued a weke after that the Lorde had smote the ryuer.
4. St. Matthew, vi. 19-34 From the Cologne edition of the New Testament, 1525 Gaddre not treasure to gether on erth/ where ruste and moththes corrupte/ and where theves breake through and steale.
But gaddre ye treasure to gyddre in heven/ whtre nether ruste/ ner yet moththes corrupte: and where theves
WILLIAM TINDALE
nether breake uppe/ ner yet steale.
For wheresoever youre treasure ys/ theare are youre herties also.
The light of thy body is thyn eye. Where fore if thyne eye be syngle/ all thy body ys full of light. But and yf thyne eye
© be wycked/ then is all thy boddy full of dercknes.
Whrefore yf the light that ys in the be dercknes: howe greate ys that dercknes?
No man can serve two masters. For other he shall hate the one/ and love the other: or els he shall lene to the one/ and despise that other. Ye cannott serve god and mamon.
There fore y saye unto you/ be not carefull for youre lyfe what ye shall eate/ or what ye shall dryncke/ nor yet for youre boddy/ what rayment ye shall weare. Ys not the lyfe more worth then meate? and the boddy moare of value then rayment? Beholde the foules of the aier: for they sowe not nether reepe/ nor yet cary into the barnes/ and yett youre hevenly father fedeth them. Are ye nott better then they?
Whiche of you (though he toke thought there fore) coulde put one cubit unto his stature?
And why care ye then for rayment?
Be holde the lyles of the felde/ howe they growe/ They labour nott/ nether spyn.
And yet for all that I saye unto you/ that even Solomon in all his royalte/ was not arayed lyke unto one of these.
Wherefore yf god so clothe the grasse/ which ys to daye in the felde/ & to morowe shalbe cast into the fournace: shall he not moche more do the same unto you/ o ye of lyttle fayth?
Therfore take no thought sayinge: what shall we eate/ or what shall we drynke/ or where with shall we be clothed?
(Aftre all these thynges seke the gentyls.) For youre hevenly father knoweth that ye have neade of all these thynges.
But rather seke ye fyrst the kingdom of heven/ & the rightewesnes there of/ and all these thinges shalbe ministred unto you.
Care nott therefore for the daye folowynge. For the daye folowynge shall care for it selfe.
Eche dayes trouble ys suffycient fer the same selfe daye.
* G.Mathew.
So.iff. ete ded ni after 7 The Heeonde Lhapseer, wwaroe/bu i {cripturefo tofpe ake / as ge.VItj. ce Menzel 1S 1IiaS Hote inberl the ravin can not eH allicher a tounc of iury/in thetunc of tynge Beroz pees sin de/beholde/there camrx wy(emé (rd the cfteto Se pe and the er rufalens fapnge: where is bethat is borne Fyn ozyerthe (cripture gcoftheiewes? we have (enc bis ftarre inthe cftc/and are co meancth nott che meto wo2{bippe bym. seo CHerode the Fynge/after behadde herde this /wastrouz pore bicfolowerts
_ bled/and all Jerufalérth bym/ and befent for all chedefe nor rhariofeph ke preeftes and (crybes of thepeople/and de maunded-of thant we oure lady aff. where Chrift (hulde be borne. Chey (ayde vnro bint sin bethe ter warde..
— Iebemaroune of iury. Forthusteitwrsttéby the prophet: x wpfe men. mich. 2nd thoubethlebens inthe lodeof xiury/(bale not be the leche DFmathew chey a6 pertepnynge tothe payncf of inoa. Sorout of the(ballces 4° callto ae7, "me acaptayne / whyd (ball govern my people frabel. eect cher ph ETbhen Lerod prevely called she wyfe men /and dyligently lofophers conyns enquyredof them/the tyme of the ftarzerhatappered. 2nd geinnaturall cau fent them to betblebem fayinge: when ye be come thyder (ez fes z effectes/and ardye diligently forthe dylde. And whenyc bane feunde bym alfor he soned Brigemicmorde/thaty maye come andwer( bippe bymalfe,. Were? on Mbéthey hadherde the Fynge/they departed/andlorheftarz «Fury ts the long
"vewbydtbey awe inthe eftc went before them/ eneyll at ca PE ope ne ia and ftode over the place where the dylde was. Wbétbey (a7 ae owarthere: we the ftarre/they were marveslonfly dladde. AnGentred ing fn," tothe houfe/and ford the dyilde with Wary bys mother/and Encled donne and worfbipped by /andopcnedtbere treaz feur?/and offred vnto bim gyftes/gold/franckynfence / and myr. 2nd after they were warned intheir (lepe/ that they fhulde not goa geymeto Berod/chey returned into there ows ne countre another waye, CAfter chaechey were departed /[o che angell of thelorde a2 pered to Sofeph in bis flepe fayinge zaryfe and taFerhe dylde and his mother/ and flye in to cgipte / and abyde there ryll y
Bryngethe worde. For Lerodwyll feFe the ie todeftroye:
1);
TINDALE's FIRST New TESTAMENT, COLOGNE, 1525
St. Matthew ii, 1-13, from the unique fragment in the British Museum Facing p. 78
SELECTIONS FROM HIS WORKS
— 5. St. Luke, i. 46-55
THE MAGNIFICAT
From the New Testament of 1526 And Mary sayde.
My soule magnifieth the lorde.
And my sprete reioyseth in god my savioure/ For he hath loked on the poore degre off his hondmayden.
Beholde nowe from hensforth shall all generacions call me blessed.
For he that is myghty hath done to me greate things/ and blessed ys his name:
And hys mercy is always on them that feare him thorow oute all generacions.
He hath shewed strengthe with his arme/ he hath scattered them that are proude in the ymmaginacion of their herts.
He hath putt doune the myghty from their seats/ and hath exalted them of lowe degre.
He hath filled the hongry with goode things: And hath sent awaye the ryche empty.
He hath remembred mercy: and hath holpen his servaunt Israhel.
Even as he promised to oure fathers/ Abraham and to his seede forever.
St. Luke ii. 8-14 From the New Testament of 1534 And ther were in the same region shepherdes abydinge in the felde and watching their flocke by nyght.
And loo: the angell of the lorde stode harde by them/ and the brightnes of the lorde shone rounde aboute them/ and they were soore afrayed. But the angell sayd vnto them: Be not afrayed. For beholde/ I bringe you tydinges of greate ioye that shal come to all the people: for vnto you is borne this daye in the cite of David/ a saveoure which is Christ the lorde. And take this for a signe: ye shall fynde the chylde swadled and layed in a manger. And streight waye ther was with the angell a multitude of hevenly sowdiers/ laudynge God and sayinge:
Glory to
WILLIAM TINDALE
God an hye/ and peace on the erth: and vnto men reioysynge.
And it fortuned/ assone as the angels were gone awaye from them in to heven/ the shepherdes sayd one to another: let vs goo even vnto Bethleem/ and se this thynge that is hapened which the Lorde hath shewed vnto vs.
And they cam with haste/ and founde Mary and Ioseph and the babe layde in a manger. And when they had sene it/ they publisshed a brode the sayinge which was tolde them of that chylde. And all that hearde it/ wondred at those thinges which were tolde them of the shepherdes.
But Mary kept all thoose sayinges/ and pondered them in hyr hert. And the shepherdes retourned/ praysinge and laudinge God for all that they had herde and sene/ evyn as it was told vnto them.
7. St. Luke, xv. 11-32
THE PRODIGAL SON
From the New Testament of 1526 And he sayde: a certayne man had two sonnes/ and the yonger of them sayde to his father: father geve me my parte off the goodes that to me belongeth.
And he devided vnto them his substaunce. And not longe after/ the yonger sonne gaddered all that he had to gedder/ and toke his iorney into a farre countre/ and there he wasted his goodes with royetous livinge.
And when he had spent all that he had/ there rose a greate derth thorow out all that same londe. And he began to lacke.
And he went/ and clave to a citesyn of that same countre: which sent hym to the felde/ to kepe his swyne.
And he wold fayne have filled his bely with the coddes/ that the swyne ate: and noo man gave hym.
Then he remembred hymsilfe and sayde: howe many hyred servaunts at my fathers have breed ynough/ and I dye for honger.
I will aryse/ and goo to my father/ and will saye unto hym: father/ I have synned agaynst heven/ and before the: nowe am I not worthy to be called thy sonne/ make me as one of thy heyred servaunts. And he arose/ and cam to his
— father.
When he was yett a greate waye of/ his father sawe hym/ and had compassion on hym/ and ran vnto him/ and fell
SELECTIONS FROM HIS WORKS
on his necke/ and kyssed hym. And the sonne sayd unto hym: father I have synned agaynst heven/ and in thy sight/ nether am I worthy henceforthe to be called thy sonne. Then sayde the father to his servaunts: bringe forth that best garment/ and put it on hym/ and put a rynge on his honde/ and shewes on his fete.
And brynge hidder that fatted caulfe/ and kyll hym/ and lett us eate and be mery: for this my sonne was deed/ and is alive agayne. He was loste/ and ys nowe founde.
And they began to make goode cheare.
The elder brother was in the felde/ and when he cam and drewe nye to the housse/ he herde minstrelcy/ and daunsynge/ and called one of his servaunts/ and axed what thoose thynges meante.
He said unto him: thy brother is come/ and thy father hath killed the fatted caulfe because he hath receaved him safe and sounde. And he was angry and wolde not goo in. Then cam his father out/ and entreated him/ he answered and sayde to hys father: Loo these many yeares have I done the service/ nether brake at eny time thy commaundment/ and yet gavest thou me 'never soo moche as a kyd to make mery with my lovers: but as sone as this thy sonne was come/ which hath devoured thy goodes wyth harloottes/ thou haste for his pleasure killed the fatted caulfe. And he sayd unto him:
Sonne/ thou wast ever with me/ and all that I have is thine: it was mete that we shulde make mery and be glad: for this thy brother was deed/ and is a live agayne: and was loste/ and is founde.
8. Romans, iii. 19-28 From the revised New Testament, Antwerp, 1534 Ye and we knowe that whatsoever the lawe sayth/ he sayth it to them which are vnder the lawe. That all mouthes maye be stopped and all the worlde be subdued to god/ because that by the dedes of the lawe/ shall no flesshe be iustified in the sight of God. For by the lawe cometh the knowledge of synne.
Now verely is the rigtewesnes that commeth of God declared without the fulfillinge of the lawe/ havinge witnes yet of the
WILLIAM TINDALE
lawe and of the Prophetes.
The rightewesnes no dout which is good before God/ commeth by the fayth of Iesus Christ/ vnto all and vpon all that beleve.
Ther is no difference: for all have synned/ and lacke the prayse that is of valoure before God: but are iustified frely by his grace/ through the redemcion that is in Christ Iesu/ whom God hath made a seate of mercy thorow faith in his bloud/ to shewe the rightewesnes which before him is of valoure/ in that he forgeveth the synnes that are passed/ which God dyd suffre to shewe at this tyme/ the rightewesnes that is alowed of him/ that he myght be counted iuste/ and a iustifiar of him which belevith on Jesus.
Where is then thy rejoysinge?
It is excluded.
By what lawe? by the lawe of workes? Naye: but by the lawe of fayth.
For we suppose that man is iustified by fayth without the dedes of the lawe. g. I Corinthians xiii From the New Testament of 1535 Though I spake with the tonges of men and angels/ and yet had no loue/ I were euen as soundynge brasse: or as a tynklynge cymball.
And though I coulde prophesy/ and vnderstode all secretes/ and all knowledge: yee/ yf I had all fayth/ so that I coulde moue mountayns oute of ther places/ and yet had no loue/ I were nothinge. And though I bestowed all my gooddes to fede the poore and though I gaue my body euen that I burned/ and yet had no loue/ it profeteth me nothinge/ Loue suffreth longe and is corteous.
Loue envieth not.
Loue doth not frowardly/ swelleth not/ dealeth not dishonestly/ seketh not her awne/ is not prouoked to anger/ thinketh not evyll/ reioyseth not in iniquite: but reioyseth in the trueth/ suffreth all thinge/ beleueth all thinges/ hopeth all thinges/ endureth in all thinges.
Though that prophesyinge fayle/ other tonges shall cease/ or knowledge vanysshe awaye/ yet. loue falleth neuer awaye.
For oure knowledge is vnparfect and oure prophesyinge is vnperfect.
But when that which is parfect/ is come/ then
SELECTIONS FROM HIS WORKS
that which is vnparfect/ shall be done awaye. When I was a chylde/ I spake as a chylde/ I vnderstode as a chylde/ I ymagened as a chylde.
But assone as I was a man/ I put awaye chyldeshnes. Now we se in a glasse/ euen in a darke speakynge: but then shall we se face to face. Now I knowe vnparfectly: but then shall I knowe euen as I am knowen.
Now abydeth fayth/ hope/ and loue/ euen these thre: but the chefe of these is loue.
10. Ephesians i. 3-14 From the New Testament of Nov., 1534 Blessed be God the father of oure lorde Iesus Christ/ which hath blessed vs with all maner of spirituall blessinges in hevenly thynges by Chryst/ accordynge as he had chosen vs in him/ before the foundacion of the worlde was layde/ that we shuld be saintes/ and without blame before him/ thorow loue.
And ordeyned vs before thorow Iesus Christ to be heyres vnto him silfe, accordinge to the pleasure of his will/ to the prayse of the glorie of his grace where with he hath made vs accepted in the beloved.
By whom we have redemption thorow his bloude euen the forgevenes of synnes/ accordynge to the riches of his grace/ which grace he shed on vs aboundantly in all wisdome/ and perceavaunce.
And hath openned vnto vs the mistery of his will accordinge to his pleasure/ and purposed the same in hym silfe to have it declared when the tyme were full come/ that all thynges/ bothe the thynges which are in heven/ and also the thynges which are in erthe/ shuld be gaddered togedder/ even in Christ: that is to saye/ in him in whom we are made heyres/ and were therto predestinate accordynge to the purpose of him which worketh all thinges after the purpose of his awne will: that we which before beleved in Christ shuld be vnto the prayse of his glory.
In whom also ye (after that ye hearde the worde of trueth/ I meane the gospell of youre saluacion/ wherin ye beleved) were sealed with the holy sprete of promes/ which is the ernest of oure inheritaunce/ to redeme the purchased possession and that vnto the laude of his glory.
WILLIAM TINDALE
11.
Revelation xxi From the New Testament of 1534 And I sawe a newe heven and a newe erth. For the fyrst heven/ and the fyrst erth/ were vanysshed awaye/ and there was no more see. And I Thon sawe that holy cite newe Ierusalem come doune from God oute of heven prepared as a bryde garnysshed for hyr husband. And I herde agrett voyce out of heaven sayinge: beholde/ the tabernacle of God is with men/ and he will dwell with them And they shalbe his people/ and God him sylffe shalbe with them and be their god. And God shall wype awaye all teares from their eyes.
And there shalbe nomore deeth/ nether sorowe nether cryinge/ nether shall there be eny more payne/ for the old thynges are gone. And he that sate apon the seate/ sayde: Behold I make all thynges newe.
And he sayde vnto me: wryte/ for these wordes are faythfull and true.
And he sayde vnto me: it is done/ I am Alpha and Omega/ the begynnynge/ and the ende.
I will geve to him that is a thyrst of the well of the water of lyfe fre. He that overcommeth shall inheret all thynges/ and I will be his God/ and he shalbe my sonne.
But the fearefull and unbelevynge/ and the abhominable/ and murdrers/ and whormongers/ and sorcerers/ and ydolaters/ and all lyars shall have their parte in the lake which burnyth with fyre and brymstone/ which is the seconde deth.
And there cam vnto me one of the vii. angels which had the vii. vyals full of the vii. laste plages: and talked with me sayinge: come hydder/ I will shewe the the bryde/ the lambes wyfe.
And he caryed me awaye in the sprete to a grett and an hye mountayne/ and he shewed me the grett cite/ holy
Ierusalem descendinge out of heven from God/ havynge the brightnes of God. And her shynynge was lyke vnto a stone moste precious/ even a Jaspar cleare as cristall: and had walles grett and hye/ and had xii gates/ and at the gates xii. angels: . and names written/ which are the xii. trybes of Israell: on the est parte iii gatis/ and on the north syde iii gates/ and to wardes the south iii gates/ and from the west iii gates: and
SELECTIONS FROM HIS WORKS
the wall of the cite had xii foundacions/ and in them the names of the lambes xii. Apostles.
And he that talked with me/ had a golden read to measure the cite with all and the gates therof and the wall therof. And the cite was bylt iiii. square/ and the length was as large as the bredth of it/ and he measured the cite with the rede .xii M. furlonges: and the lenght and the bredth/ and the heyth of it/ were equall. And he measured the wall therof. an cxliiii. cubittes: the measure that the angell had was after the measure that man vseth.
And the byldinge of the wall of it was of iaspar.
And the cite was pure gold lyke vnto cleare glasse and the foundacions of the wall of the cite was garnisshed with all maner of precious stones.
The fyrste foundacion was iaspar/ the seconde saphyre/ the thyrde a calcedony/ the fourth an emeralde: the fyft sardonix: the sixt sardeos: the seventh crysolite/ the ayght berall: the nynth a topas: the tenth a crysoprasos: the eleventh a jacyncte: the twelfe an amatist.
The xii. gates were xii pearles/ every gate was of one pearle/ and the strete of the cite was pure golde/ as thorowe shynynge glasse.
And there was no temple therin.
For the lord god allmyghty and the lambe are the temple of it/ and the cite hath no nede of the sonne nether of the mone to lyghten it.
For the bryghtnes of God dyd light it: and the lambe was the light of it.
And the people which are saved shall walke in the light of it: and the kynges of the earth shall brynge their glory vnto it. And the gates of it are not shut by daye.
For there shalbe no nyght there.
And there shall entre into it none vnclene thynge: nether whatsoever worketh abhominacion: or maketh lyes: but they only which are wrytten in the lambes boke of lyfe.
WILLIAM TINDALE
NOTES ON SECTION I
THE PENTATEUCH
Passages 1, 2 and 3 are taken from the translation of the Pentateuch printed in Antwerp in 1530 by Johann Hoochstraten, though the colophon of Genesis ascribes it to the press of Hans Luft at Marburg. Genesis was printed in black letter, the rest in a Roman fount.
The frontispiece is reproduced on the Plate facing p. 94.
The text is annotated with polemical glosses which were removed from many copies.
I The A.V. nowhere differs substantially from T. and keeps fairly close to his language. T. is sometimes more vivid—ah sir (v. 1), tush
(v. 4), lustie (v. 6). In v. 5, A.V. reads '' gods ", but R.V. returns to T.'s " God".
In v. 24, A.V. has "east" for " entering" and " flaming " for "' naked ''.
In this difficult passage there are more differences between T. and A.V. both in sense and vocabulary.
R.V. more often supports A.V., but returns to T.'s "' houghed an ox "', and agrees with him in other small points.
In v. 22, T.'s " daughters " is a too literal translation of the Hebrew.
A.V. makes a few changes—" rod " for " staff '', " magicians "' for "enchaunters"', "' had smitten"? for "had smote '—but accepts nearly all T.'s wording.
THE New TESTAMENT
The first passage (No. 4) comes from the Cologne fragment of 1525.
'The only surviving copy, and that mutilated, is in the British Museum.
Nos. 5 and 7 are printed from the first complete New Testament, Worms, 1526.
The best extant copy of this is at the Baptist College, Bristol.
Nos. 6, 8, 10 and 11 are from T.'s main. revision, printed at Antwerp in November, 1 534; and No. 9 from the further slight revision of 1535, also printed at Antwerp for Godfried van der Hagen.
For the story of these revisions, see pp. 16-18, and 102,
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In 1534 T. made some slight changes.
He corrected "is to "' shall be " in vv. 21 and 22, and altered "' behold " to '' consider "' in v. 28. In v. 34, he introduced the word "morrow "'. A.V. is very close except in v. 34, for which see p. 65.
In the margin of the 1525 edition, a note on the word "single " tilts against the idea of meritorious works.
In 1534 T. put "' holy "' for " blessed " in v. 49, omitted "' always " in v. 50, and changed the perfect tenses into present.
The Great Bible and the A.V. returned to the perfect tense. The Greek is aorist.
Sowdiers.
So also the Great and Geneva Bibles. Rheims—army, A.V.—host.
The changes in 1534 were not great.
'' Remembered "' (v. 17) becomes "' came to '', "' make a good cheare "' becomes "' to be merye "'.
The A.V. is practically T., the chief changes being "husks" for "* coddes "', '' music "' for "' minstrelsy "', and "' friends "' for "' lovers "'.
In this passage, of great theological importance, T. has allowed himself to expand the text slightly, in the interests of exegesis.
"The righteousness of God " is translated, both in 1526 and 1534, "« the righteousness which is good before God " (v. 22), or '' of valour before God "', to show that it means not God's own righteousness, but the state of man which God treats as righteous.
N.B.— seat of mercy "' for hilasterion.
Some modern scholars would agree, but most take the Greek to be an adjective, masculine gender. Thus R.V. margin, "' to be propitiatory"'. Cf. p. 36.
The text of 1535 is identical with that of 1534, while in 1534, T. only changed "and" to "or" in v. 1, and dropped "all" from Vv. II.
Tinkling.
Wycliffe's '' bras sownynge or a cymbal tinkinge "' may have been in T.'s mind, even if he did not use the Wycliffite
(F 435)
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version as a normal help.
The form " tinking '' was superseded by '' tinkling "', with the same meaning, the sound made by metal when struck. The Vulgate has "' tinniens ''. Since in modern use the word suggests.a slight sound, the R.V. had to substitute '' clanging "'.
Courteous: so also the Great Bible and the Geneva version. A.V.
"kind "'. Wycliffe and the Rheims version, both from the Vulgate, have "' benign."
Charity: so Wycliffe and Rheims, from Vulgate " caritas '', and A.V.
The Great Bible, Geneva and R.V. have T.'s " love ''.
Cf. Answer to More, P.S.
III, 20-1.
'"'He rebuketh me also that I translate this Greek word agape into love, and not into charity, so holy and so known a term.
Verily, charity is no known English, in that sense which agape requireth .
. Wherefore I must have used this general term love in spite of my heart oftentimes.
I say not, charity God, or charity your neighbour; but love God, and love your neighbour.''
Charity may be reduced in sense to almsgiving.
This passage is chosen to show T. wrestling with an extremely involved chapter of St. Paul.
The Greek is all one sentence, held together by several awkward relative pronouns.
T. makes the structure of the sentence fairly clear, but the A.V. is better in v. 10, which it takes from the Geneva Version; and in v. 1 3, where the relative is taken to refer to Christ, not, as in T., to the Gospel.
T. made little change in his revision.
In 1526, he had written " prudency "', which reappears in the A.V.
The " perceavance "' of 1534 was dropped at once, for the Great Bible has "' prudence "'.
II This passage shows how greatly the A.V. is indebted to T.
In v. 17, T. is a little clumsy; and v. 26 of the A.V. does not appear in his translation, as it was not in Erasmus' Greek text.
Otherwise the A.V. makes very little change.
Section II Passages of Biographical and Historical Interest 1-8.
Tindale's Translation of the Bible The first three passages bring out the need of an English
Bible in which the common man might see the text freed from medieval interpretation.
The remainder show Tindale at work.
I The sermons which thou readest in the Acts of the apostles, and all that the apostles preached, were no doubt preached in the mother tongue.
Why then might they not be written in the mother tongue?
As, if one of us preach a good sermon, why may it not be written?
Saint Jerom also translated the bible into his mother tongue: why may not we also?
They will say it cannot be translated into our tongue, it is so rude.
It is not so rude as they are false liars. For the Greek tongue agreeth more with the English than with the Latin. And the properties of the Hebrew tongue agreeth a thousand times more with the English than with the Latin.
The manner of speaking is both one; so that in a thousand places thou needest not but to translate it into the English, word for word; when thou must seek a compass in the Latin, and yet shall have much work to translate it well-favouredly, so that it have the same grace and sweetness, sense and pure understanding with it in the Latin, as it hath in the Hebrew.
A thousand parts better may it be translated into the English, than into the Latin.
Yea, and except my memory fail me, and that I have forgotten what I read when I was a child, thou shalt
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find in the English chronicle, how that king Adelstone caused the holy scripture to be translated into the tongue that then was in England, and how the prelates exhorted him thereto.
Moreover, seeing that one of you ever preacheth contrary to another; and when two of you meet, the one disputeth and brawleth with the other, as it were two scolds; and forasmuch as one holdeth this doctor, and another that; one followeth
Duns, another St. Thomas, another Bonaventure, Alexander de Hales, Raymond, Lyre, Brycot, Dorbel, Holcot,
Gorram, Trumbett, Hugo de Sancto Victore, De Monte Regio, De Nova Villa, De Media Villa, and such like out of number; so that if thou hadst but of every author one book, thou couldst not pile them up in any warehouse in London, and every author is one contrary unto another.
In so great diversity of spirits, how shall I know who lieth, and who sayeth truth?
Whereby shall I try and judge them?
Verily by God's word, which only is true.
But how shall I that do, when thou wilt not let me see scripture?
Nay, say they, the scripture is so hard, that thou couldst never understand it but by the doctors. That is, I must measure the meteyard by the cloth.
Here be twenty cloths of divers lengths and of divers breadths: how shall I be sure of the length of the meteyard by them?
I suppose, rather, I must be first sure of the length of the meteyard, and thereby measure and judge of the cloths.
If I must first believe the doctor, then is the doctor first true, and the truth of the scripture dependeth of his truth; and so the truth of God springeth of the truth of man.
Thus antichrist turneth the roots of the trees upward. What is the cause that we damn some of Origen's works, and allow some?
How know we that some is heresy and some not? By the scripture, I trow. How know we that St. Augustine (which is the best, or one of the best, that ever wrote upon the scripture) wrote many things amiss at the beginning, as many other doctors do?
Verily, by the scrip-. tures; as he himself well perceived afterward, when he looked more diligently upon them, and revoked many things again.
He wrote of many things which he understood not when he
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oe was newly converted, ere he had thoroughly seen the scriptures; and followed the opinions of Plato, and the common persuasions of man's wisdom that were then famous.
I would have you to teach them also the properties and manner of speakings of the scripture, and how to expound proverbs and similitudes.
And then, if they go abroad and walk by the fields and meadows of all manner doctors and philosophers, they could catch no harm: they should discern the poison from the honey, and bring home nothing but that which is wholesome.
But now do ye clean contrary: ye drive them from God's word, and will let no man come therto, until he have been two years master of art.
First, they nosel them in sophistry, and in benefundatum. And there corrupt they their judgments with apparent arguments, and with alleging unto them texts of logic, of natural philautia, of metaphysic, and moral philosophy, and of all manner books of Aristotle, and of all manner doctors which they yet never saw.
Moreover, one holdeth this, another that; one is a Real, another a Nominal.
What wonderful dreams have they of their predicaments, universals, second intentions, guiddities, hecceities, and relatives; and whether species fundata in chimera be vera species; and whether this proposition be true, Non ens est aliquid; whether ens be aquivocum, or univocum.
Ens is a voice only, say some.
Ens is univocum, saith another, and descendeth into ens creatum, and into ens increatum, per modos intrinsecos. When they have thiswise brawled eight, ten, or twelve or more years, and after that their judgments are utterly corrupt, then they begin their divinity; not at the scripture, but every man taketh a sundry doctor; which doctors are as sundry and as divers, the one contrary unto the other, as there are divers fashions and monstrous shapes, none like another, among our sects of religion.
Every religion, every university, and almost every man, hath a sundry divinity.
Finally, that this threatening and forbidding the lay people
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to read the scripture is not for the love of your souls (which . they care for as the fox doth for the geese), is evident, and clearer than the sun; inasmuch as they permit and suffer you to read Robin Hood, and Bevis of Hampton, Hercules, Hector and Troilus, with a thousand histories and fables of love and wantonness, and of ribaldry, as filthy as heart can think, to corrupt the minds of youth withal, clean contrary to the doctrine of Christ and of his apostles: for Paul saith, '' See that fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, be not once named among you, as it becometh saints; neither filthiness, neither foolish talking nor jesting, which are not comely: for this ye know, that no whoremonger, either unclean person, or covetous person, which is the worshipper of images, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." And after saith he, "Through such things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of unbelief." Now seeing they permit you freely to read those things which corrupt your minds and rob you of the kingdom of God and Christ, and bring the wrath of God upon you, how is this forbidding for love of your souls?
A thousand reasons more might be made, as thou mayest see in Paraclesis Erasmi, and in his preface to the Paraphrase of Matthew, unto which they should be compelled to hold their peace, or to give shameful answers.
But I hope that these are sufficient unto. them that thirst the truth.
God for his mercy and truth shall well open them more, yea, and other secrets of his godly wisdom, if they be diligent to cry unto him; which grace grant God.
Amen.
The Renaissance brought a new knowledge of the pagan civilizations of Greece and Rome. Naturally, many churchmen feared the influence of the New Learning.
There is much — evidence of clerical ignorance.
Remember ye not how within this thirty years and far
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Aess, and yet dureth"unto this day, the old barking curs, Dun's disciples, and like draff called Scotists, the children of darkness, raged in every pulpit against Greek, Latin and Hebrew; and what sorrow the schoolmasters, that taught the true Latin tongue, had with them; some beating the pulpit with their fists for madness, and roaring out with open and foaming mouth, that if there were but one Terence or Virgil in the world, and that same in their sleeves, and a fire before them, they would burn them therein, though it should cost them their lives; affirming that all good learning decayed, and was utterly lost, since men gave them unto the Latin tongue?
Yea, and I dare say that there be twenty thousand priests, curates, this day in England, and not so few, that cannot give you the right English unto this text in the Paternoster, Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in ceelo et in terra, and answer thereto.
S Tindale attacks More's contention that the Church objected only to an unauthorized translation.
More:—"' The constitution of the bishops is not that the scripture shall not be in English, but that no man may translate it by his own authority, or read it, until they had approved it:
Tyndale:—If no translation shall be had, until they give licence or till they approve it, it shall never be had. And so it is all one in effect, to say there shall be none at all in English, and to say, till we admit it; seeing they be so malicious that they will none admit, but feign all the cavillations they can, to prove it were not expedient: so that if it be not had spite of their hearts, it shall never be had. And thereto, they have done their best to have had it enacted by parliament, that it should not be in English.
The messenger asketh him, "If there be an old lawful translation before Wicliffe's, how happeneth it that it is in so
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few men's hands, seeing so many desire it?'
He answereth, "The printer dare not print it, and then hang on a doubtful trial, whether it were translated since or before; for if it were translated since, it must be first approved."
What may not M. More say, by authority of his poetry?
"There is a lawful translation that no man knoweth'"'; which is as much as no lawful translation. Why might not the bishops show which were that lawful translation, and let it be printed?
Nay, if that might have been obtained of them with large money, it had been printed, ye may be sure, long ere this.
But, sir, answer me hereunto: how happeneth that ye defenders translate not one yourselves, to cease the murmur of the people, and put to your own glosses, to prevent heretics?
Ye would, no doubt, have done it long since, if ye could have made your glosses agree with the text in every place.
And what can you say to this, how that, besides they have done their best to disannul all translating by parliament, they have disputed before the king's grace, that it is perilous and not meet, and so concluded that it shall not be, under a pretence of deferring it of certain years: where M. More was their special orator, to feign lies for their purpose.
'THE PREFACE TO THE PENTATEUCH
This preface, published in 1530, gives Tindale's own story of his translation, and is here reproduced complete.
Foxe's account should be compared with it.
When I had translated the New Testament, I added an epistle unto the latter end, in which I desired them that were learned to amend if ought were found amiss. But our malicious and wily hypocrites, which are so stubborn and hard-hearted in their wicked abominations, that it is not possible for them to amend any thing at all, (as we see by daily experience,
. when both their livings and doings are rebuked with the truth,) say, some of them, that it is impossible to translate the scripture into English; some, that it is not lawful for the
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Alay-people to have 'it in their' mother-tongue; some, that it would make them all heretics; as it would, no doubt, from many things which they of long time have falsely taught; and that is the whole cause wherefore they forbid it, though they other cloaks pretend: and some, or rather every one, say that it would make them rise against the king, whom they themselves (unto their damnation) never yet obeyed.
And lest the temporal rulers should see their falsehood, if the scripture came to light, causeth them so to lie.
And as for my translation, in which they affirm unto the lay-people (as I have heard say) to be I wot not how many thousand heresies, so that it cannot be mended or correct; they have yet taken so great pain to examine it, and to compare it unto that they would fain have it, and to their own imaginations and juggling terms, and to have somewhat to rail at, and under that cloak to blaspheme the truth; that they might with as little labour (as I suppose) have translated the most part of the bible.
For they which in times past were wont to look on no more scripture than they found in their Duns, or such like devilish doctrine, have yet now so narrowly looked on my translation, that there is not so much as one 7 therein, if it lack a tittle over his head, but they have noted it, and number it unto the ignorant people for an heresy.
Finally, 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 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
WILLIAM TINDALE
similitudes and apparent reasons of natural wisdom, and with wresting the scripture unto their own purpose, clean contrary unto the process, order, and meaning of the text; and so delude them in descanting upon it with allegories, and amaze them, expounding it in many senses before the unlearned lay-people, (when it hath but one simple, literal sense, whose light the owls cannot abide,) that, though thou feel in thine heart, and art sure, how that all is false that they say, yet couldst thou not solve their subtle riddles.
Which thing only moved me to translate the new Testament.
Because I had 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 mothertongue, 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 reasons of sophistry, and traditions of their own making, founded without ground of scripture,) and partly in juggling with the text, expounding it in such a sense as is impossible to gather of the text, if thou see the process, order, and meaning thereof.
And even in the bishop of London's house I intended to have done it.
For when I was so turmoiled in the country where I was, that I could no longer dwell there, (the process whereof were too long here to rehearse,) I this-wise thought in myself: 'This I suffer because the priests of the country be unlearned; as God knoweth, there are a full ignorant sort, which have seen no more Latin than that they read in their portesses and missals, which yet many of them can scarcely read, (except it be Albertus de secretis mulierum, in which yet, though they be never so sorrily learned, they pore day and night, and make notes therein, and all to teach the midwives, as they say; and Linwode, a book of constitutions, to gather tythes, mortuaries, offerings, customs, and other pillage, which they call not theirs, but God's part, and the duty of holy church, to discharge their consciences withal; for they
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are bound that they shall not diminish, but increase all things unto the uttermost of their powers;) and therefore, (because they are thus unlearned, thought I,) when they come together to the ale-house, which is their preaching-place, they affirm that my sayings are heresy.
And besides that they add to of their own heads, which I never spake, as the manner is to prolong the tale to short the time withal, and accused me secretly to the chancellor and other the bishop's officers.
And, indeed, when I came before the chancellor, he threatened me grievously, and reviled me, and rated me as though I had been a dog; and laid to my charge whereof there could be none accuser brought forth, (as their manner is not to bring forth the accuser,) and yet all the priests of the country were the same day there.
As I this thought, the bishop of London came to my remembrance, whom Erasmus (whose tongue' maketh of little gnats great elephants, and lifteth up above the stars whosoever giveth him a little exhibition,) praiseth exceedingly, among other, in his Annotations on the New Testament, for his great learning.
Then thought I, if I might come to this man's service, I were happy. And so I gat me to London, and, through the acquaintance of my master, came to sir Harry
Gilford, the king's grace's comptroller, and brought him an Oration of Isocrates, which I had translated out of Greek into English, and desired him to speak unto my lord of London for me; which he also did, as he shewed me, and willed me to write an epistle to my lord, and to go to him myself; which I also did, and delivered my epistle to a servant of his own, one William Hebilthwayte, a man of mine old acquaintance.
But God (which knoweth what is within hypocrites) saw that I was beguiled, and that that counsel was not the next way unto my purpose. And therefore he gat me no favour in my lord's sight.
Whereupon my lord answered me, his house was full; he had more than he could well find; and advised me to seek in London, where he said I could not lack a service.
And so in London I abode almost a year, and marked the course of the
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world, and heard 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, (though it be not possible for them that walk in darkness to continue long in peace, for they cannot but either stumble or dash themselves at one thing or another that shall clean unquiet all together,) and saw things whereof I defer to speak at this time, and understood at the last not only that there was no room in my lord of London's palace to translate the new Testament, but also that there was no place to do it in all England, as experience doth now openly declare.
Under what manner, therefore, should I now submit this book to be corrected and amended of them, which can suffer nothing to be well?
Or what protestation should I make in such a matter unto our prelates, those stubborn Nimrods which so mightily fight against God, and resist his Holy Spirit, enforcing with all craft and subtlety to quench the light of the everlasting testament, promises, and appointment made between God and us, and heaping the fierce wrath of God upon all princes and rulers; mocking them with false feigned names of hypocrisy, and serving their lusts at all points, and dispensing with them even of the very laws of God, of which Christ himself testifieth, Matt. v, that "' not so much as one tittle thereof may perish, or be broken; and of which the prophet saith, Psalm cxviii, "' Thou hast commanded thy laws to be kept" meod, that is, in Hebrew, exceedingly, with all diligence, might, and power; and have made them so mad with their juggling charms and crafty persuasions, that they think it a full satisfaction for all their wicked lying to torment such as tell them truth, and to burn the word of their souls' health, and slay whosoever believe thereon?
Notwithstanding yet I submit this book, and all other that I have either made or translated, or shall in time to come,
(if it be God's will that I shall further labour in his harvest,) unto all them that submit themselves unto the word of God, to be corrected of them; yea, and moreover to be disallowed
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and also burnt, if it Seem worthy, when they have examined it with the Hebrew, so that they first put forth of their own translating another that is more correct.
Grace and peace, with all manner spiritual feeling and living, worthy of the kindness of Christ, be with the reader, and with all that thirst the will of God. Amen.
The cause why I set my name before this little treatise, and have not rather done it in the New Testament, is, that then I followed the counsel of Christ, which exhorteth men
(Matt. vi) to do their good deeds secretly, and to be content with the conscience of well-doing, and that God seeth us; and patiently to abide the reward of the last day, which Christ hath purchased for us: and now would I fain have done likewise, but am compelled otherwise to do.
While I abode a faithful companion, which now hath taken another voyage upon him, to preach Christ where,
I suppose, he was never yet preached, (God, which put in his heart thither to go, send his Spirit with him, comfort him, and bring his purpose to good effect!) one William Roye, a man somewhat crafty, when he cometh unto new acquaintance, and before he be thorough known, and namely when all is spent, came unto me and offered his help. As long as he had no money, somewhat I could rule him; but as soon as he had gotten him money, he became like himself again.
Nevertheless, I suffered all things till that was ended, which I could not do alone without one, both to write, and to help me to compare the texts together.
When that was ended, I took my leave, and bade him farewell for our two lives, and (as men say) a day longer.
After we were departed, he went and gat him new friends; which thing to do he passeth all that ever I yet knew.
And there when he had stored him of money, he gat him to Argentine, where he professeth wonderful faculties, and maketh boast of no small things. A year after that, and now twelve months before the printing of this
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work, came one Jerome, a brother of Greenwich also, through Worms to Argentine, saying that he intended to be Christ's disciple another while, and to keep (as nigh as God would give him grace) the profession of his baptism, and to get his living with his hands, and to live no longer idly, and of the sweat and labour of those captives, which they had taught not to believe in Christ, but in cut shoes and russet coats. Which Jerome with all diligence I warned of Roye's boldness, and exhorted him to beware of him, and to walk quietly, and with al] patience and long-suffering, according as we have Christ and his apostles for an ensample; which thing he also promised me.
Nevertheless, when he was come to Argentine, William Roye (whose tongue is able not only to make fools stark mad, but also to deceive the wisest, that is, at the first sight and acquaintance,) gat him to him, and set him a-work to make rhymes, while he himself translated a dialogue out of Latin into English, in whose prologue he promiseth more a great deal than I fear me he will ever pay.
Some man will ask, peradventure, Why I take the labour to make this work, inasmuch as they will burn it, seeing they burnt the gospel?
I answer, In burning the new Testament they did none other thing than that I looked for: no more shall they do, if they burn me also, if it be God's will it shall so be.
Nevertheless, in translating the New Testament I did my duty, and so do I now, and will do as much more as God hath ordained me to do.
And as I offered that to all men, to correct it, whosoever could, even so I do this. Whosoever, therefore, readeth this, compare it unto the scripture.
If God's word bear record unto it, and thou also feelest in thine heart that it is so, be of good comfort, and give God thanks.
If God's word condemn it, then hold it accursed, and so do all other doctrines: as Paul counselleth his Galatians.
Believe not every spirit suddenly, but judge them by the word of God, which is the trial of all doctrine, and lasteth for ever.
Amen.
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Them that are learned christianly I beseech, forasmuch as I am sure, and my conscience beareth me record, that of a pure intent, singly and faithfully, I have interpreted it, as far forth as God gave me the gift of knowledge and understanding, that the rudeness of the work now at the first time offend them not; but that they consider how that I had no man to counterfeit, neither was helped with English of any that had interpreted the same or such like thing in the scripture beforetime.
Moreover, even very necessity, and cumbrance (God is record) above strength, which I will not rehearse, lest we should seem to boast ourselves, caused that many things are lacking which necessarily are required.
Count it as a thing not having his full shape, but as it were born before his time, even as a thing begun rather than finished.
In time to come (if God have appointed us thereunto) we will give it his full shape, and put out, if ought be added superfluously, and add to, if ought be overseen through negligence; and will enforce to bring to compendiousness that which is now translated at the length, and to give light where it is required, and to seek in certain places more proper English, and with a table to expound the words which are not commonly used, and shew how the scripture useth many words which are otherwise understood of the common people, and to help with a declaration where one tongue taketh not another; and will endeavour ourselves, as it were, to seethe it better, and to make it more apt for the weak stomachs; desiring them that are learned, and able, to remember their duty, and to help them thereunto, and to bestow unto the edifying of Christ's body, which is the congregation of them that believe, those gifts which they have received of God for the same purpose.
But how happeth it that M. More hath not contended in like wise against his darling Erasmus all this long while?
NOP,
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Doth he not change this word ecclesia into congregation, and that not seldom in the new Testament?
Peradventure he oweth him favour, because he made Moria in his house: which book, if it were in English, then should every man see how that he then was far otherwise minded than he now writeth.
GEORGE JOYE AND THE REVISION OF THE
New 'TESTAMENT In 1534 Tindale was preparing a revision of his New Testament, but before it was ready he was forestalled by his former friend, George Joye.
'Tindale was extremely angry at the unauthorized changes, particularly at the alteration of '' resurrection"? into ''life after this life'.
Tindale's own revision, published in November, 1534, contained a preface attacking
Joye, to which he replied in the second edition of his revision, January, 1535, and, a little later, in his Apology.
The full text of Tindale's letter is given in Pollard, Records, XXVIII, followed by extracts from Joye's replies.
Thou shalt understand, most dear reader, when I had taken in hand to look over the New Testament again and to compare it with the Greek, and to mend whatsoever I could find amiss and had almost finished the labour; George Joye secretly took in hand to correct it also, by what occasion his conscience knoweth; and prevented me, in so much that his correction was printed in great number ere mine began.
But when the printing of mine was almost finished, one brought me a copy and shewed me so many places in such wise altered that I was astonied and wondered not a little what fury had driven him to make such change and to call it a diligent correction.
. But of this I challenge George Joye, that he did not put his own name thereto and call it rather his own translation; and that he playeth Bo-peep, and in some of his books' putteth his name and title and in some keepeth it out.
It is lawful for who will to translate and shew his mind, though a
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thousand had translated before him.
But it is not lawful '(thinketh me) nor yet expedient for the edifying of the unity of the faith of Christ, that whosoever will shall by his own authority take another man's translation and put out and in and change at pleasure, and call it a correction. ...
As concerning all I have translated or other wise written, I beseech all men to read it for that purpose I wrote it; even to bring them to the knowledge of the scripture.
And as far as the scripture approveth it so far to allow it, and if in any place the word of God disallow it, there to refuse it, as I do before our saviour Christ and his congregation.
And where they find faults let them shew it me, if they be nigh, or write to me if they be far off; or write openly against it and improve it, and I promise them, if I shall perceive that their reasons conclude, I will confess mine ignorance openly.
9-14.
Tindale's Comments on his own Times g. AN ATTACK ON Sir THomMaAs More Sir Thomas More, Kt, which knew the truth, and for covetousness forsook it again, and conspired first with the cardinal to deceive the king, and to lead him in darkness: and afterward, when the light was sprung upon them, and had driven them clean out of the scripture, and had delivered it out of their tyranny, and had expelled the dark stinking mist of their devilish glosses, and had wiped away the cobwebs, which those poisoned spiders had spread upon the face of the clear text, so that the spiritualty (as they call themselves) were ashamed of their part, as shameless as they be; yet for all that, covetousness blinded the eyes of that gleering fox more and more, and hardened his heart against the truth, with the confidence of his painted poetry, babbling eloquence, and juggling arguments of subtle sophistry, grounded on his
"' unwritten verities ", as true and as authentic as his story of Utopia.
(F 435)
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1o.
NORHAM CASTLE
And likewise in all their charges they have a cast to poll the lay-people.
The Scots cast down a castle of the bishop of Durham's, on the Scottish bank, called Norham castle; and he gat a pardon from Rome for the building of it again: wherewith I doubt not but he gat for every penny, that he bestowed, three.
11-13. Cardinal Wolsey 11.
WOLSEY AND BECKET COMPARED
Neither is Thomas cardinal's life anything, save a counterfeiting of St. Thomas of Canterbury.
Thomas Becket was first seen in merchandise temporal; and then, to learn spiritual merchandise, he gat him to Theobald archbishop of Canterbury; which sent him divers times to Rome about business of holy church.
And when Theobald had spied his activity, he shore him deacon, lest he should go back; and made him archdeacon of Canterbury, and upon that presented him to the king.
And the king made him his chancellor, in which office he passed the pomp: and pride of Thomas cardinal, as far as the one's shrine passeth the other's tomb in glory and riches. And after that he was a man of war, and captain over five or six thousand men in full harness, as bright as St. George, and his spear in his hand; and encountered whosoever came against him, and overthrew the jolliest rutter that was in all the host of France.
And out of the field, hot from bloodshedding, was he made bishop of Canterbury, and did put off his helmet, and put on his mitre; put off his harness, and on with his robes; and laid down his spear, and took his cross, ere his hands were cold; and so came, with a lusty courage of a man of war, to fight another while against his prince for the pope; where his prince's causes were with the law of God, and the pope's clean contrary. And the pomp
' of his consecration was after his old worldly fashion. Howbeit yet he is made a saint for his worshipping of the holy seat of
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St. Peter; not that seat of Peter which is Christ's gospel, but another, lied to be Peter's, and is indeed cathedra pestilentia, a chair of false doctrine.
And because he could no skill of our Lord's gospel, he said of matins with our lady.
If any man understand the Latin, let him read his life, and compare it unto the scripture; and then he shall see such holiness as were here too long to be rehearsed.
12.
'*' THE PRACTICE OF OUR TIME"
When the king's grace came first to the right of the crown, and unto the governance of the realm, young and unexpert,
Thomas Wolfsee, a man of lust and courage and bodily strength, to do and to suffer great things, and to endure in all manner of voluptuousness; expert and exercised in the course of the world, as he which had heard, read, and seen much policy, and had done many things himself, and had been of the secret counsel of weighty matters, as subtle as Sinon that betrayed
Troy; utterly appointed to semble and dissemble, to have one thing in the heart and another in the mouth, being thereto as eloquent as subtle, and able to persuade what he lusted to them that were unexpert; so desirous and greedy of honour, that he cared not but for the next and most compendious way thereto, whether godly or ungodly; this wily wolf, I say, and raging sea, and shipwreck of all England, though he shewed himself pleasant and calm at the first (as whores do unto their lovers), came unto the king's grace, and waited upon him, and was no man so obsequious and serviceable, and in all games and sports the first and next at hand; and as a captain to courage other, and.a gay finder out of new pastimes, to obtain favour withal.
And thereto, as the secret communication went, which by many tokens thou mayest well conjecture and gather to be true, he calked the king's nativity and birth, (which is a common practice among prelates in all lands;) whereby he saw whereunto the king's grace should be inclined all his life, and what should be like to chance him at all times.
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And, as I heard it spoken of divers, he made by craft of necromancy graven imagery to bear upon him; wherewith he bewitched the king's mind, and made the king to dote. upon him more than ever he did on any lady or gentlewoman; so that now the king's grace followed him, as he before followed the king.
And then, what he said, that was wisdom; what he praised, that was honourable only. Moreover, in the meantime he spied out the natures and dispositions of the king's play-fellows, and of all that were great; and whom he spied meet for his purpose, him he flattered, and him he made faithful with great promises, and to him he sware, and of him he took an oath again, that the one should help the other: for without a secret oath he admitted no man unto any part of his privities.
And ever as he grew in promotions and dignity, so gathered he unto him of the most subtle-witted, and of them that were drunk in the desire of honour, most like unto himself: and after they were sworn, he promoted them, and with great promises made them in falsehood faithful, and of them ever presented unto the king's grace, and put them into his service, saying, " This is a man meet for your grace". And by these spies, if aught were done or spoken in the court against the cardinal, of that he had word within an hour or two; and then came the cardinal to court with all his magic, to persuade the contrary.
If any in the court had spoken against the cardinal, and the same not great in the king's favour, the cardinal bade him walk a villain and thrust him out of the court headlong.
If he were in conceit with the king's grace, then he flattered, and persuaded, and corrupted some with gifts, and sent some ambassadors, and some he made captains at Calais,
Hampnes, Guines, Jersey, and Guernsey, or sent them to Ireland, and into the north; and so occupied them, till the king had forgot them, and other were in their rooms, or till he had sped what he intended.
And in like manner played he with the ladies and gentle-_ women. Whosoever of them was great, with her was he familiar, and to her gave he gifts: yea, and where St. Thomas of Can-
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terbury was wont to come after, Thomas cardinal went oft before, preventing his prince, and perverted the order of that holy man. If any were subtle-witted, and meet for his purpose, her made he sworn to betray the queen likewise, and tell him what she said or did. I know one that departed the court for no other cause, than that she would no longer betray her mistress.
And, after the same example, he furnished the court with chaplains of his own sworn disciples, and children of his own bringing up, to be alway present, and to dispute of vanities, and to water whatsoever the cardinal had planted.
If among those cormorants any yet began to be too much in favour with the king, and to be somewhat busy in the court, and to draw any other way than as my lord cardinal had appointed that the plough should go, anon he was sent to Italy or to Spain; or some quarrel was picked against him, and so was thrust out of the court, as Stokesly was.
He promoted the bishop of Lincoln that now is, his most faithful friend and old companion, and made him confessor: to whom of whatsoever the king's grace shrove himself, think ye not that he spake so loud that the cardinal heard it? And not unright; for as God's creatures ought to obey God and serve his honour, so ought the pope's creatures to obey the pope and serve his majesty.
Finally, Thomas Wolfsee became what he would, even porter of heaven, so that no man could enter into promotion but through him.
13.
'THE Purtinc DowN OF THE CARDINAL"
AND
TINDALE'S ACCOUNT OF THE REFORMATION PARLIAMENT
And finally, concerning the cardinal's putting down, I consider many things: first, that I never heard or read that any man, being so great a traitor, was so easily put to death: then the natural disposition and inclination of the man, how that his chief study, yea, and all his felicity and inward joy, hath ever been to exercise that " angel's wit of his" (as my
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lord of Lincoln was wont to praise him) in driving of such drifts to beguile all men, and to bind the whole world withal. Wherefore I can none otherwise judge by an hundred tokens, evident unto whomsoever hath a natural wit, but that this is also nothing save a cast of his old practice; so that when God had wrapped him in his own wiles, that he wist not which way out, (for the emperor prevailed for all the cardinal's treason, and the French children might not come home,) and he had learned also of his necromancy, this would be a jeopardous year for him, what for the treason that he had wrought against the emperor, and what for the money which he had borrowed of the commons, lest any rising should be against him, then he thought to undo his destiny with his policies, and went and put down himself under a colour (which the process of the tragedy well declareth), and set up in his room, to minister forth, and to fight against God as he had begun, the chiefest of all his secretaries, one nothing inferior unto his master in lying, feigning, and bearing two faces in one hood; a whelp that goeth not out of kind from his sire; the chiefest tasle wherewith the cardinal caught the king's grace, whom he called unto the confirmation of all that he intended to persuade, saying, "If it like your grace, More is a learned man, and knoweth it, and is also a layman, wherefore he will not say otherwise than it is, for any partiality to us-ward :" which secretary yet must first deserve it with writing against Martin, and against "The Obedience"', and " Mammon", and become the proctor of purgatory, to write against " The supplication of beggars "'.
And then, to blind the world withal, many quarrels were picked: the cardinal might not speak with the king's grace; the broad seal was fetched away; high treason was laid to his charge: first, that he had breathed (heard I say) in the king's face, when he had the French pox: (O hypocrites!) but the very 'treason that he had wrought was not spoken of at all, nor ought worthy of a traitor done to him at all.
Then they called a parliament (as though the golden world should come again), wherein the hypocrites, to blear men's
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eyes withal, made a reformation of mortuaries, and probates of testaments; the root yet left behind, whence all that they have for a time weeded out will spring again by little and little as before, if they, as their hope is, may stop this light of God's word that is now abroad.
They made also a reformation of pluralities of benefices, ordaining that henceforth no man may come by plurality of benefices with virtue and cunning, but with serving for them in the court.
Which what other thing is it save plain simony? O blind buzzards and shameless hypocrites! what care they to do, whether against God or their own laws, to flatter great men withal and to blind them! But hark here: the tithes were ordained, at the beginning, to find the preachers and the poor people, which now go a begging; so that the church-wardens ought to take the benefices into their hands in the name of the parishens, and to deliver the preachers of God's word their dwelling and present a sufficient living, and divide the rest among the poor people.
And the king is bound to maintain that order, and not to resist them, except he will be an open tyrant.
Now I appeal to the consciences of the king's grace and of his lords. What answer will they give, when they come before Christ in the last judgment, for their robbing of so many souls in so many parishes of God's word, with holding every man so many chaplains in their houses with pluralities of benefices, and for the robbing of so many poor and needy of their due and daily food; whose need, for lack of succour, crieth to God continually for vengeance against them, which we see daily, by a thousand misfortunes, fall on them and on their wives and children?
Let them read Exodus and Deuteronomy, and see what they find there.
Yea, and what shall so many chaplains do?
First slay their souls, and then defile their wives, their. daughters, and their maidens, and last of all betray them.
When this reformation, the colour and cloak of their hypocrisy, was made, then the spiritualty came ducking before the king's grace, and forgave him the money which they had lent their pope to bring in the temporalty; and to make them after their example to do likewise, as loving subjects, and no
WILLIAM TINDALE
less kind unto their prince than the spiritualty.
Whereupon the temporalty forgave their part also, in hope of that they obtained not: for as soon as the loan was forgiven, the parliament broke up; because our prelates, and their confederate friends, had found that they sought, and caught the fish for which they laid the bait of all those faces of reformations; and for which the cardinal, to bring the world into a fool's paradise, was compelled even with his own good will to resign his chancellorship, and that to whom he listed himself.
And as for the bishoprick of Durham, to say the very truth, he could not of good congruity but reward his old chaplain, and one of the chief of all his secretaries withal, still Saturn, that so seldom speaketh, but walketh up and down all day musing and imagining mischief, a ducking hypocrite, made to dissemble: which, for what service done in Christ's gospel came he to the bishoprick of London; or what such service did he therein?
He burnt the new Testament, calling it Doctrinam peregrinam, " strange learning'. Yea, verily, look how strange his living, in whose blood that testament was made, was from the living of the pope; even so strange is that doctrine from the pope's law, in which only, and in the practice thereof, is Tunstal learned. Which also, for what cause left he the bishoprick of London? Even for the same cause he took it, after that he had long served for it, covetousness and ambition.
Neither is it possible naturally, that there should be any good bishop, so long as the bishopricks be nothing save worldly pomp and honour, superfluous abundance of all manner riches, and liberty to do what a man listeth unpunished; things which only the evil desire, and all good men abhor.
And as soon as the parliament was ended, the cardinal had his charter, and gat him home; and all bishops gat them every fox to his hole; leaving yet their attornies behind them, to come again themselves as soon as the constellation is somewhat overrun, whereof they be afraid.
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14. THE MetTuOps or CouNcILs AND PARLIAMENTS Moreover, the general councils of the spiritualty are of no other manner, since the pope was a god, than the general parliaments of the temporalty; where no man dare say his mind freely and liberally, for fear of some one and of his flatterers.
And look in what captivity the parliaments be under the private councils of kings, so are the general councils under the pope and his cardinals.
And this is the manner of both: some one two or three wily foxes, that have all other in subjection, (as ye have seen in my lord cardinal,) imagine not what ought to be, but what they lust to have, and conceive in their own brains, and go with child, sometimes a year, two, three, four, five, six, or seven, and sometimes twenty and above, casting, canvassing, and compassing for the birth, against opportunity; opening the matter privily, under an oath, a little and a little unto certain secretaries whose part is therein, as they find men of activity and of courage, prepared to sell soul and body for promotion. And the matter in the mean time is turmoiled and tossed among themselves; and persuasions and subtle reasons are forged, to blind the right way and to beguile men's wits. And whom they fear to have adversaries, able to resist them, for such means are sought, to bring them in unto their party, or to convey them out of the way.
And when opportunity is come, they call a council, or parliament, under a contrary pretence.
And a mass of the Holy Ghost, whom they desire as far away as were possible, is sung; and a goodly sermon is made, to blear men's eyes withal. And then suddenly, other men unprovided, the matter is opened after the most subtle manner.
And many are beguiled with subtle arguments and crafty persuasions.
And they that hold hard against them are called aside, and reasoned with apart, and handled after a fashion, and partly enticed with fair promises, and partly feared with cruel threatenings: and so some are overcome with silver syllogisms; and other for fear of threatenings are driven unto silence.
And if any be found at the last, that will not obey their falsehood and tyranny, they rail on him, and jest
_ WILLIAM TINDALE
him out of countenance; and call him opinative, self-minded, and obstinate; and bear him in hand that the devil is in him, that he so cleaveth unto his own wit, though he speak no syllable but God's word; and is asked whether he will be wiser than other men? And in the spiritualty they excommunicate him, and make an heretic of him.
15. A LETTER TO JOHN FRITH
Frith was committed to the Tower in 1532. Before Tindale heard of this, he wrote a letter of warning, preserved in Foxe's life of Tindale.
The grace of our Saviour Jesus, His patience, meekness, humbleness, circumspection and wisdom, be with your heart.
Amen.
Dearly beloved brother Jacob, mine heart's desire in our Saviour Jesus is that you arm yourself with patience and be cold, sober, wise and circumspect; and that you keep you a-low by the ground, avoiding high questions that pass the common capacity.
But expound the law truly, and open the veil of Moses, to condemn all flesh and prove all men sinners, and all deeds under the law, before mercy have taken away the condemnation thereof, to be sin and damnable; and then, as a faithful minister, set abroach the mercy of our Lord
Jesus and let the wounded consciences drink of the water of Him. And then shall your preaching be with power, and not as the doctrine of the hypocrites; and the Spirit of God shall work with you, and all consciences shall bear record unto you and feel that it is so. And all doctrine that casteth a mist on those two, to shadow and hide them (I mean the law of God and the mercy of Christ), that resist you with all your power.
Sacraments without signification refuse.
If they put significations to them receive them, if you see it may help, though it be not necessary.
Of the Presence of Christ's body in the Sacrament, meddle as little as you can, that there appear no division among us.
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Barnes will be hot against you.
The Saxons be sore on the affirmative; whether constant or obstinate, I commit it to God.
Philip Melanchthon is said to be with the French king. There be in Antwerp that say they saw him come into Paris with a hundred and fifty horses; and that they spake with him.
If the Frenchmen receive the Word of God, he will plant the affirmative in them.
George Joye would have put forth a treatise of the matter, but I have stopped him as yet; what he will do if he get money, I wot not.
I believe he would make many reasons little serving the purpose.
My mind is that nothing be put forth till we hear how you shall have sped. I would have the right use preached and the Presence to be an indifferent thing till the matter might be reasoned in peace at leisure of both parties.
If you be required, show the phrases of the Scripture and let them talk what they will.
For to believe that God is everywhere hurteth no man that worshippeth Him nowhere: but within in the heart, in the spirit and verity; even so to believe that the body of Christ is everywhere, though it cannot be proved, hurteth no man that worshippeth Him nowhere save in the faith of His Gospel.
You perceive my mind; howbeit, if God show you otherwise, it is free for you to do as He moveth you.
I guessed long ago that God would send a dazing into the head of the spiritualty to be catched themselves in their own subtlety; and I trust it is come to pass. And now methinketh
I smell a counsel to be taken, little for their profits in time to come.
But you must understand that it is not of a pure heart and for love of the truth; but to avenge themselves, and to eat whore's flesh and to suck the marrow of her bones. Wherefore cleave fast to the rock of the help of God, and commit the end of all things to Him; and if God shall call you, that you may then use the wisdom of the worldly, as far as you perceive the glory of God may come thereof, refuse it not; and ever among thrust in that the Scripture may be in the mother tongue and learning set up in the Universities.
But and if aught be required contrary to the glory of God and His Christ, then stand fast and commit yourself to God; and be not overcome of
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men's persuasions which haply shall say, we see no other way to bring in the truth.
Brother Jacob, beloved in my heart, there liveth not in whom I have so good hope and trust, and in whom my heart rejoiceth and my soul comforteth herself, as in you, not the thousand part so much of your learning and what other gifts else you have, as that you will creep a-low by the ground and walk in those things that the conscience may feel and. not in the imaginations of the brain; in fear, and not in boldness; in open necessary things, and not to pronounce or define of hid secrets or things that neither help or hinder, whether they be so or no; in unity, and not in seditious opinions; insomuch that if you be sure you know, yet in things that may abide leisure you will defer, or say (till other agree with you), '' Methink the text requireth this sense or understanding;'' yea, and that if you be sure that your part be good, and another hold the contrary, yet if it be a thing that maketh no matter, you will laugh and let it pass and refer the thing to other men, and stick you stiffly and stubbornly in necessary things. And I trust you be persuaded even so of me.
For I call God to record against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, to give a record of our doings, that I never altered one syllable of God's Word against my conscience, nor would this day if all that is in the earth, whether it be pleasure, honour or riches,
"might be given me.
Moreover I take God to record to my conscience that I desire of God to myself in this world no more than that without which I cannot keep His laws.
Finally, if there were in me any gift that could help at hand, and aid you if need required, I promise you I would not be far off, and commit the end to God; my soul is not faint though my body be weary.
But God hath made me evil-favoured in this world and without grace in the sight of men, speechless and rude, dull and slow-witted.
Your part shall be to supply that lacketh in me; remembering that as lowliness of heart shall make you high with God, even someekness of words shall make you sink into the hearts of men.
Nature giveth age authority; but meekness is the glory of
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youth and giveth them honour.
Abundance of love maketh me exceed in babbling.
Sir, as concerning purgatory and many other things, if you be demanded, you may say, if you err, the spiritualty hath so led you; and that they have taught you to believe as you do.
For they preached you all such things out of God's Word and alleged a thousand texts; by reason of which texts you believed as they taught you. But now you find them liars, and that the texts mean no such things, and therefore you can believe them no longer; but are as ye were before they taught you and believe no such thing; howbeit you are ready to believe if they have any other way to prove it; for without proof you cannot believe them, when you have found them with so many lies, &c.
If you perceive wherein we may help, either in being still or doing somewhat, let us have word and I will do mine uttermost.
My Lord of London hath a servant called John Tisen, with a red beard and black reddish head, and was once my scholar; he was seen in Antwerp but came not among the Englishmen: whether he is gone, an embassador secret, I wot not.
The mighty God of Jacob be with you to supplant his enemies and give you the favour of Joseph; and the wisdom and the spirit of Stephen be with your heart and with your mouth, and teach your lips what they shall say and how to answer all things. He is our God, if we despair in ourselves and trust in Him; and His is the glory. Amen.
William Tyndale.
I hope our redemption is nigh.
16. ANOTHER LETTER TO FRITH
During 1533 Frith was given certain liberty, which enabled him to produce his Answer to Sir Thomas More, but on 4th
July he was burnt at the stake. Tindale wrote to him, probably 'too late, a letter of comfort.
The body of the letter contains
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spiritual exhortations.
The extract given here is a postscript.
Two have suffered in Antwerp in die Sanctae Crucis, unto the great glory of the Gospel: four at Riselles in Flanders: and at Luke hath there one at the least suffered all that same day. At Roan in France they persecute; and at Pari. are five
Doctors taken for the Gospel. See, you are not alone. Be cheerful; and remember that among the hardhearted in England there is a number reserved by grace: for whose sakes, if need be, you must be ready to suffer.
Sir, if you may write, how short it be, forget it not; that we may know how it goeth with you, for our hearts' ease.
The Lord be yet again with you with all his plenteousness and fill you that you flow over. Amen.
If when you have read this, you may send it to Adrian, do, I pray you, that he may know how that our heart is with you.
George Joye at Candlemas, being at Barrow, printed two leaves of Genesis in a great form, and sent one copy to the King and another to the new Queen, with a letter to N. for to deliver them; and to purchase licence that he might so go through all the Bible.
Out of that is sprung the noise of the new Bible; and out of that is the great seeking for English books at all printers and bookbinders in Antwerp, and for an English priest that should print.
This chanced the 9th day of May.
Sir, your wife is well content with the will of God, and would not for her sake, have the glory of God hindered.
William Tyndale.
17. A LETTER FROM PRISON
In the winter of 1535, Tindale wrote to the governor of the castle of Vilvorde, the Marquis of Bergen-op-Zoom. The letter, the only extant document certainly in Tindale's hand, is preserved in the Archives of the Council of Brabant at Brussels.
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The original is in Latin; the translation is taken from Demaus'
Life.
I believe, right worshipful, that you are not ignorant of what has been determined concerning me; therefore I entreat your lordship, and that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here during the winter, you will request the Procureur to be kind enough to send me from my goods which he has in his possession, a warmer cap, for I suffer extremely from cold in the head, being afflicted with a perpetual catarrh, which is considerably increased in this cell.
A warmer coat also, for that which I have is very thin; also a piece of cloth to patch my leggings; my overcoat is worn out; my shirts are also worn out.
He has a woollen shirt of mine, if he will be kind enough to send it. I have also with him leggings of thicker cloth for putting on above; he also has warmer caps for wearing at night. I wish also his permission to have a lamp in the evening, for it is wearisome to sit alone in the dark.
But above all, I entreat and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the Procureur that he may kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may spend my time with that study. And in return, may you obtain your dearest wish, provided always it be consistent with the salvation of your soul. But if, before the end of the winter, a different decision be reached concerning me, I shall be patient, abiding the will of God to the glory of the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, whose Spirit, I pray, may ever direct your heart.
Amen.
W. 'TINDALUS.
WILLIAM TINDALE
NOTES ON SECTION
II I Adelstone = Athelstane. T.wasmistaken.
Perhaps he was thinking of Alfred.
Duns Scotus,d.1308. A Realist. Taught at Oxford and Paris. He opposed St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-74).
Bonaventure (1221-74), Alexander of Hailes (d. 1245), Raymond de Pennaforti (c. 1175-1275),
Nicholas de Lyra (d. 1340), Bricot (fifteenth century), Nicholas de Orbellis (d. 1455), Robert Holkot (d. 1349), Nicholas of Gorham
(d. 1295), Antonius Trombeta (1436-1518), Hugh of St. Victor (d.
1142), John Muller of Kénigsberg (1436-76), Arnoldus de Villanova (flor. 1300), and Richard Middleton (d. c. 1300) were philosophers and theoiogians, except Muller, an astronomer; their works were studied by aspirants after the degrees of B.D. and D.D.
T. rather unfairly scoffs at Lyra's commentary on the Bible, '' Nicholas de Lyra delirat "'
(P.S. III, 134).
Nosel = nuzzle, to accustom to, to bring up in.
Philautia means self-love.
T. substitutes it for philosophy = love of wisdom.
Real and Nominal: the chief philosophical controversy of the Middle Ages raged between those who thought that Universals really exist, and those who thought them mere names, i.e. abstractions.
The study of logic played a dominating part in the Universities.
Bevis: a metrical romance, now published by the Early English Text Society.
'' Perhaps Sir Beves is the best example of the ordinary popular tale, the medizval book of chivalry with all the right things in it." (Cambridge History of English Literature, 1, p. 292.)
Erasmus' influence on T. was great; cf. pp. 6 and 26. The Paraphrases were set up in English churches by order of Elizabeth, 1559.
A Provincial Council at Oxford in 1408 forbade the reading of the Wycliffite translation and the issue or use of any new one without due examination of it.
Cf. Pollard, Records, I. More argued that pre-Wycliffite versions might be used.
His own messenger's words betray his uneasiness, and T.'s answer carries conviction.
For More's views, cf. Pollard, Records, II and III.
In 1530 Warham's assembly was against a translation, but in 1534 the Bishops petitioned the King
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to allow one.
Cf. Pollard, Records, XXI-XXII, XXVI.
For a fuller discussion, consult Gasquet, The Old English Bible, and Deanesly, The Lollard Bible.
Rise against the King: a common charge. Luther was blamed for the Peasants' War.
Thousand heresies: so Tunstall. Cf. Fulke, Defence, Parker Society edn., p. 61, and Pollard, Records, XIII-XV.
Cuthbert Tunstall was Bishop of London 1522-30, of Durham, 1530-52 and 1559.
'Tunstall favoured the new learning; hence Erasmus' praise and T.'s disappointment.
Portess = Portiforium, i.e. the Breviary.
Albertus Magnus, an important medieval philosopher.
Several copies of his minor work, De Secretis Mulierum, were sold at Oxford in 1520 by John Dorne (Oxf. Hist. Soc. Collectanea, I). Cf. '' Aristotle '' on bookstalls.
Lyndewode's Provinciale: a collection of English Canon Law, with a commentary.
It was written in 1433 and first printed at Oxford in 1484.
¥Yohn Bell was Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester, 1 518-26.
Cf. Mozley's Tyndale, p. 31.
Sir Henry Guildford (1489-1532) was. Master of the Horse and Controller of the Household.
Life in D.N.B.
I abode: 'T. says nothing here of Monmouth, perhaps for fear of harming him. i .
Psalm 118, in our Bibles, 119, v. 4.
Companion: perhaps John Frith.
Argentine = Strasbourg.
William Roye and Jerome Barlow were Franciscan friars of the Observantine, i.e. strict or reformed, order, and members of the Greenwich house.
12 months before: spring or early summer, 1527.
Rhymes:
'' Rede me and be not wroth »» Strasbourg, 1528.
Dialogue. The Dialogue between the Father and the Son, Strasbourg, 1528; reprinted in 1550 as The true belief in Christ.
Cf. Pollard, Records, p. 121. Foxe and More say that Roye was burned in Portugal.
(F 435)
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This passage does not exclude all knowledge of the Wycliffite version, but shows that T. did not make it the foundation of his translation.
Ecclesia: T. was attacked for not saying "' Church'"'.
Cf. Section VII, No. 3.
Moria.
'The Praise of Folly (Encomium Morie, with a friendly jest on More's name) was written in More's house in Bucklersbury in 1509.
More objected to T.'s identification of his (More's) and Erasmus' ideas '"' though he were my darling never so dear ''.
Knew the truth: as a friend of Erasmus and as one who knew Greek and was zealous for the new learning.
Conspired:
'T. holds Wolsey and More responsible for Henry's persecution of " heretics ''.
Unwritten verities.
More strongly upheld the appeal to tradition where scriptural support for a doctrine or practice could not be found.
Io This great border fortress was taken, and its outer defences razed, by James IV of Scotland, just before Flodden Field, Sept., 1513.
Cf. L.P. Hen. 8, i. 2394. At the request of the King, an indulgence for its restoration was granted in 1515, op. cit., ii. 108-10.
II For all these references to Wolsey, see Pollard's Wolsey and other standard works on the Tudor period.
It is not possible here to comment adequately on T.'s reading of contemporary history. The early lives of Becket are collected in Materials for .
. Becket, Rolls Series.
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aid
Stokesley: Principal of Magdalen Hall, 1502-5; Rector of Slymbridge, 1509-30; Bishop of London, 1530-9.
Lincoln. John Longland, Bishop, 1521-47.
Tasle (tassell) = tercel, hawk.
Layman.
" From time immemorial the Lord Chancellor had been a Bishop, but in 1529 Wolsey was succeeded by More "' (Pollard).
This is not precisely true, but laymen were unusual.
'Martin, i.e. Luther.
The supplication: an attack on the friars by Simon Fish, printed in Foxe.
Parliament: the Reformation Parliament opened on 3rd Nov., 1529, and lasted seven years.
For several of the grievances referred to by T. see '' The Petition of the Commons " of 1532 in Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church History, No. 46; the next few documents show the course of the reforms.
Pluralities: the measures taken against this scandal were weakened by numerous reservations, including provision for chaplains at Court or in peers' households to hold in plurality and without residence.
Cf. Tindale, P.S. II, 256.
Frith, life in Foxe and in D.N.B.
The Presence.
The Lutherans (Saxons) believed in the Real Presence in the Sacramental Elements, differing in this from the Zwinglians.
For T.'s view, see the essay on his theology. Here we should mark his anxiety for Protestant unity, which, in fact, was lost on this very question.
Robert Barnes (life in D.N.B.) had consorted with Luther.
Melanchthon, Luther's friend, a man of conciliatory temper, approached as near as possible to Roman views. The rumour of his visit to Francis I appears to have been unfounded. Francis invited him in 1534 and 1535, but he did not go.
Counsel, the seizure of ecclesiastical property?
Tisen: one of the few references to T.'s Oxford life. One Tisen took his B.C.L. at Oxford in 1524.
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Riselles = Lille; Luke = Liege; Roan = Rouen; Barrow = Bergen.
Martyrs: at Antwerp on 3rd May, cf. Henne, Histoire du regne de Charles V en Belgique, vol. IX, c. 38: at Paris, cf. L.P. Hen. 8, vi.
507.
Adrian, according to Demaus, followed by Mozley, is John Byrte.
Joye: cf. Pollard, Records, XXV, and note.
Section III Tindale's Attack upon the Church Life of his Day 1-8. The Clergy 1.
THe Pore 1s ANTICHRIST "'Forasmuch as antichrist and Christ are two contraries, and the study of antichrist is to quench the name of Christ, how can the Romish bishop and his sect be antichrist, when they all preach Christ?'
'' How was," say I again to thee, "' Pelagius, whose doctrine the bishop of Rome defendeth in the highest degree, antichrist, and all other heretics?"
Verily, sir, the bishop of Rome seeketh himself, as all heretics did; and abuseth the name of Christ, to gather offerings, tithes and rents in his name, to bestow them unto his own honour and not Christ's, and to bring the conscience of the people into captivity under him through superstitious fear, as though he had such authority given him of Christ.
And every syllable that hath a sound as though it made for his purpose, that he expoundeth falsely and fleshly; and therewith juggleth and bewitcheth the ears of the people, and maketh them his own possession, to believe what him listeth, as though it made no matter to them whether he preached true or false, so they believe and do as he biddeth them. But all the texts that shew him to do his duty, he putteth out of the way; and all the texts thereto, that set the consciences at liberty in Christ, and prove our salvation to be in Christ only. And, with Pelagius, he preacheth the justifying of works; which is the denying of Christ.
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THE Pore AND SCRIPTURE They say that Peter was chief of the apostles: verily, as Apelles was called chief of painters for his excellent cunning above other, even so Peter may be called chief of the apostles for his activity and boldness above the other.
But that Peter had any authority or rule over his brethren and fellow apostles, is false, and contrary to the scripture.
Christ forbade it the last even before his passion, and in divers times before, and taught alway the contrary, as I have rehearsed.
Thou wilt say, "thou canst not see how there should be any good order in that kingdom, where none were better than other, and where the superior had not a law and authority to compel the inferior with violence."
The world, truly, can see no other way to rule than with violence: for there no man abstaineth from evil, but for fear; because the love of righteousness is not written in their hearts. And therefore the pope's kingdom is of the world: for there one sort are your grace, your holiness, your fatherhood; another, my lord bishop, my lord abbot, my lord prior; another, master doctor, father, bachelor, master parson, master vicar, and at the last cometh in simple sir John.
And every man reigneth over other with might; and have every ruler his prison, his jailor, his chains, his torments; even so much as the friars Observants observe that rule, and. compel every man other with violence above the cruelness of the heathen tyrants: so that what cometh once in may never out, for fear of telling tales out of school.
They rule over the body with violence, and compel it, whether the heart will or not, to observe things of their own making.
But in the kingdom of God it is contrary.
For the Spirit that bringeth them thither maketh them willing, and giveth them lust unto the law of God; and love compelleth them to work, and love maketh every man's good, and all that he can do, common unto his neighbour's need. And as every man is strong in that kingdom, so love compelleth him to take the weak by the hand, and to help him, and to take him that can-
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not go upon his shoulders and bear him. And so to do service unto the weaker is to bear rule in that kingdom.
And because Peter did exceed the other apostles in fervent service toward his brethren, therefore is he called, not in the scripture, but in the use of speaking, the chiefest of the apostles; and not that he had any dominion over them. Of which truth thou mayest see also the practice in the Acts of the apostles, after the resurrection. For when Peter had been and preached in the house of Cornelius, an heathen man, the other that were circumcised chode him, because he had been in an uncircumcised man's house, and had eaten with him: for it was forbidden in the law, neither wist they yet that the heathen should be called.
And Peter was fain to give accounts unto them (which is no token of superiority), and to shew them how he was warned of the Holy Ghost so to do.
And (Acts xv.) when a council was gathered of the apostles and disciples about the circumcision of the heathen, Peter brought forth, not his commandment and the authority of his vicarship, but the miracle that the Holy Ghost had shewed for the heathen; how at the preaching of the gospel the Holy
Ghost had lighted upon them, and purified their hearts through faith; and therefore proved that they ought not to be circumcised.
And Paul and Barnabas brought forth the miracles also, that God had shewed by them among the heathen through preaching of faith. And then James brought forth a prophecy of the old Testament for the said part: and therewith the adversaries gave over their hold, and they concluded with one assent, by the authority of the scripture and of the Holy Ghost, that the heathen should not be circumcised; and not by the commandment of Peter, under pain of cursing, excommunication, and interdicting, and like bugs, to make fools and children afraid withal.
And (Acts viii.) Peter was sent of the other apostles unto the Samaritans: which is an evident token that he had no jurisdiction over them, (for then they could not have sent him,) but rather (as the truth is,) that the congregation had
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authority over him, and over all other private persons, to admit them for ministers, and send them forth to preach, whithersoever the Spirit of God moved them, and as they saw occasion.
And in the epistle unto the Galatians thou seest also how Paul corrected Peter, when he walked not the sg way after the truth of the gospel.
So now thou seest that in the kingdom of Christ, and in his church or congregation, and in his councils, the ruler is the scripture, approved through the miracles of the Holy
Ghost, and men be servants only; and Christ is the head, and we all brethren.
And when we call men our heads, that we do not because they be shorn or shaven, or because of their names, parson, vicar, bishop, pope; but only because of the word which they preach.
If they err from the word, then may whomsoever God moveth his heart, play Paul, and correct him. If he will not obey the scripture, then have his brethren authority by the scripture to put him down, and to send him out of Christ's church among the heretics, which prefer their false doctrine above the true word of Christ.
Then came he to this text, (Matt. xvi), " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my congregation " or church.
Lo, saith antichrist, the carnal beast, Peter is the rock whereon the church of Christ is built; and I am his successor, and therefore the head of Christ's church: when Christ meant by the rock the confession that Peter had confessed, saying,
"Thou art Christ, the son of the living God," which art come into this world.
This faith is the rock whereon Christ's church is built.
For who is of Christ's church, but he only that believeth, that Christ is God's Son, come into this world to save sinners?
'This faith is it, against which hell-gates cannot prevail. This faith is it, which saveth the congregation of Christ; and not Peter.
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Moreover, with this term, " Peter's seat"', they juggle apace (as with infinite other), saying, "That Peter's seat is the chief seat'; but what Peter's seat is, that they tell you not; for wist ye that, ye should soon perceive that they lie. Peter's seat is no stool, or chair, (for what hath the kingdom of Christ to do with such baggage?) but it is a spiritual thing.
Christ saith in the gospel, '"' The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat'.
What was Moses's seat there, a chair, or the temple, or the churches, or synagogue of the land?
Nay verily, for Moses came never there. But Moses' seat was Moses' law and doctrine.
Even so Peter's seat is Peter's doctrine, the gospel of Christ, which Peter taught.
And the same doctrine is Peter's keys: so that Peter's seat, Peter's keys, and Peter's doctrine is all one thing. | Now is Peter's doctrine Paul's doctrine, and the doctrine of all the twelve apostles indifferently; for they taught all one thing. Wherefore it followeth, that Peter's keys and Peter's seat be the keys and seat of Paul also, and of all the other twelve apostles, and are nothing save the gospel of Christ. And thus, as Peter's doctrine is no better than Paul's, but one thing; even so Peter's seat is no greater, nor higher, nor holier than the seat of the other twelve.
Peter's seat now is Christ's seat, Christ's gospel, on which all the apostles sat, and on which this day sit all they only that preach Christ truly.
Wherefore, as antichrist preacheth not Peter's doctrine (which is Christ's gospel), so he sitteth not on Peter's seat, but on the seat of Satan, whose vicar he is, and on the seat of his own laws and ceremonies, and false doctrine, whereunto he compelleth all men with violence of sword.
5. BIsHOPS
If Confirmation have a promise, then it justifieth as far as the promise extendeth.
If it have no promise, then is it not of God, as the bishops be not. The apostles and ministers of God preach God's word; and God's signs or sacraments
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signify God's word also, and put us in remembrance of the promises which God hath made unto us in Christ.
Contrariwise, antichrist's bishops preach not; and their sacraments speak not; but as the disguised bishop's mum, so are their superstitious sacraments dumb.
After that the bishops had left preaching, then feigned they this dumb ceremony of confirmation, to have somewhat at the leastway, whereby they might reign over their dioceses.
They reserved unto themselves also the christening of bells, and conjuring or hallowing of churches and church-yards, and of altars and super-altars, and hallowing of chalices, and so forth; whatsoever is of honour or profit.
Which confirmation, and the other conjurations also, they have now committed to their suffragans; because they themselves have no leisure to minister such things, for their lusts and pleasures, and abundance of all things, and for the cumbrance that they have in the king's matters and business of the realm.
One keepeth the privy seal; another the great seal; the third is confessor, (that is to say, a privy traitor and a secret Judas;) he is president of the prince's council; he is an ambassador; another sort, of the king's secret council. Woe is unto the realms where they are of the council.
As profitable are they, verily, unto the realms with their counsel, as the wolves unto the sheep, or the foxes unto the geese.
THe CLERGY GENERALLY
The spiritualty increaseth daily.
More prelates, more priests, more monks, friars, canons, nuns, and more heretics,
(I would say heremites,) with like draff.
Set before thee the increase of St. Francis's disciples in so few years.
Reckon how many thousands, yea, how many twenty thousands, not disciples only, but whole cloisters, are sprung out of hell of them in so little space.
Pattering of prayers increaseth daily.
Their service, as they call it, waxeth longer and longer, and the labour of their lips greater; new saints, new service, new feasts, and new holidays.
What take all these away?
Sin?
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Nay; for we see the contrary by experience, and that sin groweth as they grow.
But they take away first God's word, with faith, hope, peace, unity, love and concord; then house and land, rent and fee, tower and town, goods and cattle, and the very meat out of men's mouths.
All these live by purgatory.
When other weep for their friends, they sing merrily; when other lose their friends, they get friends.
The pope, with all his pardons, is grounded on purgatory.
Priests, monks, canons, friars, with all other swarms of hypocrites, do but empty purgatory, and fill hell.
Every mass, say they, delivereth one soul out of purgatory.
If that were true, yea, if ten masses were enough for one soul, yet were the parish priests and curates of every parish sufficient to scour purgatory: all the other costly workmen might be well spared. ie "Tf the scripture were in the mother tongue," they will say, "then would the lay-people understand it, every man after his own ways."
Wherefore serveth the curate, but to teach him the right way?
Wherefore were the holy days made, but that the people should come and learn?
Are ye not abominable schoolmasters, in that ye take so great wages, if ye will not teach?
If ye would teach, how could ye do it so well, and with so great profit, as when the lay-people have
_ the scripture before them in their mother tongue?
For then should they see, by the order of the text, whether thou jugglest or not: and then would they believe it, because it is the scripture of God, though thy living be never so abominable. Where now, because your living and your preaching are so contrary, and because they grope out in every sermon your open and manifest lies, and smell your unsatiable covetousness, they believe you not when you preach truth. But, alas! the curates themselves (for the most part) wot no more what the new or old Testament meaneth, than do the Turks: neither know they of any more than that they read at mass, matins, and evensong, which yet they understand not: neither care they,
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but even to mumble up so much every day, as the pie and popinjay speak, they wot not what, to fill their bellies withal.
If they will not let the lay-man have the word of God in his mother tongue, yet let the priests have it; which for a great part of them do understand no Latin at all, but sing, and say, and patter all day, with the lips only, that which the heart understandeth not.
When a whole parish of us hire a schoolmaster to teach our children, what reason is it that we should be compelled to pay this schoolmaster his wages, and he should have licence to go where he will, and to dwell in another country, and to leave our children untaught? Doth not the pope so? Have we not given our tithes of courtesy unto one, for to teach us God's word; and cometh not the pope, and compelleth us to pay it violently, to them that never teach?
Maketh he not one parson, which never cometh at us?
Yea, one shall have five or six, or as many as he can get, and wotteth oftentimes where never one of them standeth.
Another is made vicar, to whom he giveth a dispensation to go where he will, and to set in a parish priest, which can but minister a sort of dumb ceremonies.
And he, because he hath most labour and least profit, polleth on his part; and setteth here a masspenny, there a trental, yonder dirige-money, and for his beadroll, with a confession-penny and such like.
And thus are we never taught, and are yet nevertheless compelled; yea, compelled to hire many costly schoolmasters.
8. MONKS AND FRIARS
Like Wycliffe, Tindale hotly attacked the Friars, the chief papal agents and keenest supporters of "' works "'.
When the bishops, priests, and deacons were fallen, and had received of the pope the kingdom that pertained unto the poor people, and had robbed them, and parted their patrimony among themselves, then sprang the orders of monks;
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whose profession was; to abstain from flesh all their lives, to wear vile raiment, to eat but once in the day, and that but butter, cheese, eggs, fruits, roots, and such things that were not costly, and might everywhere be found.
And they wrote books, and wrought divers things, to get their living withal.
When the laymen saw that the priests were fallen into such covetousness, and that the monks were so holy, they thought,
"These be meet men to minister our alms unto the poor people: for their profession is so holy that they cannot deceive us as the priests do': and made the monks tutors and ministers unto the poor; and gave great lands and riches into their hands, to deal it unto the poor.
When the monks saw such abundance, they fell after the ensample of the priests; and took dispensations of the pope for their rules and strait profession, which now is as wide as their cowls; and divided all among them, and robbed the poor once more.
And out of the abbeys took he the most part of his bishopricks and cathedral churches, and the most part of all the lands he hath, besides that there remain yet so many mighty abbeys, and nunneries thereto.
As soon as the monks were fallen, then sprang these begging friars out of hell, the last kind of caterpillars, in a more vile apparel, and a more strait religion; that, if aught of relief were left among the laymen for the poor people, these horseleeches might suck that also: which drone-bees, as soon as they had learned their craft, and had built them goodly and costly nests, and their limiters had divided all countries among them to beg in, and had prepared livings of a certainty, though with begging; then they also took dispensations of the pope, for to live as largely and as lewdly as the monks. g.
'THE WEALTH OF THE CHURCH
Tindale frequently inveighs against the wealth of the Church, in particular against the chief means by which it was acquired, namely, the whole system of works. Of many passages this is the most comprehensive.
He is commenting on the
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qualifications of a Bishop, described in I Timothy, 4, and bPeter, 5:
"Not given to filthy lucre, but abhorring covetousness % and, as Peter saith, "' Taking the oversight of them, not as though ye were compelled thereunto, but willingly; not for desire of filthy lucre, but of a good mind; not as though ye were lords over the parishes".
Over the parishes, quoth he!
O Peter, Peter, thou wast too long a fisher; thou wast never brought up at the Arches, neither wast master of the Rolls, nor yet chancellor of England. They are not content to reign over king and emperor, and the whole earth; but challenge authority also in heaven and in hell.
It is not enough for them to reign over all that are quick, but have created them a purgatory, to reign also over the dead, and to have one kingdom more than God himself hath.
'' But that ye be an ensample to the flock", saith Peter; "and when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive an incorruptible crown of glory". This " abhorring of covetousness " is signified, as I suppose, by shaving and shearing of the hair, that they have no superfluity.
But is not this also a false sign?
Yea, verily, it is to them a remembrance to shear and shave, to heap benefice upon benefice, promotion upon promotion, dignity upon dignity, bishoprick upon bishoprick, with pluralities, unions and TOT QUOTS.
First, by the authority of the gospel, they that preach . the word of God in every parish, and other necessary ministers, have right to challenge an honest living like unto one of the brethren, and therewith ought to be content.
Bishops and priests that preach not, or that preach aught save God's word, are none of Christ's, nor of his anointing; but servants of the beast, whose mark they bear, whose word they preach, whose law they maintain clean against God's law, and with their false sophistry give him greater power than God ever gave to his Son Christ.
But they, as unsatiable beasts, not unmindful why they were shaven and shorn, because they will stand at no man's
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grace, or be in any man's danger, have gotten into their own hands, first the tithe or tenth of all the realm; and then, I suppose within a little, or altogether, the third foot of all the temporal lands.
Mark well how many parsonages or vicarages are there in the realm, which at the least have a plow-land a-piece.
Then note the lands of bishops, abbots, priors, nuns, knights of St. John's, cathedral churches, colleges, chauntries, and free-chapels.
For though the house fall in decay, and the ordinance of the founder be lost, yet will not they lose the lands.
What cometh once in, may never more out.
They make a free-chapel of it; so that he which enjoyeth it shall do nought therefore.
Besides all this, how many chaplains do gentlemen find at their own cost, in their houses?
How many sing for souls, by testaments?
'Then the proving of testaments, the prizing of goods, the bishop of Canterbury's prerogative; is that not much through the realm in a year?
Four offering days, and privy tithes.
There is no servant, but that he shall pay somewhat of his wages.
None shall receive the body of Christ at Easter, be he never so poor a beggar, or never so young a lad or maid, but they must pay somewhat for it.
'Then mortuaries for forgotten tithes, as they say.
And yet what parson or vicar is there that will forget to have a pigeon-house, to peck up somewhat both at sowing-time and harvest, when corn is ripe?
They will forget nothing. No man shall die in their debt; or if any man do, he shall pay it when he is dead.
They will lose nothing.
Why?
It is God's; it is not theirs.
It is St. Cuthbert's rents, St. Alban's lands, St. Edmund's right, St. Peter's patrimony, say they, and none of ours.
Item, if a man die in another man's parish, besides that he must pay at home a mortuary for forgotten tithes, he must there pay also the best that he there hath; whether it be an horse of twenty pound, or how good soever he be; either a chain of gold of an hundred marks, or five hundred pounds, if it so chance.
It is much, verily, for so little pains-taking in confession, and in ministering the sacraments.
Then bead-rolls.
Item chrysome,
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churchings, banns, weddings, offering at weddings, offering at buryings, offering to images, offering of wax and lights, which come to their vantage; besides the superstitious waste of wax in torches and tapers throughout the land.
Then brotherhoods and pardoners.
What get they also by confessions?
Yea, and many enjoin penance, to give a certain sum for to have so many masses said, and desire to provide a chaplain themselves; soul-masses, dirges, month-minds, year-minds, All-souls-day, and trentals.
The mother church, and the high altar, must have somewhat in every testament.
Offerings at priests' first masses.
Item, no man is professed, of whatsoever religion it be, but he must bring somewhat.
The hallowing, or rather conjuring of churches, chapels, altars, super-altars, chalice, vestments, and bells. Then book, bell, candlestick, organs, chalice, vestments, copes, altar-cloths, surplices, towels, basins, ewers, ship, censer, and all manner ornament, must be found them freely; they will not give a mite thereunto.
Last of all, what swarms of begging friars are there! The parson sheareth, the vicar shaveth, the parish priest polleth, the friar scrapeth, and the pardoner pareth; we lack but a butcher to pull off the skin.
10-19. The System of Works; Ceremonies and Sacraments 10.
A GENERAL INDICTMENT
How dark is the doctrine of them that teach that a man may compel God, with the works of free-will, to give him his favour and grace; or make God unrighteous!
How dark is the doctrine of them which (to the rebuke of Christ's blood) teach that works do justify before God, and make satisfaction for sins!
How blind are they which think prayer to be the pattering of many words; and will therefore not only be praised and paid of the world, but also by the title thereof challenge heaven, and not by the merits of Christ's blood!
How dark is the doctrine of them whose faith is only and altogether in appointments which they themselves have feigned between them and God, unto which yet God never subscribed: in
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which also they assign what work, and how much they will do, and what reward, and how great, God must give them, or choose whether he will be unrighteous.
How dark is the doctrine of them that say stiffly, that the work of the sacraments in itself (not referring it to stir up the faith of the promises annexed to them) doth justify; and affirm, that bodily pain, for the pain itself, (not referring it either to the love of the law of God or of their neighbour,) doth please God!
11.
'' Or WORSHIPPING OF SACRAMENTS, CEREMONIES,
ImaGes, RELICS AND SO FORTH "
Now let us come to the worshipping or honouring of sacraments, ceremonies, images, and relics.
First, images be not God, and therefore no confidence is to be put in them.
They be not made after the image of God, nor are the price of Christ's blood; but the workmanship of the craftsman, and the price of money, and therefore inferiors to man.
Wherefore of all right man is lord over them, and the honour of them is to do man service; and man's dishonour it is to do them honourable service, as unto his better.
Images then, and relics, yea, and, as Christ saith, the holy day too, are servants unto man.
And therefore it followeth, that we cannot, but unto our damnation, put on a coat worth an hundred coats upon a post's back, and let the image of God and the price of Christ's blood go up and down thereby naked.
For if we care more to clothe the dead image made by man, and the price of silver, than the lively image of God, and price of Christ's blood; then we dishonour the image of God, and him that made him, and the price of Christ's blood and him that bought him.
Wherefore the right use, office, and honour of all creatures, inferiors unto man, is to do man service; whether they be images, relics, ornaments, signs, or sacraments, holy days, ceremonies or sacrifices.
And that may be on this manner, and no doubt it so once was.
If (for an example) I take a (F 435)
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piece of the cross of Christ, and make a little cross thereof, and bear it about me, to look thereon with a repenting heart at times when I am moved thereto, to put me in remembrance that the body of Christ was broken, and his blood shed thereon, for my sins; and believe stedfastly that the merciful truth of God shall forgive the sins of all that repent, for his death's sake, and never think on them more: then it serveth me, and I not it; and doth me the same service as if I read the testament in a book, or as if the preacher preached it unto me.
And in like manner, if I make a cross in my forehead, in a remembrance that God hath promised assistance unto all that believe in him, for his sake that died on the cross, then doth the cross serve me, and I not it. . And in like manner, if I bear on me or look upon a cross, of whatsoever matter it be, or make a cross upon me, in remembrance that whosoever will be Christ's disciple must suffer a cross of adversity, tribulations, and persecution, so doth the cross serve me, and I not it.
And this was the use of the cross once; and for this cause it was, at the beginning, set up in the churches.
And so, if I make an image of Christ, or of any thing that Christ hath done for me, in a memory, it is good, and not evil, until it be abused.
And even so, if I take the true life of a saint, and cause it to be painted or carved, to put me in remembrance of the saint's life, to follow the saint as the saint did Christ; and to put me in remembrance of the great faith of the saint to God, and how true God was to help him out of all tribulation; and to see the saint's love towards his neighbour, in that he so patiently suffered so painful a death, and so cruel a martyrdom to testify the truth, for to save other, and all to strength my soul withal, and my faith to God and love to my neighbour; then doth the image serve me, and I not it. And this was the use of images at the beginning, and of relics also. And to kneel before the cross unto the word of God, which the cross preacheth, is not evil.
Neither to kneel down before an image, in a man's meditations, to call the living of the saint to mind, for to desire
God of like grace to follow the ensample, is not evil. But the
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abuse of the thing is ewil, and to have a false faith: as to bear a piece of the cross about a man, thinking that, so long as that is about him, spirits shall not come at him, his enemies shall do him no bodily harm, all causes shall go on his side, even for bearing it about him; and to think that if it were not about him, it would not be so; and to think, if any misfortune chance, that it came for leaving it off, or because this or that ceremony was left undone, and not rather because we have broken God's commandments, or that God tempteth us, to prove our patience; this is plain idolatry: and here a man is captive, bond and servant unto a false faith, and a false imagination, that is neither God nor his word. Now am I God's only, and ought to serve nothing but God and his word. My body must serve the rulers of this world, and my neighbour, as God hath appointed it, and so must all my goods; but my soul must serve God only, to love his law and to trust in his promises of mercy, in all my deeds.
And in like manner it is that thousands, while the priest pattereth St. John's gospel in Latin over their heads, cross themselves with, I trow, a legion of crosses, behind and before, and with reverence on the very arses, and (as Jack-of-napes, when he claweth himself) pluck up their legs, and cross so much as their heels . and the very soles of their feet, and believe that if it be done in the time that he readeth the gospel (and else not), that there shall no mischance happen them that day, because only of those crosses.
And where he should cross himself, to be armed and to make himself strong to bear the cross with Christ, he crosseth himself to drive the cross from him; and blesseth himself with a cross from the cross.
And if he leave it undone, he thinketh it no small sin, and that God is highly displeased with him, and if any misfortune chance, thinketh it is therefore; which is also idolatry, and not God's word. And such is the confidence in the place, or image, or whatsoever bodily observance it be: such is St.
Agatha's letter written in the gospel time.
And such are the crosses on palm-sunday, made in the passion time. And such is the bearing of holy wax about a man.
And such is that
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some hang a piece of St. John's gospel about their necks.
And such is to bear the names of God, with crosses between each name, about them.
Such is the saying of gospels unto women in child-bed.
Such is the limiter's saying of "In principio erat verbum"', from house to house.
Such is the saying of gospels to the corn in the field, in the processionweek, that it should the better grow. And such is holy bread, holy water, and serving of all ceremonies and sacraments in general, without signification.
And, I pray you, how is it possible that the people can worship images, relics, ceremonies and sacraments, save superstitiously; so long as they know not the true meaning, neither will the prelates suffer any man to tell them; yea, and the very meaning of some, and right use, no man can tell?
And as for the riches that is bestowed on images and relics, they cannot prove but that it is abominable, as long as the poor are despised and uncared for, and not first served; for whose sakes, and to find preachers, offerings, tithes, lands, rents, and all that they have, was given the spiritualty. They will say, we may do both.
May or not may, I see that the one most necessary of both is not done; but the poor are bereaved of the spiritualty, of all that was in time past offered unto them.
Moreover, though both were done, they shall never prove that the sight of gold and silver and of precious stones should move a man's heart to despise such things, after the doctrine of Christ. Neither can the rich coat help to move thy mind to follow the ensample of the saint; but rather, if he were portrayed as he suffered, in the most ungoodly wise.
Which thing taken away, that such things with all other service, as sticking up candles, move not thy mind to follow the ensample of the saint, nor teach thy soul any godly learning, then the image serveth not thee, but thou the image; and so art thou an idolater, that is to say, in English, a serve-image.
And thus it appeareth that your ungodly and belly doctrine, wherewith ye so magnify the deeds of your ceremonies, and of your pilgrimages, and offering, for the deed itself, to please
God, and to obtain the favour of dead saints (and not to move
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you, and to put you im remembrance of the law of God, and of the promises which are in his Son, and to follow the ensample of the saint), is but an exhorting to serve images; and sO are ye image-servers, that is, idolaters.
And finally, the more devotion men have unto such deeds, the less they have unto God's commandment; insomuch that they which be most wont to offer to images, and to shew them, be so cold in offering to the poor, that they will scarce give them the scraps which must else be given dogs, or their old shoes, if they may have new brooms for them.
12.
THe CULT OF THE SAINTS
And the lives, stories, and gests of men, which are contained in the bible, they read as things no more pertaining unto them than a tale of Robin Hood, and as things they wot not whereto they serve, save to feign false descant and juggling allegories, to stablish their kingdom withal.
And one of the chiefest and fleshliest studies they have is to magnify the saints above measure and above the truth; and with their poetry to make them greater than ever God made them. And if they find any infirmity or sin ascribed unto the saints, that they excuse with all diligence, diminishing the glory of the mercy of God, and robbing wretched sinners of all their comfort; and think thereby to flatter the saints, and to obtain their favour, and to make special advocates of them, even as a man would obtain the favour of worldly tyrants: as they also feign the saints more cruel than ever was any heathen man, and more wreakful and vengeable than the poets feign their gods, or their furies that torment the souls in hell, if their evens be not fasted, and their images visited and saluted with a pater-noster (which prayer only our lips be acquainted with, our hearts understanding none at all) and worshipped with a candle, and the offering of our devotion in the place which they have chosen to hear supplications and meek petitions of their clients therein.
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13.
St. WHITE
St. White must have a cheese once in a year, and that of the greatest sort; which yet eateth no cheese: it shall be given to the poor in her name, say they.
First, that to be false, we see with our eyes.
Secondarily, Christ commandeth to care for the poor, and give them all that we may spare, in his name; 'saying, that what is given them, is given him, and what is denied them is denied him.
If the law of Christ be written in thine heart, why distributest thou not unto thy brethren with thine own hands, in the name of thy Saviour
Jesus Christ, which died both for them and thee, as thou hast vowed and promised to him in thy baptism?
Moreover they say, '' It is given unto St. White's chaplain."
St. White's chaplain hath a stipend already, sufficient for a christian man, and ought to receive no more, but therewith to be content, and to be an example of despising covetousness.
Moreover, that priest that would follow the living of Jesus Christ, as St. White did, and teach his parishens to do so, were a right chaplain of Christ.
And they have a promise to be fed and clothed, as well as ever was their master, in the name of Christ. And so be they, and ever were; so that they need not to beg in the name of St. White.
What shall St. White do for thee again for that great cheese?
For I wot well it is not given for nought.
Shall she give abundance of milk, to make butter and cheese?
All we that believe in Christ are the sons of God, and God hath promised to care for us, forasmuch as we care for the keeping of his commandments; and hath promised that we shall receive whatsoever we ask, to his honour and our need, of his hand.
If we then be the natural sons of God, why run we from our father a begging to St. White?
St. White sendeth no rain upon the earth, nor maketh the sun shine thereon, nor maketh the grass grow.
Neither is there any God's word that he will now do so much for us at her request.
But God hath promised, if we will keep his laws, to do so much for us at our own request, for the blood of his Son Jesus.
What
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14] other thing then is thy serving of St. White, than lack of faith and trust to God-ward in Christ's name; and a false faith of thy own feigning, to St. White-ward, for thine imageservice or serving her with cheese, as though she were a bodily thing? And like disputation is it of all other saints.
14.
FASTING Fasting is to abstain from surfeiting, or overmuch eating, from drunkenness, and care of the world (as thou mayest read
Luke xxi.); and the end of fasting is to tame the body, that the spirit may have a free course to God, and may quietly talk with God.
For overmuch eating and drinking, and care of worldly business, press down the spirit, choke her and tangle her that she cannot lift up herself to God. Now he that fasteth for any other intent than to subdue the body, that the spirit may wait on God, and freely exercise herself in the things of God, the same is blind, and wotteth not what he doth, erreth and shooteth at a wrong mark, and his intent and imagination is abominable in the sight of God.
When thou fastest from meat and drinkest all day, is that a Christian fast? either to eat at one meal that were sufficient for four?
A man at four times may bear that he cannot at once.
Some fast from meat and drink, and yet so tangle themselves in worldly business that they cannot once think on God.
Some abstain from butter, some from eggs, some from all manner white meat, some this day, some that day, some in the honour of this saint, some of that, and every man for a sundry purpose: some for the tooth ache, some for the head ache, for fevers,
— pestilence, for sudden death, for hanging, drowning, and to be delivered from the pains of hell.
Some are so mad, that they fast one of the Thursdays between the two St. Mary days, in the worship of that saint whose day is hallowed between Christmas and Candlemas; and that to be delivered from the pestilence.
All those men fast without conscience of God, and without knowledge of the true intent of fasting, and do no other than honour saints, as the Gentiles and heathen
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worshipped their idols, and are drowned in blindness, and know not of the testament that God hath made to man-ward in Christ's blood.
In God have they neither hope nor confidence, neither believe his promises, neither know his will but are yet in captivity under the prince of darkness.
15-19. The Sacraments as Works 15.
"THE SACRAMENTS AND GRACE
Tindale attacks the belief that participation in the sacraments and ceremonies automatically conveys grace.
I will talk a word or two after the worldly wisdom with them, and make an end of this matter.
If the sacraments justify, as they say, (I understand by justifying, forgiveness of sins,) then do they wrong unto the sacraments, inasmuch as they rob the most part of them, through confession, of their effect, and of the cause wherefore they were ordained.
For no man may receive the body of Christ, no man may marry, no man may be oiled or anoiled as they call it, no man may receive orders, except he be first shriven.
Now when the sins be forgiven by shrift aforehand, there is nought left for the sacraments to do.
They will answer that at the leastway they increase grace; and not the sacraments only, but also hearing of mass, matins, and even-song, and receiving of holy water, holy bread, and of the bishop's blessing, and so forth by all ceremonies.
By grace I understand the favour of God, and also the gifts and working of his Spirit in us; as love, kindness, patience, obedience, mercifulness, despising of worldly things, peace, concord, and such like.
If after thou hast heard so many masses, matins, and even-songs, and after thou hast received holy bread, holy water, and the bishop's blessing, or a cardinal's or the pope's, if thou wilt be more kind to thy neighbour, and love him better than before; if thou be more obedient unto thy superiors; more merciful, more ready to forgive wrong done unto thee, more despisest the world, and more athirst after spiritual things;
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if after that a priest-hath taken orders he be less covetous than before; if a wife, after so many and oft pilgrimages, be more chaste, more obedient unto her husband, more kind to her maids and other servants; if gentlemen, knights, lords, and kings and emperors, after they have said so often daily service with their chaplains, know more of Christ than before, and can better skill to rule their tenants, subjects, and realms christianly than before, and be content with their duties; then do such things increase grace. If not, it is a lie. Whether it be so or no, I report me to experience.
If they have any other interpretations of justifying or grace, I pray them to teach it me; for I would gladly learn it.
16.
BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION
Ask the people what they understand by their baptism or washing? And thou shalt see, that they believe how that the very plunging into the water saveth them: of the promises they know not, nor what is signified thereby.
Baptism is called volowing in many places of England; because the priest saith, "' Volo, say ye."
"The child was well volowed" (say they); '' yea, and our vicar is as fair a volower as ever a priest within this twenty miles."
Behold how narrowly the people look on the ceremony.
If aught be left out, or if the child be not altogether dipt in the water, or if, because the child is sick, the priest dare not plunge him into the water, but pour water on his head, how tremble they! how quake they!
'' How say ye, sir John, (say they,) is this child christened enough? Hath it his full christendom?"'
They believe verily that the child is not christened; yea, I have known priests, that have gone unto the orders again, supposing that they were not priests, because that the bishop left one of his ceremonies undone.
That they call confirmation, the people call bishoping.
They think that if the bishop butter the child in the forehead, that it is safe. They think that the work maketh safe, and likewise suppose they of anoiling. Now is this false doctrine, verily.
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17.
THE Mass Tindale compares the use of the Mass in the early church (as he conceives it) with that of his own time.
And as Christ had institute the sacrament of his body and blood, so the bishops, in process of time, set signs of all the rest of Christ's passion in the ornaments and gestures of the mass; so that the whole passion was daily described before our eyes, as though we had presently looked upon it.
And mark also, see for what cause they came unto the sacrament.
They reconciled themselves each one to other, if any man had offended his brother, ere they were admitted into the congregation or body of Christ, to be members of each other, knit together in one faith and love to eat the Lord's supper (as Paul calleth it).
And to begin withal, they said Confiteor, and knowledged themselves to be sinners. And then the priest prayed in general for all estates and degrees, and for increase of grace, and in especial, if need required; unto which prayers the people hearkened, and said, Amen.
And then the gospel, and glad tidings of forgiveness of sins, was preached to stir up our faith.
And then the sacrament was ministered for the confirmation of the faith of the gospel, and of the testament made between God and us, of forgiveness of sins in Christ's blood for our repentance and faith; as ye see how, after all bargains, there is a sign thereof made, either clapping of hands, or bowing a penny or a groat, or a piece of gold, or giving some earnest; and as I shewed you how, after a truce made, they slew beasts for a confirmation. And then men departed, every man to his business, full certified that their sins were forgiven, and armed with the remembrance of Christ's passion and death for the mortifying of the flesh all the day after.
And in all these was neither the sacrament, neither other ceremonies of. the mass, image-service unto God, and holy deeds, to make satisfaction for our sins, or to purchase such worldly
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things as the gospel teacheth us to despise. And now compare this use of the mass to ours; and see whether the mass be not become the most damnable idolatry and image-service that ever was in the world.
We never reconcile ourselves unto our brethren which we have offended; we receive unto our mass the open sinners, the covetous, the extortioners, the adulterer, the backbiter, the common whore, and the whore-keeper, which have no part in Christ by the scripture; yea, such are suffered to say the mass, as the use is now to speak; yea, such are we compelled, with the sword, to take for our pastors and curates of our souls, and not so hardy to rebuke them.
Neither do they repent, and confess their sins, and promise amendment, or submit themselves to wholesome injunctions for the avoiding of such sins and taming of their flesh. We say Confiteor, and knowledge ourselves to be sinners in Latin, but never repent in English.
The priest prayeth in Latin, and saith evermore a still mass, as we say: for though he sing and strain his throat to cry loud unto them that be by him, yet as long as no man wotteth what he prayeth, or whether he bless or curse, he is dumb and speechless. And so, in that part, we abide fruitless, and untaught how to pray unto God. And the gospel is sung or said in Latin only; and no preaching of repentance toward the law and faith toward Christ had. And therefore abide we ever faithless, and without studying to amend our livings.
And of the ceremonies of the mass we have none other imagination than that they be an holy service unto God; which he receiveth of our hands, and hath great delectation in them, and that we purchase great favour of God with them, as we do of great men here in the world with gifts and presents: insomuch that if the priest said mass without those vestments, or left the other ceremonies undone, we should all quake for fear; and think that there were a sin committed, enough to sink us all, and that the priest for his labour were worthy to be put in the bishop of Rome's purgatory, and there to be burnt to ashes.
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18.
CONFESSION
Shrift in the ear is verily a work of Satan; and that the falsest that ever was wrought, and that most hath devoured the faith.
It began among the Greeks, and was not as it is now, to reckon all a man's sins in the priest's ear; but to ask counsel of such doubts as men had, as thou mayest see in St. Hierome, and in other authors.
Neither went they to priests only, which were very few at that time, no more than preached the word of God; for this so great vantage in so many masses saying was not yet found; but went indifferently, where they saw a good and a learned man.
And for because of a little knavery, which a deacon at Constantinople played through confession with one of the chief wives of the city, it was laid down again.
But we, antichrist's possession, the more knavery we see grow thereby daily, the more we stablish it.
A christian man is a spiritual thing; and hath God's word in his heart, and God's Spirit to certify him of all thing. He is not bound to come to any ear.
19.
PENANCE AND PURGATORY
Whereupon the bishops that succeeded the apostles, when men had done any open sins, enjoined them penance, as they call it, by the authority of the congregation and governors thereof, and advice of the most wise and discreet, and with the willing consent of the trespassers, to tame the flesh; as to go woolward, to wear shirts of hair, to go bare-foot, and bare-head, to pray, to fast bread and water, some once in the week, some twice, or all the week, an whole year, two years, three years, eight years, twenty years, and some all their lives long; and to go in pilgrimage, to visit the memorial of saints, to strength them the better to follow their ensample, and such like, and all to slay the worldly mind of the flesh: which manner, when it was once received of the people by custom, it became a law.
And the bishops by little and little gat it whole into their own hands.
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When the bishops saw that, how they had gotten the simple people under them in such humble obedience, they began to set up their crests, and to reign over them as princes, and to enjoin sore penance for small trifles, namely if aught were done against their pleasure; and beat some sore, and spared other, and sold their penance to the rich, and overladed the poor, until the tyranny was waxen so grievous that the people would bear it no longer.
For by this time, what with the multitude of ceremonies, and heap of men's constitutions, whose right use was thereto clean forgotten, and partly because our shepherds were busied to seek themselves and their high authority, and exalted every man his throne, and were become wolves unto the flock, the cause why the people were disobedient unto wholesome counsel was, that the word of God was sore darkened, and no' where purely preached. And therefore the prelates, loath to lose their high authority, and to let the people go free of their yoke, began to turn their tale, and sing a new song, how that this penance was enjoined to make satisfaction to God for the sin that was committed; robbing our souls of the fruit of Christ's blood, and making us image-servants; referring our deeds unto the person of God, and worshipping him, as an image of our own imagination, with bodily work: saying moreover, if we would not do such penance here at their injunctions, we must do it in another world; and so feigned purgatory, where we must suffer seven years for every sin. And when the kingdom of antichrist was so enlarged that it must have a head, they set up our holy father of Rome, or he rather usurped the realm with violence; and to him was given this prerogative, to sell whom he would from purgatory.
And the sacrament of penance they thus describe: contrition, confession, and satisfaction: contrition; sorrow for thy sins: confession; not to God and them whom thou hast offended, but tell thy sins in the priest's ear: satisfaction, to do certain deeds enjoined of them, to buy out thy sins. And in their description they have clean excluded the faith in the satisfaction of Christ's blood; which only bringeth life, and
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the spirit of life, and righteousness, and without the which it is impossible to please God: in whose stead they have put in the presumption of our own works.
NOTES ON SECTION
III I Pelagius, a British monk living' c. A.D. 400, opposed the Augustinian doctrine of the Fall, Original Sin and Grace. As the Reformers were greatly influenced by St. Augustine, T. equates the Roman teaching of justification by works with Pelagianism.
Simple Sir John: any priest. Sir, from their style of Dominus.
T.'s interpretation of this chief papal text, though not universal, has always been strongly supported from the time of the Fathers until now.
Peter's seat: his cathedra at Rome.
It was claimed that Peter became Bishop of Rome and that his powers, divinely conferred, were inherited by his episcopal successors.
Heremites: hermits, who tended to develop strange opinions.
T. pretends to stumble over the word.
Mass-penny, &c.: for these exactions see No. 9 and the notes there.
Polleth: crops, exacts money from.
Tutors = guardians.
Limiters: friars licensed to beg. Cf. Chaucer, Prologue, the Friar.
Arches: the Court of Arches, the provincial court of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to which came appeals from the episcopal courts.
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Tot-quots = (i) disperisations to hold benefits in plurality; (ii) benefices so held.
Free-chapel: chapels in possession of the Crown or granted by the Crown.
They were exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Diocese.
_Mortuaries: gifts from the goods of the deceased which the clergy claimed before consenting to the burial.
St. Cuthbert's, &c.: doubtless with special reference to the great abbeys of Durham, St. Alban's, Bury, and Westminster.
Bead-rolls: lists of people to be prayed for.
Chrysome: here, white linen bands which the Bishop put on a child's head at confirmation; more often, the white baptismal robe.
Soul-masses.
Masses might be said specifically for one's own or one's friends' souls; they were supposed to assist the soul in purgatory.
Dirges.
Mattins of the Dead, named after the first word of its antiphon, Dirige.
Monthand year-minds: regular commemorations.
Trentals: sets of 30 masses for the dead, said on successive days.
Testament: any collection of medieval wills, opened at random, will prove how common it was to leave something to one's parish church.
Ship: the incense-boat.
There is a beautiful one from Ramsey Abbey in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
II Memory: Latin memoria, shrine or chapel, at first of a martyr.
Jack-of-napes: apparently first used to ridicule William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk (d. 1450), from his badge, a clog and (ape's) chain.
St. Agatha was deemed to save from fire.
See Roman Breviary, 5th Feb. Lauds.
In principio: St. John, I, 1. Cf. Chaucer, Prologue, lines 252-255.
Bereaved of, i.e. by.
Gests: Latin gesta = deeds.
More cruel: compare T.'s reply to More's argument that God will disdain to look on us if we disdain to use His special friends as intercessors.
P.S. III, 120.
St. White.
Perhaps for St. Witta, a companion of St. Boniface in Germany, mistakenly venerated as a woman, though Bishop Hooper
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speaks of him as a man.
" St. White with as many round cheeses as may be painted about his tabernacle."'
Hooper, Parker Soc. I, 320.
Two St. Mary days. The Feast of the Conception (8th Dec.) and of the Purification (2nd Feb.). Wednesday and Friday were fast-days, and extra zeal could be manifested by fasting also on the intervening
Thursday.
That saint: 'T. refers to the Festum Asinorum on 14th Jan. The saint is the ass, then addressed as Sir.
Cf. Ducange s.v. Festum Asinorum for descriptions of the feast in France and for the hymn
'"' Orientis partibus "' with its vernacular chorus.
Volo = lam willing. Cf. P.S. III, 72, "' Oft-times they be volowed and bishopped both in one day."
Confirmation: see also No. 5 in this Section.
Butter: sarcastically of the Chrism, the anointing with oil at Confirmation.
Anoiling: anointing with oil in Extreme Unction.
Deacon: at Constantinople and elsewhere in the East, a presbyter was placed in charge of the penitents.
The office was abolished by Nectarius, Bishop of Constantinople, about A.D. 390, for the reason mentioned by T.
'The story is told by Socrates, H.E., V. 109, and Sozomen, H.E., VIII. 16..
Go woolward: to go to penance. Wool was worn next the skin as a penance.
This prerogative.
'The Pope controlled the Treasury of Merit and might—in return for money or "' works "—transfer some share in the superfluous merits of the saints to the guilty soul in purgatory.
Bowing a penny:
''A threepence bow'd would hire me"
(Shakespeare, Henry VIII, ii, 3).
Section IV The Authority and Interpretation of Scripture 1-7. Its Authority 1.
THE CONTENT OF SCRIPTURE
The scripture containeth three things in it: first, the law, to condemn all flesh; secondarily, the gospel, that is to say, promises of mercy for all that repent and acknowledge their sins at the preaching of the law, and consent in their hearts that the law is good, and submit themselves to be scholars to learn to keep the law, and to learn to believe the mercy that is promised them; and thirdly, the stories and lives of those scholars, both what chances fortuned them, and also by what means their schoolmaster taught them and made them perfect, and how he tried the true from the false.
'THE WoRK OF THE SPIRIT
Tindale had to meet the argument that the Scripture was dependent on the Church which created, selected, witnessed to and expounded the Bible.
Therefore, it was urged, the authority of Scripture was inferior to that of the Church.
Tindale's reply may be seen here and in the following passages which consider the relation of Scripture to other possible authorities.
And hereby ye see that it is a plain and an evident conclusion, as bright as the sun's shining, that the truth of God's word dependeth not of the truth of the congregation.
And therefore, when thou art asked why thou believest that thou shalt be saved through Christ, and of such like principles of (F 435)
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our faith; answer, Thou wottest and feelest that it is true.
And when he asketh, How thou knowest that it is true; answer, Because it is written in thine heart. And if he ask who wrote it; answer, The Spirit of God. And if he ask how thou camest first by it; tell him whether by reading in books, or hearing it preached, as by an outward instrument, but that inwardly thou wast taught by the Spirit of God. And if he ask whether thou believest it not because it is written in books, or because the priests so preach; answer, No, not now; but only because it is written in thine heart; and because the Spirit of God so preacheth, and so testifieth unto thy soul: and say, though at the beginning thou wast moved by reading or preaching, as the Samaritans were by the words of the woman, yet now thou believest it not therefore any longer; but only because thou hast heard it of the Spirit of God, and read it written in thine heart.
SCRIPTURE, COUNCILS AND UNIVERSITIES
When the bishops and abbots and other great prelates had forsaken Christ and his living, and were fallen down before the beast, the vicar of Satan, to receive their kingdom of him; then the pope called together divers councils of such holy apostles, and there concluded and made of every opinion, that seemed profitable, an article of the faith.
If thou ask where is the scripture to prove it? they answer, " We be the church, and cannot err; and therefore '', say they, " what we conclude, though there be no scripture to prove it, it is as true as the scripture, and of equal authority with the scripture, and must be believed as well as the scripture under pain of damnation."
For, say they, "Our truth dependeth not of the truth of the scripture'; that is, we be not true in our doing, because the scripture testifieth unto us that we do truly; but contrary, "The truth of the scripture (say they) dependeth of us": that is, the scripture is true, because that we admit it, and tell thee that it is true.
For how couldst thou know that it were the scripture except we told thee so? And therefore
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we need no witness of'the scripture for that we do: it is enough, that we so say of our own head; for we cannot err.
Even so, if thou say it is contrary unto the scripture; they answer, that thou understandest it not, and that thou must captive thy wit, and believe that, though it seem never so contrary, yet it is not contrary: no, if they determine that Christ is not risen again, and though the scripture testify that he is risen again, yet (say they) they be not contrary, if they be wisely understood.
Thou must believe, say they, that there is some other meaning in the scripture, and that no man understandeth it.
But that we say, whether without scripture, or against it, that must thou believe, that it is true.
And thus, because that the scripture would not agree with them, they thrust it out of the way first, and shut up the kingdom of heaven, which is Christ's gospel, with false expositions, and with such sophistry, and with false principles of natural wisdom. And the abbots took the scripture from their monks, lest some should ever bark against the abbots' living; and set up such long service and singing, to. weary them withal, that they should have no leisure to read in the scripture but with their lips; and made them good cheer to fill their bellies, and to stop their mouths.
And the bishops in like manner, to occupy their priests withal, that they should not study the scripture for barking against them, set up long service, wondrous intricate, so that in a dozen years thou couldst scarce learn to turn aright unto it: long matins, long even-songs, long masses, long diriges, with vantage yet to mitigate the tediousness, quza levis est labor cum lucro; for "lucre"' (they say) '' maketh the labour light': ever noselling them in ceremonies, and in their own constitutions, decrees, ordinances, and laws of holy church.
And the promises and testament, which the sacrament of Christ's body and blood did preach daily unto the people, that they put out of knowledge; and say now, that it is a sacrifice for the souls of purgatory, that they might the better sell their mass.
And in the universities they have ordained
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that no man shall look on the scripture, until he be noselled in heathen learning eight or nine years, and armed with false principles; with which he is clean shut out of the understanding of the scripture. And at his first coming unto university he is sworn that he shall not defame the university, whatsoever he seeth. And when he taketh first degree, he is sworn that he shall hold none opinion condemned by the church; but what such opinions be, that he shall not know. And then, when they be admitted to study divinity, because the scripture is locked up with such false expositions, and with false principles of natural philosophy, that they cannot enter in, they go about the outside, and dispute all their lives about words and vain opinions, pertaining as much unto the healing of a man's heel, as health of his soul: provided yet alway, lest God give his singular grace unto any person, that none may preach except he be admitted of the bishops.
4-7.
These passages, like No. 2, are taken from the Answer to More who asserted the prior authority of the Church
And upon that M. More concludeth his first book, that whatsoever the church, that is to wit, the pope and his brood, say, it is God's word, though it be not written, nor confirmed with miracle, nor yet good living; yea, and though they say to-day this, and to-morrow the contrary, all is good enough and God's word; yea, and though one pope condemn another
(nine or ten popes a row) with all their works for heretics, as it is to see in the stories, yet all is right, and none error. And thus good night and good rest!
Christ is brought asleep, and laid in his grave; and the door sealed to; and the men of arms about the grave to keep him down with pole-axes.
For that is the surest argument, to help at need, and to be rid of these babbling heretics, that so bark at the holy spiritualty with the scripture, being thereto wretches of no reputation, neither cardinals, nor bishops, nor yet great beneficed men;
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yea, and without tot-quots and pluralities, having no hold but the very scripture, whereunto they cleave as burs, so fast that they cannot be pulled away, save with very singeing them off.
Take this example: the Greeks have the scripture, and serve God therein, much more diligently than we.
Now let us give that there were no scripture, but that we received all our faith by the authority of our elders, and the Greeks by the authority of their elders.
When I shall dispute with a Greek about the articles of the faith which my elders taught me, and his elders deny, as ear-confession, the holy pardons of the pope, and all his power that he hath above other bishops, and many other things beside the scripture, which we hold for articles of our faith, and they deny; if there be no other proof of either part than to say, '' My elders, which cannot err, so affirm "'; and that he should answer, "' His elders, which cannot err, so deny'; what reason is it, that I should leave the authority of my elders, and go and believe his; or that he should leave the authority of his elders, and come and believe mine?
None at all, verily.
But the one party must shew a miracle, or else we must refer our causes unto authentic scripture, received in old time, and confirmed with miracles, and therewith try the controversy of our elders.
'Tindale acknowledges that at first he received the Scripture from the Church; but Scripture then convicted the Church of evil and misunderstanding.
He must choose between them, and finds in Scripture a self-authenticating power to convince.
He will say, thou knowest the scripture by their shewing.
I grant, at the beginning I do. Then will he say, '' Why should ye not believe them, in all their other doctrine besides the scripture, and in all their expositions of the scripture, as well as ye believe them, when they tell you that such and
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such books are the scripture? May they not shew you a false book?"
Yes, and therefore at the beginning I believe all alike.
Every lie that they tell, out of their own brains we believe to be scripture; and so should I believe them if they showed me a false book: but when I have read the scripture, and find not their doctrine there, nor depend thereof, I do not give so great credence unto their other doctrine, as unto the scripture.
Why?
For I find more witnesses unto the scripture than unto their other doctrine.
I find whole nations and countries that receive the scripture, and refuse their other doctrine, and their expositions in many places.
And I find the scripture otherwise expounded of them of old time, than they, which now will. be the church, expound it: whereby their doctrine is the more suspect.
I find mention made of the scripture in stories, that it was, when I can find no mention or likelihood, that their doctrine was.
I find in all ages that men have resisted their doctrine with the scripture, and have suffered death by the hundred thousands in resisting their doctrine.
I see their doctrine brought in and maintained by a contrary way to that by which the scripture was brought in.
I find by the self-same scripture, when I look diligently thereon, that their other doctrine cannot stand therewith. I find in the scripture that they which have not Christ's Spirit, to follow the steps of his living, pertain not unto Christ (Rom. viii.).
I find in the scripture, that they which walk in their carnal birth, after the manner of the children of Adam, cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God (I Cor. ii.).
I find in the scripture that they which seek glory cannot believe Christ (John v.). I find in the scripture, that they which submit not themselves to do the will of God, cannot know what doctrine is of God, and what not (John vii.).
I find in the scripture, (Jer. xxxi. and Heb. viii.), that all the children of God, which only are the true members of his church, have every one of them the law of God written in their hearts; so that if there were no law to compel, they would yet naturally, out of their own hearts, keep the law of God; yea, and against violence compelling to the contrary.
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For as they have destroyed the right sense of it with their leaven; and as they destroy daily the true preachers of it; and as they keep it from the lay-people, that they should not see how they juggle with it; even so would they destroy it also, could they bring it about, rather than we should come by the true understanding of it, were it not that God provided otherwise for us.
For they have put the stories, that should in many things help us, clean out of the way, as nigh as they could.
They have corrupt the legend and lives almost of all saints.
They have feigned false books, and put them forth; some in the name of St. Jerome, some in the name of St.
Augustine, in the name of St. Cyprian, St. Dionyse, and other holy men; which are proved none of theirs, partly by the style and Latin, and partly by authentic stories.
And as the Jews have set up a book of traditions called Talmud, to destroy the sense of the scripture; unto which they give faith, and unto the scripture none at all, be it never so plain, but say it cannot be understood, save by the Talmud: even so have ours set up their Duns, their Thomas, and a thousand like draff, to stablish their lies through falsifying the scripture; and say that it cannot be understood without them, be it never so plain. And if a man allege an holy doctor against them, they glose him out as they do the scripture; or will not hear; or say the church hath otherwise determined.
8-11. The Interpretation of Scripture 8. WorLDLY WisbDoM NO Key TO SCRIPTURE The spirit of the world understandeth not the speaking of God; neither the spirit of the wise of this world, neither the spirit of philosophers, neither the spirit of Socrates, of Plato, or of Aristotle's ethics, as thou mayest see in the first and second chapter of the first to the Corinthians.
Though that many are not ashamed to rail and blaspheme, saying, How should he understand the scripture, seeing he is no
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philosopher, neither hath seen his metaphysic? moreover they blaspheme, saying, How can he be a divine, and wotteth not what is subjectum in theologia? nevertheless as a man, without the spirit of Aristotle or philosophy, may by the Spirit of God understand scripture; even so, by the Spirit of God, understandeth he that God is to be sought in all the scripture, and in all things; and yet wotteth not what meaneth subjectum in theologia, because it is a term of their own making.
If thou shouldest say to him that hath the Spirit of God, the love of God is the keeping of the commandments, and to love a man's neighbour is to show mercy; he would, without arguing or disputing, understand how that of the love of God springeth the keeping of his commandments, and of the love to thy neighbour springeth mercy. Now would Aristotle deny such speaking; and a Duns' man would make twenty distinctions. g. THe True Key TO SCRIPTURE Which two points, that is to wit, the law spiritually interpreted, how that all is damnable sin that is not unfeigned love out of the ground and bottom of the heart, after the ensample of Christ's love to us, because we be all equally created and formed of one God our Father, and indifferently bought and redeemed with one blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ; and that the promises be given unto a repenting soul, that thirsteth and longeth after them, of the pure and fatherly mercy of God, through our faith only, without all deserving of our deeds or merits of our works, but for Christ's sake alone, and for the merits and deservings of his works, death, and passions that he suffered altogether for us, and not for him- | _ self: which two points, I say, if they be written in thine heart, are the keys which so open all the scripture unto thee, that no creature can lock thee out, and with which thou shalt go
~ in and out, and find pasture and food everywhere.
And if * these lessons be not written in thine heart, then is all the scripture shut up as a kernel in the shell, so that thou mayest
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read it, and commune of it, and rehearse all the stories of it, and dispute wittily, and be a profound sophister, and yet understand not one jot thereof.
10.
'THE PRINCIPLES OF EXEGESIS
They divide the scripture into four senses, the literal, tropological, allegorical, and anagogical.
The literal sense is become nothing at all: for the pope hath taken it clean away, and hath made it his possession.
He hath partly locked it up with the false and counterfeited keys of his traditions, ceremonies, and feigned lies; and partly driveth men from it with violence of sword: for no man dare abide by the literal sense of the text, but under a protestation, "If it shall please the pope". The tropological sense pertaineth to good manners
(say they), and teacheth what we ought to do. The allegory is appropriate to faith; and the anagogical to hope, and things above.
'Tropological and anagogical are terms of their own feigning, and altogether unnecessary.
For they are but allegories, both two of them; and this word allegory comprehendeth them both, and is enough.
For tropological is but an allegory of manners; and anagogical, an allegory of hope.
And allegory is as much to say as strange speaking, or borrowed speech: as when we say of a wanton child, "This sheep hath magots in his tail, he must be anointed with birchen salve "'; which speech I borrow of the shepherds.
Thou shalt understand, therefore, that the scripture hath but one sense, which is the literal sense.
11.
No PrivaTe EXxPosiITION Catholics naturally attacked Protestants on the ground that they left the interpretation to individual (and often ill-informed or ill-intentioned) judgment.
Tindale puts his faith in the intrinsic power of Scripture to deliver its chief messages to any honest, open mind, without danger of mis-
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understanding in matters necessary to salvation.
Compare numbers 2 and 6.
No place of the scripture may have a private exposition; that is, it may not be expounded after the will of man, or after the will of the flesh, or drawn unto a worldly purpose contrary unto the open texts, and the general articles of the faith, and the whole course of the scripture, and contrary to the living and practising of Christ and the apostles and holy prophets.
For as they came not by the will of man, so may they not be drawn or expounded after the will of man: but as they came by the Holy Ghost, so must they be expounded and understood by the Holy Ghost. The scripture is that wherewith God draweth us unto him, and not wherewith we should be led from him. The scriptures spring out of God, and flow unto Christ, and were given to lead us to Christ. Thou must therefore go along by the scripture as by a line, until thou come at Christ, which is the way's end and resting-place.
If any man, therefore, use the scripture to draw thee from Christ, and to nosel thee in any thing save in Christ, the same is a false prophet.
NOTES ON SECTION IV
Captive thy wit. More's phrase, which T. tries to turn against him.
Cf. Parker Soc. III, 139-41.
Universities: cf. Section I, No. 1, and p. 24.
With the argument from the opposed doctrines of the Eastern and Western Churches compare P.S. III, 99:
'' The churches of France and Italy will not believe the churches of Spain and Dutchland (Germany), because they so say."
False books. t is true that many books were wrongly ascribed to the greater Fathers, but this may often have been done in good faith.
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The works of a certain' Dionysius of the sixth century were ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite of Acts 17, v. 34, thus giving to many late developments a first-century testimony!
Subjectum: owing to his precision of method, Aquinas needed to prove that the subject of theological study is God. This, while quite proper to a philosopher, is the kind of thing which often enrages men of a more prophetic temper, as was T.
Aristotle's ethical teaching was, to T., a doctrine of " works"', which, by its great influence in universities, increased the Pelagianism of scholastic theology.
Cf. P.S. I, 154-7, 184, 276.
Io T. does not deny that "the scripture useth .
. similitudes . or allegories '', but objects to the allegorical interpretation of passages intended to be taken literally.
Cf. P.S. I, 141, "Is it not a great blindness to say in the beginning of all together, that the whole scripture is false in the literal sense and killeth the soul?
Which pestilent heresy to prove, they abuse the text of Paul saying ' The letter killeth '."? And I, 309 '"' (God's) literal sense is spiritual, and ail his words are spiritual'; cf. pp. 33-4.
Section V The Doctrines of the Fall and Original Sin and of the Atonement One of the outstanding characteristics of the theology of the Reformation was its return to the teaching of St. Augustine on the helplessness of man in his fallen state and the necessity of the divine initiative to redeem man from this condition.
Man cannot earn grace.
Not every detail of St. Augustine's theology was accepted, but the stresses are the same.
In Tindale, as in the other reformers, teaching on the Fall and its consequences, on the Atonement and on Justification by Faith, is interdependent, but, while his views on the first two doctrines are stated briefly, the more controverted doctrine of Justification by Faith appears on almost every page.
THe EFFECT OF THE FALL ON MAN
By nature, through the fall of Adam, are we the children of wrath, heirs of the vengeance of God by birth, yea, and from our conception.
And we have our fellowship with the damned devils, under the power of darkness and rule of Satan, while we are yet in our mothers' wombs; and though we show not forth the fruits of sin as soon as we are born, yet are we full of the natural poison, whereof all sinful deeds spring, and cannot but sin outwards, (be we never so young,) as soon as we be able to work, if occasion be given: for our nature is to do sin, as is the nature of a serpent to sting. And as a serpent, yet young, or yet unbrought forth, is full of poison, and cannot afterward (when the time is come, and. occasion given) but bring forth the fruits thereof; and as an adder, a toad, or a snake, is hated of man, not for the evil that it hath done, but for the poison that is in it, and hurt
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which it cannot but"do: so are we hated of God, for that natural poison, which is conceived and born with us, before we do any outward evil. And as the evil, which a venomous worm doth, maketh it not a serpent; but because it is a venomous worm, doth it evil and poisoneth: and as the fruit maketh not the tree evil; but because it is an evil tree, therefore bringeth it forth evil fruit, when the season of the fruit is: even so do not our evil deeds make us first evil, though ignorance and blindness, through evil working, hardeneth us in evil, and maketh us worse and worse; but because that of nature we are evil, therefore we both think and do evil, and are under vengeance under the law, convict to eternal damnation by the law, and are contrary to the will of God in all our will, and in all things consent to the will of the fiend.
The fall of Adam hath made us heirs of the vengeance and wrath of God, and heirs of eternal damnation; and hath brought us into captivity and bondage under the devil. And the devil is our lord, and our ruler, our head, our governor, our prince, yea, and our god.
And our will is locked and knit faster unto the will of the devil, than could an hundred thousand chains bind a man unto a post.
Unto the devil's will consent we with all our hearts, with all our minds, with all our might, power, strength, will and lusts.
'THE DIVINE INITIATIVE
I ask the popish one question, whether the will can prevent a man's wit, and make the wit see the righteousness of the law, and the way to fulfil it in Christ? If I must first see the reason why, ere I can love, how shall I with my will do that good thing that I know not of?
How shall I thank God for the mercy that is laid up for me in Christ, ere I believe it? For I must believe the mercy, ere I can love the work. Now faith cometh not of our free-will; but is the gift of God, given us by grace, ere there be any will in our hearts to do the law of God. And why God giveth it not every man, I can give no
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reckoning of his judgments.
But well I wot, I never deserved it, nor prepared myself unto it; but ran another way clean contrary in my blindness, and sought not that way; but he sought me, and found me out, and showed it me, and therewith drew me to him. And I bow the knees of my heart unto
God night and day, that he will show it all other men; and I suffer all that I can, to be a servant to open their eyes.
For well I wot they cannot see of themselves, before God hath prevented them with his grace: for Paul saith (Phil. i.), " He that began a good work in you shall continue '', or bring it unto a full end; so that God must begin to work in us: and (Phil. ii.), "' God it is that worketh both the willing, and also bringing to pass'. And it must needs be; for God must open mine eyes, and show me somewhat, and make me see the goodness of it to draw me to him, ere I can love, consent, or have any actual will to come.
'THE ATONEMENT
God anointed his son Jesus with the Holy Ghost, and therefore called him Christ; which is as much to say as anointed.
Outwardly he disguised him not; but made him like other men, and sent him into the world to bless us, and to offer himself for us a sacrifice of a sweet savour, to kill the stench of our sins, that God henceforth should smell them no more, nor think on them any more; and to make full and sufficient. satisfaction, or amends, for all them that repent, believing the truth of God, and submitting themselves unto his ordinances, both for their sins that they do, have done, and shall do.
For sin we through fragility never so oft, yet as soon as we repent and come into the right way again, and unto the testament which God hath made in Christ's blood, our sins vanish away as smoke in the wind, and as darkness at the coming of light; or as thou castest a little blood, or milk, into the main sea: insomuch that whosoever goeth about to make satisfaction for his sins to God-ward, saying in his heart, This much have I sinned, this much will I do again;
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or this-wise will I live to make amends withal; or this will I do, to get heaven withal; the same is an infidel, faithless, and damned in his deed-doing, and hath lost his part in Christ's blood; because he is disobedient unto God's testament, and setteth up another of his own imagination, unto which he will compel God to obey.
If we love God, we have a commandment to love our neighbour also, as saith John in his epistle; and if we have offended him, to make him amends; or if we have not wherewith, to ask him forgiveness, and to do and suffer all things for his sake, to win him to God, and to nourish peace and unity.
But to God-ward Christ is an everlasting satisfaction, and ever sufficient.
'THE COMPLETENESS OF CHRIST'S SATISFACTION
Let this therefore be an undoubted article of thy faith: not of a history faith, as thou believest a gest of Alexander, or of the old Romans, but of a lively faith and belief, to put thy trust and confidence in, and to buy and sell thereon, as we say; and to have thy sins taken away, and thy soul saved thereby, if thou hold it fast; and to continue ever in sin, and to have thy soul damned, if thou let it slip; that our Jesus, our Saviour, that saveth his people from their sins, and our
Christ, that is our king over all sin, death and hell, anointed with fulness of all grace and with the Spirit of God, to distribute unto all men, hath, according unto the epistle to the Hebrews and all the scripture, in the days of his mortal flesh, with fasting, praying, suffering, and crying to God mightily for us, and with shedding his blood, made full satisfaction both a pena et a culpa (with our holy father's leave) for all the sins of the world; both of theirs that went before, and of theirs that come after in the faith; whether it be original sin or actual: and not only the sins committed with consent to evil in time of ignorance, before the knowledge of the truth, put also the sins done of frailty after we have forsaken evil and consented to the laws of God in our hearts, promising to follow Christ and walk in the light of his doctrine.
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5. "'How Curist PRAYETH FOR Us"'
But after what manner doth Christ pray for us?
Verily Christ in the days of his mortal flesh suffered and prayed for all that shall be saved, and obtained and was heard, and had his petitions granted. And he made satisfaction, and purged, and purchased forgiveness, even then, for all the sin that ever shall be forgiven.
And his praying for us, and being a mediator now, is that the remembrance of all that he did for us is present in the sight of God the Father, as fresh as the hour he did them; yea, the same hour is yet present, and not past, in the sight of God.
And Christ is now a king, and reigneth; and hath received power of all that he prayed for, to do it himself; and that, whensoever the elect call for aught in his name, he sendeth help, even of the power which he hath received: yea, ere they ask, he sendeth his Spirit into their hearts to move them to ask: so that it is his gift that we desire aught in his name.
And in all that we do or think well, he preventeth us with his grace.
NOTES ON SECTION V
Wit = intelligence.
Prevent: not " hinder "', but " go before'. Cf. the prayer, " Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour »» and cf. no. 5, ad fin.
This passage caused trouble. More condemned it, and, according to Foxe, the commissioners who examined T.'s work had it in mind when they charged him with affirming that '' We are bound to make satisfaction to our neighbour, but not to God."
In the fifteenth century it was commonly taught that ( a) the death of Christ freed man from the guilt of sin, but not from its penalty, which must be discharged by further satisfaction; (b) Christ's death availed for " original sin"', the guilty state which, as was then taught, we inherit, but not for actual sin, committed during one's post-baptismal life. For this, satisfaction was again demanded.
Section VI Justification by Faith Against the popular belief that salvation or God's forgiveness could be earned by good works, all the reformers, following St. Paul, argued vehemently that man can deserve nothing of God, but receives both forgiveness and the power to do good as free gifts from a gracious God. Tindale's works abound in this teaching.
His Prologue upon Romans, so important an epistle in this connexion, is little more than a paraphrase of Luther's preface. The expositions of the Sermon on the Mount and of I John, and the Prologue to Jonah, are chiefly concerned with this doctrine, which Tindale regarded as the true key to Scripture.
Perhaps his most influential work on the subject—and the most often condemned—was
The Parable of the Wicked Mammon.
— 1.
A CATENA OF PASSAGES FROM THE
'' WICKED MAMMON "'
If thou wilt therefore be at peace with God, and love him, thou must turn to the promises of God, and to the gospel, which is called of Paul, in the place before rehearsed to the Corinthians, the ministration of righteousness, and of the Spirit.
For faith bringeth pardon and forgiveness freely purchased by Christ's blood, and bringeth also the Spirit; the Spirit looseth the bonds of the devil, and setteth us at liberty. For '' where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty "', saith Paul in the same place to the Corinthians: that is to say, there the heart is free, and hath power to love the will of God; and there the heart mourneth that he cannot love enough.
Now is that consent of the heart unto the law of God eternal life; yea, though there be no power yet in the (F 435)
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members to fulfil it. Let every man therefore (according to Paul's counsel in the sixth chapter to the Ephesians) arm himself with the armour of God; that is to understand, with God's promises.
And " above all things (saith he) take unto you the shield of faith, wherewith ye may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, that ye may be able to resist in the evil day of temptation", and namely at the hour of death.
See therefore thou have God's promises in thine heart, and that thou believe them without wavering: and when temptation ariseth, and the devil layeth the law and thy deeds against thee, answer him with the promises; and turn to God, and confess thyself to him, and say it is even so, or else how could he be merciful?
But remember that he is the God of mercy and of truth, and cannot but fulfil his promises.
Also remember, that his Son's blood is stronger than all the sins and wickedness of the whole world; and therewith quiet thyself, and thereunto commit thyself, and bless thyself in all temptation (namely at the hour of death) with that holy candle.
Or else perishest thou, though thou hast a thousand holy candles about thee, a hundred ton of holy water, a ship-full of pardons, a cloth-sack full of friars' coats, and all the ceremonies in the world, and all the good works, deservings, and merits of all the men in the world, be they, or were they, never so holy.
God's word only lasteth for ever; and that which he hath sworn doth abide, when all other things perish.
So long as thou findest any consent in thine heart unto the law of God, that it is righteous and good, and also displeasure that thou canst not fulfil it, despair not; neither doubt but that God's Spirit is in thee, and that thou art chosen for Christ's sake to the inheritance of eternal life.
This is therefore plain, and a sure conclusion, not to be doubted of, that there must be first in the heart of a man, before he do any good work, a greater and a preciouser thing than all the good works in the world, to reconcile him to God, to bring the love and favour of God to him, to make him love
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God again, to make"him righteous and good in the sight of God, to do away his sin, to deliver him and loose him out of that captivity wherein he was conceived and born, in which he could neither love God nor the will of God.
Or else, how can he work any good work that should please God, if there were not some supernatural goodness in him, given of God freely, whereof the good work must spring? even as a sick man must first be healed or made whole, ere he can do the deeds of an whole man; and as the blind man must first have sight given him, ere he can see; and he that hath his feet in fetters, gyves, or stocks, must first be loosed, ere he can go, walk or run; and even as they which thou readest of in the gospel, that they were possessed of the devils, could not laud God till the devils were cast out.
That precious thing which must be in the heart, ere a man can work any good work, is the word of God, which in the gospel preacheth, proffereth, and bringeth unto all that repent and believe, the favour of God in Christ.
Whosoever heareth the word and believeth it, the same is thereby righteous; and thereby is given him the Spirit of God, which leadeth him unto all that is the will of God; and is loosed from the captivity and bondage of the devil; and his heart is free to love God, and hath lust to do the will of God. Therefore it is called the word of redemption, the word of forgiveness, and the word of peace: he that heareth it not, or believeth it not, can by no means be made righteous before God.
This confirmeth Peter in the fifteenth of the Acts, saying that God through faith doth purify the hearts.
For of what nature soever the word of God is, of the same nature must the hearts be which believe thereon, and cleave thereunto.
Now is the word living, pure, righteous, and true; and even so maketh it the hearts of them that believe thereon.
The promises, when they are believed, are they that justify ; for they bring the Spirit, which looseth the heart, giveth lust to the law, and certifieth us of the good-will of God unto usward.
If we submit ourselves unto God, and desire him
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to heal us, he will do it, and will in the mean time (because of the consent of the heart unto the law) count us for full whole, and will no more hate us, but pity us, cherish us, be tenderhearted to us, and love us as he doth Christ himself.
Christ is our Redeemer, Saviour, peace, atonement, and satisfaction; and hath made amends or satisfaction to Godward for all the sin which they that repent (consenting to the law and believing the promises) do, have done, or shall do. So that if through fragility we fall a thousand times in a day, yet if we do repent again, we have alway mercy laid up for us in store in Jesus Christ our Lord.
So fall they away from faith again, and cry, saying, Faith only justifieth not a man, and maketh him acceptable to God.
If thou ask them, Wherefore? they answer, See how many there are that believe, and yet do no more than they did before.
These are they which Judas in his epistle calleth dreamers, which deceive themselves with their own fantasies.
For what other thing is their imagination, which they call faith, than a dreaming of the faith, and an opinion of their own imagination wrought without the grace of God? These must needs be worse at the latter end than at the beginning.
These are the old vessels that rend when new wine is poured into them; that is, they hear God's word, but hold it not, and therefore wax worse than they were before.
But the right faith springeth not of man's fantasy, neither is it in any man's power to obtain it; but it is altogether the pure gift of God poured into us freely, without all manner doing of us, without deserving and merits, yea, and without seeking for of us; and is (as saith Paul in the second to the Ephesians) even God's gift and grace, purchased through Christ.
Therefore is it mighty in operation, full of virtue, and ever working; which also reneweth a man, and begetteth him afresh, altereth him, changeth him, and turneth him altogether into a new nature and conversation; so that a man feeleth his heart altogether altered and changed, and far otherwise disposed than before; and hath power to love that which before he could not but hate; and delighteth
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in that which beforé he abhorred; and hateth that which before he could not but love. And it setteth the soul at liberty, and maketh her free to follow the will of God, and doth to the soul even as health doth unto the body, after that a man is pined and wasted away with a long soaking disease: the legs cannot bear him, he cannot lift up his hands to help himself, his taste is corrupt, sugar is bitter in his mouth, his stomach abhorreth, longing after slibbersauce and swash at the which a whole stomach is ready to cast his gorge. When health cometh, she changeth and altereth him clean; giveth him strength in all his members, and lust to do of his own accord that which before he could not do, neither could suffer that any man exhorted him to do; and hath now lust in wholesome things, and his members are free and at liberty, and have power to do, of their own accord, all things which belong to an whole man to do, which afore they had no power to do, but were in captivity and bondage.
So likewise in all things doth right faith to the soul.
The Spirit of God accompanieth faith, and bringeth with her light, wherewith a man beholdeth himself in the law of God, and seeth his miserable bondage and captivity, and humbleth himself, and abhorreth himself: she bringeth God's promises of all good things in Christ. God worketh with his word, and in his word: and when his word is preached, faith rooteth herself in the hearts of the elect; and as faith entereth, and the word of God is believed, the power of God looseth the heart from the captivity and bondage under sin, and knitteth and coupleth him to God and to the will of God; altereth him, changeth him clean, fashioneth, and forgeth him anew; giveth him power to love, and to do that which before was impossible for him either to love or do; and turneth him unto a new nature, so that he loveth that which he before hated, and hateth that which he before loved; and is clean altered, and changed, and contrary disposed; and is knit and coupled fast to God's will, and naturally bringeth forth good works, that is to say, that which God commandeth to do, and not things of his own imagination.
And that doth he of his
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own accord, as a tree bringeth forth fruit of her own accord.
And as thou needst not to bid a tree to bring forth fruit, so is there no law put unto him that believeth, and is justified through faith, as saith Paul in the first epistle to Timothy, the first chapter.
Neither is it needful; for the law of God is written and graved in his heart, and his pleasure is therein.
And as without commandment, but even of his own nature, he eateth, drinketh, seeth, heareth, talketh, and goeth; even so of his own nature, without co-action or compulsion of the law, bringeth he forth good works.
And as a whole man, when he is athirst, tarrieth but for drink, and when he hungreth, abideth but for meat, and then drinketh and eateth naturally; even so is the faithful ever athirst and an hungred after the will of God, and tarrieth but for occasion.
And whensoever an occasion is given, he worketh naturally the will of God; for this blessing is given to all them that trust in Christ's blood, that they thirst and hunger to do God's will. He that hath not this faith, is but an unprofitable babbler of faith and works; and wotteth neither what he babbleth, nor what he meaneth, or whereunto his words pertain: for he feeleth not the power of faith, nor the working of the Spirit in his heart; but interpreteth the scriptures, which speak of faith and works, after his own blind reason and foolish fantasies, and not of any feeling that he hath in his heart; as a man rehearseth a tale of another man's mouth, and wotteth not whether it be so or no as he saith, nor hath any experience of the thing itself.
Hereby see we, that deeds and works are but outward signs of the inward grace of the bounteous and plenteous mercy of God, freely received without all merits of deeds, yea, and before all deeds.
Christ teacheth to know the inward faith and love by the outward deeds.
Deeds are the fruits of love; and love is the fruit of faith.
Love, and also the deeds, are great or small according to the proportion of faith. Where faith is mighty and strong, there is love fervent, and deeds plenteous, and done with exceeding meekness: where faith is
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weak, there is love cold, and the deeds few and seldom, as flowers and blossoms in winter.
Mark this then: To see inwardly that the law of God is so spiritual, that no flesh can fulfil it; and then for to mourn and sorrow, and to desire, yea, to hunger and thirst after strength to do the will of God from the ground of the heart, and (notwithstanding all the subtilty of the devil, weakness and feebleness of the flesh, and wondering of the world,) to cleave yet to the promises of God, and to believe that for Christ's blood sake thou art received to the inheritance of eternal life, is a wonderful thing, and a thing that the world knoweth not of; but whosoever feeleth that, though he fall a thousand times in a day, doth yet rise again a thousand times, and is sure that the mercy of God is upon him.
Secondarily, of the whole multitude of the nature of man, whom God hath elect and chosen, and to whom he hath appointed mercy and grace in Christ, to them sendeth he his
Spirit; which openeth their eyes, showeth them their misery, and bringeth them unto the knowledge of themselves; so that they hate and abhor themselves, are astonied and amazed, and at their wit's ends, neither wot what to do, or where to seek health.
'Then, lest they should flee from God by desperation, he comforteth them again with his sweet promises in Christ; and certifieth their hearts that, for Christ's sake, they are received to mercy, and their sins forgiven, and they elect and made the sons of God, and heirs with Christ of eternal life: and thus through faith are they set at peace with God.
Now may not we ask why God chooseth one and not another; either think that God is unjust to damn us afore we do any actual deed; seeing that God hath power over all his creatures of right, to do with them what he list, or to make of every one of them as he listeth.
Our darkness cannot perceive his light.
God will be feared, and not have his secret judgments known.
Moreover we by the light of faith see a thousand things which are impossible to an infidel to see:
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so likewise, no doubt, in the light of the clear vision of God we shall see things which now God will not have known.
For pride ever accompanieth high knowledge, but grace accompanieth meekness.
Let us therefore give diligence rather to do the will of God, than to search his secrets, which are not profitable for us to know.
As pertaining to good works, understand that all works are good which are done within the law of God, in faith, and with thanksgiving to God; and understand that thou in doing them pleasest God, whatsoever thou doest within the law of God, as when thou makest water.
And trust me, if either wind or water were stopped, thou shouldest feel what a precious thing it were to do either of both, and what thanks ought to be given God therefore.
Moreover, put no difference between works; but whatsoever cometh into thy hands that do, as time, place, and occasion giveth, and as God hath put thee in degree, high or low.
For as touching to please God, there is no work better than another.
God looketh not first on thy work as the world doth, as though the beautifulness of the work pleased him as it doth the world, or as though he had need of them.
But God looketh first on thy heart, what faith thou hast to his words, how thou believest him, trustest him, and how thou lovest him for his mercy that he hath showed thee: he looketh with what heart thou workest, and not what thou workest; how thou acceptest the degree that he hath put thee in, and not of what degree thou art, whether thou be an apostle or a shoemaker.
Set this ensample before thine eyes. Thou art a kitchen-page, and washest thy master's dishes; another is an apostle, and preacheth the word of God.
. Now if thou compare deed to deed, there is difference betwixt washing of dishes, and preaching of the word of God; but as touching to please God, none at all: for neither that nor this pleaseth, but as far forth as God hath chosen a man, hath put his Spirit in him, and purified his heart by faith and trust in Christ.
Let every man therefore wait on the office wherein Christ
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hath put him, and therein serve his brethren.
. Let every man, of whatsoever craft or occupation he be of, whether brewer, baker, tailor, victualler, merchant, or husbandman, refer his craft and occupation unto the common wealth, and serve his brethren as he would do Christ himself.
. Let him that hath a wife, give God thanks for his liberty; only let not thy wife withdraw thine heart from God, and then pleasest thou God, and hast the word of God for thee. And in all things look on the word of God, and therein put thy trust, and not in a visor, in a disguised garment, and a cut shoe.
Faith, when she prayeth, setteth not her good deeds before her, saying, '' Lord, for my good deeds do this or that'; nor bargaineth with God, saying, "' Lord, grant me this, or do this or that, and I will do this or that for thee'; as, mumble so much daily, go so far, or fast this or that fast, enter this religion or that, with such other points of infidelity, yea, rather idolatry.
But she setteth her infirmities and her lack before her face, and God's promises, saying, " Lord, for thy mercy and truth, which thou hast sworn, be merciful unto me, and pluck me out of this prison and out of this hell, and loose the bonds of Satan, and give me power to glorify thy name ". Faith therefore justifieth in the heart, and before God; and the deeds justify outwardly before the world, that is, testify only before men, what we are inwardly before God.
2-4. These passages are taken from the Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue 2.
REPENTANCE IN SCRIPTURE
And as for their penance, the scripture knoweth not of it.
The Greek hath Metanoia, and Metanoite, repentance and repent; or forthinking and forthink.
As we say in English, "Tt forthinketh me, or I forthink"'; and "JT repent, or it repenteth me"; and "I am sorry that I did it". So now the scripture saith, " Repent, or let it forthink you; and come and believe the gospel, or glad tidings, that is brought you
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in Christ, and so shall all be forgiven you; and henceforth live a new life'.
And it will follow, if I repent in the heart, that I shall do no more so, willingly and of purpose.
And if I believed the gospel, what God hath done for me in Christ, I should surely love him again, and of love prepare myself unto his commandments.
' FarrH Is EVER ASSAILED AND Foucut WITHAL + Moreover, this our faith which we have in Christ is ever fought against, ever assailed and beaten at with desperation: not when we sin only, but also in all temptations of adversity, into which God bringeth us to nurture us, and to show us our own hearts, the hypocrisy and false thoughts that there lie hid, our almost no faith at all, and as little love, even then haply when we thought ourselves most perfect of all.
For when temptations come, we cannot stand; when we have sinned, faith is feeble; when wrong is done us, we cannot forgive; in sickness, in loss of goods, and in all tribulations, we be impatient; when our neighbour needeth our help, that we must depart with him of ours, then love is cold.
And thus we learn and feel that there is no goodness nor yet power to do good, but of God only.
And in all such temptations our faith perisheth not utterly, neither our love and consent unto the law of God; but they be weak, sick, and wounded, and not clean dead: as a good child, whom the father and mother have taught nurture and wisdom, loveth his father and all his commandments, and perceiveth of the goodness showed him, that his father loveth him, and that all his father's precepts are unto his wealth and profit, and that his father commandeth him nothing for any need that his father hath thereof, but seeketh his profit only, and therefore hath a good faith unto all his father's promises, and loveth all his commandments, and doth them with good will, and with good will goeth to school; and by the way haply he seeth company play, and with the sight is taken and ravished of his
© memory, and forgetteth himself, and standeth and beholdeth, and falleth to play also, forgetting father and mother, all
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their kindness, all their laws, and his own profit thereto: howbeit, the knowledge of his father's kindness, the faith of his promises, and the love that he hath again unto his father, and the obedient mind, are not utterly quenched, but lie hid, as all things do when a man sleepeth or lieth in a trance.
And as soon as he hath played out all his lusts, or been warned in the mean season, he cometh again unto his old profession.
Neverthelater, many temptations go over his heart, and the law, as a right hang-man, tormenteth his conscience, and goeth nigh to persuade him that his father will cast him away and hang him, if he catch him; so that he is like, a great while, to run away, rather than to return unto his father again.
Fear and dread of rebuke, and of loss of his father's love, and of punishment, wrestle with the trust which he hath in his father's goodness, and as it were give his faith a fall.
But it riseth again as soon as the rage of the first brunt is past, and his mind more quiet. And the goodness of his father and his old kindness cometh unto remembrance, either of his own courage, or by the comfort of some other.
And he believeth that his father will not cast him away, or destroy him, .and hopeth that he will no more do so. And upon that he getteth him home, dismayed, but not altogether faithless.
The old kindnesses will not let him despair.
Howbeit, all the world cannot set his heart at rest, until the pain be past, and until he have heard the voice of his father, that all is forgiven.
4. "THE ORDER OF JUSTIFYING"
Mark therefore, the way toward justifying, or forgiveness of sin, is the law.
God causeth the law to be preached unto us, and writeth it in our hearts, and maketh us by good reasons feel that the law is good, and ought to be kept, and that they which keep it not are worthy to be damned. And on the other side I feel that there is no power in me to keep the law; whereupon it would shortly follow that I should despair, if I were not shortly holpen.
But God, which hath begun to cure me, and hath laid that corosy unto my sores, goeth forth in his
"cure, and setteth his son Jesus before me, and all his passion
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and death, and saith to me: "This is my dear Son, and he hath prayed for thee, and hath suffered all this for thee; and for his sake I will forgive thee all that thou hast done against this good law, and I will heal thy flesh, and teach thee to keep this law, if thou learn".
And I will bear with thee, and take all a worth " that thou doest, till thou canst do better; and in the mean season, notwithstanding thy weakness, I will yet love thee no less than I do the angels in heaven, so thou wilt be diligent to learn.
And I will assist thee, and keep thee, and defend thee, and be thy shield, and care for thee". And the heart here beginneth to mollify and wax soft, and to receive health, and believeth the mercy of God, and in believing is saved from the fear of everlasting death, and made sure of everlasting life; and then, being overcome with this kindness, beginneth to love again and to submit herself unto the laws of God, to learn them and to walk in them.
Note now the order: first God giveth me light to see the goodness and righteousness of the law, and mine own sin and unrighteousness; out of which knowledge springeth repentance.
Now repentance teacheth me not that the law is good, and I evil; but a light that the Spirit of God hath given me, out of which light repentance springeth.
Then the same Spirit worketh in mine heart trust and confidence, to believe the mercy of God and his truth, that he will do as he hath promised; which belief saveth me. And immediately out of that trust springeth love toward the law of God again.
And whatsoever a man worketh of any other love than this, it pleaseth not God, nor is that love godly.
Now love doth not receive this mercy, but faith only, out of which faith love springeth; by which love I pour out again upon my neighbour that goodness which I have received of God by faith. Hereof ye see that I cannot be justified without repentance; and yet repentance justifieth me not. And hereof ye see that I cannot have a faith to be justified and saved, except love spring thereof immediately; and yet love justifieth me not before God.
For my natural love to God again doth not make me first see and feel the kindness of God in Christ,
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but faith through preaching.
For we love not God first, to compel him to love again; but he loved us first, and gave his
Son for us, that we might see love and love again, saith St.
John in his first epistle: which love of God to us-ward we receive by Christ through faith, saith Paul.
And this example have I set out for them in divers places; but their blind popish eyes have no power to see it, covetousness hath so blinded them.
And when we say, faith only justifieth us, that is to say, receiveth the mercy wherewith
God justifieth us and forgiveth us; we mean not faith which hath no repentance, and faith which hath no love unto the laws of God again, and unto good works, as wicked hypocrites falsely belie us.
For how then should we suffer, as we do, all misery, to call the blind and ignorant unto repentance and good works; which now do but consent unto all evil, and study mischief all day long, for all their preaching their justifying of good works? Let M. More improve this with his sophistry, and set forth his own doctrine; that we may see the reason of it, and walk in light.
Hereof ye see what faith it is that justifieth us.
The faith in Christ's blood, of a repenting heart toward the law, doth justify us only; and not all manner faiths.
Ye must understand therefore, that ye may see to come out of More's blind maze, how that there be many faiths; and that all faiths be not one faith, though they be all called with one general name.
There is a story faith, without feeling in the heart, wherewith I may believe the whole story of the bible, and yet not set mine heart earnestly thereto, taking it for the food of my soul, to learn to believe and trust God, to love him, dread him and fear him by the doctrine and ensamples thereof; but to seem learned, and to know the story, to dispute and make merchandise, after as we have examples enough.
And the faith wherewith a man doth miracles is another gift than the faith of a repenting heart, to be saved through Christ's blood; and the one no kin to the other, though M. More would have them so appear.
Neither is the devil's faith, and the pope's faith (wherewith they believe that there is a God, and that Christ
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is, and all the story of the bible, and may yet stand with all wickedness, and full consent to evil), kin unto the faith of them that hate evil, and repent of their misdeeds, and knowledge their sins, and be fled with full hope and trust of mercy unto the blood of Christ.
And when he saith, "If faith certify our hearts that we be in the favour of God, and our sins forgiven, and become good, ere we do good works (as the tree must be first good, ere it bring forth good fruit, by Christ's doctrine), then we make good works but a shadow wherewith a man is never the better."
Nay, sir, we make good works fruits; whereby our neighbour is the better, and whereby God is honoured, and our flesh tamed. And we make of them sure tokens; whereby we know that our faith is no feigned imagination and dead opinion, made with captiving our wits after the pope's traditions, but a lively thing wrought by the Holy Ghost.
NOTES ON SECTION VI
I Put no difference between works: the idea of vocation, so much stressed here, was a vital part of the ethical teaching of the reformers.
Although by no means unknown, the conception had been overshadowed by the prevalent distinction between counsels and precepts, the religious life and the secular.
Too often the life of the layman was esteemed as such inferior to the life of the monk, and celibacy as such higher than marriage.
Forthink: to repent; a different word from forethink, to premeditate.
Cf. Cheke's translation of Matt. xxvii, 3: Judas ..
. did forthink himself.
The Greek word Metanoia suggests a change in outlook, a turning round.
Repentance, as we understand it, is a fair, if rather weak, translation. But the Latin Bible reads, e.g. in Matt. iv, 17, " poenitentiam agite".
'Through an ambiguity in the word " poenitentia"', this was taken to mean '' do penance'', and used to prove divine appointment of the sacrament of Penance.
There is an interesting study of the translation of Metanoia, by F. P. Shipham, in Expository
Times, Vol. XLVI, 277-280.
Depart: share.
Section VII The Church and the Sacraments Tindale's criticism of the Church of his day has already been illustrated.
Though one who repudiated the authority recognized in this Church might be expected to produce a rival ecclesiology, he makes no elaborate statement of his views.
It is mainly when pressed by More that he reveals—and then at no great length—his conception of the nature of the Church.
Of its ministry he has more to say; while a whole treatise (perhaps two) is devoted to the sacraments.
THE CONGREGATION OF FAITHFUL MEN
But I said that Christ's elect church is the whole multitude of all repenting sinners that believe in Christ, and put all their trust and confidence in the mercy of God; feeling in their hearts that God for Christ's sake loveth them, and will be, or rather is, merciful unto them, and forgiveth them their sins of which they repent; and that he forgiveth them also all the motions unto sin, of which they fear lest they should thereby. be drawn into sin again. And this faith they have without all respect of their own deservings, yea, and for none other cause than that the merciful truth of God the Father, which cannot lie, hath so promised and so sworn.
; And this faith and knowledge is everlasting life; and by this we be born anew, and made the sons of God, and obtain forgiveness of sins, and are translated from death to life, and from the wrath of God unto his love and favour.
And this faith is the mother of all truth, and bringeth with her the Spirit of all truth; which Spirit purgeth us, as from all sin, even so from all lies and error, noisome and hurtful.
And this faith is the foundation laid of the apostles and prophets;
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whereon Paul saith (Eph. ii.) that we are built, and thereby of the household of God. And this faith is the rock, whereon
Christ built his congregation.
Christ asked the apostles (Matt. xvi.) whom they took him for.
And Peter answered for them all, saying, "I say that thou art Christ, the Son of the living God, that art come into this world".
That is, We believe that thou art he that was promised unto Abraham, that should come, bless us, and deliver us.
Howbeit, Peter yet wist not, by what means.
But now it is opened throughout all the world, that, through the offering of his body and blood, that offering is a satisfaction for the sin of all that repent, and a purchasing of whatsoever they can ask, to keep them in favour; and that they sin no more.
And Christ answered, "Upon this rock I will build my congregation"': that is, upon this faith. And against the rock of this faith can no sin, no hell, no devil, no lies, nor error prevail.
For whatsoever any man hath committed, if he repent and come to this rock, he is safe. And that this faith is the only way by which the church of Christ goeth unto God, and unto the inheritance of all his riches, testify all the apostles and prophets, and all the scripture, with signs and miracles, and all the blood of martyrs.
And whosoever goeth unto God, and unto forgiveness of sins, or salvation, by any other way than this, the same is an heretic out of the right way, and not of Christ's church.
For this knowledge maketh a man of the church. And the church is Christ's body (Col. i.); and every person of the church is a member of Christ (Eph. v.). Now it is no member of Christ that hath not Christ's Spirit in it (Rom. vili.); as it is no part of me, or member of my body, wherein my-soul is not present and quickeneth it. And then, if a man be none of Christ's, he is not of his church.
THe Reat HeErRerTICS The church, say they, was before the heretics; and the heretics came ever out of the church, and left it. And they
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were before all them which they now call heretics and Lutherans, and the Lutherans came out of them, &c. Wherefore they be the right church, and the other heretics indeed, as they be called.
Well, I will likewise dispute.
First, the right church was under Moses and Aaron, and so forth; in whose rooms sat the scribes and Pharisees and high priests in the time of Christ.
And they were before Christ.
And Christ and his apostles came out of them, and departed from them, and left them. Wherefore the scribes, Pharisees, and high priests were the right church; and Christ, and his apostles and disciples, heretics, and a damnable sect!
Wherefore, the scripture truly understood, after the plain places and general articles of the faith, which thou findest in the scripture, and the ensamples that are gone before, will alway testify who is the right church.
Though the Pharisees succeeded the patriarchs and prophets, and had the scripture of them; yet they were heretics, and fallen from the faith of them and from their living.
And Christ and his disciples, and John the Baptist, departed from the Pharisees, which were heretics, unto the right sense of the scripture, and unto the faith and living of the patriarchs and prophets, and rebuked the Pharisees.
And after the same manner, though our popish hypocrites succeed Christ and his apostles, and have their scripture, yet they be fallen from the faith and living of them, and are heretics, and had need of a John Baptist to convert them.
And we depart from them unto the true scripture, and unto the faith and living thereof, and rebuke them in like manner.
And as they which depart from the faith of the true church are heretics, even so they that depart from the church of heretics and false feigned faith of hypocrites, are the true church; which thou shalt alway know by their faith, examined by the scripture, and by their profession and consent to live according unto the laws of God.
(F 435)
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3. THE CHURCH INCLUDES THE LAITY
And when M. More saith, that this word church is known well enough, I report me unto the consciences of all the land, whether he say truth or otherwise; or whether the lay-people understand by church the whole multitude of all that profess
Christ, or the juggling spirits only.
And yet, though all the clergy of Christendom had granted it, all the church had not made it, nor yet the tenth part of the church.
The lay people be as well of the church as the priests; neither can all the priests in the world, of right, make any law wherein their part lieth, without their consent.
4-7. The Ministry Tindale argues against More (1) that the terms " presbyter " and "' bishop " in the New Testament are equivalent, and (2) that "' presbyter', from which " priest" is derived, had no sacerdotal significance.
Another thing which he rebuketh is, that I interpret this Greek word presbyteros by this word senior.
Of a truth senior is no very good English, though senior and junior be used in the universities; but there came no better in my mind at that time.
Howbeit, I spied my fault since, long ere M. More told it me, and have mended it in all the works which I since made, and call it an elder. And in that he maketh heresy of it, to call presbyteros an elder, he condemneth their own old Latin text of heresy, which only they use yet daily in the church, and have used, I suppose, this fourteen hundred years: for that text doth call it an elder likewise.
In the I Pet. v. thus standeth it in the Latin text:
Seniores ergo qui in vobis sunt obsecro consenior, pascite qui in vobis est gregem Christi:
'' The elders that are among you, I beseech, which am an elder also, that ye feed the flock of Christ, which is among you ". There
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is presbyteros called an elder.
And in that he saith, '" Feed Christ's flock', he meaneth even the ministers that were chosen to teach the people, and to inform them in God's word, and no lay persons.
And in the second epistle of John saith the text, Senior electe domine et filits ejus: "The elder unto the elect lady and to her children"'.
And in the third epistle of John, Senior Gaio dilecto:
'' The elder unto the beloved Gaius".
In these two epistles presbyteros is called an elder.
And in Acts, chap. xx., the text saith:
'' Paul sent for majores natu ecclesia, the elders in birth of the congregation or church and said unto them, Take heed unto yourselves, and unto the whole flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you episcopos ad regendum ecclesiam Dei", bishops, or overseers, to govern the church of God.
There is presbytieros called an elder in birth; which same immediately is called a bishop or overseer, to declare what persons are meant.
Hereof ye see that I have no more erred than their own text, which they have used since the scripture was first in the Latin tongue, and that their own text understandeth by presbyteros nothing save an elder. And they were called elders, because of their age, gravity and sadness, as thou mayest see by the text; and bishops, or overseers, by the reason of their offices. And all that were called elders
(or priests, if they so will) were called bishops also, though they have divided the names now: which thing thou mayest evidently see by the first chapter of Titus, and Acts xx., and other places more.
There is a word called in Latin sacerdos, in Greek /ereus, in Hebrew cohan, that is, a minister, an officer, a sacrificer or a priest; as Aaron was a priest, and sacrificed for the people, and was a mediator between God and them. And in the English should it have had some other name than priest.
But Antichrist hath deceived us with unknown and strange terms, to bring us into confusion and superstitious blindness.
Of that manner is Christ a priest for ever; and all we priests through him, and need no more of any such priest on earth, to be a
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mean for us unto God. For Christ hath brought us all into the inner temple, within the veil or forehanging, and unto the mercy-stool of God, and hath coupled us unto God; where we offer, every man for himself, the desires and petitions of his heart, and sacrifice and kill the lusts and appetites of his flesh, with prayer, fasting, and all manner godly living.
Another word is there in Greek, called presbyter, in Latin senior, in English an elder, and is nothing but an officer to teach, and not to be a mediator between God and us.
6. THe MINISTRY OF WOMEN
Since all Christians are priests, women are kept from the Seige! by law rather than by oe inherent ieee
Wanen ie no meet Ae to ie or to ope o both are forbidden them; yet hath God endowed them with his
Spirit at sundry times, and showed his power and goodness upon them, and wrought wonderful things by them, because he would not have them despised. We read that women have judged all Israel, and have been great prophetesses, and have done mighty deeds.
Yea, and if stories be true, women have preached since the opening of the new testament.
Do not our women now christen and minister the sacrament of baptism in time of need?
Might they not, by a good reason, preach also, if necessity required?
If a woman were driven into some island, where Christ was never preached, might she there not preach him, if she had the gift thereto?
Might she not also baptize? And why might she not, by the same reason, minister the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, and teach them how to choose officers and ministers?
O poor women, how despise ye them! The viler the better welcome unto you. An whore had ye lever than an honest wife.
If only shaven and anointed may do these things, then Christ did them not, nor any of his apostles, nor any man in long time after: for they used no such ceremonies.
Notwithstanding, though God be under no law, and
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necessity lawless; yet-be we under a law, and ought to prefer the men before the women, and age before youth, as nigh as we can.
For it is against the law of nature that young men should rule the elder, and as uncomely as that women should rule the men, but when need requireth.
"THE AUTHORITY OF THE PREACHER
It does not follow, either from the priesthood of the laity or from the common possession of faith, that preaching is not to be controlled by some authority.
Every man then may be a common preacher, thou wilt say, and preach every where by his own authority.
Nay, verily; no man may yet be a common preacher, save he that is called and chosen thereto by the common ordinance of the congregation, as long as the preacher teacheth the true word of God. But every private man ought to be, in virtuous living, both light and salt to his neighbour: insomuch that the poorest ought to strive to overrun the bishop, and preach to him in ensample of living.
Moreover every man ought to preach in word and deed unto his household, and to them that are under his governance, &c. And though no man may preach openly, save he that hath the office committed unto him, yet ought every man to endeavour himself to be as well learned as the preacher, as nigh as it is possible. And every man may privately inform his neighbour; yea, and the preacher and bishop too, if need be.
For if the preacher preach wrong, then may any man, whatsoever he be, rebuke him; first privately, and then, if that help not, to complain farther. And when all is proven according to the order of charity, and yet none amendment had, then ought every man that can to resist him, and to stand by Christ's doctrine, and to jeopard life and all for it.
8-11.
The Sacraments Tindale's sacramental theology is set out at length in a late work, A Brief Declaration of the Sacraments.
Another
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treatise, The Supper of the Lord, can perhaps, but by no means certainly, be ascribed to him.
Sacraments, in his eyes, have two distinctive marks:
1. they are based on a scriptural promise; 2. they are signs which minister the Spirit by preaching the word, (See p. 43.) 8.
'TINDALE's VIEWS IN OUTLINE
I pass over with silence the wicked and damnable doctrine of these servants of mammon, which for lucre pervert the true use of the sacrament, and hide it from the people for their gain, teaching it to be a sacrifice instituted of God to help the souls of the dead in purgatory, and that it will make men rich, and bring them to such promotion as Christ never promised his disciples, but forbade it them.
Some will say, This sacrament needed not, baptism is enough; baptism is a receiving into religion, and there is the covenants made, what we shall do and what we shall have: and baptism is a sign whereby God hath right to us, and we to God and to Christ; and whereby every man hath right to call other to do their duties, and to rebuke them that will not.
Neither our salvation so greatly standeth in that or any other sacrament, that we could not be saved without them, by preaching the word only.
Nevertheless God hath written his will, to have his benefits kept in memory, to his glory and our benefit, and namely this benefit of all benefits, wherein only the pith of our salvation resteth.
Therefore though the effect of it be signified by baptism, and though we be baptized to believe in the death of Christ, and to die with him by the mortifying of the flesh; yet doth this sacrament, through the rehearsing of the covenant, and breaking of the bread, and pouring out of wine, much more lively express the whole story, and keep it better in memory, by daily repeating thereof, and hath more might and vehemency to heal the conscience stung with fresh sin.
For the nature of man is so weak, so feeble, and so frail, that he cannot but sin, as there is no man that liveth and sinneth not.
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And when he is so fallen, then the law looketh upon him with so terrible a countenance, and so thundereth in his ears, that he dare not abide, but turneth his back and to go; and the enemy assaileth him on the other side, to persuade him that God hath cast him away, saying, '' They that be God's have power to keep his law: thou hast not, but breakest them; ergo, thou art a cast-away and a damned creature": and hell gapeth, and setteth open her mouth beneath to devour him.
And the flesh also wrestleth with the spirit, to keep him down, and to take him prisoner, and to stop his mouth, that he cry no more upon her, that she might sin at pleasure without all fear.
The careless swine, that consent unto sin, feel not these things; neither yet the hypocrites, that have put a visard on the face of the law, and make her look with such a countenance as pleaseth them: but the poor folks, that have the eyes open, and consent, and fain would do the law, they feel that cannot be expressed with tongue.
Neither is there living any man, that feeleth the virtue and power of the blood of Christ, which hath not first felt the strong pains of hell.
Seeing then that man is so sick, so prone and ready to fall, and so cruelly invaded when he hath sinned of the fiend, the flesh, and the law, that he is oft put to flight, and feared and made to run away from his Father; therefore hath the God of all mercy, and of infinite pity and bottomless compassion, set up this sacrament as a sign on a high hill, whence it may be seen on every side, afar and near, to call again them that be fled and run away. And with this sacrament he (as it were) clucketh to them, as an hen doth for her chickens, to gather them under the wings of his mercy; and hath commanded his sacrament to be had in continual use, to put them in mind of mercy laid up for them in Christ's blood, and to witness and testify it unto them, and to be the seal thereof.
For the sacrament doth much more vehemently print lively the faith, and make it sink down into the heart, than do bare words only: as a man is more sure of that he heareth, seeth, feeleth, smelleth and tasteth, than that he heareth only.
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Now when the words of the testament and promises are spoken over the bread, " This is my body that shall be broken for you", "This is my blood that shall be shed for you''; they confirm the faith: but much more when the sacrament is seen with the eyes, and the bread broken, the wine poured out or looked on; and yet more when I taste it and smell it.
As ye see when a man maketh a promise to another with light words between themselves, and as they be departed, he to whom the promise is made beginneth to doubt whether the other spake earnestly or mocked, and doubteth whether he will remember his promise, to bide by it or not: but when any man speaketh with advisement and deliberation, the words are then more credible; but yet if he swear, it confirmeth the thing more; and yet the more if he strike hands, if he give earnest, if he call record, if he give his hand-writing, and seal it; so is the promise more and more believed.
For the heart gathereth, '"' Lo, he spake with advisement and deliberation; and with good sadness he sware; he clapped hands, called records, and put to his hand and seal: the man cannot be so feigned without the fear of God, as to deny all this; shame shall make him bide by his promise, though he were such a man that I could not compel him if he would deny it." Ifa young man break a ring between him and a maid; doth not the fact testify and make a presumption to all men, that his heart meant as his words spake?
Manoah, Samson's father, when he had seen an angel, Judg. xiii. he said to his wife, "' We shall surely die, because we have seen the Lord''.
But his wife gathered other comfort of the circumstances, and said, "If the Lord would kill us, he would not have received such offerings of our hands, nor shewed us such things as he hath, nor told us of things to come''.
Even so our hearts gather of the circumstances, protestations, and other miracles and earnest ceremonies of God, good arguments and reasons, to stablish our weak faith withal, such as we could not gather at bare words only.
And thus we dispute: God sent his Son in our nature, and made him feel all our infirmities that move us to sin; and
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named him Jesus, that is to say, Saviour, because he should save his people from their sins, Matt. i. And after his death he sent his apostles to preach the things or tidings, and to thrust it in at the ears of us, and set up a sacrament of it, to testify it, to be a seal of it, to thrust it in, not at the ears only by the rehearsing of the promises and testament over it, neither at our eyes only. in beholding it, but beat it in through our feeling, tasting and smelling also; and to be repeated daily, and to be ministered to us. He would not (think we) make half so much ado with us if he loved us not, or if he would not have us fain come, and be as merciful to us as he was to his friends in the old time, that fell and rose again. God so then used to the Jews (to whom all ceremonies were first given, and from whom they came to us) even such fashions as they used among themselves, in all his promises and covenants, not for his necessity, but for ours; that such things should be a witness and testimony between him and us, to confirm the faith of his promise, that we should not waver nor doubt in them, when we look on the seals of his obligations, wherewith he hath bound himself; and to keep the promises and covenants better in mind, and to make them the more deep sink into our hearts, and to be more earnestly regarded, and that we should ask what such things meant, and why God commanded them to be observed; that ignorance should not excuse, if we know not what we ought to do and believe: for natural reason ought to teach us that the outward, corporal and bodily thing cannot help the spiritual soul, and that God hath not delectation in such fantasy. Now if we were diligent to search for the good will of God, and would ask what such ceremonies meant, it were impossible but then God (which hath promised, Matt. vii. '' If we seek we shall find"), would send us true interpreters of his signs or sacraments. g. 'THE THIRD Part"
Tindale has just summarized the views of the Roman Church (Transubstantiation) and of the Lutherans (Consubstantiation).
The third part—his own—rejects both, but
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° . ce
" recognizes a real efficacy in the sacrament.
Note "daily "'.
The third sort affirm, that the words mean no more but only that we believe, by the things that are there shewed, that Christ's body was broken and his blood shed for our sins, if we will forsake our sins and turn to God to keep his law. And they say that these sayings, "' This is my body", and, " This is my blood", showing bread and wine, are true as Christ meant them, and as the people of that country, to whom
Christ spake, were accustomed to understand such words, and as the scripture useth in a thousand places to speak. As when one of us saith, "I have drunk a cup of good wine", that saying is true as the man meant; that he drank wine only, and not the cup; which words haply, in some other nation's ears, would sound that he drank the cup too.
Again, seeing the faith of the testament in Christ's blood is the life of the righteous, from the beginning of the world to the end; and forasmuch as the sacrament was instituted only to bring to this life; now when they which think not the body to be present in the sacrament have by the preaching and confirmation of the sacrament obtained this life or stedfast faith in Christ's blood, and by the daily use of the sacrament are more and more hardened therein, and in the love that springeth thereof; what reasonable cause have the _ contrary part (which believe the body present, and bread turned into the very body as flesh, bones, hair, sinews, nails, and all other, as he was put on the cross, of length and quantity,
I cannot tell what) to rail on us as heretics, hate, persecute, and slay us most cruelly as enemies?
1o.
'' More:
ITEM, THAT THE HOsT Is NO
SACRIFICE "'
Christ is no more killed.
It is therefore the sacrament, sign, and memorial of that sacrifice wherewith Christ offered his body for our sins, and commanded, saying, '' This do in the remembrance of me".
We be not holp with any visible
\ t
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deed, that the priest there doth, save in that it putteth us in remembrance of Christ's death and passion for our sins.
As the garments and strange holy gestures help us not, but in that they put us in remembrance of things that Christ suffered for us in his passion: even so the shewing, breaking, and eating of the host, the shewing and drinking of the cup of Christ's blood, and the words, and the consecration, help us not a pin, nor are God's service; save only in that they stir up our repenting faith, to call to mind the death and passion of Christ for our sins.
And therefore to call it a sacrifice is but abused speech: as when we call one, that is new come home, to breakfast, and set a capon before him, and say, "' This is your welcome home'"'; meaning yet by that speech that it
'is but a sign of the love of mine heart, which rejoiceth and is glad that he is come home safe and sound.
And even so is this but the memorial of the very sacrifice of Christ, once done for all.
And if ye would no otherwise mean, ye shall have my good will to call it so still; or if ye can shew me a reason of some other meaning.
11.
'TINDALE'S SUGGESTION FOR AN ORDER OF
HoLty CoMMUNION This passage is taken from The Supper of the Lord, which More at least thought to be Tindale's.
Notice here " once or twice in the week "'.
This holy sacrament therefore, would God it were restored unto the pure use, as the apostles used it in their time!
Would God the secular princes, which should be the very pastors and head rulers of their congregations, committed unto their cure, would first command or suffer the true preachers of God's word to preach the gospel purely and plainly, with discreet liberty, and constitute over each particular parish such curates as can and would preach the word, and that once or twice in the week, appointing unto their flock certain days, after their discretion and zeal to God-ward, to come together to celebrate the Lord's supper!
At the which assembly the
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curate would propone and declare them, first, this text of Paul, I Cor. xi: "So oft as ye shall eat this bread, and drink of this cup, see that ye be joyous, praise, and give thanks, preaching the death of the Lord "', &c.: which declared, and every one exhorted to prayer, he would preach them purely Christ to have died and been offered upon the altar of the cross for their redemption; which only oblation to be sufficient sacrifice, to _peace the Father's wrath, and to purge all the sins of the world.
Then to excite them with all humble diligence, every man unto the knowledge of himself and his sins, and to believe and trust to the forgiveness in Christ's blood; and for this so incomparable benefit of our redemption (which were sold bondmen to sin), to give thanks unto God the Father for so merciful a deliverance through the death of Jesus Christ, every one, some singing, and some saying devoutly, some or other psalm, or prayer of thanksgiving, in the mother tongue.
Then, the bread and wine set before them, in the face of the church, upon the table of the Lord, purely and honestly laid, let him declare to the people the significations of those sensible signs; what the action and deed moveth, teacheth, and exhorteth them unto; and that the bread and wine be no profane common signs, but holy sacraments, reverently to be considered, and received with a deep faith and remembrance of Christ's death, and of the shedding of his blood for our sins; those sensible things to represent us the very body and blood of Christ, so that while every man beholdeth with his corporal eye those sensible sacraments, the inward eye of his faith may see, and believe stedfastly, Christ offered and dying upon the cross for his sins, how his body was broken and his blood shed for us, and hath given himself whole for us, himself to be all ours, and whatsoever he did to serve us, as to be made for us, of his Father, our righteousness, our wisdom, holiness, redemption, satisfaction, &c.
Then let this preacher exhort them lovingly to draw near unto this table of the Lord, and that not only bodily, but also, their hearts purged by faith, garnished with love and innocency, every man to forgive each other unfeignedly, and
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to express, or at leastwiSe to endeavour them to follow, that love which Christ did set before our eyes at his last supper, when he offered himself willingly to die for us his enemies; which incomparable love to commend, bring in Paul's arguments, so that thus this flock may come together, and be joined into one body, one spirit, and one people.
This done, let him come down, and, accompanied honestly with other ministers, come forth reverently unto the Lord's table, the congregation now set round about it, and also in their other convenient seats, the pastor exhorting them all to pray for grace, faith, and love, which all this sacrament signifieth and putteth them in mind of. Then let there be read apertly and distinctly the sixth chapter of John, in their mother tongue; whereby they may clearly understand, what it is to eat Christ's flesh and to drink his blood. This done, and some brief prayer and praise sung or read, let one or other minister read the eleventh chapter of the first to the Corinthians, that the people might perceive clearly, of those words, the mystery of this
Christ's supper, and wherefore he did institute it.
These with such like preparations. and exhortations had, I would every man present should profess the articles of our faith openly in our mother tongue, and confess his sins secretly unto God; praying entirely that he would now vouchsafe to have mercy upon him, receive his prayers, glue his heart unto him by faith and love, increase his faith, give him grace to forgive and to love his neighbour as himself, to garnish his life with pureness and innocency, and to confirm him in all goodness and virtue.
Then again it behoveth the curate to warn and exhort every man deeply to consider, and expend with himself, the signification and substance of this sacrament, so that he sit not down an hypocrite and a dissembler, since
God is searcher of heart and reins, thoughts and affects; and see that he come not to the holy table of the Lord without that faith which he professed at his baptism, and also that love which the sacrament preacheth and testifieth unto his heart, lest he, now found guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, (that is to wit, a dissembler with Christ's.death, and
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slanderous to the congregation, the body and blood of Christ,) receive his own damnation. And here let every man fall down upon his knees, saying secretly with all devotion their Paternoster in English; their curate, as example, kneeling down before them: which done, let him take the bread and eft the wine in the sight of the people, hearing him with a loud voice, with godly gravity, and after a christian religious reverence, rehearsing distinctly the words of the Lord's supper in their mother tongue; and then distribute it to the ministers, which, taking the bread with great reverence, will divide it to the congregation, every man breaking and reaching it forth to his next neighbour and member of the mystic body of Christ, other ministers following with the cups, pouring forth and dealing them the wine, all together thus being now partakers of one bread and one cup, the thing thereby signified and preached printed fast in their hearts, But in this meanwhile must the minister or pastor be reading the communication that Christ had with his disciples after his supper, beginning at the washing of their feet; so reading till the bread and wine be eaten and drunken, and all the action done: and then let them all fall down on their knees, giving thanks highly unto
God the Father for this benefit and death of his Son, whereby now by faith every man is assured of remission of his sins; as this blessed sacrament had put them in mind, and preached it them in this outward action and supper.
This done, let every man commend and give themselves whole to God, and depart.
NOTES ON SECTION VII
T. is defending his use of '' congregation' for the Greek " ecclesia"'.
Cf. Section II, No. 7. He argues that the word "' church " was so commonly understood to mean the body of clergy, without the laity, that scriptural references to the "' ecclesia'? might be interpreted of the clergy alone, if he continued to translate it by "' church "'.
For T.'s anxiety that differences over sacramental theology should not divide men, see also his letter to John Frith, printed in Section II,
No. 15.
Section VIII Moral 'Teaching and Spiritual Exhortation 1-4. The King and the People. Civil.Obedience
Long before the Reformation there had been tension between the claims to obedience of Church and State, of Pope and King. It is easy to see how naturally the Reformers, in their endeavour to justify the break from the Pope, stressed the duty of submission to the Prince which they found to be taught in Scripture.
Tindale stated this position as strongly as anyone, especially in The Obedience of a Christian Man.
The first extract is a catena of passages from this work.
I God therefore hath given laws unto all nations, and in all lands hath put kings, governors, and rulers in his own stead, to rule the world through them; and hath commanded all causes to be brought before them, as thou readest Exod. XXii.
"Tn all causes (saith he) of injury or wrong, whether it be ox, ass, sheep, or vesture, or any lost thing which another challengeth, let the cause of both parties be brought unto the gods; whom the gods condemn, the same shall pay double unto his neighbour ". Mark, the judges are called gods in the scriptures, because they are in God's room, and execute the commandments of God. And in another place of the said chapter Moses chargeth, saying: "See that thou rail not on the gods, neither speak evil of the ruler of thy people".
Whosoever therefore resisteth them, resisteth God, for they are in the room of God; and they that resist shall receive the damnation.
Such obedience unto father and mother, master, husband,
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emperor, king, lords and rulers, requireth God of all nations, yea, of the very Turks and infidels.
Neither may the inferior person avenge himself upon the superior, or violently resist him, for whatsoever wrong it be.
If he do, he is condemned in the deed-doing; inasmuch as he taketh upon him that which belongeth to God only, which saith, "' Vengeance is mine, and I will reward "'.
Why did not David slay Saul, seeing he was so wicked, not in persecuting David only, but in disobeying God's commandments, and in that he had slain eighty-five of God's priests wrongfully?
Verily, for it was not lawful.
For if he had done it, he must have sinned against God; for God hath made the king in every realm judge over all, and over him is there no judge. He that judgeth the king judgeth God; and he that layeth hands on the king layeth hand on God; and he that resisteth the king resisteth God, and damneth God's law and ordinance.
If the subjects sin, they must be brought to the king's judgment.
If the king sin, he must be reserved unto the judgment, wrath, and vengeance of God.
And as it is to resist the king, so is it to resist his officer, which is set, or sent, to execute the king's commandment.
Hereby seest thou that the king is, in this world, without law; and may at his lust do right or wrong, and shall give accounts but to God only.
Another conclusion is this, that no person, neither any degree, may be exempt from this ordinance of God: neither can the profession of monks and friars, or any thing that the pope or bishops can lay for themselves, except them from the sword of the emperor or kings, if they break the laws. For it is written, " Let every soul submit himself unto the authority of the higher powers'. Here is no man except; but all souls must obey.
The higher powers are the temporal kings and princes; unto whom God hath given the sword, to punish whosoever sinneth.
God hath not given them swords to
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punish one, and to let another go free, and sin unpunished.
Moreover, with what face durst the spiritualty, which ought to be the light and an ensample of good living unto all other, desire to sin unpunished, or to be excepted from tribute, toll, or custom, that they would not bear pain with their brethren to the maintenance of kings and officers, ordained of God tu punish sin?
"There is no power but of God".
By power understand the authority of kings and princes.
'"' The powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth power, resisteth God": yea, though he be pope, bishop, monk, or friar.
'' They that resist shall receive unto themselves damnation".
Why?
For God's word is against them, which will have all men under the power of the temporal sword: for "rulers are not to be feared for good works, but for evil". Hereby seest thou that they that resist the powers, or seek to be exempt from their authority, have evil consciences; and seek liberty to sin unpunished, and to be free from bearing pain with their brethren.
'' Wilt thou be without fear of the power?
So do well, and thou shalt have laud of the same "', that is to say, of the ruler. With good living ought the spiritualty to rid themselves from fear of the temporal sword; and not with craft, and with blinding the kings, and bringing the vengeance of God upon them, and in purchasing licence to sin unpunished.
" For he is the minister of God for thy wealth": to defend thee from a thousand inconveniences, from thieves, murderers, and them that would defile thy wife, thy daughter, and take from thee all that thou hast, yea, life and all, if thou didst resist.
Furthermore, though he be the greatest tyrant in the world, yet is he unto thee a great benefit of God, and a thing wherefore thou oughtest to thank God highly. For it is better to have somewhat, than to be clean stript out of all together.
It is better to pay the tenth than to lose all.
It is better to suffer one tyrant than many, and to suffer wrong of one than of every man.
Yea, and it is better to have a tyrant unto thy king than a shadow; a passive king that doth nought himself, but suffereth others to do with him what they will, and to
(F 435)
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lead him whither they list. For a tyrant, though he do wrong unto the good, yet he punisheth the evil, and maketh all men obey, neither suffereth any man to poll but himself only. A king that is soft as silk, and effeminate, that is to say, turned into the nature of a woman,—what with his own lusts, which are as the longing of a woman with child, so that he cannot resist them, and what with the wily tyranny of them that ever rule him,—shall be much more grievous unto the realm than a right tyrant.
Read the chronicles, and thou shalt find it ever So.
; 'But and if thou do evil, then fear; for he beareth not a sword for nought: for he is the minister of God, to take vengeance on them that do evil."
If the office of princes, given them of God, be to take vengeance of evil doers; then, by this text and God's word, are all princes damned, even as many as give liberty or licence unto the spiritualty to sin unpunished; and not only to sin unpunished themselves, but also to open sanctuaries, privileged places, churchyards, St. John's hold; yea, and if they come too short unto all these, yet to set forth a neck-verse to save all manner trespassers from the fear of the sword of the vengeance of God, put in the hands of princes to take vengeance on all such.
So, if we resist evil rulers, seeking to set ourselves at liberty, we shall, no doubt, bring ourselves into more evil bondage, and wrap ourselves in much more misery and wretchedness.
For if the heads overcome, then lay they more weight on their backs, and make their yoke sorer, and tie them shorter.
If they overcome their evil rulers, then make they way for a more cruel nation, or for some tyrant of their own nation, which hath no right unto the crown.
If we submit ourselves unto the chastising of God, and meekly knowledge our sins for which we are scourged, and kiss the rod, and amend our living; then will God take the rod away, that is, he will give the rulers a better heart. Or if they continue their malice and persecute you for well-doing, and because ye put your trust in God, then will God deliver you out of their tyranny for
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his truth's sake.
It is the same God now that was in the old time, and delivered the fathers and the prophets, the apostles, and other holy saints.
And whatsoever he sware to them he hath sworn to us. And as he delivered them out of all temptation, cumbrance, and adversity, because they consented and submitted themselves unto his will, and trusted in his goodness and truth; even so will he do to us, if we do likewise.
Let Christian kings therefore keep their faith and truth, and all lawful promises and bonds, not one with another only, but even with the Turk or whatsoever infidel it be.
For so it is right before God; as the scriptures and ensamples of the bible testify. Whosoever voweth an unlawful vow, promiseth an unlawful promise, sweareth an unlawful oath, sinneth against God, and ought therefore to break it. He needeth not sue to Rome for a licence; for he hath God's word, and not a licence only, but also a commandment to break it.
They therefore that are sworn to be true to cardinals and bishops, that is to say, false unto God, the king, and the realm, may break their oaths lawfully, without grudge of conscience, by the authority of God's word. In making them they sinned; but in repenting and breaking them they please God highly, and receive forgiveness in Christ.
Thou wilt haply say:
'"' The subjects ever choose the ruler, and make him swear to keep their law, and to maintain their privileges and liberties, and upon that submit their selves unto him: ergo, if he rule amiss, they are not bound to obey; but may resist him, and put him down again."
I answer:
Your argument is naught.
For the husband sweareth to his wife; yet though he forswear himself, she hath no power to compel him.
Also though a master keep not covenant with his servant, or one neighbour with another, yet hath neither servant, no, nor yet neighbour (though he be under none
WILLIAM TINDALE
obedience) power to avenge; but the vengeance pertaineth ever to an higher officer, to whom thou must complain.
"Yea, but," you will say, "it is not like.
For the whole body of the subjects choose the ruler.
Now cujus est ligare, ejus est solvere: ergo, if he rule amiss, they that set him up may put him down again."
I answer:
God, and not the common people, chooseth the prince; though he choose him by them. For God commandeth to choose and set up officers; and therefore is God the chief chooser and setter up of them: and so must he be the chief putter down of them again; so that without his special commandment they may not be put down again. Now hath God given no commandment to put them down again: but contrariwise, when we have anointed a king over us at his commandment, he saith, "Touch not mine anointed "'.
4. THE Two REGIMENTS
In his exposition of St. Matthew v, 38-42, Tindale shows that he is aware of difficulties in his political theory. Perhaps few readers will feel that he has solved them in the argument here summarized in his own words.
Ye must understand that there be two states or degrees in this world: the kingdom of heaven, which is the regiment of the gospel; and the kingdom of this world, which is the temporal regiment.
In the first state there is neither father, mother, son, daughter; neither master, mistress, maid, manservant, nor husband, nor wife, nor lord, nor subject, nor man, nor woman: but Christ is all; and each to other is Christ himself.
'There is none better than other; but all like good, all brethren, and Christ only is Lord over all.
Neither is there any other thing to do, or other law, save to love one another as Christ loved us. In the temporal regiment is husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, master, mistress, maid, manservant, lord, and subject.
Now is every person a double person; and under both the
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regiments.
In the first regiment, thou art a person for thine own self, under Christ and his doctrine, and mayest neither hate nor be angry, and much less fight or avenge; but must after the ensample of Christ humble thyself, forsake and deny thyself, and hate thyself, and cast thyself away, and be meek and patient, and let every man go over thee, and tread thee under foot and do thee wrong; and yet love them, and pray for them, as Christ did for his crucifiers.
For love is all; and what is not of love, that is damnable, and cast out of that kingdom.
In the temporal regiment, thou art a person in respect of other; thou art an husband, father, mother, master, mistress, lord, ruler, or wife, son, daughter, servant, subject, &c.
And there thou must do according to thine office.
If thou be a father, thou must do the office of a father, and rule, or else thou damnest thyself. Thou must bring all under obedience, whether by fair means or foul. Thou must have obedience of thy wife, of thy servants, and of thy subjects; and the other must obey.
If they will not obey with love, thou must chide and fight, as far as the law of God and the law of the land will suffer thee.
And when thou canst not rule them, thou art bound in many cases to deliver them unto the higher officer, of whom thou didst take the charge over them.
Moreover when I say, there be two regiments, the spiritual and the temporal; even so I say that every person, baptized to keep the law of God and to believe in Christ, is under both the regiments, and is both a spiritual person and also a temporal, and under the officers of both the regiments; so that the king is as deep under the spiritual officer, to hear out of God's word what he ought to believe, and how to live, and how to rule, as is the poorest beggar in the realm.
And even so the spiritual officer, if he sin against his neighbour, or teach false doctrine, is under the king's or temporal correction, how high soever he be. And look, how damnable it is for the king to withdraw himself from the obedience of the spiritual officer, that is to say, from hearing his duty to do it, and from hearing
WILLIAM TINDALE
his vices rebuked to amend them; so damnable is it for the spiritual officer, how high soever he be, to withdraw himself from under the king's correction, if he teach false, or sin against any temporal law.
5-6. Economic Life 5. 'THE Duty or LANDLORDS "'
Let Christian landlords be content with their rent and old customs; not raising the rent or fines, and bringing up new customs to oppress their tenants; neither letting two or three tenantries unto one man. Let them not take in their commons, neither make parks nor pastures of whole parishes: for God gave the earth to man to inhabit; and not unto sheep and wild deer. Be as fathers unto your tenants: yea, be unto them as Christ was unto us, and show unto them all love and kindness.
Whatsoever business is among them, be not partial, favouring one more than another.
The complaints, quarrels, and strife that are among them, count diseases of sick people; and, as a merciful physician, heal them with wisdom and good counsel.
Be pitiful and tender-hearted unto them, and let not one of thy tenants tear out another's throat; but judge their causes indifferently, and compel them to make their ditches, hedges, gates, and ways.
For even for such causes were ye made landlords; and for such causes paid men rent at the beginning.
For if such an order were not, one should slay another, and all should go to waste.
If thy tenant shall labour and toil all the year, to pay thee thy rent, and when he hath bestowed all his labour, his neighbours' cattle shall devour his fruits; how tedious and bitter should his life be! See therefore that ye do your duties again; and suffer no man to do them wrong, save the king only.
If he do wrong, then must they abide God's judgment.
LENDING Concerning merchandise and chapmen, the less borrowing were among them, the better should the commonwealth be:
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if it were possible, I would it were, ware for ware; or money for ware; or part money and part ware.
But if it will not be, but that a man, to get his living with, must needs lend, and call for it again, to find his household, and to pay his debts; then in the lending be first single and harmless as a dove, and then as wise as a serpent; and take heed to whom thou lendest.
If when thou hast lent an honest man, God visit him, and take away his goods, with what chance it be, whether by sea or land, that he is not able to pay thee; then to prison him, or to sue him at the law, or once to speak an unkind word, were against the law of love, and contrary to showing mercy. There thou must suffer with thy neighbour and brother, as Christ did with thee, and as God doth daily. If an unthrift have beguiled thee, and spent thy goods away, and hath not to pay, then hold thine hand and heart, that thou avenge not thyself; but love him, and pray for him, and remember how
God hath promised to bless the patient and meek.
Nevertheless, because such persons corrupt the common manners, and cause the name of God the less to be feared, men ought to complain upon such persons to the officer that is ordained of God to punish evil doers, and the officer is bound to punish them.
7. MARRIAGE
Christ's apostles considered all infirmities, and all that might hinder the doctrine of Christ, and therefore did their
| best to prevent all occasions.
Wherefore, as fish is no better than flesh, nor flesh better than fish, in the kingdom of Christ; even so virginity, wedlock, and widow-head, are none better than other, to be saved by, in their own nature, or to please
God withal; but with whatsoever I may best serve my brethren, that is ever best, according unto the time and fashion of the world.
In persecution it is good for every man to live chaste, if he can, and namely for the preacher. In peace, when a man may live quietly, and abide in one place, a wife is a sure thing to cut off occasions.
WILLIAM TINDALE
Tue Kinc's DIVORCE In his exposition of St. Matthew v, 31-32 (P.S. ii., 51-55), Tindale shows himself willing to allow divorce in certain circumstances.
Arguing that Scripture does not cover the whole ground, and making a good deal of the Pauline exception
(I Cor. vii, 15), he declares that the problem, which closely affects the social order, is one for the temporal power.
In dealing with Henry VIII's " divorce', he decides that Scripture is not against his marriage with Catherine, and that consequently there is no ground for the "' divorce". This decision, in which he differed from most of the English reformers, lost him any royal favour which the Obedience may have procured.
If the king's most noble grace will needs have another wife, then let him search the laws of God, whether it be lawful or not; forasmuch as he himself is baptized to keep the laws of God, and hath proposed them and hath sworn them.
If the law of God suffer it, then let his grace put forth a little treatise in print, and even in the English tongue, that all men may see it, for his excuse and the defence of his deed, and say,
"' Lo, by the authority of God's word do I this".
And then let not his grace be afraid either of the emperor, or of his lords, or of his commons and subjects: for God hath promised to keep them that keep his laws.
If we care to keep his laws, he will care for the keeping of us, for the truth of his promises.
If it be found unlawful, then let his grace fear God, and cease to shame himself and his blood, his lords, his subjects, and his realm, and specially the blessed name of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, and his holy doctrine, and the profession of our faith: for whosoever professeth the faith of Christ, and liveth contrary unto his doctrine, shameth the name of our Saviour
Jesus Christ.
Moreover whatsoever God coupled, man may not loose, no, though he name himself pope.
Wherefore, if this marriage be of God, the pope cannot dispense with it: for God hath given no power against himself; but to preach his ordinances only hath he given power. Therefore if he will
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see what is right and what is wrong, let us. bring it unto the light of God's law, and let us submit our causes unto the judgment thereof, and be content to have our appetites slain thereby, that we lust no farther than God's ordinance giveth us liberty.
[Here T. discusses the clash between Leviticus xviii,
and Deuteronomy xxv, 5, deciding that Leviticus applies only while a man's brother is alive.
He is led on to argue that "' the marriage of the brother with the sister is not so grievous against the law of nature "' as certain other degrees, e.g. uncle and niece.
If political circumstances demanded it, the marriage of brother and sister might take place.] Wherefore, if greater peace and unity might be made with keeping her at home, I durst dispense with it: as, if the king of England had a son by one wife, heir to England, and a daughter by another, heir to Wales; then, because of the great war that was ever wont to be between those two countries,
I would not fear to marry them together, for the making of a perpetual unity, and to make both countries one, for to avoid so great effusion of blood.
For which cause, I would God that our princess had been married unto the king of Scots.
And I doubt not but that had been concluded long ago, if it had been as greatly unto the profit of the pope and his pilpates,
(I would say prelates,) as it were to the honour of God.
But it is not profitable for them that any kingdom should be strong and mighty, lest, if God should open the eyes of the king, the pope should have too much ado to resist him, and to send in other kings upon him, to conquer his realm.
I did my diligence a long season, to know what reasons our holy prelates should make for their divorcement; but I could not come by them.
I searched what might be said for their part, but I could find no lawful cause of myself, by any scripture that I ever read:
I communed with divers learned men of the matter, which also could tell me no other way than I have showed.
Then I considered the falsehood of our spiritualty, how that it is but their old practice, and a common custom; yea, and a sport to separate matrimony, for to make division
WILLIAM TINDALE
where such marriage made unity and peace. Wherefore I could not but declare my mind, to discharge my conscience withal ; which thing I had done long since, if I could have brought it to pass. Howbeit, I had lever now do it at the last, than that any man should cast me in the teeth in time to come, when this old marriage were broken, and a new made, why I had not spoken rather? Neither can the king's grace, or any other christian man, of right be discontent with me.
For it is not possible that any person baptized in the heart with repentance of evil, and with faith of forgiveness in the blood cf Christ, and stedfast purpose and profession of heart to walk henceforth after the steps of Christ, in the law of God, should once desire or will to do aught openly, with long deliberation, that he would not have compared with the law of God, to see whether it were right or not.
9-13. Spiritual Exhortation g.
PRIVATE PRAYER
Prayer is a mourning, a longing, and a desire of the spirit to God-ward, for that which she lacketh; as a sick man mourneth and sorroweth in his heart, longing for health.
Faith ever prayeth. For after that by faith we are reconciled to God, and have received mercy and forgiveness of God, the spirit longeth and thirsteth for strength to do the will of God, and that God may be honoured, his name hallowed, and his pleasure and will fulfilled. The spirit waiteth and watcheth on the will of God, and ever hath her own fragility and weakness before her eyes; and when she seeth temptation and peril draw nigh, she turneth to God, and to the testament that God hath made to all that believe and trust in Christ's blood; and desireth God for his mercy and truth, and for the love he hath to Christ, that he will fulfil his promise, and that he will succour, and help, and give us strength, and that he will sanctify his name in us, and fulfil his godly will in us, and that he will not look on our sin and iniquity, but on his mercy, on his truth, and on the love that he oweth to his Son Christ; and for his sake to keep us
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from temptation, that we be not overcome; and that he deliver us from evil, and whatsoever moveth us contrary to his godly will.
Moreover, of his own experience he feeleth other men's need, and no less commendeth to God the infirmities of other than his own, knowing that there is no strength, no help, no succour, but of God only.
Io.
PusBLic PRAYER Of entering into the chamber and shutting the door to, I say as above, (of that the left hand should not know what the right hand doth,) the meaning is, that we should avoid all worldly praise and profit, and pray with a single eye and true intent according to God's word; and it is not forbidden thereby to pray openly. For we must have a place to come together, to pray in general, to thank and to cry to God for the common necessities, as well as to preach the word of God in: where the priest ought to pray in the mother tongue, that the name of God may be hallowed, and his word faithfully taught and truly understood, and faith and godly living increased; and for the king and rulers, that God will give them his Spirit, to love the commonwealth; and for peace, that God will defend us from all enemies; for wedering and fruits, that God will keep away pestilence and all plagues. And the priest should be an example to the people how they should pray.
There be, of such things as the priests and other babble (and not pray), many good collects, that should much edify the people, if they were spoken in the mother tongue. And then, while the priests sing psalms, let every man pray privately, and give God thanks for such benefits as his heart knoweth he hath received of God, and commend to God his private necessities, and the private necessities of his neighbours which he knoweth, and is privy to.
But our hirelings have no God's word, but trust in the multitude of words, length of babbling, and pain of body, as
WILLIAM TINDALE
bond servants: neither know they any other virtue to be in prayer; as ye may see by the ordinances of all foundations.
King Henry the Fifth built Sion, and the Charterhouse of Shene on the other side of the water, of such a manner that lip-labour may never cease.
For when the friars of Sion ring out, the nuns begin; and when the nuns ring out of service, the monks on the other side begin; and when they ring out, the friars begin again, and vex themselves night and day, and take pain for God's sake; for which God must give them heaven. Yea, and I have known of some ere this, that for very pain and tediousness have bidden the devil take their founders.
11.
'TRIBULATION
This mourning is that cross without which was never any disciple of Christ, or ever shall be.
For of whatsoever state or degree thou be in this world, if thou profess the gospel, there followeth thee a cross (as warmness accompanieth the sun shining), under which thy spirit shall groan and mourn secretly, not only because the world and thine own flesh carry thee away, clean contrary to the purpose of thine heart; but also to see and behold the wretchedness and misfortunes of thy brethren, for which (because thou lovest them as well as thyself) thou shalt mourn and sorrow no less than for thyself.
Though thou be king or emperor, yet if thou knowest Christ, and God through Christ, and intendest to walk in the sight of God, and to minister thine office truly, thou shalt (to keep justice with all) be compelled to do daily that, which thou art no less loath to do than if thou shouldest cut off arm, hand, or any other member of thine own body.
Yea, and if thou wilt follow the right way, and neither turn on the right hand nor on the left, thou shalt have immediately thine own subjects, thine own servants, thine own lords, thine own counsellors, and thine own prophets thereto, against thee; unto whose froward malice and stubbornness, thou shalt be compelled to permit a thousand things against thy conscience, not able to resist them, at which thine heart shall bleed inwardly;
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and shalt sauce thy~sweet sops, which the world weeneth thou hast, with sorrows enough; and still mourning, studying either alone, or else with a few friends secretly night and day, and sighing to God for help to mitigate the furious frowardness of them whom thou art not able to withstand, that all go not after the will of the ungodly. What was David compelled to suffer all the days of his life of his own servants, the sons of Zeruiah, besides the mischances of his own children!
And how was our king John forsaken of his own lords, when he would have put a good and godly reformation in his own land!
How was Henry the second compassed in like manner of his own prelates, whom he had promoted of nought, with the secret conspiracy of some of his own temporal lords with them!
I spare to speak of the mourning of the true preachers, and the poor common people which have none other help, but the secret hand of God, and the word of his promise.
12.
Love anp Law Now all God's laws are contained in these two points; believe in Christ, and love thy neighbour.
And these two points are the interpreting and expounding of all laws: so that whatsoever edifieth in faith and love, is to be kept as long as it so doth; and whatsoever hurteth faith or love, is to be broken immediately, though bishop, king, emperor, or an angel command it. And all indifferent things, that neither help nor hurt faith and love, are whole in the hands of father, mother, master, lord and prince.
So that if they will sin against God, and overlade our backs, we may well run away, if we can escape; but not avenge ourselves.
But and if they will break into thy conscience, as the bishop of Rome doth with his dumb traditions, and saith, "' To do this saveth thy soul, and to leave it undone loseth thy soul'; then defy them as the works of antichrist, for they make thee sin against the faith that is in Christ's blood, by which only thy soul is saved, and for lack of that only damned. And how love breaketh the law, take an example.
It is a good law that men come to the church on the Sundays,
WILLIAM TINDALE
to hear God's word, and to receive the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, in remembrance of his benefits, and so to strengthen thy soul for to walk in his love, and in the love of our neighbour for his sake, &c.; yet if my father, mother, or any other that requireth my help be sick, I break that good commandment, to do my duty to my elders or my neighbour.
And thus all laws are under love, and give room to love: and love interpreteth them, yea and breaketh them at a time, though God himself command them.
For love is lord over all laws, and the thing that Christ commanded above all others.
13.
LOvE AND CHRIST
Christ is the cause why I love thee, why I am ready to do the uttermost of my power for thee, and why I pray for thee.
And as long as the cause abideth, so long lasteth the effect: even as it is always day so long as the sun shineth.
Do therefore the worst thou canst unto me, take away my goods, take away my good name; yet as long as Christ remaineth in my heart, so long I love thee not a whit the less, and so long art thou as dear unto me as mine own soul, and so long am I ready to do thee good for thine evil, and so long I pray for thee with all my heart: for Christ desireth it of me, and hath deserved it of me.
Thine unkindness compared unto his kindness is nothing at all; yea, it is swallowed up as a little smoke of a mighty wind, and is no more seen or thought upon.
Moreover that evil which thou didst to me, I receive not of thy hand, but of the hand of God, and as God's scourge to teach me patience, and to nurture me: and therefore have no cause to be angry with thee, more than the child hath to be angry with his father's rod; or a sick man with a sour or bitter medicine that healeth him, or a prisoner with his fetters, or he that is punished lawfully with the officer that punisheth him.
Thus is Christ all, and the whole cause why I love thee.
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NOTES ON SECTION VIII
I Sin unpunished: clergy could only be tried in the spiritual courts, where they were often punished lightly or not at all. Boniface VIII, by the Bull Clericis laicos of 1296, forbade the taxation of clergy or ecclesiastical property without papal permission.
Neck-verse: the privilege of trial by ecclesiastical law in spiritual courts (benefit of clergy) was conceded to all who could read. And it was sufficient to read Psalm 51, v. 1!
T. several times argues that an oath to do wrong should not be kept. In the Answer to More he writes:
"' If a judge put a man to an oath that he shall answer unto all that he shall be demanded of, he ought to refuse. Howbeit, if he have sworn, and then the wicked judge ask him of things hurtful unto his neighbour, and against the love that is in Christ, then he must repent that he hath sworn; but not sin again to fulfil his oath" (P.S. III, 147).
It is not clear how T. would reconcile this with his normal view of submission to civil authority.
Again, '' Neither can there be any bond where love and necessity requireth the contrary "' (P.S. III, 160, where he applies this principle to vows of chastity).
The same rule governs the keeping of the law; cf. No. 12 of this section, which also conflicts with his usual demand for passive obedience.
Early in the fourteenth century, Marsiglio of Padua taught that sovereignty is vested in the people.
Should they elect a king (as is wise), they could also depose him. Wycliffe put forward the arguments for an elective principle, but preferred a hereditary monarchy and qualified the right of even the good man to disobey the civil ruler, who is responsible not to man but to God. Cf. R. L. Poole, Medieval
Thought and Learning, pp. 235-5 and 253-63.
Commons, parks, pastures: the enclosure of common land and the change from arable to sheep-pasture were proceeding rapidly in the early sixteenth century.
This economic revolution aroused bitter resentment. Compare the grievances in Kett's rebellion, and see also
P.S. II, 328, "' God thinketh it better for his commonwealth that twenty should spent twenty or forty shillings apiece than that one should spend twenty or forty pounds, and nineteen never a whit."
WILLIAM TINDALE
Though the prohibition of usury was constantly evaded, the Church had frowned on commerce, partly because the Church had grown rich when agriculture was predominant, partly for the better reason that commerce tended to develop greed. On this point, T. is conservative.
For the connexion between the Reformation and changes in economic theory and practice, see Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.
Our princess. Mary was first cousin to James V of Scotland.
Io Wedering: weathering, in the obsolete sense of favourable weather.
II Zeruiah: the mother of Abishai, Asahel and Joab (II Samuel, passim).
John: the period from 1207 to 1213, when John opposed Innocent Ill.
Henry's prelates. Becket in particular.
INDEX OF SELECTED PASSAGES
The figures I, II, III refer to the volumes of the Parker Society edition of Tindale.
SECTION I
fig Genesis iii.
Pentateuch, 1530.
2. Genesis xlix, 1-27.
Ss * 3. Exodus vii, 14-25. a Me 4. St. Matthew vi, 19-34.
New Testament, 1525.
5. St. Luke i, 46-55.
= te 1526.
6. St. Luke ii, 8-14. ay 1534.
7. St. Luke xv, 11-32. a ae 1526.
8. Romans iii, 19-28.
1534.
9. 1 Corinthians xiii.
Pr .
1535.
10. Ephesians i, 3-14. ne .
1534.
11. Revelation xxi. a ss 1534.
SECTION II 1. Obedience of a Christian Man.
I, 148-162, with omissions.
2. Answer to More.
TAM oie 3. Answer to More.
III, 166 and 168.
4. Preface to the Five Books of Moses.
I, 392-397.
5. Parable of the Wicked Mammon.
I, 37-39 and 43-44.
6. Epistle to the Reader, New Testament, 1526.
I, 390-391.
7. Answer to More.
IIT, 16.
8. Supplementary Preface to the New Testament, Nov. 1534.
Pollard, Records XXVII.
9. Exposition of Matthew v, vi, vii.
II, 100.
10. Practice of Prelates.
II, 278.
11. Practice of Prelates.
II, 292-293.
12. Practice of Prelates.
II, 307-310.
13. Practice of Prelates.
II, 334-338.
14. Answer to More.
III, 158-159.
15. Letter to John Frith.
Foxe, Acts and Monuments, Tyndale.
16. Letter to John Frith.
Foxe, Acts and Monuments, Tyndale.
17. Letter to Governor of Vilvorde Original in Archives of Prison.
Council of Brabant, Brussels.
Cf. Demaus, Tyndale, p. 437.
(F 435)
INDEX OF SELECTED PASSAGES
SECTION III 1. Exposition of 1 John.
II, 181-182.
2. Practice of Prelates.
II, 249-251.
3. Practice of Prelates.
Il, 282.
4. Practice of Prelates.
II, 286.
5. Obedience of a Christian Man.
I, 273-274.
6. Obedience of a Christian Man.
I, 302-303.
7. Obedience of a Christian Man.
I, 146-148.
8. Practice of Prelates.
II, 276-277.
9g. Obedience of a Christian Man.
I, 235-238.
10. Exposition of Matthew v, vi, vii.
(fis lee 11. Answer to More.
III, 59-63.
12. Prologue to the Prophet Jonas.
I, 450.
13. Exposition of 1 John.
II, 216-217.
14. Parable of the Wicked Mammon.
I, 90-92.
15. Obedience of a Christian Man.
I, 285-286.
16. Obedience of a Christian Man.
I, 276-277.
17. Exposition of 1 John.
II, 218 and 220-221.
18. Obedience of a Christian Man. hoe 19. Exposition of 1 John.
II, 161-162.
SECTION IV
1. Prologue to the Prophet Jonas.
I, 449.
2. Answer to More.
3. Practice of Prelates.
II, 289-291.
4. Answer to More.
III, ro1—102.
5. Answer to More.
AW Ys ee 6. Answer to More.
III, 136-137.
7. Answer to More.
ITI, 48-49.
8. Parable of the Wicked Mammon.
I, 107-108.
9. Prologue to the Prophet Jonas.
I, 464.
10. Obedience of a Christian Man.
I, 303-304.
11. Obedience of a Christian Man.
I, 317-318.
SECTION V
1. Pathway into the Holy Scripture.
I, 14 and 17.
2. Answer to More.
III, 192.
3. Obedience of a Christian Man.
I, 228.
4. Exposition of 1 John.
II, 154-155.
5. Exposition of 1 John.
II, 168.
SECTION VI
1. Parable of the Wicked Mammon.
I, 48-53, with omissions, 57, 76, 89, 100, 102-103, 119.
2. Answer to More.
III, 23.
3. Answer to More.
III, 34-35.
4. Answer to More.
III, 195-197.
INDEX OF SELECTED PASSAGES
= X
SECTION VII
. Answer to More.
III, 30-31.
III, 42, 44, 45.
III, 14 and 158.
III, 16-17.
I, 255-256.
IIT, 18.
T1367
I, 358-362.
I, 368 and 374.
L177.
III, 264-267
. Answer to More.
. Answer to More.
. Answer to More.
Obedience of a Christian Man.
. Answer to More.
. Exposition of Matthew v, vi, vii.
. Brief Declaration of the Sacraments.
. Brief Declaration of the Sacraments.
. Answer to More.
. Supper of the Lord.
MoH HOO ON OUBRW ND H
SECTION VIII
. Obedience of a Christian Man.
I, 174-180, with omissions, al and 196-197.
I, 206.
Te65;
II, 60, 61, 67.
I, 201-202.
II, 69.
III, 157.
IT, 323 and 331-332.
A,03.
. Obedience of a Christian Man.
. Exposition of Matthew v, vi, vii.
. Exposition of Matthew v, vi, vii.
. Obedience of a Christian Man.
. Exposition of Matthew v, vi, vii.
. Answer to More.
. Practice of Prelates.
. Parable of the Wicked Mammon.
. Exposition of Matthew v, vi, vii.
II, 79 and 81.
II, 18-19.
II, 188.
I, 298.
~ 00 CON ANBW ND Il.
I2.
13.
Exposition of Matthew v, vi, vii.
Exposition of 1 John.
; Obedience of a Christian Man.
INDEX
OF PERSONS AND PLACES
Adrian, 116, 122.
Agatha, St., 137, 149.
Alban, St., 133, 149.
Albertus Magnus, 96, 1109.
Alfred, King, 118.
Alken, 21.
Antwerp, 10-2, 14-6, 18-21, 69-70, Canterbury, Archbishop of, 10, 104, 133, 149.
See also Becket, Cranmer, Parker, Pole, Theobald, Warham.
Capgrave, 50.
Carondelet, 21.
Catherine, Queen, 12, 206.
Caverschen, W. van, 22.
Caxton, 50-2, 56, Chambers, 51.
Charles V, 14, 19.
Chaucer, 33, 52-3, 63, 148-9.
Cheke, 180.
Chrysostom, St., 25, 35.
Cochlzus, 8-9.
Colet, 6, 25.
Cologne, 8-9, 69, 77, 86.
Constantinople, 146, 150.
Coverdale, 11, 19, 56.
Cranmer, 18.
'Cromwell, Thomas, 2, 12, 19-22.
81, 86, 113, 115-6, 122.
Apelles, 124.
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 90, 118, 157, 161.
Argentine. See Strasbourg.
Aristotle, 4, 25, 91, 119, 157-8, 161.
Athelstane (Adelstone), 2, 90, 118.
Augustine, St., 25, 35, 37, 47, 99, 148, 157, 162.
Barlow, Jerome, 10, 100, 119.
Barnes, 6, 19, 70, 113, 121.
Barrow. See Bergen.
Becket, 104, 106, 120, 214.
Bell, 7, 119.
Benedict, St., 52.
Bergen-op-Zoom, 20, 122.
— Marquis of, 21, 116.
Berkeley, 2.
Berners, 50.
Bilney, 6.
Boethius, 4.
Boleyn, Anne, 11, 116.
Bonaventure, St., 90, 118.
Boniface, St., 150.
Boniface VIII, 213.
Brabant, Council of, 21, 116.
Bricot, 90, 118.
Bristol, 24, 86.
Bruges, 15.
Brussels, 19-21, 116.
Bunyan, 51.
Bury, 149.
Bydell, 26 n.
Byrte, 122.
Cuthbert, St., 133, 149:
Cyprian, St., 25, 157.
Deanesly, 119.
Demaus, 20 n., 21 n., 117, 122.
De Media Villa. See Middleton.
De Monte Regio. See Muller.
De Nova Villa. See Villanova.
De Sancto Victore. See Hugh.
Dionysius, 51, 157, 161.
Dobneck. See Cochlzus.
Donatus, 4.
D'Orbel. See Orbellis.
Dorne, 26, 119.
Doye, 22.
Ducange, I50.
Dufief, 22.
Duns Scotus, 90, 93, 95, 118, 157-8.
Durandus, 25.
Durham, 149.
— Bishop of, 104, 110, 119. See also Tunstall.
Calais, 106.
Cambridge, 3, 6, 24, 26.
Edmund, St., 133.
INDEX
Holland, 11.
Hoochstraten, 10-2, 86.
Hooper, 150.
Huchyns (Hychyns, &c.), Alice, 1.
— Richard, 1-2.
— Tebeta, 1.
— Thomas, tI.
— William, 1-3.
Hugh of St. Victor, 90, 118.
Hungary, Mary of, 22.
Hunt, Alice, 1.
Hunt's Court, 1.
Hurst, 2.
Hus, 26~7.
Hutton, 22.
Elizabeth, Queen, 118.
Elyot, 14.
Emersen, Margaret von, 8, 11.
— Matthias von, 8.
Emperour. See Keyser.
Endhoven, C. van, 16-7.
England, 2, 9-10, 12, 17-8, 21, 27, 93, 98, 105, 132, 207.
Erasmus, 6, 9, 25-7, 69, 88, 92, 97, 118-20.
Euclid, 4, 52.
Fish, 121.
Fisher, 55-6.
Flanders, 116.
Flodden, 120.
Fortescue, 50-2.
Foxe, 3-5, II, 14-5, 24, 94, 112, 119, Ignace, College of St., 15.
Ilchester, 19.
Innocent III, 214.
Isocrates, 7, 97.
Italy, 107, 160.
121, 166.
France, 9, 104, 116, 150, 160.
Francis, St., 128.
— I, 121.
Frith, 11, 14-5, 70, 112, 115, I19, James I of England, 61-2.
— IV of Scotland, 120.
— V of Scotland, 207, 214.
Jerome. See Barlow.
Jerome, St. (Hierome), 25, 57, 89,
I2I, 196.
Fulke, 119.
Gasquet, I19.
Gee, 23 n., 121.
Geneva, 87-8.
Germany, 8-9, 11, 27, 150, 160.
Gloucester, 24.
Gloucestershire, 1, 6, 14, 24.
Gorram, go, 118.
Greece, I, 92.
Greenwich, 8, 100, 119.
Gregory, I, 25.
Grocyn, 6 Guernsey, 106.
Guildford, 7, 97, 119.
Guines, 106.
146, 157.
Jersey, 106.
John, King, 211, 214.
Joye, 17-9, 102, 113, 116, 122.
Kett, 213.
Keyser, M. de, 18.
Lambert, 15.
Latimer, 11.
Latomus, 22.
Liege (Luke), 116, 122.
Lille, 116, 122.
Lincoln, Bishop of, 5, 107-8, 121.
Hacket, 10.
Hagen, G. van der, 18, 86.
Hailes, Alexandre de, 90, 118.
Hamburg, 8, 11.
Hampnes, 106.
Hardy, 23 n., 121.
Harman, 15.
Hebilthwayte, 97.
Henne, 122.
Henry II, 211, 214.
— V, 210,
See also Russell, Longland.
Littlehales, 54.
Lollards, 5, 24, 26.
Lombard, Peter, 25.
London, 7, 26, 69-70, 97.
— Bishop of, 2, 7, 96-8, 110, 115, 119, 121.
See also Tunstall, Stokesley.
— British Museum, 86.
— Bucklersbury, 120.
— St. Dunstan's in the West, 8.
— St. Paul's Cross, ro.
— Smithfield, 15.
— Tower of, 15, 112.
— Victoria and Albert Museum, ro.
— Westminster, 17, 149.
Longland, 121.
= VITL, 30-2,
\'14, 19-20, ues, 404, 103, 105-9, 116, 118, 120, 206.
Hesse, Philip of, ro.
Hilton, 51.
Holkot, go, 118.
INDEX
s Louvain, 19, 22.
-Luft, 10-1, 86.
Peter, St., 33, 105, 124-7 132-3, 148, 169, 182.
Philip, Prince of Hesse, 10.
Phillips, Henry, 19-21.
— Richard, 19.
— Thomas, 19.
Philo, 33.
Platina, 25.
Plato, 6, 25, 91, 157.
Pole, Cardinal, 55.
— W. de la, 149.
Pollard, A. F., 120-1.
AL Wiest. 2 Mato dies) LOM, Luke. See Liege.
Luther, 6, 8-10, 14, 26-31, 35, 37, 39, 45, 69, 108, 119, 121, 167.
Lyndewode, 96, 119.
Lyra, N. de, 25, 90, 118.
Meestricht, 21.
Malory, 50-1, 67.
Marburg, 10, 86.
Marsch, 20.
Mary, Princess, 207, 214.
Mary of Hungary, 22.
Marsiglio, 213.
Melanchthon, 113, 121.
Melksham Court, 1.
Merchant Adventurers, Company of, 102, 118-9, 122.
Poole, 19.
Poole, R. L., 213.
Portugal, 119.
Poyntz, 15, 19-21.
Priscian, 4.
Ptolemy, 4.
Purvey, 53, 55.
15.
Middleton, 90, 118.
Monmouth, 8, r19.
Montacute, 19.
More, 8, IO-I, 13-5, 39, 50-3, 56-9, 67-8, 70, 93-4, I01I-3, 108, 118-21, 149, 154, 160, 166, 179, 181, 184, 192-3.
Mozley, 6 n., 8 n., 26 n., 70, 110, Quentell, 9.
Ramsey Abbey, 149.
Raymond de Pennaforti, 90, 118.
Rheims, 87-8.
Richard ITI, 52.
Rinck, 9.
Riselles. See Lille.
Rochester, Bishop of. See Fisher.
Rogers, 18.
Rolle, 51.
, Rome, 1, 28, 39, 42, 92, 104, 123, 122.
Muller, 90, 118.
Nectarius, 150.
Netherlands, 20.
— Regent of, 10, 122.
Nibley, North, 1.
Norham Castle, 104, 120.
145, 148, 211.
Rouen (Roan), 116, 122.
Roye, 8, 10, 99-100, I19.
Ruremond.
See Endhoven.
Russell, 5.
Orbellis, N. de, 90, 118.
Origen, 25, 33, 90.
Ovid, 4.
Owst, 29 n., 51.
Oxford, 3-6, 24-7, 118-9.
— Christ Church, 6.
— Hertford College, 5.
— Magdalen College, 3-5.
— Magdalen Hall, 3, 5, 121.
Salisbury, Diocese of, 18.
— John, 26 n.
Scheeffer, 9-10.
Shakespeare, 66, 150.
Shene, 210.
Shipham, 180.
Sion, 210.
Slymbridge, 2, 121.
Smith, 14.
Socrates, historian, 150.
— philosopher, 157.
Padua, 213.
Palermo, Archbishop of, 21.
Paris, 113, 116, 118, 122.
Parker, 19.
Pater, 68.
Paul, St., 6, 39, 33, 37, 39-40, 43, Sodbury, Little, 6-7, 26.
Southend, 2.
Sozomen, 150.
Spain, 107, 160.
Stinchcombe, 1-2.
Stokesley, 2, 107, 115, 121.
47, 61, 88, 92, 100, 125-7, 144, 161, 164, 167-8, 170, 172, 182, 194-5.
Pecock, 50, 52, 55.
Pelagius, 123, 148.
INDEX Strasbourg (Argentine), 10, 99-100, Vaughan, 12-3, 21.
Venice, 9.
Villanova, A. de, 90, 118.
Vilvorde, 20-2, 116.
Virgil, 4, 50, 93.
II9Q.
Suffolk, Duke of, 149.
Tandeloo = Tindale, 15.
Tapper, 22.
Tawney, 214.
Terence, 93.
Tertullian, 25.
Tewkesbury, 2.
Theobald, 104.
Tindale, Edward, 2.
— John, 12.
— Richard, 1.
— William, passim. See also Huchyns.
Tisen, 5, 115, 121.
Toddington, 14.
Tracy, 14, 70.
Trent, Council of, 38, 42, 43 n.
Trevisa, 2.
Trombeta, 90, 118.
Tunstall, 7, 10, 13, 96-8, 110, 119.
Wales, 207.
Walsh, Lady, 6.
— Sir John, 6-7.
Warham, ro, 118.
Wesele, A. van, 21.
White, St., 140-1, 150.
Wittenberg, 8.
Wolsey, 6, 10, 12, 103-8, 120-1.
Worcester, Diocese of, 7, 26, 119.
Worde, Wynkyn de, 26 n.
Worms, 9-10, 69, 86, 100.
Wycliffe, 2, 5, 9, 26-7, 53, 87-8, 93, 130, 213.
Zeruiah, 211, 214.
Zwingli, 45.
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